PTW

Light rain showers with a moderate breeze (12mph) - Race Time Temp 12°C

There are still four days to go before our final club event of the season but it does look like rain and it's also a bit on the cool side... but I'm sure you'll be warmer at the finish of our 1.4 mile hill climb!

A slight change of plan this year in that we'll be meeting up at the start on the old Neath Bank road up past Pont Walby and signing on will be from about 18.00hrs and closing at 18.30hrs for a prompt start as soon as we're ready! The finish will be at the 'Cefn Rhigos' sign and not the more ornate 'Rhigos' sign further down the climb.

WHAT3WORDS

START: apricot.twee.snoring

FINISH: sideburns.suits.denser

We would love to see our second-claim friends at this event and we will also allow riders from CTT affiliated clubs to join us for a £5 entry fee!

For those of you sensibly switching to your road bike for this hill climb - don't forgot your lights! Front and rear!

Local sunset time is 19.39hrs but I fear that it will feel 'dark' well before this.

Huge downpours around signing-on time could not deter ten racing peeps from tackling the 1.4 mile long 'Old Neath Bank' hill climb course and whilst some riders caught lighter showers most just about got away with it. Angela Hussain got us underway and did a PB whilst securing the Female Road Bike Competition and there'll be some news about that later this week. Chris Lewis was first rider back with a 6:06 that stayed top until quite late. Emma Davies came home with 8:00 slightly down on last year whilst Angharad Vale gave it everything to get back in 7:15 which is a new PTW Ladies course record. Fantastic!

Mike Hall didn't ride this last year so his time of 6:37 is a benchmark to beat for next year. Graham Rogerson has missed a lost of riding in recent weeks and wasn't in shape to defend his title but the good news is that he's on the mend and just got back before Rob Jones who nudged his way to third place just one second ahead of Darren Edwards. We knew the real battle would be between our last two riders and after some debate about who would be 'scratch' we started Karl Rees off ahead of Rhys Lloyd. Karl came back with a 5:32, which was momentarily a new PTW club record, but Rhys Lloyd clipped 11 seconds off that to finish first with 5:21. Awesome!

As always, thanks to Will and Dai who were supported tonight by JD, Joan and Wayne Davies.