First-year rider Kyle Blackmore clinched the club 100-mile title for 2021 at the challenging R100/1 course. Setting off at 8:56am Kyle was projected by the impressive Spindata site to finish 6th overall with home rider Chris Gibbard tipped for the top spot and the WCA championship that would come with it.
The event was hosted by our friends at Bynea CC and took place on a particularly hot day in west Wales. Depending on their cycling preference, riders either love or hate the R100/1 course. There are no junctions to worry about — it’s run entirely on the A40 — but this course is anything but dull. Instead it’s a constant challenge along a single carriageway road with constantly changing direction, elevation and surface. For this reason the organisers describe it as “good for the head” — a very dubious claim!
This might be Kyle’s debut TT season with VCC but he’s no rookie. The accomplished triathlete came into the event in great form, having finished in second place at a 25-mile event over a section of this course a fortnight earlier. The layout of the course meant that riders would pass in opposite directions several times and it was clear from this that Kyle was able to hold a tight aero position and quick tempo throughout. As it turned out, he completed the distance nicely inside the four-hour mark with a finishing time of 3:54:39 which placed him 5th in the final standings — one spot higher than the pre-race forecast. Huge congratulations to Kyle on a fantastic ride.
Bringing up the rear was VCC veteran Simon Kinsey who endured a terrible ordeal on a course that doesn’t suit him and had the added disadvantage of riding the last seventy miles without hydration (on a scorcher of a day). His finishing time of 5:38:37 was more than an hour outside his best at the distance and caused a little concern among the organisers who were beginning to fear he’d got lost (or worse)!
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