Sports Report Monday 26 March 2012

In Gear's Peter Tadros from Pett stormed round the rural Tenterden 10 course to record a superb time of 20.53 and win Southborough Wheeler's Saturday afternoon event by a clear minute on a glorious warm day. Most riders have to seek out drag strip courses on dual carriageways to produce an average speed of 29 mph over ten miles but Tadros is one of the few that can do it on more sporting courses.

Ivan Johnson (24.11) was Hastings and St Leonards Cycling Club's  top rider in 17th place with Simon Newell (24.53) and Malcolm Daly (25.14 setting a  PB by well over a minute) completing the team of three.

Joe Jenner 25.28 was first placed junior and overall 35th some six minutes quicker than the same event last year and on his first competitive ride on a time trial bike setting a PB by nearly one minute.

Also riding for Hastings were Dave Dixon (26.19), Mark Corliss (26.35), Nick Neale (26.52), Tim Miles (28.22), Chris Parker (30.17) and 1066 triathlete Maxine Simmonds (32.09) who was riding her first cycling only event and was one of the 15 women to finish, the fastest being Bronwen Ewing (23.38) from Hastings riding for Rye Wheelers and being placed 14th.

Chris Parker

24/3 Early bird - Conrad Returns

Great turnout this morning in glorious spring sunshine for the 'Darwell 30 miler'. I was very surprised to see Steve D there as I assumed he would be resting his legs for the Hastings half marathon on Sunday. Also, a pleasant to surprise to see Conrad again, we haven't seen him for ages. Haran was keen for more punishment and was there again on his fixie. We enjoyed the ride and suffered only two punctures on the route, all the road surfaces were bone dry and it was much warmer than they said it would be on the weather forecasts. Most of us started with 'winter clothing gear' but the time we finished we had leggings, vest etc stuffed into jersey pockets.

Distance 31 miles, av speed 14.9 mph

S.C

23/3 Friday Chaingang Welcolmes Haran

Despite some riders saving their legs for the Tenterden timetrial on Saturday, there was still a solid turnout with 6 riders. This included newbie Haran. Haran had bumped into Chris W a few days earlier and Chris had told him about the club. Sadly Haran will only be able to ride with us for a short while as he is on a 5 week work placement at the conquest hospital. After that he will be back up to Essex where he rides with his local club. Haran was on a fixie so that meant there were three fixies and three geared riders. Some of us were feeling more tired than usual having covered a lot of hard miles over the last few weeks. Ivan had to get off going up stonestile and Derek seemed to find it particularly hard this time. Haran had no problem at all getting up there on his fixie. John and Simon G were also on good form.

distance 22.5 miles , av speed 16.5 mph

S.C

Hare and Hounds Chaingang 21 March

Twenty five  riders, set off  with an easterly wind behind. Seasoned greyhounds Pete T and Shaun R followed by young hotshot Nathan R formed a fast break early on, your roving reporter tagged along.  By Cooden Beach I'd had enough of furiously spinning the 48x15 gear at 1200 rpm. Slowing down to lightspeed I let them power away.  Drifted alone in the blackness- no redlamps ahead and no whitelamps behind till the foot of Spooky Hill where  I thought I saw a distant light  behind, must be the Norman's Bay railway stop? - no,  a single headlamp appeared to be closing on me fast -  a motorbike - a minute later I saw it was Ivan J's diesel express.  Grateful for the lift I shared the work a couple of miles to the halt where the three pistoleros were waiting, grinning.  A short moment later we heard a shout and the bunch came round the corner with their elbows out - looked like fun I thought, "we should have waited for them" said Ivan.

Lively conversation flowed thru the crowd,  Steve snapped Paul B and Caroline for the blog.  The new season is upon us, big thanks to all who turned out for HSTLCC at the Hardriders on Mothering Sunday, and to all the helpers and volunteers from ESCA and the Sussex clubs.  Heading home, Pete got the jump and rapidly vanished into the night. With some effort I caught his wheel and sat in - Ivan, Nathan and the bunch worked hard to get across to us by Cooden, Shaun having sat in then bridged on his own before then.

Leaving Cooden  Pete flew up the climb, Shaun and I dug deep to follow and I think at this  point another chaser  brought up his dinner in extremis! Closing on Bexhill the two hangers on took turns to have a dig;  the demented spin drier first then the  big gear cruncher with  the hare on his tail, hardly wearied from leading most of the way. 

A day later and I've got wooden legs and a sniffling cold.  Wishing John Corder a swift recovery - and you all a good weekend at the racing, clubruns etc and hope to see you all next week, cheerio!

