Club Notes 2nd June 2007

Well the absence of a report in last week’s paper was not entirely down to me missing the Bank Holiday deadlines. Oh no it was a combination of missing some key bits of information as well, odd details like times winners etc and Bank Holiday deadlines. However in all honesty only the flying Ipstonian Richard Brooks, and our sole lady rider Ruth Goreham covered themselves in any glory.

For a start our road racing crew went a bit off the rails we fielded two riders and provided a marshal, but as I promised some action in my last report I will let some of the parties involved give there accounts starting as ever with Gavin Pringle

“Well what can I say! Kieran and myself did not have the best of results last night. Kieran got in an early lone break but then dropped off the back after about a lap, whilst I got cramp with about three-quarters of a lap to go and came last! Marc was the only member to achieve any success, his flag waving was first class and the way he shouted CLEAR! Showed a natural ability rarely seen at club level.”

Kierans comments echo Gav's:

“At the start of the race, I set the pace, maybe a little to hard and into a strong head wind, there were a few early breaks that for some silly reason I tried to chase them all down. After about 3/4 of the 1st lap I knew I had to rest my legs and stop trying to be a hero. As I sat up and hoped to drop back into the group, however as the group caught up I tried to position myself within only to find out that it wasn’t a bunch but a double breasted single file, I tried to cut in but as the group was tight there was no way of getting in. Finally the only the tail of the group, but with the difference in my speed and the group’s speed I got shelled of the back and was unable to make it back up”

Both of these accounts were borne out by Marc Briand whose turn it was to be one of the marshal’s for the event “Gavin appeared to be playing it well sitting in the first 8 each lap then vanished. Last seen just in front of the veterans bunch coming into the finish, whilst Kieran looked like he was trying Gavin's get in an early break theory and chased everything that moved for the first half of the lap. As for the rest of the race there was a break containing Barry Charlton (better known as one of the areas best time trialers) and an other which gained about 30s a lap. Then with 1 1/2 laps to go Barry took off and taking another 1m 30 out of the other guy, who himself was about a min in front of the bunch.

I’m sure this is just a glitch and the squad will settle into some hard Thursday night sessions to improve on their next outing,

This is probably true of some of the rest of us notable exceptions being Richard Brooks who in his 3^rd event of the season came second in the Dukinfield 25, so far this season Rich as gone from a did not start due to a mechanical breakdown, this fixed for his second race where he came 4^th . To being second missing out on the top spot by 16 seconds, this makes his next position a minus something or other, whatever it bodes well for the club championship 25, which this year is using the Westmead Team 88 open event. Starting 5 minutes off last position meant that I was one of the last to arrive back at the HQ and by the time I had caught up with Rich’s latest gossip the results board had been packed away hence the lack of detail of who won the event, and my time although it was rumoured to be around the 58 minute mark some what slower than previous weeks but more like my norm for the rougher Cheshire course,

Swiftly moving on to the Congleton evening series and my dropping off the pace continued, as others including our very own Ruth stepped up a notch yours truly dropped back. Although perhaps I was not as disappointed as John Green who tried to pace himself round based on his trip computer only to record his personnel worst time of 27:11.

Meanwhile his erstwhile partner Ruth recorded her personnel best at 27:49, placing her ahead of Kevin Pickford who is enjoying his season not least because he is catching and beating riders this weeks 28:28 placing him ahead of seasoned campaigners Peter Nelson 28:31 and Peter Hayhurst 28:37. Duncan Poole who had been up since 4am and completed a 12 hour shift was one of only two Leek riders to break 27minutes with 26:32, curiously just 3 seconds behind ex-Pat Dave Butterworth 26:29. Yours Truly with 22:57dropped down to 3^rd place as both Adrian Patterson 22:50 and winner Karl Austin 22:35 improved by a similar amount that I lost. However the following week neither turned up and despite losing even more time I took the win. Off the back of a cold and damp bank-holiday weekend the pair were not the only notable omissions with only 8 riders taking part. Leek providing 3 of them, as I was joined by Phillip Gayes road testing his new tri-bars, And Richard Whalley recuperating from a fall earlier in the season we all fitted in as follows.

Kelvin Milward Leek CC 23:12 .Keith Dutton Wills Wheels 23:53. Phil Gayes Leek CC 24:30.

Richard Whalley Leek CC 24:50. Tony Elliott Congleton CC 25:15. Hywel Morgan Congleton CC 26:07.

Peter Nelson Congleton CC 28:02. Denise Hurst Congleton CC 29:10

Whilst touching on that awful Bank holiday weekend Marc Briand was the only club member brave enough (if that’s the correct word could be crazy) to tackle the Gran Fondo Cymru. However Marc's ethos of when your wet your wet that carried him and the rest of the Llangollen riders a few weeks ago did not quite extend to starting in abysmal conditions, I can’t say as I blame him a couple of hours in the Peaks on that day called for a hot bath and whisky (purely medicinal!). Marc was also not joined by another 418 who did not start. 322 did though and the first rider back was a local rider Pat Kinch the well known vet from Cheddleton who actually covered the 125 miles super Fondo in a staggering 7:07:18, Pat was one of only two riders to achieve the gold standard in the event, and finished 11 minutes in front of the other. And with that impressive display I will leave you with congratulations to Pat.