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Fast Eddy Team and Ironman event at Bicton

Parenthood certainly seems to be suiting James Jackman. He blitzed the Fast Eddy Team and Ironman event on Sunday at Bicton with an impressive win, lapping everyone up to third spot.

A very wet venue greeted riders on Saturday for Fast Eddy's FED day but, as usual, Bicton dried out tremendously well for Sunday's three-hour Team and Ironman event, which attracted a great crowd. Another huge field had been added to the course and it proved to be very popular with riders, its smooth and flowing turns were simply fun to ride.

At a bargain price of £30 per rider it is hardly surprising that riders turned out in numbers. These non-Championship fun weekends are priced competitively to give riders and extra opportunity for bike time and competition and it certainly worked at Bicton.

All Ironman riders left the start line simultaneously, regardless of class and Paddy Twentyman grabbed the holeshot with Max Ditchfield and Mike Evans close behind. At this point James Jackman was at the back of the group but by the end of the first lap he had powered into the lead with Ditchy and Jack Twentyman in pursuit.

Aboard his new Yamaha, Jackman never looked back. He held the lead for three hours and gave a display of smooth, fast riding around the extended Bicton course, posting the fastest lap of the day with a 6minutes 52 seconds time halfway through the race. It has been a while since Jackman won a Fast Eddy event but he thoroughly deserved his win at Bicton, riding the perfect race with not a hint of bike trouble.

Riding in the Clubman class Max Ditchfield pushed Jackman hard initially and this lasted for a number of laps before the leader gained a significant advantage. Young Ditchy put in a terrific three-hour performance to take second place overall, he eventually came under a small amount of pressure towards the end of the race as the two-man team of Harry Edmondson and Henry Yardley hunted him down but failed to catch him.

Jacob James	Nick Jones	Max Ditchfield

Riding in the Expert team class these two great rivals, Edmondson and Yardley, teamed up to make and unbeatable paring in the team event and gradually fought their way through the field of Ironman riders that had started before them, to overtake third placed Jack Twentyman and set their sights on Ditchfield.

Following Jackman home in the Expert ironman ranks were Tom Cadwallader and Paddy Twentyman, both some distance behind the race winner.

Jack Twentyman won the Veterans class for his hard work but ran out of fuel at one point and had to push for a while as Gary Skelding, the oldest man in the race at 53, closed the gap on him but Twentyman Senior had a two lap margin to play with and took the win while Shaun James had a great outing to take third in the Vets.

Max Ditchfield's second overall saw him win the Clubman class by posting two laps more than Jake Purcell, his nearest rival. Ben Key was in third, a lap adrift of Purcell.

Jacob James took the Youth class Ironman win and was always in touch with the leading pack throughout the race, finishing five laps clear of his closest rival Neil Vardin who took second ahead of Dan Nelson in third. Lee Richards nailed the Sportsman win ahead of Neil Stokes as Gemma Holtham rode hard to retain third in a very tough class.

Matt Bryant was the top Novice rider, finishing just ahead of Olly Buckland who took second as Leon Dean secured third. Adam James had a clear run at the Under 12 class win as Callum Millward DNF'd after just two laps.

There were plenty of teams with numerous configurations. Edmondson and Yardley nailed the Expert team win but they were closely tracked by Ted Bailey and Jack Cadwallader, also an Expert team, but this pairing just fell a lap short of the leading pair to take second in class.

In the Clubman Jordan Kendrick-Jones and Ryan Shacklady came out on top with 23 laps to their credit.

In the mixed team category, riders of different abilities teamed together, James Palmer and Aaron Edwards won as Steve Hughes put in a hard ride to drag himself and his brother Paul to second in class. Paul hadn't ridden in a while and he certainly felt the strain, handing most of the final session over to Steve. Ryan Phillips and Alyn Roberts took third.

Darryl and Scott Mead were top Sportsman team riders and were matched lap for lap by Chris and Jack Tompkins who eventually took second spot ahead of James Ford and Tom Craggs.

James Palmer and Cole Cookland managed to keep George Yardley and Charlie Chater at bay to take the Youth team win with Mitch Parkes and Nathan Upton taking third in class.

There was a terrific battle in the Veterans team class as Nick and Justin Jones tussled with Dennis Harrison and Russ Baker for supremacy, which they managed to achieve. Dave Brookes and Terry Palmer were only a lap behind the leading two Vets teams and took third place.

In the Dad and Lad category there was just one team, Rich and Cory Cookland, so they had their own competition which was won hands down by Cory.

The sole Novice team saw Dave Simpkin and Adam Higgins take a well-deserved class win on 20 laps.

The sun shone all day long. Fast Eddy's gamble paid off and Bicton was at its best, especially with an extra field to go at, and riders really enjoyed this different format of Fast Eddy event.