Hillingdon Winter series - Race 2 Saturday 13th December 2008

No wonder Paul's not turning up for club runs on a Saturday

Man of Race : Paul Anderson - South Western RC

A much reduced field lined up for the start in atrocious weather. Continuing on from the start last weeks Man of the Race Rudie Marias (Norwood Paragon CC) attacked but with a slightly reduced distance no one was going to let him ride away. Bill Butterworth (Team Quest) and former overall winner Jason Streather (VC St Raphael) were also very active. Several other attacks were made notably from Edward Summerwell (Team Quest) all the way from Exeter but all to no avail until Joshua Worrall (Twickenham CC) went on his own. It was a brave attempt and looked as if he may have stayed away but some very strong riding into the wind in the back straight by Jason Streather, Rudie Marais and Steve Legg (RT316-Crown Lifts) pulled him back. Finally a TT specialist Paul Alderson (South Western RC ) back after several years went alone, his TT experience saw him stay away to the finish and an equally a brilliant effort by local Junior rider Martin Dawkins (Team Quest) held off Jason Humphries (Norwood Paragon CC ) for 3rd Place. Edward Summerwell lead the main group in some 55 seconds down with Jason Streather beating other fast finisher Vince Halpern (AWcycles) into 5th place. The award for Man of the Race went to Paul Alderson but Martin Dawkins’ effort ran him very close.

Series leaders Jerone Walters (Sigma Sport) and Paul Alderson (South Western RC) are equal with 200 points with Rudie Marais in 3rd with 190 points

Catch up with other events, or get down and ride
http://www.imperialracingteam.com/imperialracingteam/results0809.html

Tour des Cols

Belatedly ,this is the story (true except some of the names have been changed to protect the innocent and Mark Williams) of a 3 day ride that Mark W and I did in the summer ;the Tour des Cols.

Ironically ,to me at least, Mark is the one who learns of these rides ,sends the email out to me with a comment along the lines of "thank goodness I am on holiday when this is on, it is one for the insane " and I forward it on to a couple of very enthusiastic (non SWRC ) mates who say "that is the one for us ,I have just entered ,get your name down ".This then finds it way back to Mark who cannot believe it but feels compelled to enter just the same.

And so in august of this year Mark Taylor a friend of mine from Canberra flew over for 10 days to join Mark ,Gavin a native of Kingston upon Thames and me for the tour des cols http://www.tourdescols.com/

Mark arrived the day before the tour of the Surrey Hills and so,having terrified the rest of us for 3 or 4 months before the ride with 10 page emails detailing the training regime his team's coach had recommended be followed for us to have any chance at all of making it round 3 days of Alpine cols,over 400kms in total of riding and including 4-5 cols a day including Mont Saleve,Colombiere,Madelaine,Saisies,Telegraphe, Galibier and a nice friendly finish on Alpe d'Huez,Mark arrived here the day before the Tour de Surrey Hills . So despite heavy jet lag this was my chance to show the Aussie all of our local hills on one of my favourite rides I have done anywhere. Coldharbour and Horse Block Hollow would soon show him that Surrey has some real hills that can test any rider especially some Aussie -cos what do they know/ride?Fortunately I was able to introduce Mark to Trevor and Matt at the start as we did not see them again after we had the first of our 5 punctures of the ride.( Mark ,the dumb okker ,being used to racing on Canberra's best ,baize flat ,velvet tarmac had his wafer thin racing tyres on -which were not ideally suited to a bit of Surrey gravel.Result lots of flats which to be fair effected the 3 of us who rode round together.

Not having my wife and family driving round "in support" -can anyone else believe that someone would resort to "tactics " like that on a gentle potter round the North Downs? I rode the fastest I have ever ridden that ride and managed to take the longest time .But it was great for Mark to experience the hospitality of the Shere village hall and the wonderful tea ladies feeding all riders and good training for what we were about to face.

