If it wasn't for the fun of riding this time trial it could easily be supposed that people come for the TEA AND CAKES. The lavish spread laid on by Loughborough Phoenix may start to attract cyclists for the wrong reasons if we're not careful. However the rides this year were well up to standard and fully deserving of the slap-up tea afterwards.

We had an impressive winner of the trophy in Tony Page; impressive not merely because of his time but also because he was riding the course for the first time, on an unfamiliar machine and was due to celebrate his 61st birthday in a few weeks. For those of us youngsters who struggle to get round at 'evens' it sets a great example. Previous trophy-winner Paul Vincent set something of an example too; not just for his good time but for setting off on a TF two-speed freewheel gear that had suddenly decided to misbehave only minutes before the start, exhibiting symptoms very like a broken axle! Another trophy-winner, Graham Lansdell was nearly done out of his third-place T-shirt through the organiser's inability (one shared with Albert Einstein) to be able to count.

We have to emphasise that the award of the Loughborough Sock is done on a purely arbitrary basis, usually as a commiseration for bad luck, so it is hoped that Tony Whitehead will not be discouraged by the unshipping of his chain and will come back next year. Most people who ride bicycles have had a chain come off at some time and we don't all ride machines of 1907 vintage. Brian Donnan was a close contender for the Sock, but the breakage of a saddle spring in the hammock of his Pedersen didn't prevent him completing the course. Incidentally, Brian supplied on-the-spot mph calculations and these, together with many other ‘Tin Can' details and some of his photographs can be seen on the his website http://www.donnan.co.uk  - if you understand that sort of thing. Julie Dymond's ladies T-shirt was an award for sportsmanship (sportswomanship?) as well as for time, since she did the ride on a borrowed machine, slightly too small, and burdened with mudguards and carrier.

Chris Thompson's Triumph also carried a little extra weight in the shape of lights and dynohub (less drag if it's on or off?), while Andrew Thompson might have cut a few seconds by discarding the mudguards and chainguard (or maybe riding a machine five times larger?). Continuing the small frame size theme, but clearly from another planet, was Minoru Mitsumoto's very very low profile Raleigh, believed to be an ex-Olympic track machine. We Eagerly await the day someone turns up for the Tin Can with a Sturmey Archer equipped Lotus or Corima!

Amongst all the other thanks due, mention must be made of the blindingly well-polished state of the Trophy: last year's winner Merlin Evans must have spent literally hours buffing it up. Then, as well as all those behind the highly efficient 'tea trailer' and the many kind people who generously donated cakes, the pusher-off and the marshalls, we send a big thanks to timekeeper Stuart Crick for seeing 'em out and seeing 'em back, and finally to the Loughborough Phoenix C.C. for fixing up the entire event and ensuring us some sunshine yet again.

Next year will be the Millennium Tin Can Ten, so we hope you will be sure to come to make a special celebration of the epicyclic revolutions of the centuries as well as those of bicycle hub gears.
David Eccles, July 1999