Hartfield

I slipped up on Saturday. I forgot that it was going to be warm and went out on the club run still in my winter kit. Perhaps it was the memory of last weeks ride in the rain that meant I was a bit cautious, so it was that I was the only rider in the A's  group in long tights. So I spent most of the day struggling off the back of the group when I should have been flying along.

There must have been at least 50 members at the start in Cobham with a few additional members joining the A's to make it the biggest of the year. 15 left including Toby and Laurie from the B+ , who thought they had better see who they would be riding with in the Pyrenees later in the spring.

Cobham Car Park

As always Trevor had e-mailed out a route that took us past our Betchworth starting point and south eastward towards the Ashdown forest for a few climbs. My brother Colin was down for the weekend, so he was out together with Richard Hignett who hasn't been out with us much recently. Barry was out on his new carbon bike but unfortunately I didn't get a picture. It looked lovely, a bit like the ones the track riders use on the velodrome.

Astana team routemaster

We did have a few stops for punctures on the way out, you are bound to with amount on the ride, but with the sun out no one was too bothered and were quite happy to stand around chatting in the sunshine. Are we getting soft or what, we don't want to end up like the B's, do we now :-)

Short break in the sunshine

The group looked great, resplendent in their club Red,white & blue club kit and I'm sure we get more respect from other road users when they see us out in an orderly manner and must think we look very professional.

Climbing in the Ashdown forest

I hope Toby and Laurie found the group amicable and will be regulars with the group, especially as they know what kit to wear. Richard, sort yourself out. Send that application in to Jeremy. You know you want too.

Toby, Laurie and Richard

Head Down not Sit Down

For my first audax of 2012 a route that went through the Cotswolds,round the Forest of Dean to Chepstow,back across the Severn Bridge,past two White Horses of Wiltshire ,through the Lambourne Valley and to finish traversing the middle of Oxford sounded a good choice ( "The Dean").Matt had already entered and so we agreed to travel and ride together. After coming to terms with the 3.30am start to be at Matt's for 4.15am ,and with an almost perfect forecast all was set fair.Alan and Sabin ,as my usual co-riders on saturday, will be amazed to hear I arrived at Matt's in Richmond bang on time and we left at 4.20am -only 10 seconds late I was told.I was to learn that Matt striving for exactitude in time would cause me pain later in the day.

Me making an effort to be polite meant I did not even nod off in the car ( for once) and an hour later we were in the middle of ,mostly male,other lyrca clad figures gingerly preparing their machines in the dark in the Peartree Park and Ride car park north of Oxford.

Collect the Brevet cards from a genial organiser Andrew and his even more genial o

ther half and about 30 or 40 ? riders I would guess and we were off. The forecast of sun and warmth were a long way off -it was decidely nippy.With only light gloves and riding in gilets and arm warmers when most of the other riders were in full jackets we were both a little colder than we wanted to be.

Matt had researched that dawn was at almost 6am and dusk was at 18.26 so that would be a perfect time to aim for to finish the 307kms with 4000 meters of climbing ( and 4 Altitude Award points ) .I knew that sounded painfully fast.I had ridden my first ever

300kms on a mostly flat course almost a year ago with Alan and the event organiser and mate and we had taken nearly 18 hours.Far more civilised tho requiring some night time navigation.

Our plans ,sorry Matt's plans ,were derailed after about 5 miles .We were cruising along in the lead bunch and making good speed when I got my first puncture for ages.Front wheel-good. Fingers numb with cold-not so good.But soon mended and off we went again to haul in all who had passed us.

An example of the wonderful views that Audaxers enjoy on their rides.

Then,Matt at the first control at Stow on the wold.

Still nippy but the sun beginning to come through and having let us look down on the classic "Sea of clouds"views whenever on top of a climb.

The rouleur,planning to increase speed so off with the gilet.
A couple of Matt in the Forest of Dean.This was a stunning part of the ride. Miles of woodland -mostly indigenous trees with barely a pine in sight. Lots of climbing but all on smooth roads as you can see here and barely any traffic at all.In fact the quality of roads and quiet lanes were a feature of the whole ride.
You will see quite a few pictures of Matt's back . That is largely because although we shared the work on the front ,we just did not share it equally,with Matt hauling me round rather faster than was ideal.

