Autumn Clubruns

The Sunday clubruns have now started. 9.00 sharp from the shop, 50-60 miles, averaging 18/19 mph. Speak to Craig if you want to know more.

Bernie shows Boys the way

In one of her rare road race appearances Bernie Hards showed what aggressive racing can achieve in the Surrey league races at Chertsey on saturday. Going from the gun, Bernie found herself in a race-long two-up with Beijing Olympic bronze medalist rower Elise Laverick. The two shared the workload and built a sizable gap on the rest of the field. Dunc was on hand giving advice from the roadside, not that Bernie needed any.

Into the final stages and the strength of the full-time Olympic athlete proved too much and Laverick dropped Bernie, and went on to lap the field. Bernie maintained her 2nd place to the line finishing over 4 minutes ahead of the next rider. And that's without any road training, unless you count the 150 hours per week spinning she does..

Brilliant ride Bernie!

In the mens races we had loads of representatives in all the events but could do no better than Roger Morgan's 11th in the E12 race.

Pete grabs some final points

Pete Wager reports from the Last Chance Points Grabber 08 (ERRL)

Sunday 28th September - It was clear blue sky and dead calm for the full field of 60 riders lining up at the Last Chance Points Grabber. I'm still chasing (chipping) my 1st Cat license so this was a must on the race calendar and also came as a recommendation from John W who won this event in 2005. His heads up on the course was, as always, invaluable!!

A full field rolled out of Whitwell village at around 0900hrs on the Sunday morning for 7 laps, primes on each, of rolling Hertfordshire roads. Most teams had only a couple of riders with the exception of Finchley RT who were riding for there man on form Edgar Madeline with 5 riders. I was the lone rider for VC Meudon. First 4 laps and the field stayed together with the occasional few chipping off the front to try and get a break going or just to get the prime money available each time through the finish - I won the 4th prime having been pipped on the line for the 3rd.

It was clear Finchley RT were controlling the race so any move that didn't contain Edgar was going get chased and anything that did then they would block the bunch - perfect. Each time up the long drag to St.Paul's Walden the pressure was applied and I made sure I was near the front or on the front. Just over 2 laps to go and Flavio Zappi (Oxford Uni CC) gave it a little dig over the top and dragged 7 others with him including me - sticking firmly to his wheel - a quick look round and we had 30 metres on the bunch and 2 Finchley Rt riders with us including Edgar - the break was ON!! We nailed it down the decent and along to the start/finish area with everyone pulling hard to extend the advantage. A couple of riders tried to bridge the gap but as soon as we hit the head wind section they lost any chance of making contact.

The 8 of us kept the pressure on and extended the lead throughout the lap and through to the bell with a comfortable 2 minutes over the bunch. Final time up the climb and the pace was steady but I noticed Edgar had dropped to the back. A few moments later he attacked with Flavio Zappi going with him - I spotted the danger and immediately bridged. The group did not chase deciding they could catch us on the decent. In the last 100m of the climb Flavio again turned up the heat and Edgar did not respond turning to me to chase - a few words were exchanged by which time Flavio had noticed the hesitation and given it full gas over the top and into the decent. We were left to chase and the group behind left to chase us.

At the base of the decent we turned left for the final 3km to the finish area - Flavio maintained a 15 second advantage - I was forced to do the lion share of the chasing as I was after the points more than the glory - Edgar sitting on in the last km completely. Up the ramp to the finish and he swung passed me but I was done and content with 3rd place and 21 points. The bunch, unable to catch us on the run in, coming in a further 20 seconds back . Flavio was a worthy winner - he was a Pro in the 80's with results that include 12th at Milan San Remo 1984 plus 2nd in the Mountains Classification in the 1984 Giro !!! Someone to watch out for next season now he's a 1st CAT :)

Goodwood circuit race and the Ottershaw series to go!!

see you there
Pete W

Six Ride the Picardie

Not even car breakdowns or tunnel fires could stop the intrepid 6 reaching the start line in Abbeville for a fantastic day of fine weather and great riding in the french countryside.
Results of noteworthy rides in 187Km and 131km events below:

