Club Notes - 28th September 2003

Well here we are with the final racing report of the season but don’t worry or sigh with relief I will be back throughout those dark winter months with snippets and colorful descriptions of goings on in the lycra clad world of biking next week for instance the long awaited report of the OSCAR’s complete with winners and results of the 2^nd World Muffin Eating Championships. But first lets wind up the racing and some of us have been going off the boil for a couple of weeks ok couple of months, others have been continuing in earnest and if we start with Saturday the 27^th Leek had 6 riders in the Withington wheelers open 10 our fastest rider was Marc Poyser who tucked under the 23 minute barrier for the first time in an open event with a 22-59, YT was next in at 23-01 and I can’t even use the previous nights activities in the OSCAR's because third man in Dave Bridden finished ahead of his season long battle with Stuart Cope with times of 26-28 to 26-44 and Dave was another participant in Fridays nights trials, Beside Leek Cyclists’ Club/en Engels entrants there was also Leek residents Karen and Mark Lovatt, Karen returning a time of 25-22 despite being one of a number of riders hit by a stones thrown by what can only be described as mindless yobs! Mark was probably going too quick to get hit as he won the event in a rapid 21-13.

Moving onto Sunday and we once again fielded 6 riders this time for the Weaver Valley hill climb of the cat and fiddle among the six were Graham Halden and YT taking part as our tribute to Dave Briand who completed this event days before the accident that claimed his life we were joined by Dave’s son Marc who rode in one of Dave s old, and I mean old racing jerseys, we also had latest club member Chris Hall, Current senior hill climb champion Phil Gayes and Rich Brooks the Tri-athlete who would have many a club member worried if he concentrated on biking alone. On the day Rich was our highest finisher in 15^th place with a time of 22-43.8, next up was Phil Gayes in 23-14.5 at 18^th, YT surprisingly ahead of Marc in 29^th with 24-30.8 against 35^th at 25-10.3, Chris Hall in his first open acquitted himself well finishing in 27-42.7 and 43^rd Graham Halden rounded our group off in 52^nd place in a time of 33-45.9 which you may recall is similar to my performance in the Macclesfeild wheelers event a few months back I mention that because this event was won by the same rider Crewe Clarion’s John Waddilove whose time of 19-39.4 was only 3seconds outside the course record set during last years event, whilst it was being used for the National Championship, by non other than Mark Lovatt.

Last event of the season for club members was the Stretford Wheelers 10 held Saturday with the same six riders we started with but with Mark unable to ride any chance to take the 2 seconds back was denied, although in reality due to an accident between some trucks and a car on the course the event was reduced to a lottery whether you managed to squeeze through the debris Stuart Cope and Dave Bridden was slowed but not to bad with Stuart taking the advantage of possibly a smaller frontal area as the riders battled into strong winds to finish ahead of Dave with times of 27-05 to 27-28. Meanwhile yours truly got tangled up in the thick of it making my 23-36 a bit academic for a frustrating finish to the season. Still there’s always next year! Meanwhile Charles McCulloch claimed yet another victory in 21-18.