The descent into Chepstow was another highlight coming from the top of the Forest of Dean .One sweeping bend after another which went on and on where we did not need to touch the brakes. This the view just as we entered the town.

Chepstow was our half way spot.Very exciting -another service station control -and this one was a Tescos.Boy these audaxers know how to live. But what was more pleasing to Matt -even more than the ham sandwich he had been fantisising over for 50kms -was we were there at 12.00. The 12.5 hour time was still on.

Please note -still no photos of either of us sitting down off the bikes.This man has picked up some very bad habits from Paul Alderson.

This is the fixie that James Gilles of Birmingham was riding. 42 x 16 and we rode with him for a good chunk of the second half.Tesco delight.Behind Matt Remus who rode a sub 60 hour PBP but was a bit slower yesterday as we was riding with broken elbow which was a "bit inhibiting " and had forced him to use tri bars to give the elbow a rest………….
Another high point and a first for me. Crusing across the Severn Bridge -just a slight hint of a breeze in our faces and even here still barely any traffic.

After finding a great little bakers in the lovely town of Malmesbury -where we had to stop to collect a receipt as the next control -and friendly tho the bakery ladies were they would not let Matt ride his bike into the shop so he had dismount for at least 90 seconds -we set off for another 2 big climbs having by now been up the hill to the Somerset Monument which got to 19% according to my garmin glanced at through the sweat .

The Somerset Monument, near Hawkesbury Upton, South Gloucs.

The Somerset Monument was built by Lewis Vulliamy in 1846 in memory of Robert Edward Henry Somerset. He was a general at the Battle of Waterloo of 1815, and died in 1842. He was a nephew of the Sixth Duke of Beaufort. The tower is approximately 100 feet tall and can be seen from the Tyndale Monument at North Nibley

The route then took us over the Marlborough Downs and directly past 2 white horses ,conveniently placed on the top of 2 steep hills in the chalk ridge.We had by now caught up with James who had left Chepstow before us and he showed us his mettle by getting up both when he had told us at lunch he would need to dismount here.
Matt and James now above the White Horse and Matt questioning the wisdom of the treacle tart at Malmesbury .
Now more annoyed at me preserving this for posterity than effect of the treacle tart no his svelte figure.
Twice I chatted with riders on the route who said -South Western-I know someone who rides for in your club.Before they could say any more I gently suggested his name could be Alan.Yes that's him they both announced! This is Simon Gent who rode over 400 miles in the 24 hour and also rode some of PBP with Alan.( Taken at Newent in the morning)

About 5 miles from Oxford James got a puncture and this meant after a few minutes sorting out the fixed we arrived in Oxford just as it was getting dark.A few traffic lights later and after some hold ups in the Oxford traffic we were back at the start at just before 19.00.

Ride distance 307kms,time taken 13 hours including stops,average ride speed 26.4kmh largely due to Matt only letting us sit down -on something other than our bike saddles -for the first time at the 250kms control at Membury Services.Not for long mind -but very pleasant it was too.

A very fine ,if somewhat tiring day.

Nick

Mallorca

Hopefully, the rides out from the hotel will be a bit like this video this year.

What a day!

Is this the sign of things to come. We had just left the Cobham carpark on Saturday when we came across a whole load of drawing pins scattered across the road just as we entered Plough lane. Unfortunatley a couple of cyclist had just passed through and one had picked one up in his tyre and had stopped to fix it and was able to warn us. It was a five minute exercise to then clear the road of the tack for all the other cyclist who head that way.

Drawing pins

I did my usual non stop 70 mile loop in the company of fellow Wandsworth resident Mark Williams. On days like this it's best to keep going and keep warm. I suspect it's more a day the ducks prefer.

A day for the ducks

The Cat's Cross

This is what a certain SWRC member gets up to when left to own devices.

Today I went out with yet another group, the fourth in 2 weeks. The club is known as "La Cruz del Gato" The Cat's Cross. They meet under a cross similar to the Banbury Cross. It is next to the Mallorca football stadium called Son Moix which in Mallorquin means cat. They meet at 8:30 sharp on Saturdays.

