Top conditions for 20km team time trial event taken out by men duo Beau LeFort and Riley Heslop

Beautiful racing conditions greeted riders in the Albany Cycling Club’s 20km team time trial event run along the Frenchman Bay Road course last Saturday morning.

A light northerly breeze ensured a fast start and assisted riders out to the turn at the 10km mark and then barely hindered them along the home stretch to Frenchy’s Restaurant and Tea Rooms.

There was an excellent turnout of nine teams with a total of 28 riders taking part in the third of the club’s time trial series.

Fastest home were men’s duo Beau LeFort and Riley Heslop in a time of 24min.40sec at an average speed of 46.7km/h.

Given that the course contains a couple of lumps and bumps, they were travelling much faster than this average speed for long sections of the course.

Second-fastest on the day was the team of Mike Staude, Brent Schoof and Jason Lee (27:11), and third was the mixed team of Stuart Passmore, Jackson Pittman and Danica Wiggins in the fantastic time of 27:34, which smashed the previous mixed team record of 29:08 set some eight years ago.

Other good times were set by Simon Barrett, Marius Coetzer and evergreen super veteran Jim Watmore (29:15), Team Denmark’s David Beckwith, Andrew LeFort and Colin Ashton-Graham (29:32), and mixed team Michael Gardiner, Brendon Mencshelyi and Julie Passmore in the very smart time of 31:37.

Brad Smithson, Richard Miller and Paul Gibson were only one second back in 31:37, followed by Paul Terry, Liz Cooper and John Manson (32:11), with the ladies team Shirley Thurston, Stephanie Bennett and Lucy Wellstead on 36:27.

Ryan McLaren rode solo to record a time of 31:50 and the youngest of the Wiggins clan, Faye, rode a junior restricted course of 10km to record 17:17.

After the race members enjoyed a sausage sizzle and a leisurely chat while recovering.

There will be a break for the long weekend and then riders will assemble on Saturday, March 6 for the first of the four President’s Cup Club Championship races of different disciplines.

The March 6 race is a 40km time trial raced over a course on Settlement Road, Narrikup and starts at 2pm.