2:14pm Thursday 8th May 2008
By Dave Brown
Duncan Park, of West Bradford and a member of the North Lancashire Road Club, was winner of his first ever League of Veteran Racing Cyclists event after he took the prologue of the four- Stage Tour of the Abberleys in Worcestershire over the May Day weekend.
The 41-year-old, who is a Community Policeman in Blackburn, clocked four minutes 25 seconds for the 1200 metre hill-climb, which gave him the first Yellow Jersey as race leader.
Park held on to the precious jersey by taking third in the afternoon 40-mile road race, but lost it on Sunday to finish sixth overall after the final stage on Monday.
Clayton Velo's experienced roadman Peter Greenwood finished overall second in his Vet 50-54 category, and 1999 race winner Dave Hargreaves, of NLRC, finished overall fourth in his own 60-64 category.
The Nelson Wheelers Cycling Club are accustomed to promoting at a distance as they have done with the Circuit of the Dales for almost 60 years at Ingleton.
However, they went even further over the holiday weekend by organising a 10-mile and a 25-mile time trial near Keswick and both events were Championships of 2008 for the North Lancashire Time Trials Association.
Best of our East Lancashire riders at both distances was Rob Dickinson of Burnley and the NLRC taking eighth place in the 10' with 23m 02s and 13th place with 58m 14s in the 25'.
The Rossendale Road Club have now started their Tuesday evening time trials, most of which - but not all - are being held over a 10-mile course taking in a two-and-a-half laps of a section of the Burnley to Accrington Road starting at 7pm.
Dickinson won the first event of 2008 with 25m 27s, beating second placed Paul Warrener of the promoting club by 10 seconds.
Third and fourth went to Rossendale members Roy Flanagan (26-36) and Alan Simpson (28-14).
The 10-mile Pendle Forest Thursday time trial, starting and finishing at Thornton-in-Craven, was also over 10 miles and fastest was promoting club's Simon Phillips with 23m 37s beating Chris Wood (PF) 24-02 and John Nixon of Nelson Wheelers (24-29) into second and third.
Next Thursday's popular 2-up event, to be promoted by Blackburn and District CTC, has received an entry of over 40 teams, with some very interesting names promised on the start list.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk