If it’s not one thing, it’s the weather
ADVERSE weather has rained on Guernsey Velo Club’s opening-weekend parade following their deft negotiation of lockdown restrictions.
After GVC gained permission to hold three competitions in the first weekend of stage two, the current forecast has caused them to cancel Saturday’s 10-mile road time-trial and place a big question mark over Sunday’s repeat event.
But their third planned event, a mountain-bike time-trial nestled safely up at La Pomare in the lanes of the southwest, is still good to go on Sunday.
The issue for the road events is not so much the predicted downpour, but the double threat of strong winds and a particularly high tide battering the west coast, GVC president Mark Smith confirmed.
‘That obviously does not affect the mountain-bike time-trial,’ Smith said with a chuckle.
Of course, States guidelines will remain a major factor.
No more than 30 people can attend each time-trial and some 25 had already entered the mountain-bike option when GVC cancelled Saturday’s event.
GVC officials are prepared to provide a La Pomare double-bill to accommodate any overspill, though, and Smith now sees this as increasingly likely.
‘Now that Saturday has been cancelled, and Sunday is looking likely to be cancelled, I am sure a few people who had chosen to ride on the road will come over,’ he said.
An organised 10-mile time-trial on Zwift will provide an alternative for road-bike specialists.
They can also look forward to a likely duo of road ‘TT’s the following weekend, which, given the increasingly positive lockdown exit forecast, could be the last before Guernsey sheds all local restrictions.
