The weather is proving to be a deciding factor in this year's cycle racing programme.

The recent heatwave with strong winds is causing entrants to decide either not to start or, after reporting to the timekeeper, finding that the conditions are so oppressive that after a few miles they call it a day.

On Saturday the Stowmarket & District CC held their annual 10 miles time trial on the fast A14 road near Ipswich.

With a 6.30 am start on a warm and windy morning, it was only the super fast strong men that were able to get near to their usual standard and the biggest battle took place between John Burges of the Godric CC and Martin Pyne of the Anglia Velo.

Seconds separated them at the 5.5 mile turn but John pulled out all the stops coming back and managed an excellent 20 minutes 40 seconds ride with Martin 17 seconds in arrears - a rare beating for him.

The only Shaftesbury CC rider was Lorna Hanlon who put up her fastest ride for the distance for over two years with 24.40 which was a new East Anglia Vet Record for her age.

Sunday morning was once again warm and windy for the 5.30 am start for the Essex Roads CC 100 miles event centred around Hatfield Peverel and Stanway on the A12.

Usually this event receives entries from 120+ hopefuls with some being disappointed and getting their entries returned but this year only 90 entrants were on the start sheet and many of those did not like the sultry conditions and did not start .

As the wind rose many more decided not to finish, but once again the strong and fit were not deterred and Richard van Looy from the Colchester RCC ran out a clear winner in a superb time of three hours 50 minutes.

Four Shaftesbury CC members were on the start sheet, but Paul Haxell did not start because of back trouble.

Tony Hanlon decided to desist at 40 miles, but Terry Anderson and Ken Mills saw the job through to the bitter end and recorded 4hrs 31mins 49secs and 4hrs 31mins 42secs respectively, Terry being over 15 minutes away from his previous best this year.

The evening 10 miles time trials held each Wednesday are still proving highly successful and on Wednesday, 45 clubfolk turned up to enjoy a fine summer's evening on the Blackmore course.

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