News

Summer BBQ

The club will be hosting a summer BBQ in early July. This has been a popular moment for members to meet up. Full information and details of how to get your ticket will appear here soon.

Andy Edwards Wins

Well done to Andy Edwards for his win in the Surrey League handicap race on Thursday evening. The opening round of the series, Andy and Jim Ley were part of a group that was never caught by the elites, thanks in part to their efforts at driving the race. Andy took the bunch sprint, with Damien Breen close behind in fifth place and Maryka Sennema in the same group too. The result means Andy grabs enough points to move up to second category.

Crystal Palace - Maryka Sennema wins

Maryka won the opening round of the Crystal Palace women's races on Tuesday night. You can read her report over on the forum. Congratulations!

Hillingdon - Richard Walden moves up

A very strong turn out at Hillingdon from the Wheelers on Tuesday night with myself, Chris H and Marcelo in the 4ths and Jamie, Ed, George, Dave and Wes in the E123, writes Richard Walden. Overall, there were less people than last week, probably due to Crystal Palace starting up, but still a good turn out for both races with Tony Gibb lording it up at the signing on area as usual.

With seven points on the board I had a set strategy for the race - sit in safe near the front and wait for the sprint. After a silly break with three laps to go last week I was determined not to be tempted to chase down everything and waste energy so I left that to a couple of riders who looked more than happy to be doing the work. As planned I kept myself up in the top ten in the last two laps and stuck to the strong wheels as things accelerated towards the finish. A small group of four managed to slip off the front due to some disruption in the bunch but I managed to keep powering up the hill to come in fifth, get five points and move up to third. Chris put in another strong performance and bagged seventh and three more points. Think he only needs three or four more now. Marcelo came in safely, but not sure on the position.

The one thing I would say is there was some awful language and behaviour from a couple of London Dynamo guys. Whether they realised it or not during the race but a lot of it was directed at a teenager from TWCC on his first race. Granted he was all over the place, but a quieter more helpful word in the ear would have been better than the effing, jeffing and aggressive shouting. Myself and this lovely South African guy had a chat with him after and apologised for the others and gave him some guidance. It would have been awful for him to get turned off racing due to the actions of a couple of guys who frankly should have trained or raced harder if they dont want to ride with beginners (I can say that now ;-).

The E123 race went off ok depsite one guy coming off. The Gibb show continued with a win. Dave got a cracking 10th place and second in the third category riders and I think everyone else finished mid pack. All in all a great night and it felt very teamly, the eight of us in full kit riding back to Kingston. Next week I get to ride with the big boys!

Time Trial Hall of Fame

Jim Ley's excellent ride at the weekend puts him in the Hall of Fame top-10, plus other rides from Wheelers saw them climb up the table too. Martin O'Sullivan is compiling the table and if you have any updates, remember to get in touch with him or email the info@ address and your results can passed on to him.

Time trialling dream team on a dream course

A strong turn out of wheelers this Saturday at the Andover Wheelers 10 mile TT on the P613. Steve Irwin writes on the forum "We had a good KW turnout for this event today, with Rupert Bole, Daniel Clifford, Cathy Clifford, Jim Ley and myself all taking advantage of what will be one of the last opportunities to ride this fast course before it is no more when traffic lights are added at the turnaround point later this year. It was a middle markers event, so riders could only enter if their fastest time in the last 3 seasons was slower than 22:30".

Times for the KW riders:

Jim Ley	21.10 (3rd place overall) PB
Steve Irwin	21.27 (4th place overall) PB
Rupert Bole	23.40
Daniel Clifford	24.15
Cathy Clifford	25.28 (3rd place lady)

Well done to all of you, here is hoping you get the team prize too

Riding through the ash cloud?

Alan Sherman writes Fantastic sunshine this weekend, who would know there is a cloud of volcanic ash up there? If it has not stopped you riding let us know. This Saturday Ed and Chris Hathaway completed the 3rd and 4th category race at Hillingdon, Ed was spotted in a promising looking break that sadly got caught. Chris was spotted looking like a champion as ever.

I rode the E123 category race to avoid crashes and have a motorpace workout. It was certainly a fast event with the first 25 miutes at 27.0 mph average. It did calm down a bit when a break got away (yes at that speed - it really shows the class of these top guys) and I finished at the back of the bunch. I obviously need to work at moving up!

