Tribute to John Bromley

As a tribute to Ex-President and SWRC legend John Bromley I have reproduced here a picture from the archives which graced the Newsletter (Autumn 86) when brother Phil was the editor. Some of the current members of the club would be unaware of John as he had played a backseat role in recent years but his influence in guiding the club through some quite difficult times were much appreciated and he was always an inspiration on and off the bike. The picture was taken at the end of Paris-Roubaix Randonee in 1984
Caption reads (Courtesy P D Parkinson)
John - Are you going to the AGM on Dec 16th Gus?
Gus - Is that fancy dress too John?

Photos from the club sportive

Here is some of the field climbing Bedham hill on the way around the 63mile spring sportive. There was 4,500feet/1370m of climbing and a few testing decents. I only managed to photo some of the riders as I was called away to help one of the numerous riders who took a tumble on the route. A speedy recovery goes out to Trevor & Ian, and any other unfortunate enough to come down.

SWRC Cyclosportif '08

Can I say that the sportif volunteers were a great help at the Wishborough Green and at Fetcham Hall. Hope the people who had a major accident recover soon and everyone enjoyed themselves like I did. Tom Junior Commite Member.

SWRC spring Cyclosportive

Don't forget that this Sunday is the club's spring cyclosportive starting and finishing in Fetcham village hall. Dave Pinder will need help in organising the 300+ riders at the start and around the route.
Click here for details

JOHN BROMLEY

The sad news reached us over the weekend of the un-timely death of John Bromley. John was the President of the South Western in the early 90's having joined the club in the late 50's. John had a heart attack while out on his mountain bike on Headley common on Saturday. When I spoke to Brother Alan on Sunday who had been at the finish of the Cheam & Morden CTC 'Hilly' 50 on Boxhill in the afternoon, he told me he had seen the Emergency Vehicles and Helicopter. I can hardly believe I am writing this so soon after the death of another Ex-President Fred Parsons late last year. Both these men embodied aspects of the club to which they were lifelong members and where Fred was a staunch of the Pre-war John was one who captured the freedom and excitement of the Post-war Generation. A war child John became an excellent time trialist in which was the club was strong at this time. But it was as a roadman that he was to make his reputation, John never lost his characteristic tough and wiry physique that marked him out as an excellent climber and in a time when Britain had a surplus of road talent John rose to be well respected in this the hardest of sports. I had spoken to John just last month and he assured me that he had scaled down his work (he would not use the word retired) and was looking forward to seeing more of his bike, It is such sad news when one of our number is taken before his time
Our thoughts go out to his wife Jenny and his family in their sadness and for their loss, a man who had given much to this club of ours and still had such alot to give
John will be cremated on Friday 29th February at 10.15 at Randall’s Park Crematorium, Leatherhead (just outside Leatherhead on the road to Cobham). John was a keen bird watcher and any donations should be made to the RSPB.

PSA - Tour of California

Great website for live and next day videos of the ToC.

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

Spot the changes over 50 years.

If you find this video stopping, try pressing the pause button and letting it download for 30 minutes or until the barline moves across.

4th cat racing in Hillingdon- spot the SWRC jersey!

Try and spot the South Western jersey! This was only my second race and I came 33rd out of 42 which I was quite pleased about seeing as I was blocked in and couldn't get near the front for the final sprint.

Salih Hassan

Apart from coming out with the SWRC on their rides, Sal also rows at a very high level, competing in regattas all over the world.

Barbara

I managed to get an exclusive interview with Barbara at the finish of today's Hilly 50 event while waiting at the top of Box Hill.

Season opener - Hilly 50

A break from the routine today as some of us rode the Cheam & Morden CTC Hilly 50. I passed a few people making their way to the Cobham meet as I rode out to the start at Ryka's Cafe to meet Trevor, Richard and Andy. Poor old Parky couldn't make it as he was knocked off his bike earlier this week (by an idiot coming out of her driveway unable to see out of her iced-up car windows - unbelievable) and Sabin cried off with a cold. Wombat and Barbara were also taking part, Barbara a bit apprehensive at her first event and Wombat at the state of his liver.

It was a mass start which meant dozens of cyclists coming out on to the A24 and doing an immediate right turn to West Humble - not the easiest of manoeuvres and certainly not popular with the motorists. But once on the quiet roads the bunch quickly thinned out and it was business as usual in the cold sunshine. As the name suggests, it's a hilly course - Ranmore, part of Leith Hill, Friday Street, Holmbury St Mary. Dropping down to Ewhurst at some speed, Trevor came a cropper as a shallow trough in the road threw him off. We lost a good ten minutes as he slowly picked himself up and checked his limbs and kit while we sorted the bike out. A sore thumb and bent brake levers were the main damage.

