Mountain Mayhem 2007

If you thought Glastonbury was muddy then you should have been at Mountain Mayhem as this picture of Paul's bike will show you. Behind all that mud is a bike!

Paul and myself joined Garath & Julie to make mixed team "Skid Mark", one of hundreds of teams taking part in the annual 24hr mountain bike relay race, held at Eastnor Castle in the Malvern Hills.

The team completed 22 laps in 30th place, 9 laps behind the winning team, but still infront of 96 other teams.

More photos can bee seen at: swrc pics

Third PB of the season for Colin

To go with Personal Best at 10 and 50 miles in the last few weeks Colin Parkinson beat his 100 mile TT time on Saturday, he recorded 4.00.26 just outside the four hours which would have given him a 25mph average. In the BDCA event based on three circuts of a course using the A50 near Uttoxeter He writes " I had to overcome difficult conditions making it tough going out against an East wind but fast the other way, I did my previous best in this event last year (4.09.08) on the hottest day of the year. The threatened rain held off but the blustery conditions made for tricky judgement of the ride and I struggled from 45 to 80 miles as the wind and distance took their toll. I began to feel better towards the end and I did the last 10 miles in under 20 minutes (+30mph) but the finish came too soon to make up for time lost earlier in the ride." The winner was Kevin Dawson the National Champion at the distance in 3.32.18

3rd @ Hillingdon

Last Wednesday I rode the LVRC evening race at the Hillingdon cicuit and came in 3rd place, winning the bunch sprint, after 2 riders had escaped earlier in the race.

I thought my luck would have to change sooner or later, after the cancellation of the last event, when some youths ran onto the circuit intent in causing trouble, and having a mechanical at the previous event which stopped me finishing.

First club 2-up time trial

A dozen riders turned up to rider the first leg of the 2-up time trial last Tuesday evening. However it wasn't the thunder and rain that cause the event to be cancelled but a 2 car pile-up half way round the circuit that stopped the riders from completing the event.

It result of the Parkinson 2-up series will all be down to next Tuesdays times.

Colin Parkinson rides the National Championship 50

Colin Parkinson roed the National Championship 50 on Sunday and finished in 54th place with a time of 1.54.42, the event was promoted by the Icnield RC on the A1 near Bedford. He writes "The ride on Sunday was a good result I had schedhuled for a 1.52 and went through 25 'bang on' in 56.14, i slowed a bit in the second half and finished 1.14 down on last weeks time. I topped the leader board for 25 mins untill Ian Dalton came in with the first sub 1.50 ride it was good conditions and all the fast men were kept in the last hour so yours truly was off in the early part which was just as good but i could have done with the extra hour in bed" (4.30 alarm and that was staying in Bedford!) There were 130 finishers and i was 5th in the 45-50 age group

Giles Ree Memorial Road Race

This is me & Andy Mckie at the start of todays road race around the hilly Staplefield course. There was a full field for this 1/2/3 category event on what was a slightly overcast day.

Unfortunatey the pace and course took it's toll on both of us and neither of us finished.

Andy blamed it on the 3 games of squash he played yesterday.

We were not the only ones to find it tough, as only about 25 rider crossed the finish line.

New 50 mile club record

Colin Parkinson beat the club 50 mile time trial record on Sunday morning.

He writes:

On the Sat evening I rode the Headnor Clarion 10 on the A50 based near Hilton, 21.06 for 7th place on the day a 4 sec beating of my time from 1982 (the day Dave Lloyd did comp record 19.11 on the Q10/19 and beat Sean Yates by a min!). I was at 10.20 at five miles and i thought a sub 21 would be a certainty but when i came to bury myself in the last two miles i bottled it a bit knowing i had the 50 the next day and did'nt go as hard as i should. The following morning in the Finsbury event on the A1 1.53.28 to take 3 min off my time from 1983, and a 5 min improvement on last years time. I did the second 25 faster than the first (57.04) still feeling the effects of the previous nights efforts and the long drive to Bedford in the morning. No aero bars then of course 25 years ago and i still think the 1.55.21 a better ride in those days. This is also a 7 sec beating of Club Record from last year.

Highclere cyclosportive

Andy Mckie and Alan Parkinson rode the 115mile Highclere cyclosportive today. The event had around 600 riders, doing an anticlockwise route from Newbury down to Winchester, along the south downs to Petersfield then back to finish at Highclere castle.

Here's Alan giving those Pedalon boys some of their own medicine, climbing the first climb.

We stuck together for the first half, with a group from the Pedalon racing team. As the hills took there toll, I got dropped and 10 miles later Andy went the same way.

We both finished in about 6hrs.

Club evening time trial

13 riders made it to the start line for the first evening time trial of the season at the Hungrey hill circuit .

There was a slight wind blowing but sunny ,warm conditions ment that a few riders did personal best times for the 14 mile course.

Paul Alderson was fastest with a time of 34.02.

Follicly Challenged LVRC Road Race

After two wet cyclo-sportives, glorious sunshine greeted the latest club event in the 2007 calender.
The club ran the 2nd event, of 9, in the SE England green jersey series.
During the morning the DEFGH age groups took to the Kirdford circuit for a 40mile race, while the afternoon had the younger ABC categories doing 60miles.
Pictured here are some of the riders who rode the 60 mile event.