Free VO2 Max Test

There's another chance to get a free VO2 Max test and advance science at the same time. This time it's at Brunel University, so a bit further away but if you want the full details, please get in touch.

Having it all: John Coolahan wins Herne Hill Omnium

The Omnium is a multi-discipline track cycling race and on the menu for the 2012 Olympics. The club's John Coolahan's just ridden one... and won. "Nice to get on the podium again and some wins again, perhaps now I can truly call myself a sprinter" says John. Who'd argue with that? Click here to read the full account.

National Duathlon Championship Series

On Sunday 11 April, on a bright but fresh morning near Milton Keynes, I lined up on the start line with 400 other crazy people to contest the this mixed discipline event of a 10km run,40km bike and 5km run, writes Rupert Bole.

As a World Cup qualifier, I had expected to see some quick athletes but I was still surprised by the speed of some of the old folks! The youngest athletes went off first (at a ridiculous pace!) and I was happy not be running in that first group but instead was in the third group off... the 45's and overs, including my group, the 50 -54 group.....the steady joggers or so I thought. I lined up close to the front thinking that I wouldn't be completely beaten for pace at the start. I was wrong. The first check of the Garmin revealed that I had run the first kilometre in 3 mins 57 seconds, much too fast for me to maintain, and yet the leaders of my group were already 100-150 metres ahead! Surveying the results afterwards, I realised that the winner of my age group had run the 10km in 36.03. Wow! I was pleased with my 43.19 but hadn't figured on giving the leader of the run seven minutes start before getting on the bike!

My legs were still burning as I climbed on the bike and it was immediately clear that this was not going to be an easy bike leg.....my legs were sore,it was windy and it was hilly too. Even the overall winner couldn't break an hour for the 40km bike leg so perhaps my 1.09.24 wasn't too bad after all. The course had been described as undulating but some of the hills were so stiff that maintaining a rhythm was nigh impossible.... still,better than running! The last run came around soon enough and the damage I had done to myself on the first two legs began to tell as I crawled home in a rather sad 25.04 for the last 5km.

Overall a good event (4 circuits of 2500m for the first run was a bit dull) and a real eye-opener regarding the speed of some people especially the old guys! For the record, the overall winner was Matt Moorhouse in 1.52.34 (splits 32.49,1.00.31,18.01), the women's winner was former Wheeler Emma Dews 2.04.23 (36.27,1.06.18,20.27) and the winner of the 50-54 age group was J. Tomlinson 2.01.33 (36.03,1.05.10,19.00) and my sad stats weere 2.19.35 (43.19,1.09.24,25.04). I'll be back though after a bit more training!

Club Kit

The club kit has been selling well, so well that stock levels are getting low, so please keep this in mind if you are trying to get hold of some club kit. Fresh supplies from Italy are expected in early May but we're still awaiting a precise delivery date. For more on the kit, click here.

Hog Hill

We had a great field out on Saturday, writes Maryka Sennema, the most I've ever seen for a women's circuit race with nearly 40 starters which is about four times as many as we usually get at Hog Hill! Finally a "proper" race there in fact. We started out pretty hard, I stayed near the front and probably a bit too much on the front, but with a lot of unfamiliar faces I wasn't sure who was capable of what. I put in a little dig at about four laps in that dropped some girls and brought us down to about 18 in the front group. Then one lap after the men's race overtook us, Elise Sherwell (of Pearson's and also the Surrey League ladies team) and I put down the hammer on the bottom into the tailwind flat section and carried it all the way up the hill and that took care of all but nine ladies.

After that, it was a steady ride for about six more laps until the final jostling for position up the last hill. I thought about taking a flyer with half a km to go, but since I had been making it easily up the hill every lap I figured I'd take my chances there instead. At the bottom on the left side I hit it hard just as Jacqui from RAF did the same on from the right side. I managed to get on her wheel but could not hold it just as the Halesown girl -- who had had a lap out due to a puncture and had rejoined us just in time for five laps to go -- came around me. I held off Natalie from Twickenham for third place, a satisfactory result as I certainly wouldn't have said going into the race that was the third strongest rider!

