New opportunities for women's road racing are opening up in Norfolk this spring with a women's race included in the Easter Sunday racing in Fakenham town centre and Norwich club Iceni Velo promoting at Shotesham – six miles south of the city – on the afternoon of Sunday, April 30.
Women's mass-start racing has grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple of seasons, with almost 50 riders contesting the race at Gosbeck last week.
Both the forthcoming races are good for spectators – the Fakenham circuit goes through the market place, while the Iceni Velo event passes picturesque Shotesham Globe pub 10 times.
For details of the Easter event see the Active Fakenham website. For Shotesham look on the Events page of the Iceni Velo website – or both can be seen via British Cycling website.
Repeating his win in the CC Breckland 10 three weeks ago, Lloyd Chapman (Banks/Catford CC) won the Plomesgate CC 10 in 20:40.
On a day of piercing sunshine, but also penetrating wind, Chapman was 27 seconds outside his own course record – which was set on a balmy summer evening last year – but nearly two minutes clear of second-placed rider Lyster Romero.
Next week Romero joins an Eastern Region team in the first round of the National Junior Series in South Wales.
At the Plomesgate 10, Romero beat Lowestoft rider Mark Richards (VC Baracchi) by just one second, but Richards led Liam Gentry (23:19) and Nick Esser to the team prize.
One rider was unfortunately caught by the new rule requiring competitors to sign OUT after the race and had to be excluded.
In an interesting crossover between Audax and charity events, Swaffham Lions ran a 208-kilometre Audax that took 50 riders on a round west Norfolk tour – Wymondham, Wells and Downham Market before returning into a dying headwind to Swaffham.
Only on this leg did 67 year-old CC Breckland member Martin Badham suffer.
He praised the long-legged comfort of his classic 1971 steel-framed Carlton, but said that by the last two hours of the challenge 'even an armchair would have felt painful'.
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