Sports Report Monday 19 March 2012

In Gear's Peter Tadros (33.08) from Pett always starts the season well and this year is no different with a clear win by well over a minute in Sunday's East Sussex Cycling Association Hard Riders time trial. With traffic lights for emergency road works on the Heathfield road the usual 15 mile course was shortened to a two stage 14 mile event.

New signing Marc Townsend (38.26) proved the surprise package for Hastings & St Leonards Cycling Club with ninth place in his first time trial. Chris Watson (39.10) in 12th place and Ivan Johnson (39.51) in 17th place completed the top team from the club. Malcolm Daly (41.19), JP Brophy (41.21) and sixteen year old Joe Jenner (41.33) all made the top thirty to pick up ESCA competition points.

Also riding were Simon Newell (43.00), Simon Grogan (45.40), Greg Blackwell (46.33), Jay Miles (49.03), Steve Curtis (50.20), Derek Millgate (52.37) and Chris Parker (52.51)

Photos from the event can be found here: http://www.photoboxgallery.com/ESCA

On Saturday afternoon Hastings have a team of eleven riders in Southborough Wheelers Tenterden ten. HQ is Homewood School and first rider off at 14.31 with Peter Tadros top seed and last man off in a field of 90 riders.

Chris Parker

Hard Riders 18th March 2012

16/3 Friday Chaingang

Only four of us out tonight: myself, John S, Anthony and Nick. I think some of the others were saving their legs for the hard riders on Sunday? Weather conditions were great with light winds.I felt the high mileage (130 miles) of the last week catching up with me but was determined to get out and ride. John is getting stronger every time he gets out and beat me up the long drag to Broadoak and up Stonestile. It looks like the chain gremlin is about to strike again as every so often there was a loud click as one of the links on my chain was getting stuck, I am going to whip that skinny B*****d off quick before it has chance to break and dump me in the middle of no where.

S.C

Weds Chain 14/3- Matt Is Stirred Not Shaken

Much better turn out tonight with a good compliment of 21 riders. This included Pete Tadros who we haven't seen for a while. As usual Pete went off at the front right from the word go. Sean, Matt and Ivan were the only ones who could stay with him all the way out to Pevensey. After waiting for the lantern rouge to arrive we set off for the return. Pete set a blistering pace into a slight head wind, arriving into the outskirts of Bexhill, Pete was finally able to drop Ivan and Sean but despite trying as hard as he could Pete was not able to shake off Matt who has fantastic form this year. Both myself and Chris P suffered broken spokes due to the terrible road surface on part of Hebrand Walk (I will report to the council), this was a pity for me as I was on target to add another 0.1mph to my best average speed

S.C

Mark Corliss Races Down in Africa

Mark Corliss writes:

Just to let you know that I finished  the Argus on Sunday in 3.58.18 – just under 4 hours again. Great ride with  35000 other riders in up to 35° heat. Have a look at my garmin file for the  route etc. I came 8423 out of 31331 finishers and 530/1972 in my age  group.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/156936193

I’ve just cut and pasted most of this from Wikipedia – too hot to write anything new and I’ve got a bike to ride again this afternoon!!

The Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour (referred to in short as the Argus) is an annual cycle race hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, usually 110 km long. It is the first event outside Europe to be included in the International Cycling Union's Golden Bike Series.[1]The race is one of South Africa's three 'largest sporting events' in the world. With as many as 35 000 cyclists taking part, it is the world's largest individually timed cycle race.
The Argus sometimes forms the last leg of the Giro del Capo, a multi-stage race for professional and leading registered riders.[2]It is traditionally staged on the second Sunday of March and has enjoyed well known competitors such as Miguel Indurain, Jan Ulrich and Lance Armstrong.

In recent years the race has usually followed a scenic 109 km circular route from Cape Town down the Cape Peninsula and back. The start is in Hertzog Boulevard in the city centre, at Cape Town's main Civic Centre. It then follows a short section of the N2 calledSettler's Way, then the M3 to Muizenberg, and then Main Road along the False Baycoast to Simon's Town and Smitswinkel Bay. The route then crosses the peninsula in a westerly direction, past the entrance to Cape of Good Hope section of the Table Mountain National Park (within which Cape Point is situated). It then heads north along the Atlantic coast through Scarborough, Kommetjie, Noordhoek, Chapmans Peak, Hout Bay over Suikerbossie hill to Camps Bay and ends in Green Point.[3]
In 2009 due to strong winds: stopped at 16:30 at Chapman's Peak due to gusts up to 100 km/h that blew cyclists off their cycles. Initially the cut off time was extended from 7 to 8 hours due to the strong wind. Despite the late closure many cyclists were affected, because starting for some groups was delayed by as much as 2 hours due to extreme winds at the starting line-up.
I have ridden it three times – first in 2009 in the strong winds, and then again in 2011 and 2012. I missed the 2010 event after my accident.

