News
Pearson Jaunts
Well done to Luke Wallis for his second place on the final stage of the Surrey League's five day stage race. Luke was only beaten by Rob Hurd, the ex-pro. Well done to Damien Breen too for a great sixth place on the "summit" finish of Leith Hill and Stewie Martin with tenth place, plus to the rest of the team for some agressive riding including Jim Ley's move on the final day. Thanks to his move on Leith Hill, Luke climbed up to finish in fifth place overall. Stewie Martin was 14th overall, Mickael Métayer was 15th, Damien Breen 17th, Jim Ley 19th and Rob Hurd (DHC Cyclesport) won the race overall after winning the final stage too.
Pearson Jaunts
The Surrey League 5-day stage race, the Pearson Jaunts, is on now and after the third stage Luke Wallis is in eighth place overall with Rob Hurd (DHC Cyclesport) in the lead... after winning all three stages in a row. In the same race are Mickael Métayer, Stewie Martin, Damien Breen, Tarik Djeddour and Jim Ley, currently 16th, 17th, 18th, 22nd and 24th overall respectively. There are two more stages left, on Monday and Tuesday.
L'Ardéchoise
Myself, John Reay and Pete Christmas did the 180km volcanique route, writes Keith Aldred, and Brian Shepherd joined us for a few days beforehand. A lovely part of the country and a great sportive. Click on the photo for more images.
Join for Half Price
We're halfway through the year now, indeed the evenings are now getting shorter already. To cheer you up if you are contemplating joining the Kingston Wheelers, now is the time for membership is half price. Join us now and you pay £15 for membership until the end of the year.
Ardéchoise Vélo Marathon
Lawrence Smith rode one of Europe's toughest sportives last weekend, the 275km Ardéchoise Vélo Marathon and finished in 17th place. Taking in 16 recognised cols, the Marathon is part of the Ardéchoise weekend where you can do a range of routes on the day, with Lawrence opting for the longest route through the scenic Ardéche region. The Marathon arguably rivals the Marmotte and Ötztaler Cycle Marathon as Europe's hardest sportive thanks to the combination of distance and vertical metres.
Harry's Escape from Alcatraz
Harry Skinner did a triathlon with a difference, the Escape from Alcatraz. Starting with a two mile swim off the prison island made famous by the Clint Eastwood film, "Dirty" Harry fled to the mainland for a hilly cycle ride and then a very tough run and lived to tell the tale. Click on the photos for more images and to read the full feature click here.
Kingston - Worthing TT
The Kingston Phoenix RC organise an annual point-to-point time trial from Kingston to Worthing, a rare event these days. Starting right in the centre of Kingston, the route heads out along the Portsmouth Road to Leatherhead and then the A24 down to Worthing on the South Coast. Several riders from the club took part: Peter Mastenko 2.26.13, Neil Weatherburn, 2.02.43, David Young 2.01.46, Dominic Trevett 2.02.23. The fastest time on the day was Stuart Pearce with 1.50.32.
Team Axiom 25
Several members rode the fifth round of the club's TT series, the Team Axiom 25 mile time trial on the P885 course, using the A3 near Liss. Ben Elliott clocked 55.06, a PB, with Phil Ember 57.08, Andy Lack 58.32, Martin O'Sullivan, 1.00.13, Peter Anderson 1.01.22 and David O'Donovan 1.08.35. The winner on what was a blustery day was Steve Walking with a time of 50.53.
Who Are You?
The website is getting close to a thousand readers a day. In internet jargon, it's one thousand "unique users" so there could be some double counting if you read this site at home and at work but even so plenty of non-members are browsing the site. Welcome to you all.
Many come just looking for details of the club and the Sunday club runs. The forum is one of the most popular pages but people are also reading the Etape du Tour preview and past accounts from sportives are also popular reads, with many seeking information and tips ahead of their next ride.
Farnborough & Camberely CC 10
Four of us rode the Farnborough and Camberely CC 10 on a blustery H10/8 at Bentley on Saturday afternoon, writes Danny Clifford. Phil Ember clocked 21.40 to claim fifth spot. Will Horrocks beat the Club's Junior 10 record with 23.01 which had stood for 20 years. Keith Griffin and I both recorded PBs, Keith clocking 23.08 and I finished with 23.40.
Club 10 Results
Well done to Ben Elliott for a good ride on a windy day to beat Dan, Dan the skinsuit man, writes Alan Sherman. In third was a fast improving Tarik Djeddour and fourth was Phil Ember, the first on the non-time trial bike riders. The conditions were dry, sunny but a bit of wind which made going out hard, but didn't seem to make coming back any easier! (Thanks my excuse anyway!). Well done to Lucy Orhial and Richard Dartnell for their first rides. One enjoyed it, the other wondered what on earth they were doing! We hope to see you both back for another go to beat your personal bests!
