Wilson putting ‘nasty’ injury behind her
WINNING honours went to Andy Gibson and Maddie Wilson as Guernsey Velo Club’s virtual time-trial series headed down the Grand Tour route.
Returning to the same Giro d’Italia prologue replica that opened up the recent Easter ‘Zwiftival’, many riders improved upon their previous mark for the testing 8.2km Bologna course that culminates in a harsh 2km climb.
The second event of the series garnered very little interest among the Category A riders and two second-string Andys instead took their chance to shine.
Gibson edged the men’s honours in clocking 17min. dead, but Andy Colver finished just 9sec. back and improved by well over a minute on his Easter time.
Tom Becker pinched third and veteran rider Greg Robert also went under 18min., topping Category C with the fourth fastest Guernsey time.
Wilson rode a solid 20-50 to take the women’s honours for the second time this series and her nearest competitor, teenager Helena Duguid, finished some 3min. adrift.
Wilson, sidelined until relatively recently by injury, had impressed GVC president Mark Smith with her 45sec. improvement from Easter.
‘She had quite a nasty injury last year and she’s looking for an Island Games place,’ said Smith.
‘So she’s putting a lot of effort into training and she’s doing a lot of racing as well. It’s good to see her coming back and seeing some improvement in her times.
Smith added of the wealth of PB times: ‘It’s down to knowing the course a bit better – I know with my ride, I did not go too hard at the start and left something in the bag for the climb.
‘People are adapting to Zwift racing and using the training functions more consistently, realising that the lockdown is going to go on a while yet.’
Three races remain in this particular series and yet this weekend, riders will tackle a rather different challenge.
Cyclists have the option of riding 100km or 100 miles socially via Zwift to raise money for the States’ Social Investment Fund.
