Track antics

It's the best picture I could find but I'm sure there will be plenty of oppotunity to get that front cover

Tom & Jerry joining in ....

Tom and Jeremy are trying out the SWRC blog so they can add their bit to the life of SWRC. They were both last seen riding at the Newport Velodrome although there are no photos of the Club's youngest active member and his rather slower dad.

Newport velodrome weekend

Some 30 club members and associates travelled the 150miles down the M4 motorway to the National Welsh velodrome in Newport this weekend. A dozen rode Saturday's session and then stayed down to do another session on Sunday. I thought it was a huge step up from the times we have spent riding the wall of death in a cold hanger at the end of Calshott spit.

We had 3 hr sessions both days where as most were novices, we had a mixture of familiarisation, training and a final race.

There is some photos of some of the people who attended on the club photosite http://pics-by-swrc.fotopic.net/

Trail break MTB ride.

Last weekend I rode the Trailbreak http://www.trailbreak.co.uk/index.php event that started and finished in Bramley. As I had no other club members to ride with I joined up with some friend from London Phoenix. Read my report at their website: londonphoenix

Thetford Round 1

Me and Paul Facer rode the first round of the winter series at the weekend. This year the weather was good, 9'C and and dry, with no mud to speak of. 500 had signed up to start.

I warmed up by riding to the first bombhole to see the lines, as this is where there is usually a bottle neck of people peering over the edge. To help warming up I wore a gilet, I wouldn't need it to race. I lined up at the start on the second row and there was a minute's silence for poppy day. Just as I took off my gilet to put it in my pocket the klaxon went and I was stuck with my hands behind my back as everyone surged forward. doh! I managed to stuff it in my pocket and set off in pursuit. I caught Paul just before the bombhole, he'd passed me at the start and had been at least three rows behind me.Luckily, we reached the bombhole with the first wave of capable riders and everyone rode straight into it, as I came back around it there was already a huge queue of stationary riders. Into the first singletrack and my legs are really hurting, I don't feel particularly out of breath but there's no power in my legs. So, I sit and spin and hope they get better. Out of the singletrack onto fire road to the second bombhole, this one was great - A steep four metre drop-in to a right hand berm, then part way up the opposite banking into a left hand berm, around a tree and back down in the direction we'd entered to exit on a sharp kick a couple of metres along from the entry point......excellent!
A bit more fire into some singletrack and then a long straight descent completely covered in fallen leaves. This was quite exciting because I had no idea what was underneath the leaves, and it was a matter of ..."what you couldn't see wouldn't hurt you" :-) I was able to use the smallest sprocket for this, but still couldn't get completely on top of the gear. A ninety degree right turn then took us up to the finish/start line. Normally, I'm feeling a bit nauseous for the first couple of laps, but I just had sore legs. I carried on like this for five more laps feeling worse and worse, when coming out of the first bombhole for the seventh time I stood on the pedals and the bike surged forward! Suddenly I was ripping through the singletrack out of the saddle, overtaking loads of people wtf! I started to feel good at last.

I'm not sure what to put my bad form down to, I had done a fastish 40km the day before and had a not too hard massage the night before. The only thing that I hadn't done was to massage my legs with deep heat before the race.

I also think that I need to get back on the road bike to develop some power.

I managed eight laps in 4:23:43 Paul came in about a minute and half later. I was 7th. and Paul 8th. Vets.

Raymond

Two new blog stars

Here's club road race secretary, Mark Packman, who was out today but not up the front too much, like he normally is. This week he's wearing a rather snazzy retro club kit.

Then there is 2nd Cat road man Andy McKie, who towed us all the way back to Cobham from the tea stop at Seale. He's going well after just finishing the Surrey league Ottersaw series that have taken part over the last three Sundays.