Thanks to Frank Cubis for timekeeping as usual, Tarik for helping me put the signs out, Lindsay for doing sign-on and collecting the signs after and Naz for sorting the start. For the full results, click here (PDF)
Midi Libre - Cycl'Aigoual
James (2nd from right) on the podium... before the ride.
Lawrence Smith and I rode this 160km cyclosportive on Sunday, writes James Beaumont. Lawrence has been working in the area and his entry ensured the club colours were on display since I was in the green kit of a French outfit (see story below). It was strange to go all the way to the South of France only to meet a club mate on the start line.
The ride was run as giant handicap race, with older riders off first and the elites and pros in the last group. Taking a spectacular route through the Tarn river gorges and the Méjean Plateau via several cols and then over the 1500m Mont Aigoual conditions were very hot with melting tar greeting us soon after the 9.30 am start. But by the time we made it up to the top of Mont Aigoual, there was a still a patch of snow. If you've read Tim Krabbe's book The Rider then the route might be familiar and as I was riding references from the book kept popping up, whether place names or descriptions. It was a five hour good ride and I'd go back. I don't know my place, I was outside the top-20 for sure but got a small box of energy food for coming fifth in my age group. I did make the podium... but only before the race as part of an effort to encourage riders not to litter the countryside. The race was won by Michel Roux (Team Vélo Scott 101)
Baker joins GB Squad
Congratulations to Dominic Baker, he has been picked for the GB Duathlon squad to go to the World Championships in North Carolina, USA this September.
Club 10
Spaces are still available for Tuesday night's Club 10, enter via the forum.
Photo: Women's South-East Road Race Championships
L-R: Leona Kadir, Lise Sorensen and Maryka Sennema on the front of the bunch.
Zürich Half Ironman
The event took place in the beautiful town of Rapperswil-Jona on the shores of Lake Zürich on 7 June, writes Rupert Bole. As it was a world championship qualifying event, I expected the standard to be high but this race proved to be a huge step-up from the local traithlons to which I had become accustomed. The fact that 49 countries were represented was testament to the importance of the race internationally and included 46 professional triathletes including Karin Thurig who was the bronze medallist in the Beijing Olympics Time Trial.
My wave containing 101 entrants in the 50-55 age group assembled in nervous anticipation of the challenge ahead.....a 1900m swim followed by a 90 kilometre bike leg and finishing off with a half marathon. The bike course looked challenging.It was made up of two laps of 45km and contained two 1000m climbs of 10 percent (think Crocknorth) and one 6km climb of five percent (think two Box Hills back to back). All that twice followed by the run...not a pleasing prospect!
But first the swim. Having learnt to swim only three years ago,the prospect of swimming 1900m in open water made me feel a little queasy but I eventually splashed my way through it in a pretty slow 48 minutes. Unfortunately I had swallowed half of Lake Zürich in the process and feeling pretty sick I jumped on the bike and headed for the hills! I would normally hope to pick up a few places on the bike but with the hills and the persistent sick feeling, I managed only three hours for the 56 miles with people flying past me constantly! Contrast this with the fastest bike leg of 2.08! There's always the run I thought. Having run a respectable PB earlier in the year of 1.41 for a half marathon, I was hopeful of a decent final leg but the hilly bike course had obviously taken more out of me than I had hoped and I crawled home in 2.07 which was 15 minutes slower than I was expecting but at least I had finished... in 6hrs 7 minutes... 1321st out of 1858 and 76th in my age category.
Overall a really well organised race with plenty of crowd support and inspirational performances; definitely one for the diary next year.
New Team for Beaumont
I’ll be racing in a new jersey this weekend, the green colours of a French team specialising in sportives called Eco Cyclo, writes James Beaumont. But there's no need for a replacement webmaster, I'm still part of the Kingston Wheelers too. The event is the the Midi Libre-Mont Aigoual cyclosportive and takes place this weekend on roads around Meyrueis, north of Montpellier in the South of France, it finishes atop Mont Aiguoual. If some of these names sound familiar to you, it could because the a lot of the route forms part of the race described in The Rider, Tim Krabbé’s semi-fictional book.
The Eco Cyclo team is part of a project run jointly by French Cycling Federation and the French Olympic Committee. In some sportives many riders have littered the countryside with food wrappers and inner tubes when half the attraction of the ride is the picture-postcard scenery. So the idea is get several riders in each event to act as a figureheads and encourage people to keep the stunning routes in pristine condition.
