Multi-medallist Matt Bottrill finally secured the senior time trial gold that had proved so elusive over the years when he won Sunday’s RTTC National 100-mile Championship in Shropshire.
Second in the 10 and 50-mile championships this year and third in the ’25’, the 35-year-old Leicestershire rider covered the Prees-based course in 3-37-13 for victory by 1-45 over Andy Bason (Team Pedal Revoluton.co.uk) and also led www.Drag2zero.com to the team title.
Derek Parkinson, third in 3-42-49, was second counter with the winning trio completed by sixth-placed Scott Povey, 3-45-18, while defending champion Rebecca Slack (London Dynamo) retained her women’s title in 4-13-43.
“Fantastic – I’ve been trying to win one of these for goodness knows how many years and I’m over the moon,” said Bottrill. “It’s a long time since I did it as a junior.
“It’s not my preferred distance, it’s about nine years since I last rode it and I said never again after that, but because of the training I’ve been doing and winning medals at the other three distances, I decided to go for it. It’s quite special to have a medal from every one.
“I was getting checks all the way round and once I knew I’d got a time gap on Andy, I didn’t need to risk blowing.
“With Derek taking third it’s great for the team as well. We’ve won the 10 and the 50, and it’s been a good season for us.”
Bottrill went through halfway in 1-47-25 with a lead of 1-22 over Bason as he recorded a new record for the single-carriageway Shropshire course which is regarded as a stern test.
Slack was always on top on a morning of light winds and some sunshine to score a clear win over Bronwen Ewing (PM Racing), 4-17-33, with Paula Moseley (Climb On Bikes RT) coming through to third place in 4-18-04 as Christine McLean (Shetland Wheelers) dropped out of the medals from second place at half-distance.
It was a weekend of near misses for former multi-national champion Richard Prebble (Node4 Giordana), who found one too good in both the South Eastern RC 10 and Farnham RC 25.
Pete Tadros (In-Gear Quickvit Trainsharp RT) clocked 20-05 to beat Prebble by 30 seconds in the 10 at Crawley, and Sebastian Ader (a3crg) won by 19 seconds with 51-59 in the 25 at Froyle, Hampshire.
Andy Wilkinson (Port Sunlight Wheelers) finished over five minutes clear with an impressive winning 1-41-51 in the Yorkshire CF 50 at Dalton, North Yorkshire.
James Tucker (South Pennine RC), 52-39, got the better of prolific local winner James Coleman (Witham Wheelers) by 31 seconds in Sleaford Wheelers’s Nev Crane Memorial 25 at Donington, Lincolnshire.
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