The weather gods positively beamed on this year’s TTT with sunshine all the way for the full 3 days of racing. Despite small fields for all the three senior races, each was keenly contested along with some equally close junior races on the Sunday.
Friday night is uphill road race night and it provided its usual stern test. Martin Peace (Bingley) rose best to the challenge, beating Andrew Robertshaw (Otley) and Steve Brooks (Bingley) into 2nd and 3rd. First lady honours went to Kirsty Hall (Wharfedale) ahead of Lucy Needham (Holmfirth), with Mary Green (Bingley) taking 3rd. Flying the flag for the juniors was Joseph Treasure-Jones (Bingley) finishing an excellent 6th overall, beating his dad, Ian Jones (Saltaire Striders) by 90 seconds.
Saturday was a scorcher. A recommendation for sun cream was added to the kit requirement board and 18 well prepared souls set off into the heat at 11.00 am from the centre of Kettlewell. Despite the good weather there’s always a few boggy bits, so route choice as ever was key. Andrew Robertshaw mastered heat and route best this year, claiming 1st place from Simon Browne (Denby Dale) with Martin Peace 3rd. For the ladies, Kirsty Hall again just had the better of Lucy Needham, with Becky Weight (Bingley) taking 3rd spot. We did experience one minor casualty in the heat – a wing mirror knocked off a marshal’s car by a cow looking for a salt fix.
Sunday at TTT weekend usually brings some rain (especially just as tents are being taken down and packed up) but, if anything, this year it was even hotter than Saturday. Having seen some of the juniors cool down after their races in the river, some of the seniors took a cooling plunge prior to the short sharp blast up and down the hill behind the event field. In the race itself, Andrew Robertshaw repeated his Saturday triumph with the consistent Martin Peace 2nd and Bingley juniors Alex Stewart and Joseph Treasure-Jones taking 3rd and 4th places. Kirsty Hall took a clean sweep of 1st places for the ladies, with Bingley junior Abigail White 2nd lady home just 5 seconds ahead of Lucy Needham.
With all 3 races completed, a quick calculation confirmed Grand Prix honours for 2013, and the superb GP winners vests were awarded to Andrew Robertshaw for the men and Kirsty Hall for the ladies. Alex Stewart took the vest for 1st junior home in the Sunday race. As always, a huge thank you must go to everyone who helped before, during and after with the organisation, operation and logistics of this unique event. Next year there’s some big bike race going through Kettlewell on our normal weekend, so TTT 2014 will be a week later on the 11th, 12th and 13th of July. Race results are on the forum and the club Facebook page.