Pat Wright wins the Southern Counties 50
Pat Wright (Paceline RT) was victorious in the Southern Counties 50-mile time trial near Horsham, the 37-year-old clocking a time of 1:49:06 in Sunday morning’s event.
Mark Smith (Crawley Wheelers) finished in 1:49:53 after a rather unfortunate wardrobe malfunction saw his skin-suit zip split on the start line, while taking third place was Paul Tippett of the same team who covered the distance in a time of 2:00:45.
Wright has been very active this year, being in regular competition since starting his season in March. He started off his year with a few wins after slowing off for a bit he seems to have found his rhythm again, winning here and also picking up a first place finish a few days prior at the Brighton Mitre CC 10.
The weather forecast earlier in the week had predicted torrential rain. That, and the schedule clash with the jubilee weekend, resulted in a reduced turn out of only 12 riders, 11 of which finished in damp conditions.
As for other categories, the novice award went to third placed Tippett who just missed out on under two hours in his first ever 50-mile event. The fastest veteran was Mark Smith. There was no award for fastest team as no team had three finishers.
* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission. This report by Neral Buckley.