Pos No - Name - Cat Time Country
1 - 237 - AUDOUX BEN - D - 04:48:46:000 - FRA
22 - 639 - ROSHIER COLIN - E - 04:54:49:000 - ANG
61 - 17 - MARIE THIERRY - E - 04:58:10:000 - FRA
79 - 587 - WOODCOCK TONY - G - 05:08:32:000 - ANG
86 - 745 - WILSON CRAIG - E - 05:08:33:000 - ANG
106 - 230 - COLIN ADDISON - E - 05:09:35:000 - ANG
240 - 539 - BROOKS KEITH - G - 05:24:25:000 - ANG
323 - 702 - CLARKE ALAN - F - 05:54:27:000 - ANG
349 - 548 - GRANT ANDY - F - 06:09:02:000 - ANG


Pos No Name - - time - cat - Country
1 - 262 - TRIBOUT BART - 03:24:40:000 - C - BEL
72 - 541 - COPPOLA DERICK - 03:44:39:000 - E - ANG

Glorious Cutmill Races

Warren's Surrey League Cutmill races went ahead in fine style with great organisation, great weather, great racing and worthy winners. Thanks to all the helpers and especially Mrs Warren who was magnificent in the kitchen!

In the 3rds a lone sole breakaway rider held out until 1 lap to go when Sebastian Ader of A3CRG burst through the field to secure an impressive solo victory. Our own Russell Scott was unlucky to break a spoke on the last lap but still rode on to finish.

I can still picture Ben's face as he realised the class of field that was preparing to contest the afternoon E12 65miler. With Dave Clarke (Team Lacuna), Alex Higham (fresh from his unfair disqualification in the ToB), Betts, Dodd, MacNaTwins, Gower, Atkins, Pickup et al the race was sure to be hard.
Martin Hulbert started proceedings with his trademark early attack that saw him form a 3 man break with Roger Smith and Chris MacNamara but after a couple of laps that was neutralised until Dave Clarke surged the climb to take a solo lead which he held and extended to the line for an impressive win. Power-rider Paul Holdsworth made a rare reappearance on the road race scene and finished a fine 2nd. Of the VCM team Stephen Richards rode well for 10th, with Ben riding strongly and Roger riding on will power to both finish in the bunch. Dave Creegan was a DNF with seizing brakes (although it took him a few laps to realise!)

Gorrick 12hr race report

Warren reports ...

Myself, David Creeggan and Steven Richards competed in Saturdays 12hr MTB race held on a new course in Minley.

In typical Gorrick manner the course was a true mountain biker's one ‘lots and lots of twisty single track and bumpy sections’ with not a lot of opportunity for us roadies to exploit our pure ‘power’ We had good intentions especially with Jamie headlining as our captain but it was not to be, so we had to make do with 3 of us, Jamie was still on hand to offer some advise being a 24hr veteran himself. The main thing was eat and drink, keep warm and keep the bike clean! This was all well and good but the deluge of rain meant we were in for a muddy 12hrs. In fairness to the course it was all rideable.

I was nominated to set us on our way and came in at the end of the first lap in 3rd place setting up Steve for his maiden lap, about 10 mins in though I received a call on my mobile, his chain had snapped! In these events you are supposed to fix any problems yourself but seeing as we all had the same numbers on our bikes I went and found him and gave him my bike to finish his lap on! Dave then set off on his lap we were down in around 8th place now in the teams race so had our work cut out especially as pretty much all other teams had 4 riders.

By the time the night set in we had clawed our way up to 4th place with not much chance of getting any higher but plenty of opportunity to slip back down. We thought we had used our bad luck but approx 1.5miles from the end of my 4th lap my derailleur wrapped itself up and I had to run to the finish. By now the average lap time was up about 10 mins longer than the daytime laps but we were all pretty consistent. I managed to get my bike into surgery and it came out hanging on and was able to give me one more lap.

All in all good fun, we were all pretty battered as we are all soft roadies and had various aches mainly in the upper body regions but was certainly worth doing and we ended the night in 4th place in the teams, again not a bad effort, with Jamie on board I reckon we could have challenged for 3rd easily.

I have learnt that I wouldn’t want to do a 24hr version and that there are some mental people around especially the ones that want to ride these things solo.

Warren Jesse