The morning after TTOSH Mark and I flew out to Geneva to spend a few days before the event started for him to acclimatise to the change in temp and get over his jet lag.We had 4 great days of riding about 40 miles a day with one or two climbs ,including visiting one of the best bike shops I have ever been to in Geneva where the bikes and mechanics were in one building with the mechanics working in the shop itself open to all to inspect their workmanship and next door were the clothes and "soft " goods being sold by the owner ( and ex champion of Switzerland) -these largely consisted of row upon row of exquisite Assos in varieties that we had never seen before -not a cheap bit of kit to be seen in any part of the shop.

Our training rides started every morning with an ascent of Mont Saleve. This was a beast of 600 metres of climbing in 9kms.Imagine about 5 0r 6 Coombe Bottoms -complete with the bend at the top -piled on top of each other. Mark's coach ( not something or someone who had played any role in my preparation or indeed my cycling full stop -which I was perhaps later to question over the next few days ) has a saying "ride it till you are bored " .It took me a few days to understand that what he really meant was ride it till you loathe the bloody thing and hope you never see it again. Sadly the tour des cols started with ...................Mont Saleve.

The Aussie and me at the top of Mont Saleve with Mont Blanc in the background.

Chap from Kingston riding a very fine ,retro look Seven ,who set off each day on his own an hour before the group to take his time .He finished the whole event but rode for about 25 hours in total over the 3 days.Check out those socks .

View from just next to top of Mont Saleve looking towards Geneva at all of those locals not fool enough to want to ride up 6 Coombe Bottoms after work .

Thursday,Mark Williams and Gavin arrived at Geneva in time for the ride to start the next day.It seems strange now to try to communicate the degree of excitement ,adrenaline and ,in my case,downright anxiety that was coursing through the hotel now that the 32 or so riders had all arrived . There was a mix of nationalities including South Africans ,a couple of Americans ,the token Aussie and mostly Brits from all over the GB. It was good to see all the reassuringly expensive toys -with a surprisingly large number of Cervelos for some reason,being put together on the thursday evening -and hear the Aussie's incredulity that everyone would arrive so late and not give them any time to prepare properly .What on earth would their coaches say -I could hear him thinking.( He has a lot to learn about the plucky Tupper of the Track ethos that Amateur Brit cyclists still espouse.Indeed what is there to be coached on when all you do is get on and pedal ? But this line of argument to someone who has had 3 Vo2 Max tests (and actually won last year a national road race that led to him being interviewed on Aussie prime time TV ) was never going to get me very far).

Thursday night at the hotel,talk from the organisers who were a great bunch of guys from Hounslow cycling club. The originator of the ride ,Andy D'Urso ,was tragically killed on the London to Paris ride shortly before the event ,and after marking all he had done to initiate the event we were taken efficiently through the details of the next 3 days.The route marking was superb= we heard of no one getting lost at all. There were at least 3 food stops each day and 5 support vehicles so if anyone had any problems or were just plain knackered and needed to be picked up ( which did happen to a few riders ) that was never a problem.One suggestion from the riders for next year is to have some spare wheels and actually one or 2 spare bikes in the vans as mechanical problems were an issue .ie one Carbon Focus came out of its bike bag with a broken tube and at the bottom of the Telegraphe the guy we were riding with ,had the crank fall off his posh ,recently serviced Cervelo -result he missed the fun and joy of climbing the Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez on the last day.

So,finally we were off in warm sunshine with the ride to Megeve to look forward to.4 cols today including Colombiere. We generally rode together but I was dropped on Colombiere which seemed to go on for ever and for the whole ride I was always thinking of "need to save myself for tomorrow ".That also applied on the last day -as these flights home can really take it out of you can't they? Sadly by the last day I was so knackered that I did not have anything left to save for the next day anyway.

Gavin ( happy as he weighs 9 stones wringing wet and thinking "yippee lots more cols today to sprint over on 39-23") ,me ( thinking oh god I have to do it all over again today ) ,Mark ,thinking the same but using the old dark glasses trick to hide his trepidation and the Aussie thinking "I am really going to make these poms pay today for all those gold medals their countrymen are winning at the moment".

