EDCA 24 03/04/2011

Adam Topham (High Wycombe cc) lived up to his pre-race favourite tag as he powered his way to a course & event record, recording a time of 52.47 on the rolling Badbury Rings course. Paul Jones (Bournemouth Jubilee) & Gary Dighton (Poole Wheelers) were left to pick up the crumbs for 2nd & 3rd place, with Jones just edging out former Olympic games rider Dighton by 17 secs. A small but strong field of 43 included Bryce Dyer, Simon Berogna and Julian Thacker (vc St Raphael) Terry Icke(Poole Wheelers)and Dave Pickering & Les Pick (BJW, all hoping to test Topham A keen south westerly breeze was on the riders backs as they headed north from the start at Wimborne Minster, it was a nice morning but certainly not a float day. The section of road that runs next to Badbury rings is known locally as Beech Avenue and is lined with 731 Beech Trees planted in 1835. By the time Topham had reached this point the race was in the bag, "It was a relief to finish" he joked, referring to two punctures in his last two outings. Topham, who lives in Poole is in good form and is targetting all the National Championships, including "Top 10 in the National 10, top 5 in the National 25,Podium in the 50 & Podium in the 100 but these will be very start sheet dependant" he added "if i achieve half of these i will be very happy with my season" Topham has recently had a book published entitled "Fly through the Pain Barrier" his approach to time trialling.