Monday 6 April 2009

Good turn out at Gordon Arms TT





Six Clarion riders started and finished the tough Gordon Arms TT in the borders on Sunday. Sadiq, Bill, Matt, Stevie, Grant and John raced the technical, hilly circuit in windy conditions, which caused us to suffer at the start and finish but blast along at 35mph+ in the middle section. Sadiq says "The race begins with a 3 mile drag upwards, followed by a fast, undulating, wind assisted, 9 miles, then a pretty meaty climb, followed by a steep technical descent and a 3 mile slog into a headwind to the finish, that had us all pulling some amazing faces!"
John said "The last climb just about finished me off but very pleased that I managed it. I would like to thank you all for comradeship and team spirit, I am very proud to wear the club colours"
Grant said "The final 3 miles back along undulating roads to the finish was pretty torturous. Sadiq came past me about 1.5 miles out and by this time I knew I was going to stuggle to beat my target time. At some points on the homeward stretch I was down to 11-12 mph and had nothing left."
Matt said "I thought I was going well until Andy Torrance (4th at finish) who started 2 minutes behind me came flying past after 20 minutes. I redoubled my effort but couldn't stay with him. I felt like my tyres were sticking to the road going up the long climb up from Kirkhope and after the descent I struggled to get my pace up and reckon I lost time on the last 3 miles into the headwind. A well organised event, many thanks to the organisers and marshals from Gala CC. I missed the tea and cakes you get at other TTs though!"

Thanks to All the partners and kids and to Mark for coming out and supporting the club, much appreciated.
More comments on the forum

Results
16 Matthew Ball 1:00:10
21 Sadiq Mir 1:01:57
29 Stephen McDowall 1:04:31
35 Bill Young 1:06:06
42 Grant Thomson 1:14:43
43 John McComisky 1:17:18

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wanted to email personally to say thank you to your club for supporting the event with so many riders entered. I enjoyed reading your comments on the event on the Club blog and it seemed that you all enjoyed the course despite that headwind. It isn't usually as strong as that and in past years has been in the opposite direction - a tailwind on the first climb and on the homeward stretch from Yarrow back to the hotel, but a bit of a slog along the Ettrick Valley, where we got blown along this time.

We have two more open events this year. The John Fairbain Open 25 on Wednesday 3rd June had the race HQ in a local cafe last year, so plenty to eat after that and we usually have a good spread of food at the Open 10 (Jimmy Rae Memorial 10) on the 19th August. If any of you are able to make it down here for a week night event it'd be great to see you.

Jeremy (Weston - Gala CC Secretary)