It was a fantastic Sunday morning for the Essex Roads Cycling Club to promote their annual 50 miles time trial on the new Boreham to Galleywood, then out to Stanway and back to Boreham again.

There was a star studded field of a maximum 120 riders who travelled from all over the country to ride for a prize list that totalled over £200.

Last man off and well fancied to win was Colchester Rovers star Rick Van Looy, who blazed a hot trail round the course and came home the winner with 1hr 43 mins with seconds to spare over Ian Cammish of Bob Jackson Cycles, a former British Best All Round Champion.

The National Competition Record for the distance was broken twice by mens tandems.

Firstly, Ewan Hendon of Lea Valley RC with Les Palmer of Leo RC past the timekeeper with 1hr 38 mins and right behind were Jon Rickards of Guru teamed with Simon Keeton of Rutland CC and they broke the record again with 1hr 35 mins, reducing the previous best by nearly 4 minutes.

The only ladies tandem in the race, Sue Gray of API Resprays and Julie Baker of Colchester RCC took 1.5 minutes off the previous record with 1hr 47 mins.

The Shaftesbury riders were once again out in force, and went close to the previous week's record breaking times.

Derek Stagg recorded 2.21.23, Paul Haxell, 1.53.44 and Cathy Reed again sowed that last week's time was no fluke with 2.16.22.

Relatively new to the club is Robert Wright (late of Team Leigh) who has recently been riding road races.

Robert, 31, is married with two children and working 12 hours shifts but has been able to train sufficiently well to be gaining places in the top four in his recent outings, gaining his second category licence in record time and is now well on his way to becoming a First category rider before the end of the year.

He entered his first 50 miles event and everyone was holding their breath to see what he could do - he came back to the timekeeper in 1hr 51mins 12 secs and it looks as if it won't be long before the club record at this distance will be under attack from him!

Next week, Wright is entered in the gruelling eastern Counties CA 12 hours time trial to be held on roads in the A12 area and there will be many raised eyebrows from those who so far haven't heard of the quiet young man from the Shaftesbury CC on the time trialling scene!

Glendene club record

Sunday morning saw three personal bests and a new club record when members of the Glendene C.C. were in action in the Essex Roads C.C. 50 mile event on the A12 between and Stanway.

In his first fifty, Richard Shaw was fastest of the 'Glendeners' with a time of 1hr 57, 92.

Darryl Leese, seeing the benefit of training in the Dublin & Wicklow mountains while working in Ireland, knocked over seven minutes off his previous best record 1 hr 59m 4s.

Nigel Harris was next fastest, recording a time three seconds outside two hours, whilst Paul Gilfoyle, with a time of 2 hrs 3m 4s, also recorded a personal best.

Shaw's, Leese's and Harris's combined time of 5 hrs 56m 16s also broke the club team record by 2m 42s.

It was a day of mixed feelings for Harris and Gilfoyle as they learned on Sunday morning that the event they had ridden in last week over 50 miles was 600 yards short and therefore times would not stand.

On Friday evening, four riders from the club were at Welwyn Track for the weekly track meeting.

Richard Whitehorn was first in the Senior B points race, pipping his dad Phil by one point.

Murat Ozdenya got two seconds, in the 10 lap Senior B scratch race and the 500m Senior B sprint. In the juvenile handicap devil race, Edward Whitehorn was third.

Glendene at Eastway...

Club members were in action at the Eastway Circuit on Tuesday and Sunday.

On Tuesday, in the LVR.C. Green Series. Terry Devine was eighth and Colin Mannakee was tenth.

Later that evening in a 'The League International' all categories race, Murat Ozdenya came third and Richard Whitehorn was sixth.

...and at Ciclos Unos

On Sunday, in the Ciclos Uno events, Richard Whitehorn was fifth in the Novice/Fourth Categories event, with Savash Anibal coming tenth.

Edward Whitehorn finished third in the U/16s event. He also came second in a three-mile time trial laid on for the junior riders.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.