If you haven't met Jim Morris it's because he takes about 12 holidays a year. He also organises (when he's here) Thursday morning rides. These are a bit easier than Wednesday morning rides, if you would like to be included on the email list for info about these rides email us at the website or get in touch with Jim directly.
Here's his recommendation for a French sportive if you fancy a change or doing something different:
"Did the Jean Francois Bernard sportive in Corbigny, France on 29 August. Longest course 160kms but I did the 106kms. Fantastic part of France to the south west of Dijon with very quiet roads. Some flattish but mostly very lumpy with some long hills at around 5%. 192 finishers on my course with me finishing 97th and 13th in Cat E over 60. Winning time 2hrs 54m and I finished in 3hrs 35m. (Gold time for me was 4hrs 10m) I got in a good group after about 10kms of 20 or so riders which then got thinned out to about 7 at the end. The first hour was the flattish bit and went past at around 32kph but the hills then kicked and the final average was around 29kph. It was a real challenge to stay with the group because inevitably I lost ground on some of the longer hills and then had to chase hard to get back on. But a real challenge - if only I could have stayed with the main bunch which went away at the start! The race was superbly marshalled and there were lots of support cars and bikes. I can thoroughly recommend it, although it is about a seven hour drive from Calais. We had a gite for a week and had some great riding in that time including doing the part of the long route that the shorter course missed."
Jim rides the Jean Francois Bernard/Thursday rides
Horsmonden: Jason wins (twice), Les Liddiard injured
Martin Hulbert reports from the LVRC:
At the recent Horsmunden Les had an accident, it appears from initial reports that it was his collar bone. He went to Tonbridge Hospital. A youngish lady walked out from behind the lead car and infront of the 3 riders in a break, Les was the unfortunate one that came down although the lady got away with it lightly.
Race report
The ABC race was over 5 laps but was shortened to 4 after the accident and our race was stopped temporarily, the older riders passed us when we were stopped. The break that contained Les, Paul Doel & had 20 seconds when the accident happened at the end of lap1 when the race was stopped. This gap was given on the restart but they were caught in the next lap. A few more breaks were tried and unsuccessful until with just under 2 laps to go Matt Seaton went hard up the first climb, only I went with him, he went hard until he was caught by the lined out bunch half way up the second hill. The impressive bit was he attacked again immediatley and the break that formed was never caught. I made it into the break with Matt & 2 others, shortly after Ashley Holding & Jason Edwards from VCM powered across with 2 others making a total of eight in front.
These 8 contested the sprint
1) Jason Edwards (1st A Cat)
2) Paul Caton
3) Ashley Holding (2nd B cat)
4) Martin M'Cready
5) Iain Akhurst
6) Martin Hulbert (2nd C Cat)
7) Matt Seaton
8) Paul Doel
Jason also followed this up with another impressive performance at Goodwood where he won to cement his 2nd place in the overall behind James Makepiece.
Fignon in Brighton
Sorting through some old photos and found this shot I took of Laurent Fignon starting the Wincanton Classic in Brighton 1990 - just behind him are Stephen Roche and Phil Anderson - I remember watching Bugno blasting away to an impressive victory - a great day out.
>> click for larger view
More retro.... 4 years later another VC Meudon day out, this time at the Tour when the race came to the South Downs and finished in Portsmouth - winner that day was Italian sprinter Nicola Minali. Who do you know in this picture?
>> click for larger view
Friday Sale - More Stuff from Jamie
Bike box and Ksyrium Wheels for sale
(click pics for larger views)
The Box
The Wheels
Contact Jamie if interested
MOB 07899 894 964
HOME 01276 24536
or email or comment on this post
Dan flying in Flanders
Powerman Vlaanderen, Belgium – 1st August 2010 - 10th Place (Elite Race)
Dan McCarthy competes at top level duathlon, here's his report from Belgium where he describes top 10 in a world class field as a "solid" performance!
"Powerman Geel has a special place in my racing history. The previous two occasions I came to Geel resulted in Achilles tendon injuries which took months to heal. Last year it occurred during the first run where I was comfortably running with the lead group. As a consequence I knew I had the pace to position up the sharp end of the field, intent on turning Powerman Geel into a good performance.
The race itself consists of a 10.5km run, 60km cycle, and 10.5km run. The course is pretty much typical East Flanders ‒ pan flat, which actually makes it harder with the lack of recovery on downhills etc. Having not raced for several weeks after a very hard block of training I knew Geel would be a good test of my fitness. As it happened, the first run caught me by surprise. The humid conditions literally sapped my legs of any energy. Up until 5km I had been running with the lead group and feeling pretty good. Fortunately a group of Lee Piercy (GB), Wim de Cort (BEL), and Karl Prungraber (AUT) caught me which allowed me to get to T1 in reasonable shape, with a deficit of 1 minute to the leaders.
Out of T1 I managed to get past the whole group and set my target on catching the group of leaders ahead. Into the corners I was visibly quicker than those around me. Around 5km into the bike I was re-passed by Lee just before a corner which meant that I had to drift to the 10m by 3 m drafting rule. The commissaire on the motorcycle did not like this and slapped me with a yellow card meaning I would have to run an extra 1km into T3. I spent the next few minutes arguing in my broken Flemish, absolutely broken at this point and genuinely considering calling it quits. I even considered a classic ‘Tom Steels’ gesture of chucking my water bottle at them, which fortunately I managed to avoid! In the end I re-grouped and caught up with Lee again which allowed us both work together (draft legally) until the finish of T2.
Out of T2 I usually feel great until after around 1km of running. Today’s 11.5 km (with a nice extra 1km penalty lap) felt awful. Although I was passing the athletes from the earlier start, I had nothing really to run for apart from 10th place, which I ended up with at the finish. As it turned out I was not the only one to struggle with the race. The finish looked like a war zone with bodies everywhere, including last years winner Anthony Le Duey, and multiple world champion Joerie Vansteelent, who fell back through the field during the final run. Matt Moorhouse was also a victim, whose usual fast final run was stifled by the pace and conditions of the race. The post mortem examination of my race would probably put me in 7th or 8th position had the time penalty not stood, but a top 10 in a World Class field was a solid performance, especially on a flat course which was not really maximising my strengths.
My Powerman season will hopefully continue well into October this year with the addition of Powerman Como in Italy to the calendar (on part of the Giro de Lombardi route). It had been my plan to contest Powerman Austria in 3 weeks, but due to travel issues and the need of more recovery time I will not be competing here. The preparation will now be geared around the Elite Race at the London Duathlon on September 12th which I hope to win, and Como where I hope to make the top 5 and bring home some more £££££."
Superfast "10" for Gabriel
Last week Gabriel blasted round the Farnham RC club "10" on the A31 and recorded an amazing 19 minutes 34 secs - beating second place James Millard by a clear margin. (21min 20secs)
Technology plays its part these days but that time is faster than Sean Yates' competition record ride in 1980 of 19:44
The CTT competition record was broken recently by Michael Hutchinson who recorded 17:57 beating Bradley Wiggins' 2006 figure of 17:58.
