It was the first ITT of the season and the first on Long Swamp since May 2017 but that didn’t slow any of the 30 riders who competed on Saturday with some blistering efforts on display. There was yet another first place for the seemingly unstoppable smiling assassin, Mick Harris, who continues his incredible early season. Mick added the ITT crown to victories in all four road race events plus the club criterium championships so far this year. On a conventional bike setup he almost took Sam Jenner’s Long Swamp 2014 course record, just missing out by 6s in conditions that weren’t particularly favourable with strong cross/headwinds for much of the course.

There were PBs a-plenty with notable strong rides from Dave Munday, Andy Robb and Holly Harris, and a very impressive ride from Phil Thomas who silenced the sartorial detractors with a 24:12 PB that saw him roar past eleven other riders on the 15.1km course. Johnny is credited with the same time as Phil in the results, but the camera detected around a half-second difference in elapsed time to just push him down into seventh place.

Andy Robb completed a rapid outward leg on his TT rig, just 7s down on Mick Harris with Dave Munday, Phil Thomas and Johnny all within range at that point. However it was a different story on the hilly homeward leg, with the conventional bikes consistently out-performing the specialist equipment.

Pat McMillan dusted off his TT bike to continue an impressive return to form, Alex Thomas showed his triathlon skills with a solid performance and Pat Ferris again demonstrated versatility on two wheels, finishing his first ever time trial in just outside 25 minutes.

Once again it was great to see so many female and younger competitors with strong representation from the Hosking, Wooster and Harris families who also registered PBs. Special mention must also go to Jo Wauch who finished well inside 28 minutes for the first time in nine recorded attempts.

Many thanks to Wilf for stepping in once again and running the race this week, especially the double-act with Col on the stopwatch and the start line that allowed us to get times at the turn for all riders.

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