Meudon rider Martin Hulbert (aka MadCyclist99) opened his seasonal LVRC campaign with a fine win on the Henfold Hill circuit in the 50-60yrs race - here's his run down of events ...
Faced with 6 laps of the Henfold Hill circuit (7.7m / lap) the action kicked off with Ray Robinson clipping off early on and quickly gaining 2 minutes on the peleton.
I tried to get away by some big attacks on Henfold Hill climb (17% gradient) all of which were eventually brought back, but they did help in bringing Robinson back to the bunch after 3 laps. So Gruppo Compacto - then followed lots of activity until finally myself, together with strongman Colin Bateman and Ray Robinson again left the peleton in our wake with 2 laps remaining. Only myself and Bateman were working as Ray was feeling the effects of his earlier efforts.
Ray graciously accept 3rd and didn't sprint after not working, so it was left to myself and Bateman to battle it out up the final rise to the finish. I managed to pull away and surprisingly put a few lengths into him before the line.
MadCyclist Wins Opener
1st Cat before 2nd Brat
Update from Gianluca
Last Tuesday evening I raced in the E,1,2 at Hillingdon (Peter Wager was there too) and I managed to get 10th. It was a fast race with a big field won by Wouter Sybrandy who beat Tony Gibb.
Barry Matthews got 12th and Steve Looby 8th in the 4th cat race.
Yesterday I raced at Dunton (E,1,2) in Essex and I ended 6th in a very wet race! (Race won by Dennis Van Gaveren - Lotto Olympia Team Interbike)
My goal of the season is to manage to get enough points to keep my 1st cat licence before the birth of my 2nd child so I have 2 weeks left to gain another 14 points! Help!!!!!
Dave & Jo's weekend...
Weekend report from Dave Creeggan ...
I rode the Les Ingman Memorial race on Sunday, 8 laps of the lovely Bletchingly circuit. It was the first hilly race I’ve done this season and I could tell as I was suffering! On the first lap I think it was Mcnamara who went ballistic up the climb to the A25 and split the race in two, unfortunately I was in the wrong half and could see the race disappearing up the road so I decided I had better jump across or it was race over, fortunately, Steve Gowar, Steve Calland and couple of other strong guys came with me and after a hard chase we caught the group after about a lap. Next lap I got into a break of about eight guys which I thought would stick however we were caught within a couple of laps. It was a war of attrition with riders going out the back each lap and then it started to rain, there was a crash as we turned on to the A25, carbon BMC broken in two as riders ploughed into it.
Mcnamara attacked again on the hill, I couldn’t go with him and six riders got away. I spent the rest of the race chasing, practicing my time trialling for the Majorcan run-ins, Wildside, London Dynamo and Norwood Paragon were all in the break and no one else was going to do anything. I kept them in sight till the last lap when I had had enough. At the finish managed to sprint for 9th and claim a tenner, which nearly covered the energy gels that I used.
Jo had her first victory of the season at the Southern XC Series, she rode the Open Womens category. On the first lap she was in second place piling on the pressure and the girl in front made a mistake and ended up in a river, however she got back on and wasn’t able to close the gap to Jo. She now owns the biggest trophy in the cabinet.
Jo also rode the Crystal Palace Womens race last Tuesday finishing 3rd after lapping the entire field. She went from the gun with 2 of her team mates from the Surrey League womens team, who are also leading the Women’s National series. Jo rode for the team in Nottingham recently finishing in the bunch with Charlotte Blackman winning for the Surrey League after a great team performance.
Jamie takes 3rd
Also riding the Southern XC series round 2 at Deers Leap Country Park, East Grinstead, Jamie Newall led the Masters field through the first lap but eased to finish a comfortable 3rd place. (with an 8 minute variance between lap 1 and lap 3 we suspect he went off a bit quick?!)
Vecchi Glory for Wilson
The Vets team, Ciclisti Vecchi, rode the Epson Spring Classic on the Henfold Hill course. The A/B race for 'younger' Vets featured a good field including Vecchis Colin Addison, Keith Jarrett, Terry Morgan and Craig Wilson.
After 7 miles of the 55 mile race Colin Roshier and another broke away. A chasing group of 5 formed with Craig Wilson managing to creep into the move. After 20 miles of chasing the two groups linked up with a lead of over 1 minute on the Vecchi marshalled bunch (last year's green jersey Andrew Meilak had missed the move and was sweating by now). Into the last 20 miles the break eased back and the bunch sensing an opportunity rapidly closed so that with 10 miles to go the whole race came back together.
