Club Notes 11th March

Must be the environmental buzz that’s going round or something in the water but Leek Cyclists’ Club had one of the best showing in an open event for decades as a total of ten riders took part in the Nova C.C. two up on Saturday 10^th of March. It’s also good that this new set of riders are relatively young blood as the last time the club had such an increase in folk taking part in events the majority were veteran riders 40+, with many being 50+in fact yours truly was one of the youngest. Now myself along with Mr Bain are now the elder statesman, ooh let me get me Zimmer.

However I can’t remember our class being quite so well prepared what with speed work on a Tuesday night and chain gangs on a Thursday night its great that the momentum and enthusiasm as been maintained throughout the winter months. This in no small part being down to Marc Briand whose provided both the opportunity and communication to allow the interest to grow.

On the day despite last minute course changes, erections of traffic lights part way through the event, and the Bermuda triangle effect that caused our youngest pairing to miss their start time by over 4 minutes, all who took part claimed to thoroughly have enjoyed the event.

Resplendent in new team kit and flying the Den Engels flag, which in itself makes a pleasant change from the norm of Isotonic drinks and power bars! The five teams acquitted themselves well although their times not always reflecting the true nature of the ride. For example starting at the lower end of the result board with Andy Bain who partnered one of the newer members Ivan Sherrat in his first event, their time of 1-9-55 included a stop at the lights that sprouted up half way through the event. Considering my spies have since informed me ran through the evening with flood lights but completed and dismantled in the early hours of Sunday Morning you would have thought they could have waited that extra 30 minutes for the event to finish. Or even asked a marshal how much longer the event would be instead of having a situation where I believe 4 teams were waiting for the lights to change one of which being Gavin Pringle and Richard Whalley. The young pretenders who had already lost 4¼ minutes having misplaced the start which with the time lost at the lights reflected in a final time of 1-9-23, so if not for all the losses they would have been vying for the Banshee challenge trophy! Just and I mean just ahead of them was Duncan Poole and John Middleton in 1-9-22. Duncan being the more experienced of the pair and managing to keep John on track the pair working well together. A measure of the solidarity of the Leek teams meant that the three occupied 33,34 & 36^th place overall. There was a bit of a gap to the next pairing with Marc Briand extending his role has team coach coaxing an excellent performance out of partner Ade Myatt also in his first event to a time of 1-5-35 and 28^th overall despite a delay at the infamous lights. A bit further up the road and having had an early start Yours truly and my partner Kieran Meharg, yet another newcomer whose proving very strong both in club runs and now in events this being K’s second (see footnote) got round in 1-1-42 finishing 18^th overall. We may have missed the lights, but still had some drama after a lady in a Merc pulled out in front of us only to then stop a few feet up the road! And probably still is totally unaware on how close she was to having two disgruntled cyclist in her back seat. As good a day as we had there was no way we would challenge for a winning time such as the 55-42 by Warrington’s Alf Hilton and Steve Hankey, who also had the advantage of the early start. However as an opener and a debut for many it bodes well for this season especially with both Ade and Keiran vowing to return and break the hour on Cheshire! All this before the Clubs real fast man the Flying Ipstonian Richard Brookes breaks cover!

As a footnote the Nova may have been early but me my erstwhile partner Kieran and Duncan ventured out the week before in the second of the M & DDTA 10’s. Where we enjoyed a surprisingly warm and pleasant if a bit draughty (read howling headwind) afternoons riding, Duncan recording an opening time of 27-41 whilst still recovering from a bug, and Kieran recording an excellent 26-48 in first event, although still not quite quick enough to avoid a dinner bill go for double or quits in couple of races I feel sure you will hit your target K’ . I was also pleased with my time of 24-48 quicker than last years although further down the field dropping from 13^th to 24^th, so room for improvement I hope.

All in all an excellent opener and with talk of Road racing and track riding, as well as testing I hope to be kept busy this year so keep reading.