Sabine rode strongly on her own and never even came close to being lapped like most of the field behind her. Simon finished in the second group in the 3/4 race. All in all, a nice sunny day and great camraderie at Hog Hill, which is perhaps the nicest circuit in London especially with great turn-outs like we had today.

Wes Swaffer wins

Congratulations to Wes Swaffer. In his first ever road race, Wes joined clubmates for the start of the Hillingdon evening series and led out the sprint from the final bend and no one could come past, giving him a stylish sprint win for his racing debut.

Anthony Anderson wins
Earlier in the evening Anthony Anderson in the U-12 race led out a similar winning sprint from the final bend marking a promising return to racing after a seven month absence.

Wallis finishes Ras Mumhan

Luke Wallis has completed the Ras Mumhan in Ireland as part of the Surrey League team. Still a club member, Luke has joined Sutton's Pearson Cycles team for extra support in races and now he's riding in Ireland under the colours of the Surrey League. The race is an elite stage race and if that's not hard enough, it takes place on rough Irish roads that are battered by Atlantic weather systems.

Luke is now the third club member to complete the race, with Steve Saunders in 2009 and Andy Bye in 2008.

Club 10s

Entries are open for the first round of the Club 10 series. See the forum to add your details.

Photo: Cape Town

Club 10s

The dates for the Club 10s are out, see the calendar. This year some will be held on a Saturday, including the first event on Saturday 10 April. As usual, entries are via the forum, keep an eye on the Time Trial section for the right topic so you can enter.

As a reminder, entry is £2 per rider. These events are often over-subscribed and priority entry goes to club members over non-members and in the case of the event being oversubscribed by club members, we'll try to ensure everyone gets a ride from time to time and you get brownie points if you volunteer to help on one evening or have already helped in other club races.

Club T-Shirt

Charlie Whitfield has taken a collaborative forum discussion on t-shirts and turned it into reality, you can now place orders for a genuine Kingston Wheelers t-shirt. Ideal for post-ride recovery sessions, the t-shirt doubles as a sat-nav back-up device thanks to a handy KT1 postcode on the rear, in the event of losing your bearings simply ride into the nearest post office for return carriage.

For more on the t-shirt, including more images, pricing and how to order, go to the forum. Production is limited, this is likely to be a one-off. JB

What's your wattage?

If you are around over Easter and would be interested in getting your VO2 Max assessed, along with your lactate threshold, ventilatory threshold and point of blood lactate accumulation then sports scientist Kevin Merry of Loughborough University is interested. Formerly of St Mary's University College in Twickenham, Kevin will be back at the Strawberry Hill campus around Easter and is looking for five volunteers. If you are interested, please email info@kingstonwheelers.com. JB.

Good Friday track meet at Herne Hill

Coming up soon is your chance to see some of the greats of track cycling in action only a short cycle away at the Herne Hill velodrome in South East London. With the recent start of warmer, drier weather it could be a good sign for the event. Martin Anscombe has got something to do with it, and we have some track cyclists but are any of you taking part? Let us know!

In the meantime some more details and a link to the event website is below. AS.

Richmond Park Update

It took a while to get the Royal Parks body to come back with an answer, some questions from kingstonwheelers.com were bounced around various people but Simon Richards, the Park Superintendent for Richmond Park has been in touch with some useful information about the road surface in Richmond Park.

"It has been acknowledged that the road surfacing laid last September has failed completely. This will be relaid this summer at the contractors expense. In the meantime we have arranged for the roads to be swept weekly to remove surplus gravel and we are satisfied that the roads are safe for cycling at 20mph."

"We have heard about the loose tar. The bitumen that was used to bind with the gravel is solid at ambient temperatures so it is unclear why bicycles should be picking this up. We will be looking at the specification for the gravel in the light of the problems and it has been suggested by other cyclists that a larger aggregate size would be more suitable. There should be no reason why this type of surface should not work. The section of road between Sheen Cross and Roehampton Gate is also tar spray and chip and was laid in 1976, so it should prove to be durable."

"We acknowledge the problems that the current surface has caused and our engineering consultants and surfacing contractors will be working towards a solution which should be in place late May/June."