Carrying on, we climbed Pitch Hill out of Ewhurst to Shere, then Peaslake and soon after the hard climb of White Down. As happened last year, there was a bit of a traffic jam with three 4x4s mixed in with all the riders plus oncoming cars - not what you need going up there. Over the top and then into a cold strong headwind to Ranmore again, West Humble and the final slog up the Zig-Zags. We had split a bit by the finish and I clocked 2:16, a minute behind Trevor with Richard some minutes quicker still - not too bad considering the earlier stoppage; Andy had 2:05 (without the stoppage). Apparently Paul Foster has done this course well inside 2 hours in the past so there is room for improvement for us all. Fastest time today was an impressive 1:47.

After tea and cake at the very grotty Ryka's Cafe, I did a few more hills to Headley and Walton-on-the-Hill, just to enjoy the weather as much as anything. M was back before me today, having been on the C ride to Redhill Aerodrome. Still under threat of closure but open for the time being.

Thetford Marin Winter Series 4

Fourth and final race of the Winter Series. Overall is taken from best three results. Ray is sat in 7th, one place ahead of me after three rounds. Unfortunately he didn't enter in time and the race sold out early. This series has been very popular. I need to finish sixth or better to finish above him in the series. Best place so far this series? Seventh. Amount of people in this race who usually beat me? Eight. But I am racing because I enjoy the course and the race.
A bright and beautiful sunny day. It feels warm out yet there is a covering of frost and one dip in the trees feels like riding through a fridge.
I have started nearer the back as everybody obviously wanted to be on the line early. Also as the warm sun has even the slow boys dressed in their best lycra then there's no spaces to 'push' in to.
The siren blows and we start. The usual mad dash for the singletrack.
Maybe everybody's dressed in lycra because the race is full of fast boys. The first of the National Points Series is to be held in Thetford so they could be scouting the course. It's bone dry with sand in places and not an inch of mud and everybody is going of all guns blazing. I don't feel at all held up as we chase the leaders round the first lap and I only make a few overtaking moves, spending as much as the first lap as possible sat in behind people to conserve energy.
It is an undulating roller coaster course. I seem to only be sat in the saddle so I can get out of it again and push up the next rise or across the wavy singletrack. Acceleration leads to bends or short rises that need further acceleration.
As the field spreads out there are fewer racers around but I still seem to be passing people regularly. The speed of the first lap has everyone fatigued. I tell one guy I'm coming past on his left, but I meant right. Luckily we manage to avoid crashing and once I've gone the right way I charge away apologising profusely.
Bendy, windy descents have me brushing against trees. Not everyone brushes the trees or avoids the roots. I see the result of many a fall with people sprawled out. Someone falls round the bend ahead of me but shouts he's okay as I get to him. A couple of laps later someone stacks right in front of me. I really don't know how I avoid running into him and swerve round a tree stump, roots and trees either side all the way. I stop but another message from the ground tells me the rider is okay.
Somehow I don't feel like I'm fading, but I've never eaten so many gels in one race. I manage to keep pushing for the entire race. I also finish my Camelbak about a kilometre from the race finish. But I finish with juice in one of my bottles.
I am stuffed. 80km. Any further would be tough. But the NPS endurance race is 100km. I am looking forward to it already.
The results come up later after I get home. Fifth. Better than I could have imagined.

Club run to Barns Green

Another video, but no music this time, so you might hear me wittering on about what a lovely sunny day it was. Centre stage must go to that massive tea pot.

Moore and more miles

On the best weekend of the year so far, M&M went to Kew Gardens on Sunday. Worth a visit at any time, it currently has the added attraction of a large collection of Henry Moore sculptures. Don't ask me why but I really like them; they have an intrinsic fascination, and they certainly add something to the setting and vice versa. If anyone is interested, there is also a beautiful sculpture garden on Mole Street near Ockley. We have charged past the entrance dozens of times on the club run - maybe we should include it as a destination sometime.

But back to more serious matters - Saturday's rides. It was another massive turnout at Cobham, probably 40 people or more. The C group took themselves to Seale, They have three new riders - former A group rider Tony Forrest, blog fan Steve Mac, and on his first outing a guy called Bob who has signed up and paid his subs before even turning a pedal with us.

The A group had another cracking ride. The dry weather encouraged me to get the best bike out and it felt like a dream - light, nippy and no rattling mudguards. Result - lots of hard turns on the front. Keeping the pace high were Paris-Brest-Paris hero Paul Alderson, last week's blog star Will Clutton (both of them still favouring the baggy shorts-over-lycra look), cyclosportif hardman Trevor Lenthall, and our blogmeister-general Parky. It was fast over Coombe Bottom then Pitch Hill; out to Cranleigh, through Adversane and then a turn north to Shipley and Barns Green. A near riot ensued at the cafe (who knew we were on our way) - just 5 small pieces of cake were left for us! Sabin voiced our discontent and they eventually rustled up a couple of tired old cakes from somewhere. Meanwhile some of the elite athletes were loading up with sausages, burgers, chips and beans; not the best refuelling. There was no hanging around on the way back with the usual tear-up from Warnham to Dorking. We split there and I met a few B group riders on the climb to Headley. No sign of Parky by this stage - perhaps the cafe fare was taking its toll.