Attached is a photo taken by my brother at Hout bay after the descent from Chapman’s Peak but just before the final climb up Suikerbossie which is about 1km of 10%.

The route is lined with spectators in full party mood and is amazing fun. The views as you can imagine are spectacular, especially coming over the spine of the peninsula and seeing the Atlantic. The first leg follows the coast of False Bay which is the Indian Ocean.

This year’s winners times were 2.37 for the men and 2.52 for the women.
I finished in 3.58 and was 8423 out of 31331 finishers.

See  you at Tenterden on the 24th

Mark

11 March- Hell's Not So Bad!

The weather for the ride was exceptionally kind with warm sunshine and no wind. Eight riders were up for the challenge including Anthony on his first ever sportive type ride and Chris W who we rarely see at a weekend. Chris P is still recovering his fitness and also had a couple of spokes missing from his back wheel but I gave him a paper copy of the route so that he could make an escape if he needed to .Rather than start the ride at the northern end (Biggin hill) we started the route at the southern end which is the nicest and highest part of the Ashdown forest. We headed north away from the forest onto more typical Sussex lanes, Chris W was a bit disappointed that we weren’t riding through the forest but I knew we would see the best of it on the way back. The route north was undulating with some hills, we kept asking ourselves where the first of the four big climbs were but by the time we got to the most northerly point we had already climbed one without even noticing! Chris P was struggling a bit by this point and so decided to wander back on his own and meet us at the start. Before turning south we had a good look at the paper map and could see that two very large hills were approaching, Hogtrough hill and Toy’s hill. As it turned out we ended up going down Hogtrough hill which was an absolutely fabulous descent, on my giant SCR rather than my Raleigh I felt much more in control and so went a little faster than I was used to. This almost led me to me taking a cropper when I had to pull over sharply to the left hand muddy side of the road to avoid a car coming up the hill overtaking a few cyclists, I could feel the back tyre squirming but fourtunatly the rubber held. Following this descent there had to be an equally large ascent and sure enough it was long before we started the scent of the highest hill on the route called Toy’s hill. This was a long steady ride uphill but was never unduly steep (i.e. never like the bottom of stonestile) so we all made it up there without too much fuss. By now we were all getting a bit thirsty, so pulled into a pub for tea and coffee near Hever castle with only 17 miles left to go. From here the terrain got much easier and more attractive as we got closer to the heart of Ashdown forest. Malcolm suddenly pulled over on a climb, I stopped to see what the problem was and couldn’t believe it, Malcolm’s chain had got stuck in his front derailleur due to a broken link, yet another broken chain! Malcolm is by now an expert at fixing broken chains but this one caused him a lot of swearing as the link had damaged the front derailleur and the only way to proceed was to remove the blessed thing, so Malcolm stuck the chain on the inner ring for the rest of the ride. Leading up to Hindleap Warren was another long hill some of the group thought it was the ‘wall’ but I knew that was at the end. On arriving at the top there was no sign of Anthony, we thought he may have bonked but it turned out that his chain had just snapped on the climb. What is wrong with modern chains? Between us we have now broken 5 chains in two weeks! Fortunately Malcolm the chain repair expert was with him and they soon re-joined us. From here was my favourite part of the route through wooded lanes of Wych cross and Coleman’s hatch. Finally I recognised the start of Kidd’s hill, otherwise known as the wall. I knew that the next few minutes were going to be filled with some pain and decided to pace myself. The fit ones such as Chris W and Malcolm shot off up the hill with Me Paul B, Dave HH and Derek struggling at the back. I managed to keep going and left the other three behind lost in my own thoughts before riding out into the sunshine at the top Kings standing which marks the top of the forest. I decided I had better wait for the others in case they went the wrong way. Paul and Derek soon arrived having had to get off for a breather at some point and then Dave who was bonking really bad. Dave wasn’t making a lot of sense and kept asking for food but I knew there was an ice cream van just half a mile away. This was a nice little stop and I wished I had told the others to meet us there so we could all have enjoyed the view and the ice cream. After this there was only a short very pleasant mile back to the vehicles before loading everything up and setting off for home. Many thanks to Chris W, Chris P, Dave HH, Paul K, Paul B, Malc, and Derek for great company and particular thanks to Anthony for bringing his van and loading up most of the bikes. I think we should make this ride a yearly event so roll on March 2013.

