St Ives CC Press Report

12^th September 2011

Two of St Ives Cycling Club’s top time trail riders contested the biggest event of the year on Sunday when they raced in the British Time Trial Championships. Attracting the country’s top riders including Olympic Champions and continental based professionals, the St Ives team of Luke Hattersley and Mike Hodson knew the competition was going to be tough.

Conveniently based around a Sawtry-Great Gidding circuit, this national championship at least gave the St Ives duo the slight advantage of local knowledge. First on the course in the morning was Hodson, racing in the Masters C category, he covered one lap of the rolling 20.9 mile circuit. For Hodson however, he said his legs “never felt quite right” and despite finishing in an impressive 47 minutes and 33 seconds, in 9^th position in his category, he believed he should have gone better.

As the afternoon drew nearer the black clouds gathered and deposited their contents directly on Hattersley. Riding in the junior category he had the worst of the weather but the young St Ives talent didn’t let the rain dampen his performance. Despite falling foul of the scrutineers at signing on and having to make last minute adjustments to his position, he attacked the course in his usual fluent style and stopped the clock in 48 minutes and 37 seconds to clinch 10^th position in his category.

Although Hattersley was a little down beat at the finish, he is still 2 years younger than some of his rivals and the emerging St Ives talent has thrown down the gauntlet to Britains best juniors.