Twenty one of us set off heading for the hills northwest of Palma. Esporles, La Granja, Coll Ses Grau (369mt), Puigpunyent, Galilea (402mt), es Capdellá, Coll n'Esteve (240mt), Coll de sa Coma (225mt).  Elevenses were at Andratx - beer, coke, water, lemonade, coffee and even liqueurs were drunk. My baguette sandwich, olives, beer and café con leche came to 4,50euro with the tip! They had to put me on my bike at the start of the return journey!

The group was a mixture of A's, B's and C's. I fitted with the B+s, so no improvement there! 7 climbs today, 103k, more pasta tonight and yet another group tomorrow! All in all today was much better than last Saturday's 160k and 100+ riders!

Sabin

Wet Grinstead

Spoke to Ken in the car park.

Cold.

Damp.

Punctures .

Have to clean the bike again.

Nick A

UCI GOLDEN BIKE

UCI Golden Bike Series
Event No 1 The Argus, Cape Town
In 2006 I completed the entire series; eight events in eight
countries: The first to do so and even
by the end of 2011, only nine riders worldwide have completed all events. It was when reviewing that situation, I
noticed that some events had been withdrawn, to be replaced by others, which
charged my enthusiasm in a way that encouraged me to try it again.
Events that have been withdrawn are the Amstel Gold NL, the
Felice Gimondi ITA and the Riderman Germany, having been replaced with La
Pinarello ITA, the Dragon Ride Wales and Lake Taupo New Zealand.
I have to confess that I am not in peak condition this
season but at least getting to South Africa was a bit easy for me this year;
plenty of free “air miles” to transport me to Cape Town; my sister and
brother-in-law with a spare bedroom situated on the course and a resident
nephew with a spare road bike (previously mine). So off to South Africa with
one small bag; a day of relaxation visiting and chatting with my fifteen
relatives; a few minutes adjusting the saddle and a couple of rides around Cape
Point on the Southern part of the course.
There was nothing much to concern me on the day of the event
either, regardless of the 34c heat; I’d done an acceptable time last year which
still counts for the series so I resolved to take it easy and finish without
stress. I started at 7:34 in the morning and found that the first ramp on to
the M3 highway had changed, due to the construction of Nelson Mandela
Boulevard. The ramp was quite shallow compared to the heart pounder of previous
years so I wasn’t puffing on Hospital Hill by the Groote Schuur Hospital.
Pretty uneventful the length of the M3: what a pleasure riding at a fair pace
on a smooth surfaced motorway closed to all other traffic. Next was the
diversion from the False Bay coast road along the very lumpy Boyes Drive on the
side of the central mountain range. Onwards through Simons Town. It was near
here, a friendly SWRC member, whom I didn’t know, passed me with cheery
greeting.
On to Millers Point and Smitswinkel at the start of the
climb to Cape Point Nature Reserve. No problems yet but I’d already stopped
twice to refill the bottles. Then there is a long descent through Scarborough,
Misty Cliffs to Ocean View along the Atlantic coast with a following wind. It
may have been somewhere here; I cannot remember clearly, I was caught by a
second club member, whom I also didn’t know. He was pleasantly chatty, “ do you
ride for the SWRC,” he asked. Not in the way you mean I replied, however I can
tell you that I first joined the club in 1952.
He was unimpressed and informed me that he had been cycling for three
years and rode with the ‘C’ group and sped off. That sets me firmly in ‘D’ I
thought. I think the heat was getting to me and I was feeling slightly drained.
Nearly 80kms had passed and I was approaching
Noordhoek where members of my family were usually by the roadside.
Negative thoughts were forming in my mind...
I stopped when I heard a niece (inlaw) calling my name. Chatted for a few minutes thinking of the
climb on Chapmans Peak ahead. After a couple of kms I passed a rider collapsed
on the road. Apparently he had feinted
and brought a couple of others down. There seemed to be some heated exchanges
as the medics lifted two of them into the ambulance. Their bikes could not be
put in the vehicle and that was that. There are always a lot of shifty
opportunist types moving about all over the course and it’s not a good idea to leave
a couple of carbon fibre mid range bikes lying by the roadside in the faint
hope that the ‘broom wagon’ will pick them up. I volunteered to stay with them
until I could find a responsible looking and willing spectator to stay with
them until the arrival of the Sweeper. It took 45mins to achieve this, which
for me was 45mins well spent: I had recovered and was now ready for the climb
on ‘Chappies’ as it is fondly known locally. It’s quite a grind for about five or six kms starting quite shallow but
gradually steepening towards the summit; I winched body and machine to the top,
passing many riders pushing or leaning on their bikes. More water at the top
followed by a long sweeping descent, a few flat kms before the final ‘killer’
Suikerbossie. Two kilometres of wide, wide highway rising straight up in front
at about 10 to 12%. Seering midday heat and no let up. Once again a long grind
in my lowest winch until cresting the summit with about 20kms of joy ahead to
the finish. Long fast sweeping descents, following breeze, huge crowds and that
wonderful feeling of rejuvenation knowing that soon it will be over and the
faster you can go the sooner that will be.
I won’t mention my time this year, as I don’t want to cause
hysteria in the club, but I might mention some general statistics: 32,500
official starters. 1,000 riders medically treated by the roadside, 100 hospital
cases; 29 serious, 2 heart attacks, neither fatal. The winner of the 110km
event was South African Reinardt Janse van Rensburg in 2h 36m 16s and the
ladies event was won by South African Ashleigh Moolman Pasio in 3h 01m 23s. The
oldest rider to finish was 92 years old Japie Malanat stoker on his 65 years
old son’s tandem in 5h 49m 00s. The son said,”we had trouble on the hills.”