Frequent Ride Feature

Members of the club comment that they do not know what I get up to in the winter in the 'windy' Midlands, so a new section for SWRC riders to contribute to a regular ride that they make every week, or at least a route they can tell us on the blog all about. A blatent 'rip-off' of a Cycling feature but as a designer all I can comment is that impression is the sincerest form of flattery

This is my ride to work loop, I try and do it 2 or 3 times a week mostly on a 68" fixed in the winter and it's almost 30 miles so it takes over 1 1/2 hrs but as I work for myself I can afford the time and It's only 5 miles home in the evening and I do not like riding in the dark any more than I have to

Leicester is in a bit of a natural bowl so its slightly uphill for 10 miles which ever way you leave town, I head out South against the prevailing SW wind which blows something cronic up here and the mainly agricultural landscape makes for an open and exposed ride most days (Leicestershire has the least tree cover of any county less than 1/2 of one percent compared with Surrey/Sussex 5-6 percent)


I pass the 1930's 'Pork Pie' circular library on Saffron Lane, just down the road is the now crumbling cycle track which used to be the National Cycling Centre now long since superceded by Manchester. It's sad to see it like that, scene of some of my best rides in younger days. On the way to South Wigston where the smell of Strawberry from the Jacobs biscuit factory pervades the air once or twice a month and you know it will be Jammy Dogers with afternoon tea in an effort to exorcise the smell that hangs in the nostrils.


Through Countersthorpe and Peatling Magna, Arnsby windmill in the distance (on a clear day) to Bruntingthorpe where the newly refurbished Vulcan Bomber is housed and made its maiden flight after a 6m refit last year
These roads are part of the Zenith 2 day Nigel Meason Road Race Gilmoreton Stage and the route from Walton to Lutterworth is the reverse of the 2.7m TT second stage so I 'have a go' if I'm going in the opposite direction to see how my form is.

Over the M1 into Lutterworth here is the birthplace of the jet engine, Coventry born Sir Frank Whittle set up Power Jets here when his idea for a Jet powered plane were dismissed during the 1930's, the first flight took place in 1941. A copy of this engine was sent to the USA thereby kick starting their own Turobjet industry (Doh!) His company was nationalised in 1944 and became Rolls Royce Aero upon which he was refused permission to develop further and resigned. There is a memorial in the middle of the roundabout just off junction 20

Another original thinker John Wycliffe also lived here in the mid 14th Century and translated the Bible into English for the first time thus giving birth to the education system. But got into a right load of bother with the Catholics who by all accounts felt that the text should be kept in an 'elite' Latin form and not for the common man.

Usually the wind is comming behind me by now and I can get ontop of my gear which has been a struggle to here but no pain no gain, there is a right old strange village naming policy round here, Ullersthorpe, Wibtoft, Wigston Parva and Frolesworth all seem to be made up names but here they realy exist.
Onto the Fosse Road for a bit and then Sapcote and Stoney Stanton where at Stoney Cove they have the deepest man made inland water (36m) and it's used for Scuba Diving. Apparently Chris Boardman a 'Scuber' afficianado has graced the water but he could only stay under the water for just under 46 minutes!


All the villages round here were quarrying communitys digging holes in the ground like Stoney Cove, the remaining site at Croft is one of the biggest granite quarrey in Europe now operated by Aggregate Industries we in the next village at Huncote get a 1 O'clock explosion every day which shakes all the tiles on the roof, like living in a poor mans Edinburgh. We work out of one of the many Chapels (our village has four) built to keep the workers on the 'straight and narrow', then it was turned into the village school (they want to be educated as well!) one local resident remembers that on Friday while the 'head' was moonlighting doing the books for a local firm they would pull the fattest kid in the class around on a pile of rags to polish the floor - education is a wonderful thing



17.0 mph average
18.0 mph good day
19.0 mph never been done

Will Clutton

William was out with his dad on the A group ride on Saturday from Betchworth, giving a few of the regular riders a hard time, racing off the front of the group whenever the road headed skyward. What was more of a frightening sight was the fashion for baggy shorts over lycra. I think Paul Alderson & Will might have started something that our new kit designer, Ken Dolman, will struggle to incorporate!

Niall Clutton

Niall joined the A group training ride this week after riding with the B group in previous weeks, so found it a bit tough going over a hilly North downs route. Niall mixes the type of riding he does and can often be found at mountain bike events when not out with the club.

Andrew Canning

Andrew has only been in the SWRC less than a year but is keen to mix it with the racing boys in the club during 2008. He was trying out his new Bianchi road bike this weekend getting the miles in. He has already competed in a race this year in the 4th category race at the Hillingdon circuit.