Club Notes - 18th July 2004

With the exception of continuing the Congleton series on a Tuesday evening a number of people, well a few people, OK a couple of folk have asked why if I’m not doing any riding do I continue to do the 10’s. My standard reply is that you can ride for half an hour or so on memory alone! Now this was somewhat prophetic and proved a bit more difficult as I proved last Saturday when I took part in my last open the ‘West Mead Team 88’ event. With the race not starting until 6 in the evening and yours truly last man off at 7.15 meant that I could catch up with a bit of car maintenance on the youngest of the fleet, well it is in single figures. I digress (what a surprise) but the point is that like most club members I have acquired a number of bikes and storage is always a key issue, my solution is to hang them in the garage over whichever car is in residence, great until you do a bit of work and run the risk of concussion, solution put the worst offending bike in the other car as I’m going to use it at night anyway right easy. Turning up at the HQ Matthews garden centre in plenty of time at 6 amid threatening clouds a visit to the boot to assemble the bike in readiness I discovered that I should have really put the wheels in as well. Now I’ve done so many DNS’s this season did not want to finish on one so a trip to Leek passing a returning Mr Halden on his last big ride before the 24 to collect said wheels by now its 6.30 and a quick return passing a now confused Looking Mr H back to Matthews’s arriving a little after 7, this was quickly followed by signing on building the bike up and getting changed and sprint to the start line. Now I would like to report that what with all the adrenaline flowing I took the event but that honour went to Jon Waddilove of Crewe Clarion who pipped Leek resident Mark Lovatt into 2^nd (Sorry forgot to take the times and the results not in yet), Still under the circumstances I was happy to sneak into the top 10 albeit 9th with a time of 23-49. Especially as it was somewhat damp, colloquialism for the roads being awash, just ask ex-pat now Churnet Valley Velo rider Dave Bridden who also took part returning a healthy 26-12!

Rich Brooks had no such problems as he took part in another one of those Tri things you know where you can’ avoid getting wet as you have to start with a swim. Once again Rich’s form and his concentration on the bike side of the disciplines seems to have paid dividends getting into first position after the cycle section having caught and passed Mike Auger who had entered the stage with an apparent unassailable 3 minute lead after the swim, however stirred into action Auger eventually went on to win in 2-00-53. Whilst Rich who by his own admission as been neglecting his running finally finishing in 4^th with a time of 2-03-16.

Jumping forward to the latest round of the Congleton 10 series and YT was joined by the ever present Kev Pickford and on what was one of the best nights of the non summer Kev recorded a personal best time of 27-58, at least it’s a PB for his current incarnation of his cycling activities, even I managed a respectable 23-01for 2^nd although still way off the pace of event winner Karl Austin who covered the Gawsworth course in 22-24.

In my earlier ramblings I mentioned passing Mr Halden as he returned from his Training ride so on the eve of his ride in the national 24 it’s a good time to review his preparations. I remember being part of Grahams support team in his first outing and both myself who had a CRX and Mark Poyser in a Polo only just managed to fit all Gray’s various bits in our cars. This years operation is a lot more streamlined Graham having noted how long it takes to restore his required average speed after a stop and calculated that with half the number of stops his target mileage of 300 miles should be within his grasp. Also although his training is no where near that of the specialist’s such as Karl Austin of Congleton who cycles from Biddulph to Holmes Chapel to work and has done half a dozen 100 mile time trials already! Graham has done a lot more of his longer runs plus experiments in various shoe /pedal systems to alleviate a hot foot problem that hampered his last two 24 hour events are hoping to prove useful on the day. So if your guesses have been a bit on the low side you may ant to have another pounds worth, that said although Graham did see me twice the other Saturday I saw him three times as we, that is me Pat & Jordan met him as we went out with not a flicker of recognition, you may not think that surprising but considering the narrowness of the lanes, the noise, size and scarceness of the old Monza, I guessed he wasn’t having an easy ride this was confirmed in a later conversion but even on this off day Graham said that as long has he concentrated he could still maintain his average it just dropped alarmingly quickly if he lapsed. So if you had high mileages you may want to have another go!

And finally we’ve run out of room for the club birthday but it will be on the website and shortly so will be the price list for the next order of club kit which members old and new have been enquiring about so as soon as we’ve got some idea of what folk want we can place an order. Prices should be similar and as the manufacturer is the same sizing will be the same, we’ve just got source another supplier due to unfortunate loss of Leek Cycle Centre so please be patient.