Club Notes - 4th April 2004

The South Lancashire Road Club charity 10 Mile Open Time Trial was Leek Cyclists’ Club / Den Engel Belgian Bars first major outing fielding 4 of the main racing members in the club although the distance men of Andy Bain and Graham Halden were absent from the start sheet one of the pair was braving the adverse conditions in his build up for this years 24. The remainder of those within the club who race are waiting in the shadows for the start of the evening time trials which kick in early April and regulars like Dave Butterworth and Kevin Pickford are already starting their preparations well Dave says he knows where his bike is!

However I digress and back to the 4 who rode. Early starters such as yours truly and the main man on form Richard Brooks was joined by the two Marks, Mark Poyser and Marc Briand. My predications that as more joined the fray YT’s ranking would start to suffer did not quite happen but things were desperately close and it looks like being a hard season, not what you want at my age. Also if the opening events, including one cancelled after high winds had blown a tree into a car! And Saturdays weather is anything to go by last years balmy days will be a mere memory, the Cheshire plains once again dishing out her notorious winds, now I don’t mind April showers but when they are horizontal its not much fun, so it was quite surprising teat both Richard and myself actually managed to improve slightly on our times. Marc Briands' opening ride was marred by both his crank and Tri-Bar working loose despite the bike being freshly serviced which either highlights the value of shakedown tests or just how poor road surfaces have gotten, non of which is much comfort for Marc who returned a final time of 26 minutes and 45 seconds, looking on the bright side Marc should be no problem to improve next time out! Mark Poyser faired better on his first outing especially if you consider he’s still recovering from a bout of nastiness making his opening ride of 24-06 a creditable performance indeed and left me still second quickest by just a 10 second margin after covering the course in 23-56 skin of the teeth stuff or what, mind you the gap to Richard has also shrank from almost half a minute to under 10 seconds after Rich finished in 23-47 so non of us can rest on our laurels. For the time being though Rich is still the man to beat which is all good for the club as although our times were almost a minute down on winner Nik Bowdley from the Farnborough & Camberley CC who finished in 23-01, and the final placings are unconfirmed Rich, Mark and YT either finished in or just outside the top 10 pity there were no team prizes up for grabs

Finally an update from last weeks reported Charity ride that nice Mr Kinch of Churnet Valley Velo has let me have an update on the ride there were 22 riders, only 4 completing the long course, including Dave Werrell who rode out from Rainow and back covering over 95 miles in total. All 3 major climbs: Ilam, Manifold and Elkstones had a headwind at the top thus making it quite hard, (master of the understatement I think Pat!). The ride raised £80. And Pat as said he may organise a ride later in the year but without way marks! Already looking forward to it Pat, may even get further than Ipstones. Next week is Easter so I will be back in print in a fortnight, till then happy Easter.