(the picture on the left is a scan from the 'Cape Times' of the large numbers of the Hoy Polloy walking up Chapmans Peak! The picture on the left is me gasping near the summit of Suikerbossie)

did you know…..

that in 1961 ,way back ,when Sabin had barely left school ,when Colin Parkinson was just getting round to the true start of his life,a brave and clever gentleman ,called Derek,achieved a first -using a bicycle?. This is not a tale of a Southampton Wheelers member getting under the hour on a unicycle,or some such . No,this was a truly momentous event.

Derek Piggott became the first man since Icarus to take off and fly by his own unaided efforts.

Late in the afternoon of 9 November 1961, he climbed into theSouthampton University Man Powered Aircraft (Sumpac), a fragile creation resembling a large model plane with a bicycle underneath. Pedalling furiously,( think Ken Dolman just before the tea stop when he wants to be the front of the queue) to drive both wheels and propeller, he felt Sumpac lifting off for a flight of 64 metres at a precarious 1.8 metres above the runway at Lasham airfield.

Though short and, at about 20mph, very slow, this was a historic flight: previous pedalling pilots had flown but needed help to get airborne.

To see a recreation of this world recognised feat to mark the 50th anniversary see this clip on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRyyKQQtYqg

This,and the promise of a fine sunny day ,and without Trevor, our routemeister supreme ,having even been at the club quiz and receiving the benefit of Richard Post's aptly posed question,meant that our trip off to Lasham on saturday ,in place of Frensham ,was a fine choice.

The roads were dry but still we managed to attract a few punctures,largely courtesy of Trevor whose white tyres ( unfortunately black when he bought them second had off Derek Piggott) are now only good for a few thousand more miles.A pleasant ride out on roads that we are not so used to and before long we had the long drag up to the airfield which is situated at 540feet above sea level.

The lanes in Hampshire were quiet enough for a blissful hour after lunch when we rode two or three abreast and hardly saw a car as Trevor took us North ,past Lord Wandsworth's college where Johnny Wilkinson went to school ,to eventually skirt Aldershot.It was here that one of our group had a very unpleasant experience. It is not a common cyclists complaint but when it does strike a rider the shocking results are there for all to see.Yes,I speak of roundaboutitis. It took him a while to shake it off and despite Sabin -like pleas of "leave me ,leave me"-he managed to pull himself together as the effect of the perfidious road junction left him when all he had to face was the odd traffic light.Here we see one president talking to another-namely ours to the president of the Lasham Trust ,who invited us all to a ride in a Glider ,next time we came.It looks as tho the other president is desperately trying to pretend that he is deeply engrossed in his copy of Flying Today but of course our president is made of sterner stuff and carried on asking him if he knew what ratio Derek Piggott used.

