Club Notes 10th July 2005

Eh its just like the old days, no I don’t mean a return to form that would be asking a bit much in fact I’m now so far off the pace I would have to try and peak my ‘training program’ just to keep up on club runs!

No I mean I’m on catch up (although that’s is similar to the last couple of club runs) so its going to be a whistle stop tour of what’s been going on without to much procrastinating, or rambling for those of us who only got as far as CSE’s.

First we shall catch up with the flying Ipstonian Richard Brooks, we left Rich preparing for a Triathlon over Shropshire way I believe. Unsatisfied with just being blisteringly quick on the bike he decided to return to his original sport, or should that be sports I mean there are three disciplines? I digress (that didn’t last long), yes Rich is now trying to be quick at running and swimming as well.

The triathlon took place at Ellesmere and was one of 6 national ranking events as a result they are always well contested both by top amatures and semi-pro's alike making Richards 24^th overall and 9^th in category an excellent especially with a combined time of 2:02:02 for 1500m swim, 40K bike and 10k run. After this he switched back to the 25 mile time trials and if you can remember back to the 18^th it was something of a scorcher and whether it was the temperature or the after effects of the Triathlon and its preparation but he found the race a struggle, with other riders normally slower recording quicker times, it is all relative though and I know many (YT included) who would be more than happy to be able to get close to Rich’s time of 57.08 and 4^th finishing position.

Before we get on to the club 25 championship I know there is an evening 10 result still outstanding for Tuesday 21^st of June Leek but I’m waiting for the results so I will have to get back to you on that one. Now onto the 25 which as previous years we ran during the Congleton C.C. / Macclesfield Wheelers interclub event. Although conditions did not look favourable, which may explain why we only managed 4 riders out of the 28 taking part, In fact as my old dad would say it definitely looked black over Bills mothers. Not only that the trees were bending as if they were trying to get out of the coming storms. But shortly before the first man was due to set off things calmed down, now normally in Cheshire that’s a prelude to the heavens opening up but we were lucky in fact the rain did not start until the last man was back in and everyone was comparing notes. This was probably a good job because despite only having done a handful of miles, whilst others were doing circuits of the Cat, or monster distances of a weekend balk at the idea of 25 flat miles, I had only managed to persuade Dave Butterworth to take part. Dave’s only condition was that its stayed dry, as everyone knows he doesn’t do rain! But all of the riders who took part benefited from relatively warm still conditions to record good times, YT almost managing to go a minute quicker than my last outing on a few weeks ago. Mr Butterworth recorded a time of 1-12-52

Which considering the lack of preparation was a sterling effort, as was Andy Bains 1-5-12, Andy declaring prior to the event that he hoped the bike worked ok as its getting on for a year or more since its

Last outing. I like I said managed an improvement from 1-2-20 to 1-1-36, but that was not enough to stop me getting caught by Congleton's Karl Austin from a minute. I cant even use the 80 odd mile ride I did with Graham and the rest on Saturday as Karl had done a 100 mile time trial on the Sunday! This years Champion Mark Poyser however took a decisive victory recording a time of 59-34 and adding the 25 to his 10 title, and finishing a creditable 3^rd overall behind Macc’ riders Steve Burke @ 55-48, and event winner Graham Trevana who recorded an incredibly quick 55-48.

I’m off now to prepare for a more tranquil (fingers crossed for the weather) 100 mile traverse of Cheshire in the last of Mr Haldens fortnightly rides, the main concerns facing our party will be the mileage estimates with the 80 mile covering 85 ½ miles and the 70 covering 87 miles, once on the Northwich bypass we could well end up in Wales!