Despite numerous attacks and counter attacks the bunch remained intact. Terry Morgan was showing a fine return to form making a number of efforts to bridge across to breakaways only for them to be reabsorbed by the bunch. With a mile to go Colin Addison launched a desperate attack.( Ed: intended only to soften up the bunch in preparation for a Wilson sprint, but turned into cramp-ridden clammer for the line)
Into the last corner he still had 50 yards but on the slight climb to the finish the bunch swallowed him up. Craig Wilson managed to sprint clear to win from Andrew Meliak and Colin Roshier with Vecchis Keith Jarrett in 4th and Terry Morgan in 5th. With Craig winning the race overall and Keith and Terry placing it also meant that the Vecchis finished 1,2 and 3 in the B race with a honourable mention in dispatches for Colin Addison's fine last minute attack.
After the race Wilson and Addison commented that they had no concerns that they had peaked too early and that they saw the race as fine tuning for the big one - next weeks trip to Majorca. Colin commented "With my new found form I am looking forward to giving the youngsters a really hard time in the Tramuntana Mountains".
Keith B reports from the E's race
The first race of Tricot series for “D”s had all the usual suspects of ex pros and top amateurs who can read a good race but maybe the legs aren’t quite as they were;
There were numerous attacks throughout the race and the short steep hill had some in trouble but with 10 miles to go the field was still intact. A break of three crept away and seeing the danger the Brooks/Summerfield tandem went across but the rest soon came up and that seemed to be it. However a smart counter move by series favourite John McMillan had all of us watching him creep away with under a lap to go never to be seen again. Three more crept away with half a lap to go and then KB slipped of the front with Shay Giles but the line came too soon and although KB was able to hold off the bunch for 5th we never got up to the leaders.
Colin Summerfield and Phil Masters led the bunch gallop and Paul Shoebridge, who had been in a first lap break and had ridden strongly throughout just got tailed off in the last few miles. With over 60’s Swanson, Packman, Ruffell and El Tel still to show their legs it looks like a good squad for the CVs.
Pete Wager edges out Felt
Pete Wager reports from the AW Cycles E12 RR on Sunday 27th April.
The E12 field faced 6 laps of the Goring course, the venue of last years Central Divs champs, which includes a sharp climb out of Goring followed by a 3 km drag through the finish area and some exposed rolling roads around the Oxfordshire countryside. Weather looked promising before the start but then the rain started to threaten as usual - it held out though with only some occassional showers throughout the race.
5 riders escaped on the first lap with a further 5 chasing on the second lap - this stayed the same until the end when the bunch caught one of the chasing group on the last lap - on the final ascent up the hill I attacked knowing 10th place was up for grabs and got a good 30m gap going over the top - this left me with 1km of dragging road and pain to the finish line - looking back I could see a couple of chasing riders bridging - one of which was Mr Prebble - I hammered on regardless with both of them on my wheel and with 100m to go they promptly swung by me - the maroarding bunch were a further 25 m back being led home by Justin Hoy (Felt) and my brother not far behind.
12th place was mine as I coasted over the line and the first points were in the bag for the season - tough race, good training and pleased I got the edge over both the Felt boys (Justin and John) ha ha ha ha !.
More Points for Gibbo
Rowlands Castle, a lap to go and Gibbo was doomed. Two away, chased by four and another group of twelve hot on their heels. Me asleep back in the depleted pack, but not too far behind. I managed to bridge the gap to the group of twelve up the 'lump' with half a lap to go & went for it up the climb to the finish. It could have been a lot worse so I was pleased to salvage 6th. No.10 continued to improve and finished in the Pub.
1st Lee TUNNICLIFFE DHCyclesport.com 02:30:00
2nd Justin CALLAWAY DH Cyclesport.com st
3rd John HYDE Velocity Bikes CC @ 0-10
4th Mark JONES GS Stella st
5th Sam McCURDY Promap RT st
6th Mark GIBBS VC Meudon @ 0-12
7th Neil WHITE Bristol Road Club @ 0-15
8th Barry CLEWETT Bournemouth Arrow CC / Hotel Collingwood st
9th Robin DIDYMUS Fareham Wheelers CC st (small bloke)
10th William GIRVAN North Hampshire Road Club @ 0-25
Coup de Picarde
This weekend a Discovery laden down with every combination of bad and good weather cycle clothing, 3 'older blokes' with 165 years experience between them, and 3 bikes headed to the Coup de Picarde.
On 'race day' the weather was warm although windy so we could have brought just shorts and armwarmers and a smaller car.
With riders warming up on their turbos at 7.00am it looked as if was a serious challenge.