Northants Cycle Racing Association Spring Series

Chris Hewitt took second place at the weekend in Northhamptonshire where he was racing with his brother Jeremy, also a member. "Me and my brother Jez are currently racing in a series of handicap road races up in Northants, where we are both originally from. Saturday was the first race of the series that we both competed in and I managed to grab second place. I will keep you posted on any good results we manage to achieve for the Wheelers up in Northants over the next four weeks!"

You can see a photo gallery of the racing here and there's also a youtube video here. Chris won the sprint in a chasing group behind the race winner. Jeremy finished in the bunch.

Surrey League Road Races

Well done to all who rode and especially to everyone who helped out on Sunday, without the marshals and organisers there would be no races. The morning race was was won by Geoff Lulham, with Andy Edwards and Dave Ladkin in fourth and sixth place. Former Wheeler Stewie Martin took fourth place in the afternoon race.

Middlesex RC 10

Keith Griffin clocked 19.48 in the time trial at the weekend. However... the course was shortened to just over 8 miles so Adam Page's club record is safe for the time being.

East Surrey Hardriders

Sunday saw the second round of the club's TT series, the East Surrey Hardriders time trial. As well as points towards the season-long competition, Sunday's time trial is also the club's "Circuit Race Championship" and the fastest club member on the day was Phil Ember who wins the Pinta Shield for a year. The club's riders also won the team prize, thanks to Steve Irwin and Ben Elliott. The race was won by Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport RT).

Website news

The club's website's is roughly seven years old now, writes James Beaumont. The site started the website back in 2003 with help from former member Martin Webber. When launched the design at the time was pretty flash, all the work was done by ex-Wheeler Andy Ward and his OTMBrand.com business (Andy's behind PredictorPro.com too). It was a static site, you could read information about the club but the content never changed. In time the website grew, first with the arrival of a news page, then the forum was born and in recent times it's branched out via Twitter and doing online membership applications.

Now the site gets around 500 unique visitors a day, a figure that rises beyond a thousand in the summer months, surprisingly the site is more popular with non-members than members. Many come to snoop around the forum but google sends a lot of traffic, with people searching for predictable things like a "south west london cycling club" but also for articles on the Marmotte, ways to prevent cramp or the Introducing interviews.

During the years many photos have been sent into the news page. Most of these have been kept on the kingstonwheelers.com server across a few folders and I've put all the photos from the main directory into a short film that's now hosted over on youtube. They're not all the photos, but most are there. A few appear twice because they've been used in different articles or pages. Click here to view the film over on youtube.

Looking to the future now and a new webmaster is being groomed over the internet. Alan Sherman will be taking over this website in due course but I'll be still be running things on a joint-basis whilst Alan gets used to things.

Club Time Trial Series

2010 Series Events

The ranking events for the club's 2010 Time Trial Series are as follows:

21 Feb	Redhill Sporting	18 miles
7 Mar	East Surrey Hardriders	29.9 miles
24 Apr	Kingston Phoenix RC	10 miles
16 May	High Wycombe CC	25 miles
13 Jun	Team Axiom	25 miles
18 Jul	West London CA	50 miles
31 Jul	Charlotteville CC	10 miles
29 Aug	Alton CC	25 miles
11 Sep	A3 CRG	10 miles
26 Sep	Epsom CC	25 miles

Points are awarded, from 10 down to 1, for the first 10 riders in each event. Your best seven rides will count for the trophy so you don't have to ride every event. Indeed the Redhill CC's 19.4 mile time trial was scrapped on Sunday. This was to be the first round but the heavy rain and ice in parts meant it was nul points for all. The next round is the East Surrey Hardriders 30 miler. For full details on the series, click here.

Sorensen and Bagnall Move Up

Congratulations to Lise Sorensen and Emily Bagnall for their third and fourth place respectively on Saturday in the East London Vélo races at Hog Hill. Thanks to these high finishes both riders move up to third category.

Photo: Imperial RT Hillingdon Winter Series

William James Platt finished second overall in the Hillingdon Winter Series for the third category riders. Indeed he was leading the standings but was promoted up to second category before the series ended, meaning he could not defend his lead in the final round, leaving Alan Strang (Dulwich) to claim the top spot on the podium.

News Archive

May, June and July 2010
March and April 2010
January / February 2010
December 2009
November/October 2009
September 2009
July / August 2009
June 2009
May 2009