At the 10-mile distance the 2020 VCC championship was decided at the FTP Racing event held on the U7B course near Bristol on August 29th. We’re grateful to our hosts for their superb organisation and communication throughout. The re-purposed bike rack was especially welcome at the start line, allowing riders to start the event safely.
Three VCC riders would contest the title and on recent form it shaped up to be a close battle.
Jeff Rees and Simon Kinsey made the journey from South Wales, where TT racing had been suspended since March, and were joined at the event by local rider Dan Laasna Reuter who has a love-hate relationship with this particular stretch of the A38.
All three had prior experience of the course, especially Dan, and a glance at their course PBs suggested he would start as favourite. Each rider had set his course PB at an event hosted by Severn RC in June 2019 — Dan 24:09, Jeff 24:54, Simon 25:16. So while Dan was clearly the man to beat based on that previous visit, he was continuing to recover from a calf injury that had bothered him for several months and was not expecting to reach those previous heights on this day.
The magnificent SpinData website also predicted a Dan-Jeff-Simon finish, though an unflattering prediction of 26:47 for Simon did raise some eyebrows — influenced, no doubt, by his shockingly poor performance at a 15-mile pre-lockdown event.
The riders would be encouraged in their efforts by VCC legend Justyn Cannon who spurred them up the final climb of the day and later remarked that the event had re-ignited his enthusiasm for a comeback.
First to the line was Simon, knowing that he faced a 5.5-mile headwind to the turn.and a steady 3.6-mile climb in the early stages. Simon doesn’t do climbs. This would call for a full-on effort from the start and, hopefully, a wind-assisted return if there was any fuel left in the tank.
Things are never easy on this course, the constantly changing road surface and the undulating profile preventing a consistent rhythm at any stage. But Simon set a decent pace from the start, reaching the turn ten seconds sooner than he had in 2019 (not that he knew it at the time). Things continued to go quite well until he reached the first of two railway crossings on the return leg. A close encounter with a van set him off balance for a little while, causing him to unclip one of his shoes and lose valuable time striving to regroup. He gave away all his gains in that mile and a similar portion in mile nine to finish with a time of 25:32 (unofficially), sixteen seconds down on his course PB. He knew this wouldn’t be enough to trouble his rivals on the day.
Starting 15 minutes behind Simon was Dan. Little is known about his in-ride experience. He returned to the HQ reporting a self-timed result of 25:02, which made him the clear clubhouse leader but gave Jeff a real chance of snatching the title. The coronavirus restrictions meant that there could be no results board at the HQ so the official result would not be known for some time. But if Jeff could get close to his 2019 performance the prestigious cycling title would be his.
Jeff was the final rider onto the road. He was concerned about being one of the last few riders on the start sheet, with several very rapid riders on his tail. As expected, the eventual race winner David Janes flew past him inside the first two miles. Jeff would later remark that he’d never been overtaken so early in a race or by a rider with such a speed differential. But that was it, no other rider would come past, which indicated a solid performance from Jeff given the relative PBs of all concerned.
The unofficial results pointed towards a narrow win for Jeff, his self-timed 24:56 giving him a six-second margin over Dan.
After their rides Simon and Dan waited for Jeff’s return, but were pressed for time and for obvious reasons were not permitted to linger near the HQ. So when Jeff nonchalantly sailed past the HQ toward his parked car, enough was enough. The official event photographer decided to hedge his bets and photograph Simon with the third-place medal and Dan with both first and second. Similarly, when Jeff eventually sauntered back to the HQ the photographer doubled up with a couple of photos of the former Welsh CX champion while everyone waited for the official result.
It was a sleepless night for the front two as they anxiously awaited news from the southwest. They’d refreshed the web page a thousand times each, to no avail. Simon was somewhat less concerned. But finally, at 10am the following morning, with the tension now unbearable, the FTP Racing officials released the news the world had been waiting for.
Simon’s time of 25:33 was 17 seconds slower than his course PB and gave him third place in the club championship. Dan had clocked 25:06 which was about a minute slower than his own course best and this opened the door for Jeff to claim the top prize with his 24:53.
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A man of few words at the best of times, Jeff was left utterly speechless as the magnitude of his achievement set in. The former Welsh cyclo-cross champion had now added the VCC 10-mile title to an already impressive palmarès. For all his success at the Olympics and the Tour de France, not even Sir Bradley could boast such achievements. Well, not yet anyway.
