10 - DEREK WIGGINS RYE AND BACK VETERANS TROPHY

The Derek Wiggins Vets Trophy (established in 1985) is for the rider over 40 who records the fastest “age-adjusted time” using the Veteran Time Trials Association tables.

The event is for solo, unaccompanied riders on standard road bikes (no aero TT bikes allowed) using the shortest total time for eight timed Strava segments to decide who wins. The ride starts (& finishes) at the café entrance (not the usual main entrance) to the Headcorn airstrip in Shenley Road and joins the A274 at Biddenden after a ride through the lanes towards Smarden. Then on to Tenterden, Wittersham, Iden, Appledore, back to Tenterden to retrace the route back to the Headcorn airstrip. 38.8mls & 1,152 ft. of climbing.

Find the routes here:

• RWGPS

• Strava

Trophy history:

In 1984, Derek Wiggins’s widow, Peggy, donated the trophy to the fastest veteran on age standard in the Clubs Rye and Back event. This event had been a favourite of Derek’s. The donation was unanimously accepted.

The event was run as an early season training event for solo riders, starting outside the Blue Door pub on the A274 Sutton Road on the outskirts of Maidstone and proceeding south to turn at the gates of Rye Hospital, where they would do a dead turn in the road to return to the Blue Door to finish. The route was entirely up to the rider, but most took the route via Headcorn, Tenterden, Wittersham and Iden to the Rye turn; the distance was reckoned to be 52 miles. Other options were going and/or returning via Appledore. In later years, a set course was introduced.  This meant the riders no longer reached Rye itself, instead turning left at Iden on the way out, then left again at the Military Road and back through Appledore.

The event often suffered poor weather, ultimately leading to its decline, and it was reallocated in 2018 to the fastest club rider in the club open 50 after one year of being presented as the best club finisher in the Sportive event.