Club Notes 20th May 2007

With no road racing this weeks report is limited to time trialling. For the uninitiated this is a race that in general is a solo rider against the clock, with the object to beat the last time they recorded for that course and improve their overall position in the field that in open events can be up to 120 riders. This differs from road racing as tactics like teams working to control the pace of the race or individuals sitting in doing just enough work and biding their time ready to make a winning move, in time trailing or testing there are no tactics to think of , just get you and your bike round as fast as possible. This means that the excitement (and spectator interest) is a lot lower. However it is possible to have healthy competition anywhere in the finishing order, even if you finish near last there will be numerous people who you can attempt to record faster time in the next event, and who will be trying to do the same to you. In a road race though you may end up off the back of the group drifting in behind or even retiring at part distance.

Anyway back to the plot and starting with last Tuesdays and the latest Congleton 10, threatening skies dropped the numbers down a tad with 14 riders taking part, Leek CC providing 4 with another two leek residents giving us nearly half. Husband and wife John Green and Ruth Goreham had completed the Llangollen 110 rid eon the Sunday so could be excused for a drop in times although in fairness Ruth only lost 4 seconds recording a time of 28:40, whilst john improved 19 to 26:02. The pair was separated by our sexagenarian Kevin Pickford who knocked 45 seconds off his time to record 27:51, strangely exactly the same time as ex pat Dave Butterworth. Moving up the field and YT managed an improvement dipping under 23 minutes at 22:32, but still a minute off the winning time of 21:31 recorded by Beacon RC rider Ed Moss. Moving on to Wednesday and having no road bike I decided to venture over to the same course

For the Macclesfield Wheelers evening 10, and if threatening skies limited the previous field the persistent rain lead to just the 8 off us although claiming Leek residents we did provide a quarter and the winner. No not me my 22:43 was only good enough for third being separated from Mark Lovatts winning time of 21:57, by Macc’s own rider Steve Burke’s 22:30

Saturday saw this years club 10 mile championships event, run this year in an open event or two in fact as the ladies race was the M.D.L.C.A, and was held on the same course and immediately before the ABC Centerville event, the elected men's race. So Ruth Green was Leek CC Den Engels first rider away, joining a small field of 9 riders, probably due to an event clash more of which later. Ruth’s time reflected the effects of struggling against very strong blustery winds especially in the exposed sections between Ollerton and Marthall. Despite this and recording a personal worst 29-12, Ruth finished 7^th overall, beating more experienced riders, the event being won by Christine Roberts of North Shropshire Wheelers in 24:59. Moving on to the men and 3 riders faced the testing winds, Ruth’s better half should have made 4 but went down with a rather nasty bug although the loss of 5 pounds in a week should help his climbing! Back to the men’s approach and a very close competition saw the experienced Marc Briand record 25:53 finish to 3^rd in the club championships and 31^st overall. Whilst newbie Kieren Merhag snatched 2^nd and 28th overall with 25:28. But this years champion was on form road racer Gavin Pringle who covered the course in 25:05 garnering him 26th overall. Another local Rider Pat Kinch of Churnet Valley Velo Managed 12^th in 22:44 Whilst the event winner Dave Crawley of Fibrax Wrexham RC sped round in an impressive 21:10

Also on Saturday and YT and Phil Gayes along with a number of local riders was taking part in the Stone Wheelers 25. An unfortunate Clash and very rare having two local courses running on the same day, The Stone wheelers event drawing just shy of the full 120 entrants, but the promise of fast times was dashed by the same winds that hampered our ten mile riders . With very few managing to post the same times as the previous weeks time on a similar version of the course, Phil managed to buck the trend and actually improved with his first well deserved under the hour ride of the season

His 59:22 giving him 38^th position, whilst I dropped dramatically losing almost two minutes at 57:23 and two placings at 20^th overall. Although even the winning time of Shorter Rochford's Andy Proffitt was almost a minute down at 52:19, compared with Matt Botterhill's 51-minute ride.

Next week we hope to have some road race results for you action fans - until then take care.