Sam Henning and George Evans collecting the GHS winner’s trophy
Last Saturday night, my dad took me along to the Champion’s Night for Time Trial awards. Sam Henning and myself were up for receiving awards that we had won in 2014. Sam had won the George Herbert Stancer (GHS) school’s championship, coming joint first with George Evans; and I had won the first ever Closed Circuit National Championship. The event was held at the Heythrop Hotel near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire. It was the first time we had been to this event, so we both had some learning to do. We met some friends of my dad’s though, so we relaxed chatting in the bar while the organisers prepared the theatre.
Everyone was dressed very formally, as this is the night where everyone leaves their skinsuits at home and puts on their best suit. All the big prize winners were there – from very young riders to very old riders, and even some amputee riders from the Douglas Bader Foundation.
David Millar looking happy to meet Nathan!
This year’s guest was David Millar, who gave after dinner speeches (I couldn’t stay for these though because I was racing the following morning) and presented all the awards. David gave a great speech about how his career started with Time Trials with High Wycombe, and had come back to the scene at retirement, only to meet riders still riding who he had ridden against as a junior.
The presentation was great. Every rider had their picture and award projected behind them. It was all very smooth, and went quite quickly even though there were over 100 presentations. Adam Topham told a great story about why you should never ride a 12 hour Time Trial – and that seems like a challenge!
After the presentation, we all went for dinner. I was sat next to Tim Torrie and his sister who had both been at Assen. It was nice to be able to compare stories and talk about cycling.
Over all, the evening was very inspiring and felt like a real worthwhile celebration of cycling.
Nathan George
[Saturday, 18 January 2015]