Unfortunately we started too far back in the neutralised zone to be in the winning move but bowled along for the first 90km in the flatlands of Normandy waiting to contest 155th place, 30 minutes down on the leaders
As the hills came gaps opened and the groups split, the pace went up and the 'race was on'. 60km to go and it was every man for himself .....irrespective of the team talk.
150kms later we regrouped, went for a beer and chips and sat in the sunshine.
We had a nice weekend flying the flag for the Ciclisti Vecchi and look forward to starting nearer the front next year.
With 2 (KeithB & SteveB)out of the 3 riders getting their own certificates as mementos it was left to me to report on the weekend.
Buny Regis
(aka bob)
Title: Results to 13th April
Best ride of the weekend was by Warren on Saturday at MOD Chertsey E12, backed up by Dave Creggan in 12th and Steve Richards in 13th:
"Basically a group of 8 formed after approx 5 laps of the 25 lap race, I tried bridging with Steve Calland at one point but couldn’t get across. The bunch then made some in roads into the break and I decided to try again and made it across on my own with approx 10 laps remaining, a couple of laps later this then split again and I managed to get in the front half so there were 4 against 5. There was a heavy downpour that made one particular corner very dicey and I lost ground each lap as my tyres were far too hard! Because I ended up having to chase back on each time I ended up missing some turns so told the others I wouldn’t contest the sprint so ended the race in 4th (not that I would have taken many more places even if I could have sprinted)."
Meanwhile in the 4ths new member Lee Mead is having a good start to the season coming in 7th. This followed up on 5th mid week at Hillingdon for Lee to move up to 3rd Cat. Also riding at Hillingdon in the 4ths was Mike Lancaster who came in 8th to edge towards his 3rd Cat. In the E123 Gianluca Capello managed a creditable 9th.
Over at the Thames Velo RR would it be Glorious Gibbo Part Deux?:
"A heaving intact bunch approached the finish so I launched myself up the drag towards the line and gained all of a couple of lengths. Cresting the brow with 300yds to go in the lead I thought 'what could possibly go wrong now'? Dead flat, a headwind, wobbly legs and approx 15 riders flying past at the yellow flag, that's what! Fellow VCM 'young-gun' Mike Lancaster looked comfortable and finished in the pack while No.10 did well to finish in the next group not far behind.
The kit has landed.
This year's new kit has now arrived from Italy and will be with Craig shortly. Those people who have pre-ordered their stuff - and those who want to reserve stuff - should call Craig at the shop (01252 624136) or on 07899965492.
Results - 1st VCM win of season
A glorious Gibbo reports back from the Barcombe Surrey League RR:
On the first lap when I saw the uphill finish I was confident that if I
kept my fingers-crossed for long enough I could get a result. My
strategy was to save myself, hope that no one got away and go for it
early up the finish hill. It was my lucky day, a tough circuit with a
small field and riders going out the back rather than off the front,
just the way I like it. The bunch eroded to approx 20 riders with me
tucked in on the back for most of the way. During the race I'd been
checking out the road surface up the hill as it was a bit rough, I was
worried because being so light I bounce and lose drive quite easily.
Arriving at the finish with approx 600yds to go, I launched myself up
the hill on my chosen route through the water in the left gutter. I
looked around at the yellow flag to see a gap so dug-in. Approaching
the line someone shouted "put your hands up then" but no way was I going to ease off until I had crossed the line. Mission accomplished, 1st place in the bag and finally, whooping for breath, a fist in the air.
So thanks to all of you, who waited for me, encouraged me and helped
beat me into some form of shape over the winter.
Meanwhile the previous day Craig Wilson continued his good form at the Henfold Hill Surrey League 2/3:
A team of 4 VCM's (Colin Addison, Mark Bremner, Ben Macland and Craig Wilson) started the Addiscombe 2/3 at Henfold Hill on Saturday. The 60 mile race had 80 starters and made for an impressive sight as the bunch careered through the Surrey lanes. The strong winds and later rain made it tough going with echelons forming on the crosswind sections much to the delight of Keith Brooks the commissaire, passing motorists and the local community support officers.
At half distance the tough conditions were starting to show with splits appearing in the bunch and with 3 laps to go the race split with Craig Wilson managing to slip into the front group of 16.
Ben Mac and Colin Addison marshalled the bunch effectively but unfortunately at this stage Mark Bremner added to his impressive collection of punctures and packed . With a lap to go the break had a 1 minute plus lead but the bunch was stopped by a Mad Max move from the local policeman in his panda car who didn't realise that the Tour of Flanders had come to Surrey. With the bunch disqualified the break fought out the finish with Surrey League big hitter Ben Wilson jumping away in the last 3 miles to win. Craig managed to finish 6th overall in the uphill sprint 10 seconds down.