Friday -about 150kms and as I recall about 3,600m of climbing and not really too bad. Great hotel in the very refined resort of Megeve ,excellent food and everyone feeling better to have got the first day over.

So,Saturday and another day of agony beckons.Mark Williams and I rode together all of saturday and sunday.Gavin and then ahead of him the Aussie and then ahead of him 4 guys who stayed out front for more or less the whole of the ride with the Aussie ( by now calling his coach every night to ask him why he felt so tired and he understood why Cadel had not been able to gofaster now ) manfully just about keeping in touch with them .The four included a couple of racers from Yorkshire one of whom was doing this as training for a full ironman 2 weeks later,one a south african farmer who raced and was clearly hard as nails and then Nick Bourne the organiser of the Tour of Wessex and various other riders and in his youth had run ,yes run, from Cape Town to Cairo. 42 miles a day for 6 months who strangely always seemed quite relaxed about what the next day had to offer on the ride......

Mr Williams and me on top of Madeleine.This was coolest the weather got on the 3 days.

Madelaine went on for ever and then the day ended at the little known ski resort of Arravis .If you are ever tempted to ride up to it think twice.It was a complete devil. Mark Williams whimpering all the way up it ,made worse by us being able to see the resort about 2000 feet above us but seemingly never getting any closer. Finally ,we were there and a litre of chocolate milk and a loaf of bread and jam and anything else we could get out hands on and suddenly life did not seem so bad. The hotel had a pool and a ice cold plunge pool,so with the words of " the Coach" ringing in my ears I went through the hot and cold routine .And then ,oh joy of joys -a massage.Almost worth the suffering for the session with her alone.Sabin would definitely have been at his most charming with her -a lovely, soothing and energising French lady who prepared us as well as we could be for the horrors of the last day comprising a couple of small lumps and then Telegraphe ,Galibier and Alpe D'Huez.

I had ridden up the Galibier some years earlier and remembered it as a beast and my memory did not fail me. Our minds were taken off what was ahead of us by being caught up at the top of the Telegraph in a village fete with cows being herded up OUR ROAD by some octagenarians in peasant dress .After a diversion we found we were back in the bovine parade again.So -up on the pavement ,knocking over pushchairs and elderly matrons who of course,this being France did not complain but waved us through with a couple of " Allezs" -in pursuit of Gavin,David ( our new team member from Portsmouth CC and someone to keep Gavin company in his 39-23 club.) and Mark who was off miles ahead all of whom had missed the rodeo while we were trying to stick a crank on for the chap we were riding with cable ties and saliva and a bit of insulating tape ( they dont work by the way) .

Finally, up Galibier- down a fantastic descent where we got up to 50 mph -along the valley a bit ,and up Alpe d'Huez where Mark Williams generously dragged me up and then to the finish right at the very top of the village with me hoping all the way up we would be staying at the bottom.

Massive feelings of satisfaction all round and a really good atmosphere in the hotel -mainly that it was done and thank goodness we would not be dodging cow parades again tomorrow and I would not be staring at Mark Williams' back side for another 7 hours.

It had been a superb event and all riders felt that going over for a 3 day event made all the difference to travelling across for just the one day rides. The ride is being run again this year on the same route with the same ,excellent hotels and I am sure that it can only be better as the organisers will have learned how they can tweak the arrangements to make it even better.It is very good value with everything being included other than your flight and once they move to another route then I will be very interested to doing another tour with them. An event that is highly recommended. For the record,thought of course not a race,perish the thought, the Aussie who cheated by having a coach came 5th,David and Gavin came 6th and 7th ,Mark Williams 8th and me 9th out of the 32 or so that started.

Mark and me on top of Galibier

We may look ok there but were both pretty fatigued by now but only Alpe d'Huez between us and as many beers as we could manage before we fell into a lactic acid induced coma

David on the coach back to Geneva thinking -" how can I get my wife to let me do a really long ride in 2009"

On-line is best

Buying all those present on-line seems to be becoming the way to a stress free life, as it proved to be the most popular choice in our December survey.