I hope this gives an idea of why we like Lasham so much as a venue.A large ,airy ,club room which has ,by far the cheapest egg and beans on toast of anywhere we go to .Trevor is still smiling at the thought of it as we bid him goodbye over two hours later.

Here we see Trev showing John the menu and saying " You see! I told you! £1 for eggs ,beans on toast ,cake ,three cups of tea and a ride in glider ,the same price I paid Derek for those tyres in 1962"

Adam,Trev's 15 year old nephew,quite rightly admiring his very fine TT bike. He joined us in Farnham to ride through to Lasham.He is already a strong rider and was up with the front group on all the hills.
The president smiling even though he is not actually talking to someone at this moment.Could they be by any chance related?????
And saving the worst till last,yes ,I am sorry to have to remind you,but this is what his GP diagnosed to help the vein problem.He has no shame and here they are in all their glory.At least they match the bike I suppose.
A good day out,with 9 in the group, plus a couple of stray Lenthalls. 111 miles for those who rode out from Wandsworth.

Nick

Spring Day for the Spring Onion

For me the Spring Onion is a great early season test to see how the winter training has gone, and this year was no different. We arrived early and signed on without the need to queue, and then it was back to the cars to get ready. It was slightly chilly, but there was promise of partly cloudy and 14 later in the day. I secretly hoped that I wouldn't be riding too late in the day anyway.

We lined up at about 0905 for the briefing and release on the course. We all managed to get into one group: Myself, Steve Gordon, Andy Evans, James McMahon, and James Endicott. With my brother and my cousin in the line-up it was all to play for. We were soon out onto the roads and heading over leith hill via white down (the easy route). I pushed on and made a gap on the descent off Leith, but found myself caught on the way down to Wisborough Green, and James Endicott rode up onto my shoulder looking relaxed. We managed to mix it up with a few other riders down to Bedham Hill, but this climb really sorted the men from the boys and James and I came out the other side on our own and chasing down a group of 6 riders ahead of us. We pulled passed and onto the front (it's only fair) and when I called a 'shift-change' I was expecting the usual Sportive abuse, but with 4 London Dynamo riders in the group we were soon moving well in a chaingang.

As we approched Plaistow, I spotted an SWRC rider in the distance we pulled along side and I put my hand on the shoulder of Matt Scholes (2011 sam's Tankard Trophy winner). I invited him to join us, which he did and it wasn't until we had been round 3 or 4 times that I realised he wasn't in the spring onion and we'd caught him out on a sunday ride (aka secret training). It was very good of him to take shifts and he stuck with us until Dunsfold.

The pace continued into Bramley where a roundabout caused a split, and James and I were gone. By Albury, the dynamos were back on us and we worked to Coombe Bottom. I admitted to James I was toast and he should not wait if he felt strong (and boy did he!). I descended hard from Coombe a few mph higher than normal, but the miles had taken their toll and my legs were burning. I came across the line in 3h 32:50 which was good enough for 3rd fastest of the day (just one second ahead of the dynamos). James took fastest ride of the day in 3h 30:58.

I know there was a reasonable turnout from SWRC at the onion, but for my little group of 5 riders, no mechanicals, no punctures and everyone performed well on a reasonable spring day.

>50

It was blowing a gale and rained all the way around but I thought better to get out in it then prevaricate, I almost enjoyed my first ride as a 50 year old but truth be told I would have given it a miss on almost any other day.

7 March 2012 Birthday boy fifty years young

I finally get to start on a zero

Fiona and I took the day off and went to Birmingham on the train for the day, to do a bit of shopping and go to the Icon gallery for a bit of culture.

SWRC quiz

Seven teams made it to the club room tonight for the annual club quiz.
3rd place 54pts Dream team
2nd place 57pts Epsom Express
Winners 61pts. Fetcham Flyers
Thankyou to Richard Post for organising the evening and being question master.

