Wild and Matthews grind out century TT success
Riders go long as Wilts-gloucs host 100-mile Nationals
Flying student Adam Wild will have to plead with his university lecturers if he wants the chance to add more national titles to his palmarès later this season.
The 23-year-old took his first national honours at the weekend in the National 100- Mile Championship on the Wiltshire gloucestershire border.
He was beaten into second in last year’s championship, but set a new personal best of 3:28.50 on his way to victory this time.
“I have been doing a lot of long stuff during lockdown and spending four or five hours on my time trial bike, which is not always enjoyable,” said a delighted Wild following his win.
“It wasn’t a particularly quick course but my numbers have been constantly up in training and I’ve been seeing some pretty big gains during lockdown.
“I did some pretty big weeks as apart from university work there wasn’t much else to do.”
The championship saw riders compete on a course between Royal Wootton
Bassett, Tetbury and Cirencester, with GS Metro rider Wild clocking an average speed of 28.73 miles per hour.
Taking part in his first 100-mile time trial, Jason Bouttell (Team Vision Racing) finished second in a time of 3:31.26. Adam Duggleby (Almerico Vive Le Velo) completed the podium places just 32 seconds further back.
There was a shock in the women’s event as Army Cycling rider Katrina Matthews blew away the competition in her first 100-mile time trial.
She recorded an average speed of 25.49 mph on her way to winning with a time of 3:55.22.
Alex Clay (The Independent Pedalernopinz) finished second over six minutes back while fellow novice to the distance Ruth Purbrook (Ful-on Tri) came third.
Now Wild, a final-year medical student at Edinburgh University, will have to plead for time off university to compete in the National 25 and 50 in September and October respectively when he returns to his university studies and night-shift working.
He will, however, go for another crown this weekend when he takes on the unknown in the National 12-Hour Championship in Cheshire.
“I’ve never ridden a 12-hour before – seven hours is the longest I’ve gone,” added Wild.