Tulleys Farm Nativity scene

Tulleys farm were getting into the Christmas spirit when the A group visited the other day. The tea room was packed out with families trying to pick up a last minute present or a Christmas tree.

Chris Hoy, SPOTY 2008

Track cycling mopped up most of the awards at this years BBC Sports personality of the year, won by Chris Hoy. Team award went to the Olympic track squad and best coach went to Dave Brailford. Here's what Chris had to say at the ceremony.

Flooded Surrey

Saturdays club ride was washed out, so me and Sabin ventured out into the lanes on Sunday to find a very wet Surrey. Luckily once my feet were thouroughly wet they couldn't get any wetter.

A Merry SWRC Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

WLCA Award Presentation

Today Tom went to his second award ceremony of the year at Knowl Village Hall, west of Maidenhead to receive the WLCA Juvenile BAR and Juvenile 10 mile time trial cups. The preceding AGM was a rather uninspiring occasion and we were glad when John Woodburn arrived to award the trophies, medals, etc. and to bring some life to the event.

Tom wasn't the only SWRC recipient as Paul Alderson was presented in absentia with a medal for his performance in a 50ml TT during the season.

Let Tom & Jerry finish by wishing all SWRC members a Very Happy Christmas and successful 2009.

November's survey

Fixed pedal cleats came out on top, just beating floating cleats by a single vote. What was more surprising was that there is still a few clips & straps riders who actually read this blog.

Notes from Saudi Arabia

Racing in the Desert.

For my sins, I travel to the Desert Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, a few times each year. It’s mostly a bit of a drag, but the saving grace is that there is an active cycling community in the capital, Riyadh,. The Riyadh Wheelers, a club with multiple sponsors, organizes a highly competitive racing programme; one race each fortnight; from September until April, a period when it is not possible to roast a Sheep’s head on the pavement, or fry an egg on the roof of the car. The races usually take place on Fridays at a variety of locations near the city, on well surfaced good roads but always surrounded by sand, sand and more sand.

I happened to be around for the annual “two-day classic” event held on the 13th and 14th of November. This was a novelty for me. Thursday afternoon was to be a “criterium” to be held on a circuit of 2.3 kms. for one hour, plus one lap. Early Friday morning was to be a “sprint” time trial of 1.75 kms., followed, after a short interval a 43 kms. road race, 9 laps of a 4.8 kms. circuit.

On the first day, there was a field about 50 riders, hailing from the four corners of the earth: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Syria; a contingent of more than twenty riders from the Philippines, two Saudis, (the Saudi National team the daily ‘Arab News’ reported, were on ‘international duty’), a British Géant ex-pro and also including three ladies, of Germany, Canada and Russia.

As the riders were preparing their machines and themselves for the start of the first race, I was approached by Scott, a Kiwi with a clipboard. He asked me for 100 riyals entry fee or 200 for the three events. Alternatively, he suggested if you sign-up as a member, right now, all races for the remainder of the season will be free entry including today. I mentioned that I wasn’t around much and would probably only be competing in two more races next February, but I asked him how much was the cost: “400 Saudi Riyals,” he said. Some quick mental arithmetic taking into account the pound dropping like a stone by the minute, warned me that he was asking me for 75 quid! “75 quid?!” I said. “It’s a bargain,” retorted Scott: “19 free races; Complete set of club kit including jersey with 75 sponsors names on it; shorts, gloves, socks, arm and leg warmers, shoe covers and a neat cap; plus a celebration dinner at the start of the season and a commemorative dinner and prize giving at the end of the season.” “Sold,” I said. I gave him the money and was rewarded with frame number 59 with cable ties and a jersey number with pins. “Yours for the season,” he said. “Where’s the kit?” Scott was quick with his response: “It’s made in the Philippines to Italian size standards. The largest we have is XL which Paulo Bettini would find a squeeze. You would appear to need at least triple XL, by the look of you. We’ll have to make a special order: Have a good race!”





