KWCC TT Roundup 2024
Early Season (February and March)
Teresa Goddard braved wet and cold conditions, to be our first podium rider in 2024, 3rd place female at the Redhill CC 18 on the 16th of February.
Then, onto the Sussex CA hard-riders 25 in early march. With quite short notice, it looked like the event wasn’t going ahead because of roadworks, but the organisers managed to get the course shortened to 19 miles, and the fun continued. Mark Aldred got on the open podium, third place in the road bike category with a rapid time.
On the same day, a late start for the Kettering Open Hilly TT, saw Diego Patteri getting a mention with 6th placed road bike in a tough event which drew the attention of a number of other big hitters – not least, former national champ Matt Bottrill who hadn’t ridden the event for nine years and decided to turn up and blow out the cobwebs with a win.
A week later, seemingly reveling in the early season conditions, Teresa Goddard picked up another finish on a shortened course. Great work, with Fifth place at the A3CRG Rogate Rumble. Worth keeping an eye out for this event to open for 2025, a rolling/sporting course near Liphook and Petersfield, giving a good early season challenge for those who like to test the fitness on their road bikes.
Mid-march, and the winter training was starting to dig up diamonds, with Raif Oz and Neal Beauchamp riding at the Maidenhead and District CC 15. A traditional event on the calendar of many wheelers in years gone by, an opportunity to open the taps on drift road for an official time, saw Raif nailing it and coming away with a win in the road bike category, Neal finishing only marginally behind for 5th in the TT bikes.
On the same weekend, Southern Counties CU held a double-header of a Saturday 10 mile and a Sunday 25 mile event. Mark Aldred earned summer off the bike, by getting all his wins in first thing in the season, smashing his way to first place road bike in both events, finishing ahead of some absolute hitters who were riding faster TT machines. Strong stuff.
Spring Classics (April into May)
We then had to wait until mid-april for our next result, Neal Beauchamp testing himself again, this time in the VTTA 10 down near Hailsham. Not the easiest of courses, downhill on the way out and uphill on the way back, but it was good conditions for Neal to held on for 9th place overall, getting 22-41 under his belt.
Later that weekend, Raif Oz was back racing, with Thomas Rees, Phil Feather and Teresa Goddard all getting on the results sheet at the Paceline Sporting 15. Raif finished second in the road category, besting some absolute hitters, strong efforts all round.
“Summer” Season (June into July)
During June and July our two evening club “tens” were held. A solo event in June and our annual 2-up championship in July.
The solo event drew a great turn out, with 24 riders putting their names down to ride. For once we weren’t thwarted by the weather or the roadworks and a good time was had by all (after the race). Judah Rand was fastest TT rig on the night, only just missing out on a sub 20, with a time of 20:10. Fastest road bike was Raif Oz, with a time of 21:14, and first female on the night was Alex Wilson-Jones with 26:30.
The 2-up event moved to the sporting 14 course over at Ripley this year because of roadworks on our usual Holmwood course. This is always a popular event with the riders. It’s something a little bit different to ride these TTs as a 2-up, and a good time was had by all. The power-couple of Raif and Judah on their road bikes were crowned as our 2-up champions for 2024 with a blazing time. A close fought battle for second place saw team “All the toms, all the time”, comprised of Tom Herbert and Tom Kennett, come in just ahead of Harry Bunnell and Neil Grunshaw, who were blaming a curry at lunchtime for the misplaced seconds that forced them into third spot.
Away from the club events, throughout May and June we saw Neal Beauchamp smash out a whole run of results, on some rapid courses against very tough opposition. He rode the VTTA 10 on the F11/10 course over at Tring, the Newbury 25 on H25/1A, North Hampshire 10 on H10/8 and crowned his May TT campaign with an outing on the H100/88 in the Hounslow & District Wheelers 100 TT. He was just denied the sub 4 hour milestone with a time of 4:00:46, but still a very quick time (for a first 100 TT?). Will we be seeing a return in 2025 to try and grab those few seconds more? Neal followed these up with some more solid times in June, with 8th place at the Farnham RC 25, and another 20 minute outing on the F11/10 course later in the month.
July started with Diego Patteri making a return, 7th place at the Northampton & District CA 13 mile event on a sporting course. Strong effort!
A week later, James Ellis got his first result of the year in Wheelers jersey at the Reading CC 25. A windy day and a strong turnout, meant competition was fierce but a 57 minute finish saw him sneak 13th place. Later in the month, he would follow this up at Oxonian CC 10, and sneak 10th place with a PB of 21:37 to round off a solid July’s work.
Mid July, Neal Beauchamp again had a crack at the F11/10, and got frustratingly close to that sub 20 mark, with a time of 20:04 and his highest position on the course for the season, of 21st place. Perhaps Neal was feeling a little more relaxed, as a lot of attention was drawn to the presence of long-time legendary wheeler hitter, Tom Herbert, who dusted off his TT steed with a 21:34, to wild applause.
