Club Notes - 20th April 2004

Ever get the feeling that things are to good to be true, I did last Saturday whilst riding out to the Macclesfield wheelers 25-mile time trial. I mean we are only in April, and it was in Cheshire but with the sun shining and the notorious winds across the plains just wafting gently along, the four club members taking part generally agreed conditions were virtually ideal. First man away was Marc Briand who you’re yours truly had been led a stray on Friday evening by the Vice President Mr Halden although his good sense had prevailed joining us later in the proceedings whether this saved Marc from the hung over sensations that was going through my muddled head is unclear. However Marc did record a major improvement over his previous weeks time covering the distance in 1-1-58.

Yours truly was next away and with my slightly muddled head I got to the start over half an hour early, however I blame organiser my old friend Steve Jackson for managing to get an HQ 5 miles away from the start, well I wouldn’t blame the booze would I! Looping around the lanes near the start waiting for the off, technically known as warming up I think, still it blew the cobwebs off and I managed a surprising 58-01. Marc Poyser was third man and was hoping that the form he has had in the 10’s would transfer to the longer distance, this it did in impressive style as Marc who had previously failed to break the hour on Cheshire not only managed to get under at his first attempt this season but by an impressive margin taking not only a class win but his 58-47 gave him 10^th overall. Stuart Cope was once again last man away for Leek and was pleasantly surprised as his time of 1-7-54 was a marked average speed improvement over his previous 10 times. Although non of our times were close to the event winner Jimmy Froggats time of 54-41, two riders in the top 10 of an open event for a club the size of ours is a good result in any ones book.

Moving onto Sunday morning and the Long Eaton Paragon C.C. 25 and despite the reputation of the drag strip course for fast times we only managed field two riders, perhaps it was something to do with the early start, personally speaking I find breathing at 7.00 in the morning a challenge never mind racing! Our two intrepid riders are perhaps best equipped out of the club Dave Bridden being a night shift work which makes an early event for Dave similar to a evening one for the rest. Phil Gayes job also requires early starts. On the morning however it wasn’t the early start that caused difficulties although it did make it a bit nippy, read cold for you and I. No it was the testers enemy wind and a strong tailwind towards Uttoxetter, try 28 minutes to the turn for Phil, meant a grueling head wind on the return including the climb of Doveridge bank. This lead to finish times of 1-10-09 for Dave and 1-1-39 for Phil still respectable for the time of year but quite a bit a drift of the winning time of 53-13 for Zenith rider J.Perkins.

Wednesday and the first of the Macclesfield wheelers 10’s took place under sub-tropical conditions well not quite but good enough for a turn out of 35+ riders 5 of which were Leek riders including Dave Gallimore taking a break from jet washing his equipment to take part in his first time trial stating that he would be happy with an opening ride of under 30 minutes he actually recorded a respectable 26-03. Another leek rider in his first 10 and only his second race was 15 year old Adam Kenway worrying a lot of the more seasoned riders by returning an excellent time of 23-38 to finish 6^th overall. Phil Gayes continues to improve with a 25-13 having once again electing to ride out and back. YT and Mark Poyser continued our battle of seconds the honor this time going to yt with a time of 22-14 to 22-36 however our times were good enough to split the macc riders from dominating the top 5 by claiming 2^nd and 4^th from winner Roger Wrenn 21-46 and 3^rd place man Paul Herd 22-16. A good evening result by all.