All pictures can be viewed here

62.5 miles 13.9mph Av

S.C

Weds Chaingang 7/3- We few, we happy few

A pleasant evening with only a light headwind against us on the way out and yet numbers were well down on normal with only 11 riders. Many of the regulars were missing including: Chris W, Chris P, Paul B, Matt, Ivan etc. Good to see John Moulton there again, John has been one of the most regular riders this year. Steve Denny was on good form and beat me on the way out, leaving me to trail in last (first time this has happened this season). Lets hope numbers pick up next week?

S.C

March 3- Mud Bath

Welcome to Metin who was joining us for his first ever ride. Metin was one of the riders we spoke to last Saturday at the top of Battery Hill. Also present was myself, Duncan, Dave C and Paul K. Chris P was there to say hello to Metin and to see us off, he told us that we would be lucky to get back before the rains started. We said goodbye to chris and set off on the ride, this was a new 30 miler 'Bodle'. Metin was a little worried about keeping up but he need not have been as he has the perfect cycling build and kept up during the first 20 miles with no problem at all, infact on some of the uphill sections it was he that was setting the pace. As we carefully negotiated Horse walk we came across two riders on the corner, they were both laughing and one of them (Guy) had a nice smear of mud on his jersey. It turned out they had never done horse walk before and Guy had over shot the corner and ended up on the bank of the river, another couple of feet and he would have been in the river!!. We had a nice chat with them and I gave them our contact details so hopefully we will see them again? We carried on and proceeded to the high point at Brightling. From Brighling down to Sidley was mostly glorious downhill, Metin started to run out of steam at this point but did great to complete the route. Hopefully we will see him out with us again? We just managed to avoid the rain but got soaked on the way home from the 'dugout' cafe.

34 miles av-14.9 mph

S.C

March 2- Foggy Friday

As I cycled up to the Fairlight Lodge in thick fog , unable to see due to the mist all over my spectacles,I half expected to find that no one had been silly enough to come out for a ride in such poor conditions and that I would soon be rolling back down the hill, arriving home to watch some TV. Not only were there seven riders but Simon Newell was also there on his first ever Friday chain, what a night to pick!. I suggested we switch to the Weds chaingang route but most wanted to ride at least to Rye to see just how bad it was further along the route. We have never gone so slowly down battery Hill but once at the bottom the visibility improved a little and I felt slightly less apprehensive. Steve Denny was there which was reassuring as I knew that I could stick to his back and let him be my eyes for the evening. The batteries in his rear LED were almost dead so as much for his sake as mine I lent him one of my three rear LEDs. The first part of the climb up the drag to Broadoak was fine but about half way up the fog suddenly thickened and visibility dropped to just a few feet, to make matters one of my rear lights fell off and we had to retrieve it, this meant we lost touch with the others, leaving us on our own, with our lights sending out beams into the fog. Eventually we regrouped with the others at Broadoak. Duncan (spectacle wearer) had had similar problems to me, saying how he kept almost running into the verges on bends. The rest of the ride was Ok, we had left the really thick stuff behind us at Broadoak. The ride up Stonestile was the best bit because we didn't have to worry about running off the road. The average speed reflects how slowly we completed the course but at least we did it!
22.5 miles Av 15.2 mph
S.C

Leap Year Fixers, Shifters & Switchers Wednesday 29 February Chaingang

A fine day and dry roads turned out 19 riders - six on fixed.  Ivan set an early pace that was tough to match, having posted a 1:06 - on his fixed gear hack (!)  at the Eastbourne Rovers 25 mile time trial on Sunday.   John had also posted a very credible 1:03 in his first 25 and  attacking on Spooky Hill nearly trimmed the  hedge with a bit of a speed wobble.  Matt fresh from the turbo and Malcolm going well too.   Front group of seven or so stayed together pretty much till Pevensey where John and Matt led out some hopeful poachers.  The next dozen rocked up  hot on our heels.

On the return I dropped my glove and had to chase for ages to catch up - got on just before Spooky hill, breathless and needing a little rest on the back, no time for that but just managed to bridge as the bunch broke in two going up the hill,  hung on the back till we saw Stuart at the roadside, think I reached him first with Nathan closing fast, then Nathan went to the front,  then me, then Matt "doing a Snake" all over the lane to stop me getting on his wheel, of course I sat up and had a grumble about this as the group shot past.  "I was spinning so fast I thought I was getting a face hernia" Matt on 46 x 16.

For anyone thinking about doing the Cat 4 and Cat 3 Eastbourne GP Criterium coming up on 19 or 20 May  here's some handy tips :  Dave Lloyd Road Racing Tactics