Ward and Hayes victorious in Hainault hilly 28
Colin Ward (Essex Roads CC) and Connie Hayes (Liv AWOL) were fastest male and female riders respectively at the Hainault Roads Club hilly 28-mile time trial in Essex on Sunday morning.
42-year-old Ward clocked 1-04-48 to set a new course record time and take the win by 1-421 from Jack Brown (ActiveEdge Race Team), while Alistair Golby (Cambridge University CC) took third, another 1-22 behind.
Hayes was comfortably fastest female, the 19-year-old from London clocking 1-18-57 which was around eight minutes quicker than her team-mate Elizabeth Marvelly in second spot.
Andrew Turnock (Finsbury Park CC) won the Group A prize with a time of 1-11-36, while Group B winner was Tony Summers (Athlon CC) in 1-22-12.
Cambridge university CC were the best team with Alistair Golby, Jack Kellam and Dave Bell having a combined time of 3-32-18, which was 5-25 quicker than the combined efforts of Finsbury Park CC trio of Turnock, Dominic Bray and Gregory Smith.
Fifth overall – and best man on a road bike – was Matt Steel, the Shaftesbury CC rider who clocked an impressive 1-10-36.
The event uses the E14/28 course, which starts near Navestock and heads up to the A113 where riders go on an anti-clockwise circuit taking in Little End, Stanford Rivers, Colliers Hatch, back down and over the M25.
After completing another circuit of the course, riders head back towards Navestock before finishing to the north east on minor roads on the way to Kelvedon Hatch.
This victory was Ward’s first of 2020 on record, but having secured ten wins in 2019 this surely won’t be his last win of the current season.
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