The headlines first: defending champions and race favourites, Ribble Weldtite with strong men Dan Bigham, James Shaw and Simon Wilson took the CTT Team Time Trial Championships title on a cool, damp but still morning at Irvine on the west coast of Scotland, with a time of 54:01, averaging 55.9 kph to best their own ‘B’ team by 2:32, the line up there being Zeb Kyffin, Joe Wilson and Matt Gibson.


In third place were Aerolab Ward Wheelz with 57:17.

Best Scottish team were those champions of CTT events, GTR – Return To Life with Chris Smart, Douglas Watson and Daniel Cain.

A fine ride, ahead of strong trios such as Saint Piran, GS Metro and Manchester Bicycle Club.
Hayley Simmonds, Natalie Grinczer and Jessica Finney from CAMS Racing with a 1:05:14 ride were well clear of the Army Cycling team to take the ladies’ race.

But here’s how the VeloVeritas day began…
Like Adrian Cronauer said in ‘Good Morning Vietnam’, ‘what does the “oh” stand for in 0-500 hours?’
‘Oh my God, it’s early!’
I’m usually up at 05:00 am anyway so it wasn’t too sore – despite that bottle of Barolo last night – I was at Martin’s in Peebles for 07:00am and we were off to Irvine.
However, the satnav was having a strop and we ended up in Glasgow to go back down to Irvine – but we did see some nice wee roads we’ve never been on before.
A car park with lots of bikes, not been in one of those for a while…
The first man we met was Saint Piran’s Stephen Bradbury, I’ve looked after him at a few Six Days.

He did well to break in to that world but like so many things right now it’s on ‘hold.’
Nice to see the man and we both wonder when next we’ll be at a Six Day race
Whilst not as much of a ‘drool fest’ as a World Tour paddock there was still some nice kit on show.
BMC’s Time Machine is getting a tad long in the tooth now but it’s still a tool – and ‘ovoid’ chainrings, gimmick or God send?
Answers on a post card please.

With the CTT not being affiliated to the UCI it’s OK to ride machines which would send the blazered boys at Aigle into a lather, complete with almost ‘filled in’ main triangles thanks to ‘integrated’ bottles and storage compartments.

Despite the fact that aero guru Dan Bigham tells us that over-size derailleur rollers save but one watt, they’re popular with the time testers – but well over a grand if you go for the 3D printed titanium jobs.
They do look cool though…

Looking cool too was Alastair Rutherford’s ex-Ian Stannard Pinarello Bolide; how do they get away with the cowls over the brakes though?
Surely they’re purely an aero aid?

Alastair’s dad, Jimmy was there as Manchester Bicycle Club’s team manager for the day.
Jimmy and I were team mates in the Musselburgh RCC back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
And on the subject of Mr. Bigham, whilst we didn’t want to distract him before his ride we had five minutes with him as he helped the Ribble ‘B’ team prepare for their eventual silver medal ride.

He’s just signed up again as advisor with the Danish team pursuit through to the Paris Olympics – the man knows his stuff.
Like the saddos that we are we quizzed him about the US ladies team pursuit Felt machines which have reappeared in advance of the Tokyo Olympics.

Does their chainset on the ‘wrong side’ confer