Anyone can dance

A free app for the iphone :)

Tuesday

We bumped into Brian at Camilia today.

Born Again!

I never stopped being a 'cyclist' I just stopped riding my bike! How did that happen?

I started my fourth decade as an unfit eighteen stone former bike rider who could not go out with his non-cycling mates and not get dropped while still feeling like inside I was that lad who "Raced a bit when I was younger"
It took me a couple of years to get my head around the work/life balance that would allow me to get back on my bike, there had been years when I had hardly touched my bike but in 2004 I managed to log 3842 regular miles a couple of times a week.  The following year as the weight came off I accumulated a better 8297 and my weight came under fourteen stone the target I had set myself to start racing, I raced from mid season, improved from a 4th cat! to a third and there seems to be the word 'Bunch' in my results diary allot! I did a short 59' for '25' and inside 23' for '10' but the battle was over and the war had begun. I did 9345 miles in 2006 for my first attempt at the BBAR and the subsequent (2007)13,318 - (2008)13,777 - (2009)12,723  were my big mileage years as I pounded the roads five and six days a week in the search for greater fitness and faster times. But in the last couple of seasons (2010)10,647 - (2011)10,885 has seen me doing less but more quality (more rest days) in an effort to refine my training

A brief line up of my BBAR  certificates from the past five seasons, I have decided to take it a  bit more easy this year so I thought this would be a good time to  reflect on what I have done over the past few seasons. All above 25mph for the combined best '50' '100' and 12 Hour ride of the year, a couple of Age related Gold medals for the National 12 Hour
In the VTTA competitions I'm still woefully uncompetitive (too young!) on the 3 distance ('25' '50' & '100') competition but crept up the 4 distance ('25' '50'  '100' & 12Hr.) attaining 5th this year to go with 8th (2010), 9th (2009), 7th (2008) and 12th (2007)

2011 - 16th Position - 1:47:52/3:52:20/281.63m

2010 - 19th Position  - 1:50:38/3:47:39/259.85m

2009 - 11th Position 1:48:04/3:46:20/276.50m

2008 - 15th Position - 1:48:34/3:45:55/263.43m

2007 - 18th Position 1:51:31/3:51:11/267.33m

I have one other for 2006 (my first) - 23.428mph for 55th position 1:58:03/4:09:08/249.45m but I think five years in the top twenty in the country is something to be proud of as I enter my fifth decade. I still plan to do a bit of racing but with the BBAR there is a committment to train at a level that can become a little tiresome and the need to  travel and race every week also takes the fun out of being a 'born again biker'.

Paris - Nice

lol othg crossing at Warnham last Tuesday :)

Westerham

Trevor, the Alexander-Dennis Routemaster

Richard, training hard to be first home at the Spring Onion sportive

John, struggling over the pave

Nick riding in imediate colours

Matt , Team Rapha.

The day didn’t start off very well for me. I was just heading out to meet up with Sabin & Nick and I heard that pssssss – silence – psssss – silence – psssss coming from my front wheel. Yes it looked like a puncture and as I turned the wheel around I noticed a load of white bubbles, emanating from the surface of the tyre. What to do, shall I go back inside and try and find another wheel, pump it up, find out it doesn’t quite fit, spend time adjusting the brakes, then text the boys to say don’t bother waiting for me. No, I thought. Just suppose I was miles from anywhere instead, and not just outside my front door. What would I do then? And with no further to do, off I set, hoping the tyre would hold out and that the magic liquid inside would actually do “what it says on the tin” and seal itself. I met Sabin & Nick at the usual point in Morden, (Did you know the Redmon cycling club got their name from an anagram of Morden). We then picked up Matt, who, although has moved to east London, still gets the train over to ride with us on occasions. Mind you I didn’t immediately recognise him from behind as I thought we had caught one of the Rapha squad out on a training ride. Climbing up to Headley we caught up with Tony Sayers and a cheered on all the cyclist doing the Ball-buster duathlon, some of which were going exceedingly slow for a race. We were late arriving at Betchworth and we were soon heading off south for a loop around Crawley and then back northward to Westerham for our stop at the Tudor Rose tearoom. After the last couple of week when the weather had been warm and dry, it was a shame to have to stop and get the wet weather gear out of our back pockets because the rain looked as if it was set in for the rest of the day. After and hour or so my top was just as wet on the inside as out and my thought changed to what delight I was going to enjoy when I eventually got home. Was it to be a hot bath or a hot drink first, or just to get out of all these wet clothes? We had a puncture but concidering the conditions it could have been more and my tyre was managing to stay inflated so I didn’t even bother trying to put any air into it. By the time we reach the north downs and the climb up Crockham hill, the rain had subsided and I was now looking forward to a little rest and a bite to eat. From here I had planned a quick route back into sarf London along lanes that took us into West Wickham and then over Crystal Palace for a creditable 85 mile ride. As for the front tyre, it held up and only dropped to 85 psi. Will I be continuing to use tubeless clinchers tyres. YES. This is the first puncture I’ve had since fitting them last May and that’s about 7,000 miles.

