Matt Illingworth predicted pretty accurately what speed he'd be lapping the course today: 13:30. He was anticipating some close competition from Ben Cureton but Ben had pulled up lame during the week and had to withdraw. Matt still had a job to do keeping Guy Crawford and Craig Pennell under control but with a 3:24 advantage, once again left Wandi with a trophy to polish diligently for the next twelve months; and two Gold medals. The gap between Guy and Craig was somewhat closer: 0.4sec. at the end of 1hr52+ sustained effort! So it was fitting in a sense that both riders went home with a silver medal: Guy for the outright place and Craig, for his placing on Standards. Indeed the trophy is awarded on the basis of Standard Times - a long-standing tradition justified today, perhaps, by the fact that seven of the fastest ten riders were Masters.

The Women's Gold medal was also collected by a Master TTer: Rachael Smith who most certainly knows her craft and deftly removed just over four minutes from the course record set last year.

Matt's time was only 9sec outside his record time for this course but interestingly, his time for the first 20km was a PB and, therefore broke his old course record for that distance. But it won't go into the record 'book' because that other Matt (Dec) came out a bit later, riding the 20km option and reduced it by another 3sec. The 20k riders clearly enjoyed themselves: two-thirds of them posting PBs and collecting both Women's and Men's course records. Bella collected her second course record for the Easter 'festival of TTs'.

Unfortunately not all riders would have gone home well-pleased. The gremlins were out there in the form of debris left by low-life hoons. Eleven DNFs were mostly the result of punctures. Our first rider off today failed to complete two laps but Sue Challen didn't let that disappointment interfere with helping for the remainder of the event around the start/finish, relieving Jenny Sammons who took the early shift then, herself lined up for a speedy '20', a PB and continuing preparation for the UWCT Rotto event in a few weeks time. Lorraine was today's starter, a marathon job in itself but backed up by going out to rescue a few of the unfortunate puncture victims. But she was also able to yell at a few miscreant riders for sitting too close to other riders. Thank her too for making sure there was adequate stuff available to replenish depleted energy reserves of returning riders. Cam Berg and Troy Coulthard looked after most of the course signage and our friends from WARP did the remainder and looked after the two high-hazard intersections while Andrew White was kept busy for most of the morning on the third. Rhys Challen marshalled the ins-and-outs at the Community Centre entrance and within the Centre, Leanne, Christa and Annie again managed the 'desk'. Thank you, all - very much!