The segment of the month season is drawing to a close now; just 14 riders recorded a time in this month’s tricky drag up Boldrewood drive.
Jen Dawson continued waving her solo flag in the women’s competition and is the champion elect.
In the open competition, Niclas Olley left it late to set his time, but didn’t hang about once he’d started. He recorded the 3rd fastest ever time up this segment and was a full 50 seconds faster than second place Tim Cooke and third place Jon Hall. Another sensational ride.
Tim and Jon were first and second in the v50s, with Jon Dudley taking the third step.
So we can now declare winners in one of the specialist competitions. Jen, of course, wins the women’s QOM crown with a 100% record on 80 points. Niclas Olley takes the open KOM crown (75 points), from Jon Hall (73 points) and Tim Cooke (69 points). Jon wins out again in the v50s (78 points), from Tim (76 points) and Paul Macken (53 points).
Things are looking tight, though in the overall GC competition. Riders can discard their two lowest month scores, so there’s still room for movement. Jen can’t be caught in the female competition, but in the open competition Jon leads Tim by 5 points, with Tim just a nervous 3 points ahead of Niclas. Jon might need to look behind him in the v50s: he has a 2 point lead over Tim, and then there’s some clear water to Paul Macken in third.
November is the last month of the 2025 competition. We’re back in the Forest for the final rouleur segment, and this time hoping for a northerly wind to blow us down a nice relaxing 12km flat segment: Colbury to Beaulieu overdrive
If you’ve not played your joker yet, then you’d better do so for November: just let us know at info@sotonia.co.uk or by replying to this post.
While you won’t trouble the leaderboard at this late stage in the competition, you are still free to enter and test yourself against November’s riders. Competition rules are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X9qj0sm8PzXs28y-PRitkUHC4vuXSIUQmwf9Vjs8PeI/edit?usp=sharing and full results so far are viewable here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uGV6bqDiD42i7wAZL_wz0hUnxRECrNPIhlA69cDwR88/edit?usp=sharing
Tim