Grieves and Rietdorf claim national titles

Event Photographs by Kimroy

GS Metro rider Danny Grieves and Born to Bike-Bridgtown Cycles’ Katja Rietdorf were crowned National 12-Hour Champions after a tough title race in South Wales.

27-year-old Grieves from Bedlington, near Newcastle, covered a provisional 294.142 miles, taking the win by more than ten miles from Tejvan Pettinger (Sri Chinmoy CT), while third spot went to Reading CC’s Gregory Woodford. The Mens team award was taken by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines trio of Garry Drew, Leon Marshall & James Scott,

Rietdorf, 45, was joined in the women’s top three by runner-up Crystal Spearman (No Pinz), while Lynne Biddulph ensured two Born to Bike riders were on the podium with third.

Rietdorf covered 258.036 miles, winning by little more than two miles from Spearman, while third-placed Biddulph was more than 15 miles down on her team-mate. The Camel Valley C&TC took the newly introduced Womens team award with Ginine Gronwalt, Helen Wills & Catherine Snell.

“I came here to win, even though I’ve never done a 12-hour event before,” said Grieves. “I’ve only ever done one 100 before now, and that was really slow and hard. Nevertheless I came here hoping to do well.

“I wanted to break 300 miles which is a bit of a gold standard, but I’m happy because it was windy and wet.”

The day started reasonably dry, but heavy rain and cold set in around lunchtime, causing riders to suffer.

But for women’s winner Katja Rietdorf, the rain wasn’t such a problem.

“It was raining, but I’m not affected by rain – I’ve done some of my best rides in the rain because it cools you down, the sun would’ve been more of a problem,” she said.

“My supporters were keeping an eye on the field and especially on Crystal, but they didn’t really have enough time to tell me how it was going because I only stopped for a few seconds each time.

“It was my first ever 12-hour event, and it was a hard day. People had told me what to expect though. I’ve been doing lots of miles to prepare for it, and over long distances.”

Defending women’s champion Jasmijn Muller is struggling with DVT and was among 15 non-starters, as well as former National 24-Hour champion Jonathan Shubert and Sean Childs in the men’s event.