Review of the Year - 2011

A bit of a delay in my review of the year but I only just got my placing for my VTTA BAR position as they have been enacting some changes for 2012 and like any organisation run on goodwill and unpaid volunteers support there are only so many hours to complete such radical overhaul of the (Age related) Standards but it has been thorough and wide ranging after years of discussion but as it goes to the core what the VTTA was set up for they have taken their time

Well here it is in B & W I don’t think I quite left myself enough room to do myself justice in the BBAR in the end with a later start to the season and  no buffer and always having to perform on the day of specific events, It makes for a stressful time, OK for one event but when every event has pressure then you tend to under perform (at least in your mind) as there is allot at stake
Still fifth year in a row in the top 20 of the season long BBAR (18th/15th/11th/19th) and 16th this year, with a mere 0.043 mph separating me from another top 12 finish, that would have been a 31 second improvement in my final ‘50’ (the Severn RC) but I fell short by a couple of minutes. It will remain in the If’s and buts’ column, so it is with life. I made my major mistake and messed it up in the BDCA ‘100’ two weeks before when all I had to do was get inside 3:50 and I had an off day; my first year outside 3:50 for a five years but there’s always a weak link.
Best ride of the year and probably since my comeback would be the 12 Hour in the Breckland event in Suffolk, my second PB and club record in eight days. After the PB ‘50’ in the BDCA the previous Sunday  but a much better ride and consolation for the cancelled event last year when I was on a similar ride. It might have been even better but I think when you do something for the first time then it’s special and I almost feel like I’d done it first last year and this was just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, the record books will not show it like that but when you get to 180 miles and still have 4 ¾ hours to go then you know you are going to break 280 miles and the final 100 were almost a release or at least a relief after the disappointment of last year albeit some nervous ones as the time slipped by but I was more than happy with my more than 5 mile improvement 4th overall and only 3rd Vet on the day, the winner Jeff Jones of course broke Wilco’s comp record with 305.51 (by 3 miles) but improved his PB by over 2mph! (Nearly 25 miles!!) to go out so far into the unknown in only his second attempt at the distance takes bravery and courage and for this reason alone makes it my ride of the year. Wilco’s own demolition of his own 24 Hr. record comes a close second, we have seen him do these kind of things before and I suppose we can be a bit blasé about it but there were some truly inspirational rides this year
This ride also sees my first appearance on the Timetrialforum.co.uk Forum’s ‘Fastest of all time’ list, arbitrary I know but its good to be recognised for doing a good ride in the context of your peers and history will show if it stands the test of time. Puts me in some pretty exalted company and while you cannot compare apples with pears still 35th fastest of all time has a nice ring to it, Scott Povey who had a similar distance in the ECCA event (rounded down to 281.40) after a 3:44 first ‘100’ which makes my 4:06 sound slow but my next ‘100’ was 4:08 which was excellent and I had nothing left for the finish
I rode all the events that the BBAR winner rode and he gave me a sound thrashing in all of them so I can’t say I didn’t have the same conditions and some had it worse but generally there were a lot of fast times this year at all three BBAR distances that is the way with the BBAR you have to take the rough with the smooth and the result only tells half the story (as usual)
