R2 Mower Mec 2-Up Series: Paramount CRT 10

An impressive win of over two minutes for a new pairing and new leaders of the Mowermec 2-Up Series made for a fine evening’s racing in the Paramount CRT 2-Up. Starting at Westbury and taking in a short stint up the A5 dual carriageway, the course has a sting in the tail for the unwary as Shoot Hill has a reputation of catching riders out. Fortunately for winners Mason Durant leading the way home for the promoting and Mid Shropshire Wheelers’ partner Paul Duncan that proved no problem, with local knowledge seeing them fly around the course in a fabulous time of 21 minutes 44 seconds. Duncan however revealed that everything had to be done on feel rather than relying on technology due to a pre-race breakdown. Speaking on behalf of the team he stated: “We really enjoyed the event. Conditions were pretty good for a reasonably fast time. My power meter failed during the warm up so I had to judge the effort on a combination of feel and gauging against the pace of Mason. We had to slow for traffic slightly at the A5 island; but other than that everything went to plan – many thanks to the organisers and marshals, the event ran like clockwork”.

This effort moved the pairing into joint second place in the overall standings, but it was the winning Mixed Team pair Jan Davies and Mark Hill from Hafren CC, who found themselves not only heading up the standings in that Championship with maximum points, but heading to the top of the Overall standings too with a fine effort of 26:51, taking the win by just five seconds from Paramount’s Chris Riley and Jayne Powell. For Davies this is a learning curve she is adapting to well, riding with Hill for the first time this season and learning fast: “My first time on the course and only my second 2-Up with Mark. Good experience, we worked well together. Happy to be first Mixed Team this time but we only just got it! Pressure on for the next one now”. Hill added: “It was a lovely warm evening. Jan was nervous of the course as she had never ridden it. We warmed up and set off third pair. Keeping together was easy and we pushed up the second half up the bypass and Jan led up to Onslow and to Ford. The Shoot Hill leg was a lung buster as always, and we crossed the line together side by side – thanks to all the marshals and Paramount for a well run event”.

A Wrekinsport pair of Dave Moore and Allan Henderson both gave brand new time trial bikes a first workout – a particularly trusting thing to do in a team time trial – and were rewarded with the Overall runners-up spot with a good effort of 23:58, 38 seconds ahead of the Mid Shropshire Wheelers’ pairing of Alvydas Janusauskas and Peter Jukes. Those sentiments were echoed by Henderson who commented: “It went well considering Dave and I were both taking new time trial bikes on their first ride, so a bit risky considering no testing of positions prior, with the added element of working together. Conditions were near perfect after a rainy day and we worked well together around the fast course – thanks to the marshal team, who included a few faces I haven’t seen for a while so good to catch up”. Moore added: “Well organised with a full marshalling team, and a fair evening weather wise – there had been heavy rain in areas around which may have put off some racers. The road surface was not brilliant on the main drag to the A5; and a tough climb to the finish, but very enjoyable racing as a 2-Up and a great social catch up with fellow racers at the pub post race, coffee and tea provided – good job Paramount CRT.  My new Giant time trial bike with a few home modifications felt great, I was struggling at one point to hold Allen’s wheel, he’s a fair bit stronger than me”.

Full result:

Mixed Team result: