Ninfield TT- June 6

Hello Folks

When I got to Downs View at 6.20 Wednesday for the last of the early season Ninfield events there was steady rain and Stuart was all for calling it off due to it being dark and the prospect of a lot of surface water hence spray and reduced visibility along the Marsh Road. But the rain eased by 6.40 and the sun even shone briefly for the start. Our two keen juniors were already to ride, Joe J (41.02) having ridden out and Joe K (44.50). Dave Conor (42.21) was also there ready to ride.

Malcolm Daly (36.08) checked the weather radar late in the afternoon and was convinced the rain would disappear before the first rider set off at 7.01. He was right and with just three other club riders bagged some great points, if only I had my bike with me and had felt like a gentle pootle round since Peter Jenner had got out his meeting in London early and made it back to time keep so I could have ridden and bagged an easy 7 points without any effort!

Rover John Cordner (33.30) turned up for a good work out before the first of the Lewes Crits Thursday evening. [Great road race to watch on the Shoregate, Broyle, Ringer N RAB circuit with a little lane cutting across so you can easily see them twice a lap - two more races these next two weeks I believe]

Malcolm's win and 12 points puts him second in the table to Ivan, and Joe J's 10 points put him clear in 3rd place. It is still early days and only the best ten results in a maximum of 18 events count so get as many Wednesday rides in as possible. See the attached points table:

The table of Ninfield times also lists the next 5 club events and a number of Open TTs in the coming weeks that some of us will be riding, check them out and join or start up a team:

WEDNESDAY 13, 20 and 27 JUNE SIGN ON 7pm for Hastings - Rye - Hastings and Marshals needed

Some of my emails / hand outs had the wrong meet time. We start later for the next five weeks of lighter evenings. For the HRH Classic please park any cars in Old Winchelsea Lane below the start opposite Hill Crest School.

Marshals are needed for the Strand roundabout at Rye each week - volunteers to me ASAP please. Drivers will not expect cyclists to circle and retrace at the mini roundabout so we need someone there to eye ball motorists, wear a yellow tabard and indicate when a rider is turning.

CLUB EVENTS:

Wed 13 June Hastings - Rye - Hastings (18) Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Wed 20 June Hastings - Rye - Hastings (18) Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Wed 27 June Hastings - Rye - Hastings (18) Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Wed 4 July Pevensey 10 Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Wed 11 July Pevensey 10 Meet 7.00 first rider off 7.30 late

Ninfield			2010	2011	16/5	23/5	30/5	6/6	18/7	25/7	2012
Pete	Tadros	InGr		29.50	30.25	30.00	29.49				29.49
John	Cordner	E/R			35.48	32.54		33.30			32.54
Marc	Towns’d				34.46	33.24					33.24
Peter	Moon	E/R					33.47				33.47
Ivan	Johnson		35.04	33.19	36.30	34.16	34.15				34.15
Malcolm	Daly		39.30	37.04	36.05		35.13	36.08			35.13
Nathan	Russell	Byx					35.25				35.25
Slawomir	Giecewic	zE/R			35.54						35.54
Barny	Willard	InGr				36.42	36.01				36.01
Jon	Molton		36.51	36.21			36.16				36.16
Simon	Newell		37.43	36.32	37.34	36.27	36.36				36.27
Dan	Henchy	PBS				36.41					36.41
Chris	Watson		35.06	38.15		37.28					37.28
Kevin	Burton	E/R	37.58	37.18		37.32					37.32
Joe	Jenner	J16		39.35		37.49	37.47	41.02			37.47
Simon	Grogan		39.25	38.27		40.11	39.01				39.01
Jay	Miles		39.00	40.20	40.57	40.14	39.26				39.26
Dan	Hanlon		39.09	44.27	41.14		39.41				39.41
Dave	Connor					39.52		42.21			39.52
Greg	Blackwell		39.54	39.16	42.03	40.33	40.17				40.17
Duncan	Feathers			41.35			40.33				40.33
Bob	Coleman	Eps	39.55	39.26	42.10	40.44					40.44
Tim	Miles		40.54	40.23		40.48					40.48
Jon	Stainsby					41.05	40.55				40.55
Steve	Denny				45.07		42.30				42.30
Steve	Curtis		43.03	41.40	44.45	42.46					42.46
Joe	Kingsman	J15					43.36	44.50			43.36
Derek	Millgate			43.30	45.56	46.16	44.20				44.20
Chris	Parker		44.08	44.20	45.15	45.53	46.40				45.15
Adam	Ford	E/R		36.17			DNF				DNF
Nic	Baldo	PBS		30.19
Max	Norrell	Giant	38.22	34.22
Mark	Brittle		35.53	35.21
Chris	Chapman		35.22	37.32
Nick	Neale			38.16
Simon	Tyler			38.19
Adrian	Marshall			40.05
Wil	Francis	J15		45.08
Ian	Hendry		37.15
Dave	Dixon		39.34