The Criterium
We were reminded, at the briefing, that the “criterium” would last for an hour after which the leaders would complete one final lap, but the first lap, included in the hour would be a neutral lap with no racing. All riders would finish on their next lap after the leaders regardless of the number of laps completed. Far too much information for me! The start was halfway up a hill, so it followed that the finish would be halfway up the same hill. The peloton moved away and within seconds I found myself at the front, the pace was so slow. I pedalled on and after a short while realized I could no longer here the jovial banter that accompanied the starting ceremony. I risked a glance over my shoulder: There was no-one to be seen! Surely I hadn’t missed a turn already! I slowed to walking pace and soon I was on the slope approaching the start-finish line. At last I could hear voices and tyres on tar. I relaxed as I reached the line then suddenly was swamped by the entire peloton, mostly out of the saddle with Cusden the ex-pro leading; bombing up the hill at a pace I couldn’t aspire to on the flat. They disappeared around the right hander at the top and I was stuck with a few other stragglers who were also taken by surprise or weren’t up to it.

Didn’t take more than a few seconds to get organized and soon I was at the front leading what might be termed “a chase group” of seven. However, although we were going eyeballs out and working well we were not so much chasing as being chased by the disappearing main group. One by one riders dropped off our little group until only me and the slightest, slimmest Filipino chappie, with the romantic name of Dong Del Rosario, remained. He was about as much use to me as a chocolate teapot. Each time we arrived at the hill; sixteen times in our case; he slipped away and then, after the crest, I bore down on him and he slotted on to my wheel. In the meantime we caught and passed one at a time about half a dozen riders that had given their all in the peloton and received a severe hammering. We even lapped a couple that had dropped from our group. After about 40 minutes Cusden, in a class of his own(as quoted from the ‘Arab News’ daily), went by, with steam coming out of his ears, lapping us. Another ten minutes passed before the remnants of the peloton lapped my new pal and me. We hung on until the hill when we couldn’t match their pace any longer, so that was that. At the end of our final lap, Dong, in a gentlemanly gesture, didn’t tear away on the hill, allowed me over the line before him, for 17th place..

The Sprint TT
Early next morning, fifty riders turned up and we were briefed on the conditions for the Sprint TT. Starting in reverse order of the finishing result of the Criterium; starting halfway up that same confounded hill, at thirty seconds intervals. Straight up to the top, round the roundabout, down to the bottom, sweeping U-turn back to the start and timing was to be at 1/1000 of a second. This was serious stuff indeed. The start was the old fashioned BLRC style, i.e., one foot on the ground. It took me at least three seconds to engage my left cleat and then I was shocked to see that my handlebar computer was showing 37kph as I was topping the hill. I swept round the roundabout believing I was on a fantastic ride but on the descent pedalling as hard as humanly possible I only reached 42kph against a gale carrying several tons of sand, that sprang up from nowhere. The u-turn at the bottom was negotiated with seeming skill and speedy aplomb but crossing the line I noted I was traveling at a mere 22kph. I was snorting like a horse having completed the Grand National and didn’t recover for 15 minutes. My time: 2mins 53.997secs. (36.1kph), twenty-six places behind Cusden who recorded 2mins 21.383secs. (45.6kph)

