MATT Clinton claimed an impressive sixth place in the National 10 event in the eighth fastest ride of all time.
An incredibly strong field took to the start at the notoriously fast V718-1 time-trial course near Hull for the CTT National 10-mile time-trial Championships. A fine day, with a light wind, would see records broken as 150-riders including the Mike Vaughan Cycles star competed for the National title.
Clinton would be there once again on his Trek Speed Concept to try and go one better than his silver medal in the 25-mile Championships at the beginning of August.
A real ‘fast-man’s’ course, the V718 has previously held the location for the fastest ever 10-mile TT set by Michael Hutchinson in a time of 17:45 – this record now stands with Alex Dowsett in 17:20.
Setting of as one of the latter seeded riders, Clinton made a strong impression to the first turn, riding to his power and hitting his target before making his way up the longer homeward leg.
Already at 34mph by five miles, a drop in power into the headwind saw Clinton struggling, but with the last turn at 1.5miles to go it was all or nothing.
Seeing how close to a 17-minute ride he was, Clinton buried himself to the line, but to no avail. Crossing the line in 18:05 (33.4mph), he knew this would not be enough to win.
It was, however, a massive personal best by 35 seconds – his 3rd sub-19-minute ride of the year.
It was in fact good enough for sixth place overall in the championships, just 12 seconds off a medal. This was some 25 seconds slower than Matthew Bottrill’s winning time – also the fastest ever championship time.
Bottrill was so fast that this placed him as the second fastest rider to complete a 10-mile TT. Clinton’s time would be fast enough to be put at eighth place on the all-time list, with only Dowsett and Bradley Wiggins CBE missing from the championship line-up.
Clinton now looks ahead to the Isle of Man End2End MTB event this weekend, which he won in 2013, before the CTT Circuit TT Championships and the hill climb season.