C.P

French Trip 2012- Day 4 Rouen To Dieppe

Much better weather for the last leg of our trip. We were heading north and the wind was from the south west so it was at our backs the whole way. This was by far the most enjoyable leg of the trip with some nice long drag type hills rather than the wind swept plains of the previous 3 days. After our previous mishaps we decided we wouldn’t take a break until we got around 30 miles under our belt. Luck was on our side this time and we came across a quaint French town with an excellent cake shop and café. The café was owned by a missive guy who spoke English and had been a semi pro rugby player (his brother had actually been the French national team captain) playing for years with an English rugby union side. A few miles outside of Dieppe we stumbled upon the ‘Avenue Verte’ which is a converted railway line running from Dieppe to Paris, this made a nice break from riding on the road but finished before the seafront where we had the one and only really big climb up and into the harbour of Dieppe itself. We arrived at the harbour with a couple of hours to spare so decided to have a few drinks and a bite to eat at the ‘Cactus Bar’. As we were locking up there was a loud bang, which turned out to be Malcolm’s rear tyre exploding, just imagine if this had happened down one of the descents? Three of us set off up a long hill to the nearest Decathlon sports shop to purchase him a new tyre, and to take advantage of the super cheap inner tubes (two for 3 euros). The trip home on the ferry seemed to take a lot longer than the initial crossing and as we neared Newhaven the rain was coming down heavily. Malcolm and Ivan had ridden over to Newhaven with the intention of riding back to Hastings. Fortunately there was just enough space in mine and Duncan’s mpvs to squeeze them in.

Many thanks to Duncan, Chris, Paul, John, Dave, Malc, and Ivan for their great company on what proved to be a tough trip. I won’t be able to do any extended trips for the next couple of years so if there is to be a trip abroad next year someone else will have to do the organising.

S.C

Av speed 12.4 mph

Distance 52.2 miles

French trip 2012 Day 3 Beauvais to Rouen

The night before we had been warned that the following day was going to be exceptionally cold for the time of the year. As well as the cold it was also damp and to make matters far worse the wind had turned around yet again and we were going to have a full on headwind all the 68 miles to Rouen. Donning many layers of clothes as if out for a January ride we set out into the drizzle. Progress was painfully slow into the headwind and after around 20 miles Chris developed a puncture in his front tyre. While waiting for Chris to fix the puncture Ivan kindly provided us with a croissant each that he had purchased from a shop near the F1. In the vilage where we had stopped we found a rather unattractive unfriendly modern café but it did at least warm us up for a while. A few miles later , Chris’s front wheel had gone down again. I found the offending object which turned out to be a sharp piece of flint. We set out once again into the windswept open farmland of Picardy only for Paul’s chain to snap. By now we are all dab hands at fixing chains and had it back together in no time although I mistakenly gave Malcolm a 9 speed one, fortunately apart from the occasional click it seemed to work OK. We were all getting concerned about the mileage, we had been cycling for several hours and had only covered around 25 miles, and there was another 43 to go! We put ourselves into the zone for the next hour or so and thankfully the mileage began to improve. Feeling hungry we decided to stop at the next café we came to. At each little village we encountered we kept our eyes peeled for a café and enjoyed the shelter from the wind only to be disappointed and pass through back out into the open farmland and the cold headwind. Ivan was so cold he was unable to use his hands and change gear properly; Paul was on the verge of bonking and kept saying he had to get something to eat. We pressed on further and further. We never did find a café but at least we found a shop selling cakes and another selling fruit at a small town just outside Rouen. The food gave us the energy boost we needed and the last 8 miles or so to Rouen passed quickly. That evening we decided to treat ourselves and get a taxi into Rouen to spare our legs. We were a bit shocked to discover they charged us 25 euros for a one way trip, so on the way back Dave challenged out taxi driver to get back quick enough to get the cost down below 20 euros. The taxi driver was happy to take up the challenge so we had a ‘interesting’ ride back up to the F1 hotel (he still wasn’t quite quick enough and it cost 21 euros in the end)