Later in the month, Teresa Goddard quietly got on with business and hit out her strongest performance so far. The other competitors in the Addiscombe CC 10, saw her take 2nd place female road bike, with a strong time of 26:20.
Late Summer and Autumn (August, September and into October)
With an unlucky start with cancelled events earlier in the year, Judah Rand got his only result of the year in August at the RTTC National closed circuit champs, 20:58 was quick enough for 28th TT bike, and good enough to see off a fair few other hitters on the day.
Just three other road events this year had Wheelers competing in them…
The Phoenix 10, in late September, featured another solid time by Teresa Goddard, taking 2nd place road bike female, and a late season-opener by Steven Gordon-Head, taking a 10th place in open TT bike category.
The Epsom 10 followed shortly after the Phoenix 10, and Raif Oz showed no signs of a late season slow down, when he took 1st place road bike in the Epsom CC 10. Within twelve seconds of former Wheeler Pat Wright who was riding a TT steed, so although it was a poor road bike turnout, clearly a deserving effort.
Finally, in early October, three Wheelers, Neal Beauchamp, Teresa Goddard and Hugh Seaborn closed out their seasons with the London and Home Counties 25 on H25/2. Solid times from all three, with a win in the Female road bike category for Teresa, and a 25 mile PB by Neal of 54:08.
This consolidated a strong season of TT bike efforts from Neal, having got second place TT bike at Dicot Phoenix 10 at the start of august, an absolutely outstanding sub-20 (and personal best) at the East Anglia VTTA 10 mid august, 21:02 in the RTTC national 10 TT, 6th place TT bike at the Epsom CC 10, and a finale of 5th place at the VTTA 25 TT on H25/2 near Marlow in October, to close a busy season of improving times.
Hill Climb Season (September and later)
Last, but not least, the later months of the year saw the hill climb featherweights and powerhouses start their campaigns. Tom Kennett got things off to a great start at the Basingstoke CC, picking up 13th place on the steep 1 mile slope of Watership Down near Newbury.
Our own hill climb later in September, saw a nice big group outing of Wheelers. Neil Grunshaw set things off with a massive time of 13:11.4 carrying his children to the top of Leith in a cargo bike, and simultaneously raising a small fortune for charity. It also saw Samuel Fawdry, Anne-Line Vadier, Harvey Jackson, Massimo Saetta, Cameron Lockie, our chairman Tim Lawn, Kush Gor, Harry Bunnell, Robbie Blythe, Jasper Griffin, and Adam Cook power to the top of the hill with sterling efforts all round. When the dust settled it emerged that Alex Joss and Tom Kennett had been quickest Wheelers on the day, so deservedly took our 2024 Queen and King of the mountain titles.
At the start of October, Lewis Taylor got a time down in Wheelers colours, for the Wrexham RC hill climb on DHC/1 on the super tough Horseshoe Pass. Lewis showed a strong effort and comfortably finished in the top half of the field, despite strong wind and rain making it challenging conditions.
Lastly, Stephen Hope closed off for the Wheelers, doing the classic two-in-one-day duo that is Catford and Bec hill climbs. These have been attempted by Pros in the past, and are well frequented by all the major riders targeting hill climb trophies for their palmares, so Stephen was in good company as he finished things strongly for the Wheelers in 2024.
2024 Summary
In short, a strong season from Neal Beauchamp, this year’s open short-course champion, with personal bests on both the 10 and 25 mile events. Our female short-course champion, is Teresa Goddard, who has been at it season-long, rounding things off nicely with that win on her final event.
With no Sporting 14 due to atrocious weather on two occasions, there is no TT circuit champion this year. Fingers crossed for better weather for next year!
Our club 2up champions are Raif and Judah. Raif has been hitting it all season, but Judah has been unlucky with his solo efforts this year. Keen to see whether those Zwift-watts materialise into some club records on the road in 2025.
Wrapping things up with the prizes, at the hill climb, those deserving wins from Tom Kennett and Alex Joss, taking our Hill Climb champion spots for 2024.
Honourable mention
He’s a member, but sadly rides his time-trials first-claim for another club: Henrik Persson took 4th nationally in the 3 course British Best All Rounder (BBAR) this year with an average speed for 50, 100 and 12 hour efforts of 27.455mph.
He’d perhaps say that the short stuff isn’t his bag, but still managed to place 11th nationally for the 4 course championship (with an average speed for 10, 25, 50 and 100 mile events of 29.617mph).
These efforts helped place his team 1st in the team competition for the 3 course event, and 2nd in the 4 course challenge.
To cap it off, he’s closed the season with a snipers win at the club crit champs as well. Clearly if you can put this kind of power down for 12 hours, a simple solo crit effort for a few laps of Hillingdon (plus one!) isn’t going to be a challenge for Henrik.
Truly outstanding efforts. Consistently focused and putting in the training, improving year on year, this is well deserved and surely more to come.
