British silver medal for cyclist Christine McLean

Fresh from her gold medal success at the island games in the Isle of Wight, cyclist Christine McLean scooped a British silver medal at the national 100 mile time trial championships at the weekend.

This challenging event was held in North Yorkshire mainly on the busy A168/A19 dual carriageways.

The weather conditions were not favourable. It was windy in parts with thundery downpours of rain and hail causing localised flooding and visibility problems. Around 150 riders had entered including eight on tricycles!

The championship coincided with the Ripon triathlon and as both events used one of the course’s roundabouts to turn at proceedings were particularly hazardous around mid afternoon with 850 triathletes also on the road.

The race started at 1pm with riders being set off at one minute intervals. The final competitor, the reigning men’s champion Michael Hutchinson, was off at 3.30pm with Shetland Wheeler Carlos Riise starting just four minutes before him.

The women competitors were sandwiched between the slower and faster halves of the men’s field with Christine off number 75 at 2.15pm. The favourite for the women’s title was Born to Bike’s End to End record holder Lynne Taylor, however by the 50 mile point she was already two minutes down on Christine and almost five minutes behind eventual gold medal winner Rebecca Slack of the Altitude Centre who motored across the finish line in a final time of 4:03:37. Christine’s final time of 4:11:54 won her the silver medal and also the gold medal in her age category. Bronze went to Bristol and District Tri rider Ruth Bradbrook in 4:12:46.

Despite the conditions Carlos Riise finished at the top end of the field among some exceptionally fast rides with a personal best time of 3:46:41. This placed him 16th overall and third in his age category. Incredibly, only 12 hours later Carlos was competing again north of the border at the Fullerton Wheelers 10 where he came fourth with a season’s best time at the distance of 20:37!