Some amazing TT news here, from both the rosbifs and our close friends the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
Over to France first, to pay tribute to Jeannie Longo, who has to be in contention for the title of greatest cyclist ever, irrespective of gender. She has just clinched the French National Time Trial Championships, her 57th French national title – at the age of 51! She covered the 24.7km course a full 1:19 faster than her nearest rival.
Check out her palmarès, which includes multiple Olympic, UCI road and track titles and medals as well as the women’s hour record and a silver in the UCI Mountain Bike Championships in 1993.
Over to the men’s competition in the UK, where Michael Hutchinson (who wrote a highly recommended book about the Hour, and his own attempt at it), took the British National Championship 50-mile TT for a record 11th successive time. Riding for In Gear-Quickvit, he clocked a time of 1:38:55, at a an average speed of 30.3mph.
Last but not least, British Planet X rider Ryan Mullen, 15, broke the British 10-mile TT record twice last weekend, recording a time of 19:49 on Saturday and then, at Bolwydellan in Denbighshire, slicing a further 13 seconds off it the next day.
15 years old, and 19:36 for 10 miles: definitely one to watch for the future. I’ll have some of whatever his mom’s feeding him, please…
