Club Notes 6th May 2007

Well its just like the good old days. Missed the bank holiday deadline so I am back on catch up. Actually this time I was away in sunny Spain only it wasn’t sunny! But the food, and wine and company was good (probably not in a training way) so apologies to members who sent me their race reports in. But better late than never!

The road racing crew greeted the first of May by taking part in the opener for the TLI evening series I will let our Road race reporter Gavin Pringle take us through the evening and how things unfolded.

“With three of Leek CC riders entering the opening event of the Cheshire TLI Road race series with 50 to 60 riders from well respected cycle clubs, Leek CC knew it wasn’t going to be an easy ride.

Macc' wheelers stitched the race up early with a couple of riders making an early break and the rest of their riders, another four, riding defensively the rest of the race. They had the largest number of riders in the race and the advantage showed. I got in a couple of breaks that came to nothing. The best I could manage was to stay away for almost a lap with a rider from Macc' and another rider from a club I didn’t recognise. Kieran Meharg almost got away at the end in a brave lone move with about two miles to go but the bunch caught him with about 800 meters to go. Unlucky mate but good effort! That left a bunch sprint for the minor placing. I came fifth, only just beating an in form Marc Briand by a gnat’s whisker, who came sixth with Kieran finishing closely behind.

All in all a really good race for Leek CC. Kieran rode well and left his mark on the race. He got in a couple of small breaks and was in amongst it throughout the race. His lone move at the end nearly worked and would have been a stroke of genius had it done so. Marc seems to be finding his legs again and rode a clever race; he rode strongly at the front when needed closing a couple of breaks whilst saving a bit for the sprint at the end. I felt fairly happy with my own performance having featured in a couple of breaks and riding aggressively throughout.

Hopefully next week we will have one or two more riders with us which would really put us in a much stronger position to get an even better result."

Thanks Gavin it certainly sounds like the Den Engels' crew are establishing themselves and I’m sure the better results will come in as the season progresses.

Elsewhere on Tuesday leek fielded 4 riders for the second of the Congleton 10 series and on a wind swept evening those returning found life a bit more challenging. Fastest Leek rider on the night was John Green who this week made the final turn to record a respectable 26-21. Although Johns erstwhile partner Ruth had a less successful night dropping, 11 seconds from the previous week with 28-36. Her comments about the return leg being much harder certainly ring true in my case its because its uphill and I’m somewhat gravitationally challenged, whilst Ruth was talking more about the conditions.

The pair were neatly split by Jon Middleton who had an eventful night passing a couple of riders then being re-passed by one of them after stopping to put his saddle back on! These folk do like to keep tweaking their positions in search of the ideal, although Jons' experience with tri-bars was less convincing and he’s decided to leave them off for next week see what I mean, despite all this he managed to improve by 7 seconds to 26-54. Also improving was Kevin Pickford who chopped over half a minute off with a time of 29-08 and finishing two places above his previous outings placing, proving there's life in the old dog yet. But before we start thinking it was perhaps not that windy after all, the winning time of Congleton's Karl Austin at 23-02 was also 11 seconds slower just like Ruth’s!

We stick to time-trialling for the open competition scene and although we only had two racers Phil Gayes and Rich Brookes in the Glossop Velo 25, held on the Cheshire course we did get a rider in the top 5. However it was not Phil who had been struck down by a touch of food poisoning the night before and did well after to even finish the course, and I am sure that he will soon obliterate his opening ride of 1-7-23. So Rich after his aborted ride to defend his Manchester & District Championship a couple of weeks ago proved that although the bike may have been dodgy the engine certainly is not, as he recorded the fastest time in the club this year by a long way with 56-32, also gaining him the highest finish this year in an open at 4^th. He still has a 2 minute deficit to make up on the event winner Blackburn & District CTC’s Ian Stott who finished in 54-39.

So whilst I now try to counter the affects of Spanish wine I will congratulate all the riders who are making this season the most active for many a while.