It's not just green do-gooding, I get a place on the front of the starting grid. ideal for someone who enjoys bagging trophies and podium places in these sort of races: for a sportive in France is defined as a race and can only be classed as such if prizes are awarded and riders classed in finishing order. An agreement with ASO is currently being drafted for the Etape du Tour, where starting at right the front of 9,500 riders could be a real advantage.
Ben Elliott and Phil Ember Fastest 2-up 10 mile TT
Well done to Ben Elliott and Phil Ember with a club win last night by 8 seconds against the Elite / 1st cat powerhouse team of Steve Saunders and Andy Bye, writes event organiser Alan Sherman. Third was the comeback team of Chris Salt and Tarik Djeddour.
The 2-up time trial was held on a still and sunny evening which was great for blasting along the ol' lumpy dual carriageway. It was great to see so many making the effort to team up with someone else to take turns inflicting suffering on each other. Chris and Simon did particularly well to get fourth as they hadn't even met before yesterday! James and Jim came in with a good time for fifth place, even more spectacular was that James Platt turned up! Good ride guys and hope to see more of you James!
The Keith Griffin / Mark Briers "gentleman's" competition took an a different twist with the 2-up. Mark teamed up with Ed Robinson, Keith with Eddy "Chris" Merckx, and the scene was set. The result was close, but don't let the result take away from the drama of the race! Apparently Keith's idea of a long turn on the front is to disappear up the hill, but the other team had even more drama with Ed puncturing on the run-in to the finish! As the time is taken on the second man across the line this must have affected the result, but let's not take away the fact that Keith and Chris got them! Well done guys.
We had two solo riders, Dan Sibbick and myself. Dan stormed past me between half and three-quarter distance and rapidly disappeared up the road in his new skinsuit! Dan posted a good time with a sub-22 and I managed a personal best by nine seconds! It must have been a good night! Results are on the forum.
Well done to everyone that rode. Many thanks to Naz for taking entries and juggling when people drop out. Thanks to Lindsay Pullen for coming out specially (he wasn't riding) to help out with putting out the warning signs, taking over sign-on and taking the warning signs down after the event. Special thanks to Frank Cubis for timekeeping and the Kingston Phoenix for marshalling and tea.
Finally a plea for help, there are two things that would help the event run even easier:
• Please bring a flask of hot water and provide it to the people from Kingston Phoenix that make the tea - they don't have enough water, so don't be shy and bring a flask, perhaps a tub of hot chocolate, coffee or some milk to help out.
• Please when returning your numbers put them back in the pack in order.
Thanks all, the next event is on Tuesday, put your name down now over on the forum.
British Cycling Ride Leaders
British Cycling is looking for people to join them as a "Ride Leader". As a leader, you'll be there to give fellow riders tips about cycling, help them gain confidence and to show them how enjoyable cycling can be. To join BC as a Ride Leader, you could be someone with experience of leading other cyclists. "As some of the rides will also be on the public highway, you should regularly ride on roads and be confident riding with traffic. Ride Leaders will receive a free one day training course to make sure you have the skills, knowledge and confidence to lead group rides".
BC is looking for approximately 300 people to lead rides and play a crucial part in promoting cycling as an entertaining recreational sport. "Not only will we send you on a day's training course to help you be a better Ride Leader (and to make sure you're cycling skills are in tip-top condition), we'll give you a branded jersey and we'll pay you for every ride you lead! And if you are not already a member of British Cycling, we'll also give you our Everyday Cycling membership for free for a year." say British Cycling.
If you are interested click here on the link below or phone 0161 274 2063 for further details, to find out how you can register to become a qualified Ride Leader.
European Duathlon Championships
What have Tarik Djeddour and Didier Drogba got in common? Well one thing is that they've had their arguments with sports officials. Several club members this year have had their road race results bungled by race officials but how about missing out on a silver medal in the European Championships? Well that's what nearly happened to Tarik. Click here for the full story.
South East Women's RR Championship
Two of the club's riders made the top-10 in the South-East Women's Road Race Championships at the weekend, with Lise Sorensen in seventh place and Leona Kadir in tenth place. Maryka Sennema was close behind, having spent a lot of the race working to bring back breakaway moves. The winner was Natalie Creswick (Twickenham CC). It's a great result for all three, especially since they are relatively new to the sport with Lise and Leona only having raced a couple of times this year.
You can read Maryka's account of the race here, not content with her hard work on the day she went up to town to ride the Smithfield Nocture, all part of her Ironman build up and the path to Kona, Hawaii.
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