Swanbury beats Womack by just one second in New Year TT

Two Velo Club Baracchi riders took part in CC Breckland’s New Year’s Day open time trial and very nearly both recorded the same time.

Swanbury heads to the finish (photo by Dominic Austrin)

In the 10-mile event on the A11 near Morley, VCB veterans John Swanbury and Chris Womack enjoyed a personal duel and just for once Swanbury came out on top by just one second, with 24:46 to Womack’s 23:47.

Womack on the run in (photo by Dominic Austrin)

Twenty-five riders were entered in advance and in the good weather nearly all actually took part.

Three riders finished in under 21 minutes, with Bill Benyon of Team Pedal Revolution the quickest, in 20:12, followed by Luke Dankert of Befordshire Road RT in 20:27 and Morris Bacon of Dap CC third in 20:49.

Cindy Berry of Pedal Power Cycles – Ipswich won for the ladies in 23:27 and CC Breckland won the team prize.

Womack and Swanbury after the event, at the Morley HQ (photo by John Dupen)

A younger veteran, Hatfield Peverell rider Colin Lewin of Velo Schils Internike RT, won the veteran prize with 22:13, which gave him a veteran “plus” of +4:32 (faster by that amount than his age-related standard time).

The VCB duo were out of the prizes in view of the unusually small number of entries, which resulted in there being only one veteran prize available.

Womack’s plus at age 71 was +4:27 and Swanbury’s was +4:16, though in the season they will be back on the same age and the same age standard time of 29:14 to beat.

VCB’s 50-mile reliability trials organised by John Thompson are on Sunday January 14 from Oulton Community Centre with the following start times: 4 hours at 8.30am, 3.5 hours 9.00am, 3 hours 9.30am.