The Road Race
After a while, when all the serious competitors had removed their space helmets, exchanged their TT bikes for their road bikes, we all lined up for the road race. Once again we were starting on the horrible little hill. We were to use an extended circuit, rather in the shape of a letter B, but this awful little bump had to be climbed nine times, and I was soon to discover that on the other side of the circuit was another similar hill which clearly would also require nine visits. The neutral lap rule applied in this event as well. This time I stayed at the back. I wasn’t planning on being caught napping a second time. I wanted to see what was going on. We ambled around the lower circle of the B; we coasted along the long straight backbone of the B; we climbed slowly around the upper circle of the B; we reached, from the other side the top of the TT course; we freewheeled to the u-turn; we meandered up the slope, at the end of the first lap towards the start-finish line. Everything under control: I was in perfect position to cope with the forthcoming increase in pace. I was ready! Then, suddenly; all hell broke loose; most of the peloton exploded up the hill as though it was the last sprint on earth. Once again I was in no mans land. At least I wasn’t the only one and soon I was in an organized group of about twelve including a German lady displaying real determination, pedaling very smoothly, her straight back parallel to the road and one of only four of us prepared to work at the front. Each lap, on one of the loops, we caught sight of the main peloton not having gained very much on us at all. There was no possibility of bridging the gap but it was good to see that they were not superhuman as I first thought. If only I could solve the riddle of that early explosion….! Every now and then, one of our number dropped off the back and from time to time we caught and passed a rider unable to stay with the peloton. Culsden had once again made a lone break, but due to the hard work we were putting in, we were not to suffer the indignity of being lapped. On the penultimate lap, I decided to make a move on one of the climbs and took the German lady,Freda, and her husband, Reiner, with me. Everyone else had gone off the back. We continued to pass peloton stragglers and on the last climb of the last lap I made another big effort, dropped Freda, but hubby was glued to my wheel. We took the u-turn together and I went; far too soon; for the line. By now my vision was blurred and everything around appeared as a mist, but I did see German hubby pinch the line by a couple of lengths (for 21st place!). The 43kms, including the ultra slow neutral lap in 1h20m48s (32kph) against the winners time of 1h12m27s (36kph). The overall result for the two days was: Open and the Trophy: the ex-pro, Veteran: Sunga of the Philippines, Master: Ryan of South Africa, Ladies: Freda of Germany and Seniors (60 – 100yrs) me of SWRC. Very nice thank you.

SWRC Dinner/Walk

Annual get together of the great and the good to dish out the silverware and toast the winners and tell the tales of how we nearly and not quite managed to live down the boasts of the twelve months ago one more time before we do it all again next year.
The preceding day I had gone out with the 'A' group from Betchworth to Westerham, giving the 'B's a head start we all ended up at the cafe together after the 'B's split under mechanical pressure while we had our own map reading blunders while carrying more computing power on our bikes than got the first astronauts to the moon. We were all glad to get there on one piece as the cold morning gave way to blue skies and decent riding conditions after a miserable week, I'd fallen off on the ice on Wednesday and sporting a few bruises and a rear end (on the bike) come unglued and clunking a bit, I only spotted it at the stop and rode home over Woldingham slightly more gingerly where Alan & I said goodbye and dropped back through the Xmas traffic descending on London.
The dinner at the Barley Mow in West Horsley was preceded by a walk through the countryside organised by Dawn Jackaman, twenty hardy souls turned up and set off across the fields where the black faced sheep ignored us as we splashed our way through the mud. It was a splendidly sunny and cold morning, we were all glad to be on foot rather than a'wheel, we stopped after an hour in a gladed wood some resting on the felled tree trunks and others catching the sun where it broke through the leafless trees. On through a wood yard where the wispy smoke from a fire of slow burning sawdust mingled with the trees to give the impression of early morning fog, and over a steep hill of flint where the trees thinned and we broke out with views over Hatchlands Park (NT) we completed the 7 miles in just under 3 hours (2 walking)
The setting for the dinner in a renovated barn attached to the pub was an excellent venue, the food was hearty and plentyful (lots of vedge and not overdone some of the roast potatoes a little on the hard side!)
President Geoff Redhead did an excellent job of MC'ing the official part of the dinner with a attempt to embarrass a cross section of the attended including yours truly but most know i'm quite capable of doing that myself without any help
I was pleased to be asked to present the 2 Up trophy (named in honour of my father Phil Sr) to the winners Roger Jackaman and Andy Hicks and also one (of the two!) regional Time Trial awarded to 15 Yr old Tom Nason for his rides during the season (the WLCA & the SCCU Best all Rounder)
Managed to have a chat with quite a few people (new members & riders who I rarely get to see in the racing season) Graham Collins who's L'Eroica exploits I loved reading about and still want to see the bike who went sailing on the Thames at Walton with my Grandfather. Tom and his dad Jeremy, Who will get to use the fast wheels this week?
Soon it was all over and we were heading back up the motorway (furthest to go always the last to leave) broken bike and trophys in the car