Distance 68 miles

Av speed 12.1 mph

French Trip 2012- Day 2- Amiens to Beauvais

After the stress of the first day we treated ourselves to a nice lie in and set off around 10.30

As it was extremely unlikely any bike shop would have a gear hanger for Duncan’s bike we decided to leave his bike as it was and hope the chain would hold. Weather was a little better than the first day although the wind had turned round to give us a slight head wind again. This was the shortest leg of our journey with only 56 miles to cover. Chris was feeling a little better than the first day and Duncan’s bike was behaving itself so this leg of the trip proceeded without incident. Our only disappointment was the lack of any café’s to get refreshment as we passed through one small village after another. As we passed through yet another small village which I think was called Ganne, we noticed they had a boot fair, perhaps they would be cooking fast food? Much to our delight they had a large food tent where they were cooking delicious long and skinny French sausages as well as French fries. They were also selling red wine in plastic cups for just a few cents. The people here looked poor but friendly. A red faced French man seemed very excited to see us and was jabbering away in French but could not speak a word of English so we just humoured him for a while but he came back with a more distinguished looking bespectacled Frenchman who spoke good English, he turned out to be the mayor of the region and much to our surprise gifted us two bottles of the excellent local red wine. We polished off one bottle but decided to save the rest for later. We arrived at Beauvais in good time and set off for a restaurent Dave had told us about on trip advisor. This turned out a bit pricey but the food and service were excellent. Dave decided to have oysters as a starter. I thought this a little unwise as he had been telling us on the ferry how last time he was in France he got food poisoning from eating French oysters. Sure enough, soon after arriving back at the F1 Dave felt unwell and was violently sick for the next couple of hours, throwing up all the expensive food he had eaten that evening

Distance 56 miles

Av speed 13.1 mph

French Trip 2012- day 1

Day 1- Dieppe to Amiens

On our French trip 2012 were : me (Steve C), Ivan, Malcolm, John S, Paul K, Duncan, Chris P, Dave HH

We arrived at Dieppe around 3:30 with the ferry being 30 minutes late. We had to rendezvous with Ivan and Malcolm who had already made it to the cathedral at Amiens (having gone over to Dieppe the night before). We therefore set off on our mostly direct route knowing that we had 68 miles to cover. Chris was not feeling too good with a temperature and a nasty cough but we set off at a steady, determined pace. Unfortunately the wind was from the east so we had a headwind against us all the way but at least the sun occasionally popped out between the clouds. About hallway up a steep hill there was a sudden loud ‘crack’ from Duncan’s bike. He came to a sudden stop, dragging the rear derailleur behind him. It turned out the chain had broken, got stuck in the rear derailleur which then broke the gear hanger. We split the chain in order to turn Duncan’s bike into a single speed but we couldn’t get enough tension on the chain and the chain kept slipping off the sprockets. Dave realised that what we had to do was get the chain reasonably tight on the small front chaining and then shift it to the middle. After a few attempts we got it right and the chain stayed in place. Fortunately this was a middle gear but it was under a lot of tension and there was a bit of a twist in the chain. Duncan set off and I fully expected the chain would break again before reaching Amiens. We were all amazed how well Duncan rode with this handicap despite not having any low gears he was charging up the hills and it was some of us who were struggling to keep pace with him. The ride to Amiens was a real slog but eventually we were close enough to ring Malcolm and explain to him why we were going to be late. Choosing to meet at the cathedral was a good idea as you could see it clearly in the distance. I rang up Ivan to tell him we had arrived but he didn’t make much sense having been on the beers all day waiting for us. Malcolm and Ivan were at a lovely bar but I didn’t want everyone to get too comfortable as I knew we had about 5 miles of navigating through the city to reach the F1 hotel. Chris was feeling completely done in and wanted to find his own way to the F1 or for one of us to come back for him later but I knew this was a really bad idea and we had to stay together. We finally made it to the hotel about 11:00, the hotel was locked but fortunately this one had one of those automatic check-in terminals so we were able to get in. We were all starving so dumped our gear and headed down the thoroughfare hoping something was still open. Luckily a Chinese restaurant that was about to close took pity on us and stayed open just for us.

Distance 68 miles

Av speed 13.3