Just to mention here I tend to go best in events where there is a fairly even split of effort across the race but the one event that amazed me this year and quite a few other riders was the other club record in the BDCA ‘50’ on the out and home A50. On a day that was blowing a gale my splits were 57:48/49:56 which was not even at all but still a PB. The winner that day was Jeff Jones with the seasons best 1:39:08 and his splits were 53:09/45:54 which means that he took more time out of me on the faster section than the harder leg to the turn (and one of my 5m splits coming back was 8:29 – that’s 35.36 mph Av! Can you imagine the speed of the man?)
I think a lot of riders were taken by surprise by Dr Jones and there was a very good battle for the top 6 positions with them all within 0.8mph, and Jeff going 1.785mph faster (up from 5th last year) and recording the third best Average of all time 28.023mph Last years champion Julian Jenkinson slipping a place even though his speed went up over 0.58mph and my namesake Derek Parkinson making the biggest leap up the table from 11th to 3rd. Andy Bason slipped a couple of places to 4th even going 0.73mph faster
I struggled in the early part of the year, work and play not mixing well and did not do a ‘solid’ ride until the May BH when I did back to back 1:54:21 in the Manchester Whs. ‘50’ on the Sat and then on the Monday 4:11:18 (4:08:06 ride time as my saddle came loose and I had to stop) in the Anfield ‘100’ in bitterly wet and cold conditions. The Man Whs ‘50’ was another badly ‘split’ event but this time with 50:10 going out and 1:4:12 coming home but I knew I was riding the ‘100’ two days later so I did not kill myself coming home, like some did, to amazing effect once again on the A50 but this time from the other end and making this course one of the most bomb proof of courses even on windy days.
I rode the National ‘25’ ‘50’ & ‘100’ and did dismal rides in all of them. I even packed at half way to justify all the expense and Fi’s presence in the ‘100’ with no form at all, when the eyes are on you and nowhere to hide but hard to take and I thought I was doing myself more psychological than physical damage at that stage but that is the state you get yourself in.
In Early June I was top 20 (on time) in the National VTTA ‘25’ at Newmarket with 53:49 and then a couple of weeks later my fastest of the year 52:54 in the S Pennine on the A50, Bottrill won it with 47:33 What a boy! He pushed Hutchinson close in the Nat ‘25’ & ‘50’ but then lost out in the BTTC, which I entered but did not ride as it was the day after the BDCA ‘100’ and I was in a depression again but I was the seeded rider in my age group and I was loathed not to ride it but by that time in the season I’d had enough of beating myself up. Bottrill had to modify his position to make it UCI legal (so I’m told – lost him 25W)
After several visits to Hull to try and break the Club 10 record I did finally manage a PB in late July with a 20 second improvement 20:16, those that know a thing or two about the conditions (which were again windy!) made it 45-60 seconds slow on the day and I was within 2 minutes of the winner Hutch who could only manage 18:25 so hope for the future
So that just about sums it up, I managed 21:21 in the late season Echelon ‘10’ but this time on a 100” fixed only a second off 3rd place probably my highest place of the year (I was 5th = 3rd was tied on 21:20) and the Severn RC ’50’ where I recorded 1:49:40 for 7th
I will be top 5 in the National VTTA BAR 4 Distance (25/50/100/12) with Plus 6.78mph as only Platts and Jenkinson faster this year but I hear that man Dr Jones has joined but it takes a bit of time for these things to sort themselves out and fastest (on time) in my group the Nottingham & E Midlands 3 Distance BAR (25/50/100) but probably only 4th again on plus 7.062mph as I have 80 year old Ron Hallam in my group and he can still get under the hour!

Andy Hicks ran me close in the Club BAR (see below), if it was worked out on +Plus (time) then he beats me but the BAR calculated on +Av. mph above your Std. (time) so this favours the younger man but things are changing and there is a new set of Standards which favour the younger riders in the shorter distance events for 2012 so I should not have to wait until I’m 70 to win on Standard so I encourage all to get out there and give it a go!