Club Notes 1st July 2007

Tempting fate or what! Last week I started with “If you remember the weekend of the 23^rd & 24^th, yep that very wet one” well how was I to know that it would apply to all weekends, and weekdays for the foreseeable future. The somewhat moist conditions curtailing most of the action, Mr Brookes Declining to start the Nova CC 25 last Saturday. There were also a significant number of non-starters for the CDCLA 25 that yours truly took part over on the A50. Although this was totally understandable, the thought of riding a bike at 5 o’clock on a flooded dual carriageway with the entire spray/visibility issues etc did not fill me full of confidence. But organiser Heather Wimble had put a note on the start sheet saying that she had returned 45 entries because the event was over subscribed, and to make every attempt to start. So there I was and miracles of miracles the rain held off long enough to do the event, although some of the later starters did get a bit damp

Shame really that as expectations of even doing the event were low my preparations amounted to wiping the bike down with an oily rag, and loading it in the car. Not actually getting motivated till starting the return leg of the race and realising I was in serious danger of getting caught by my minute man, so ending up with a 56-17 was a bonus. Albeit somewhat down on the winner Daniel Soltys, who at 52-25 probably would have managed to stay dry even if it had been raining.

On the evening club TT scene the 26^th saw the second Macclesfield, Congleton interclub 25, Although we did manage to be included as a separate club in years past. Leek nowadays rides for the “other” clubs section, fortunate really as we only provided two riders outright, being out numbered by ex-pats and leek residents. We can’t even blame the weather as one of the ex –pats was Dave Butterworth who Famously does not do rain, although it was somewhat blustery, hence most folks times were slower. So it was left to me and the venerable Kevin Pickford to fly the flag for Leek CC Den Engels' amongst the 33 strong field. Kev Recording a time of 1-18-54, 18 seconds slower than his previous

Although he did close down on Mr Butterworths lead whose 1-12-45 was nearly a minute slower. Another Leek resident riding for Congleton Mark Tilstone was over a minute down 1-7-40 to 1-6-20. I managed to move up from 6^th to 4^th despite dropping 19 seconds to finish in 59-18. The top 3 was a repeat of the previous event with ex-pat Pat Kinch, Churnet Valley Velo in at 3^rd conceding only 8 seconds to the conditions at 58-07. Whilst Macclesfield rider Graham Trevena was one of the very few who improved 56-19 against 56-47, despite this he still ended up second behind team-mate Steve Burke who dropped 23 seconds but still managed to break the 56 minute barrier at 55-58.

Bringing us up to date are the results from last weeks (3^rd July) Congleton 10 and in an act of bravery or stupidity Duncan Poole and YT ventured over Macc’ even though Leeks roads were doing their best to imitate rivers and the rain was Monsoon like, We do admit that the plan was to drive to the start to show willing but then go into the pub that’s handily sited at the start and plan the rest season events. However although the roads were still a bit damp by the time we reached the car park it was quite pleasant.

The storms did mean that there was only half a dozen riders, which did allow me my first win of the season beating my old adversary Karl Austin 23:09 to 23-52. The rest of the field coming in order: - Tony Elliott Congleton CC 25:10, Mark Tilstone Congleton CC 25:41, Duncan Poole Leek CC 27:30, Steve Sladin Congleton CC 28:10. Duncan although would have liked to have gone a bit quicker (wouldn’t we all) was happy as it was his first outing since turning the Giant into a time trial specific machine and with only a minimum of tweaking required the evening went well. Pity we did end up with a soaking after the race whilst getting back to the car but that just meant we reverted back to plan "B", the pub!