Local Time Trial riders took to the country lanes on Wednesday 19 May, in the first round of the Newbury Road Club SPOCO competition.
SPOCO events – short for SPOrting COurses – is a departure from the usual TT format of fast straight roads.
SPOCO events combine undulating terrain, country lanes and technical turns. Wednesday’s event had all of these in abundance along with gravel and water thrown in.
Starting just west of Stockcross the course climbs to Shefford Woodlands before diving down to Hungerford Newtown. From here the route takes the narrow road through Radley Bottom, the road is liberally sprinkled with stones and drenched in water, before emerging onto the A4 for a blast back towards Newbury and back onto the B4000 to finish next to the start, a testing 14.7 miles.
Fastest ride of the night went to Felix Wernham (Pure Green Racing) 33m 36s. Although perhaps the most notable ride came from Newbury RC’s only woman in the event Marion Templeman with a brilliant 38m 47s placing her 5th in the event and putting her inside the top 10 all-time women’s times on the course. Top Newbury RC male rider was Andy Laycock in 35m 59s.
SPOCO events need more assistance than our more conventional courses and so thanks to Claire and William Emons for marshalling and ensuring rider safety and that everyone went in the right direction. Our thanks as ever to Gareth Ian Davies for the outstanding photos.
The Full results can be found here