Club Notes 10th June 2007

Starting off a couple of weekends ago, quiet weekend, in fact only yours truly was basking or should that be baking in the sun. Although when I entered the Manchester Wheelers 50 it was raining persistently and had hoped for somewhat drier conditions for the actual event, it was a tad too warm out on the Cheshire plains. Still a 2-00-50 and 8^th overall on my first 50 of the season, especially for a non mile cruncher was a good evenings work, albeit way off the pace of the event winner Congleton CC’s Neil skellern whose 1-54-57 was over 2 minutes clear of the rest of the field.

Moving onto Tuesday the 5^th and Leek C.C./Den Engels had a somewhat better showing, staying with time-trialing and the first of the two interclub 25’s took place on a variant of Chelford based course. Leek had 4 riders out of the 33, on what was a fine but sticky night. Kevin Pickford continuing his year of racing in his ??th year took in his first 25 for a while and completed the course in 1-18-36. Next a gap of 3 Congleton riders Pete Nelson, Denise Hurst and ex pat Dave Butterworth all at 1-11, before Leeks second counter John Green in his first ever 25 recording 1-9-59. Another Leek rider in his first 25 was Richard Whalley who finished further up the listing with an impressive opener of 1-1-58. For my part my continuing down turn eased off a little with a 58-59, almost a minute down on another local rider Pat Kinch who recorded 58-00 for 3^rd. The top two places however were taken up with Macclesfield wheeler's members Graham Trevana 56-47, in this instance conceding the win, and almost a minute to Steve Burke 55-35.

Elsewhere on Tuesday a somewhat depleted road squad consisting of Keiran Meharg took part in the latest round of the TLI evening series, although rumoured to be the last for the year which is a short season by anybody’s standard.

Although not racing Leeks road racing reporter Gavin Pringle witnessed the action: -

“Keiran was the only rider from leek brave enough to contest the final round of the T.L.I. Cheshire league. Pre race expectations were high for the leek rider and he didn’t disappoint. An early break went away on lap one and gained twenty seconds on the bunch, this gap had grown to nearly a minute by lap three when the bunch started to chase. Keiran was instrumental in organising this chase, he and a small number of other riders worked hard at the front for three laps and whittled the gap down to about 12 seconds. But with half a lap to go it was clear that the fight for third would come down to a sprint, as there weren’t enough riders willing or able to chase the leaders down. Keiran positioned himself very well for the final gallop and ended up fighting his way over the line for an excellent seventh place. A cracking result for him in his first competitive season and a good result for the club.”

Keiran was back in action on Saturday switching to Time-trialing for the Club Championship 25. This year held in an open event the Westmead team 88 held on the local Cheshire course. Keiran was joined by 9 club members on what was described by Marc euphemistically as a “warm day with a bit of a breeze”, others may have said it was hot. Rich Brooks looked to be sweating up a storm as he warmed up, personally I was trying my best not to work up a sweat whilst riding out to the start, although it must be said that Rich’s methods do seem to work! A rider not allowed the luxury of a steady ride to the start was the clubs sole lady racer Ruth who arrived shortly before her start time bemoaning the tardiness of her other halves Johns driving, John being the last club member off so had plenty of time to prepare. Still at least John made it Rich Whalley who put in such a promising ride on the Tuesday and looked set for a battle with Phil Gayes for 3^rd, had a senior moment (for one so young) whilst trying to locate the HQ and ended up missing his start completely. Rich took the club championship convincingly whilst also finishing 3^rd overall, whilst YT took the veterans Championship whilst spookily also finishing 3rd in the events veterans on standard. The actual event being won by Ahsfield BC’s Chris Storer in 55-28.

The full club results being: -

Ladies Ruth Goreham in 1-12-12 (Personnel Best)

Gents 1)Rich Brooks 57-13 (3rd Overall) - Club Champion
2)Kelvin Milward 58-17 (3rd Vet on Standard)
3)Phil Gayes 1-1-46
4)Keiran Meharg 1-3-57
5)Marc Briand 1-6-48
6)Duncan Poole 1-8-32
7)John Green 1-10-20
Rich Whalley DNS

Next club championship is the 5 to be held on 21^st shortly followed by the club 50 also on the 21^st, both followed by the sportive on July the 22^nd. Which neatly brings me onto request time will any members, ex members etc who can help out for the sportive contact Marc Briand who I am sure would appreciate the help, and can find tasks for all.