WELLAND VALLEY
CYCLING CLUB NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER 2009
New members
We welcome Aileen Collins, Paula Fletcher, Ian May, Trevor Shelley, Jack and Lucy Hall, Sally Etheridge, Robert, Karl and Natasha Watson, Nathan Adams and Frazer Halcrow.
Club Dinner and Prize Presentation
The Annual Club Dinner and Prize Presentation will take place on Saturday 16th January 2010. The prestigious event will be held at the Three Swans, Market Harborough.
I am currently waiting to sign a superb guest of honour, negotiations are at a crucial stage.
Further details to be released shortly.
Dean Barnett
Winter riding
Through the winter we provide a range of rides.
Sunday club runs from The Square, Market Harborough are now underway, leaving at 9.30am. Rides so far have been of between 50 and 70 miles, taking between 3hrs 30mins and 4hrs 30mins, including café stop. Routes are currently posted each week in the ‘news’ section of the website. For further details, contact Matt Plews, club captain – see ‘contacts’ section of website.
If you are a new member and have not previously been a club cyclist you would be well advised to contact Gaye Taylor, new members liaison officer, who organises beginners’ rides. Gaye’s contact details are in the ‘contacts’ section of the website.
Grant Warwick is organising monthly Saturday morning social rides from Misterton Hall, near Lutterworth. These rides should be within the range of new, inexperienced riders. Dates are on the website and for further details contact Grant on 01858 880677 or E mail grantwarwick1@btinternet.com .
Every Saturday afternoon, John Taylor organises an off-road ride. Details are on the club website – in the ‘rides’ section. Click on ‘Saturday MTB rides’.
Dean Barnett leads floodlit off-road skills training behind Market Harborough Leisure Centre every Tuesday at 7pm. At the start of February, this will change to road racing skills training and will be held on the business park opposite the Leisure Centre. Dean’s contact details are on the website in the ‘contacts’ section.
Don’t forget too that there are spinning classes at Harborough and Lutterworth Leisure Centres. Richard Stannard runs classes at Lutterworth specifically for cyclists and seems to run them at all hours of the day and night.
If you’re competitive and like mud, think cyclo cross racing – there’s the Notts and Derby League on Saturdays and the West Midlands League on Sundays. You’ll find WellandValley riders competing in both of these leagues.
And of course there’s the club Boxing Day Ten Mile time trial at Kibworth on December 26th at 10.00am. Whatever your state of mind or body, this could be the event for you. We regularly attract a wide range of riders – at one end of the spectrum the bloated and hungover to, at the other, the frighteningly fit wanting to test out how their winter training is going.
Performance
Pride of place must go to our two national champions. Colin Griffiths won the 50-55 age group category in the British Time Trial Championships – this is serious time trialling on winding, rolling roads, not riding out and back along flat, straight dual carriageways, being towed along by the combined forces ofEddie Stobart and Norbert Dentresangle.
Phil Rayner won the 45-50 category of the League of Veteran Cyclists Road Race Championships. It was especially pleasing that the race was on home turf so there were lots of club members there to cheer him on and witness his success. The sight of Phil appearing alone and clear of the rest of the field at the top of that horrible finish hill near Walton will stay long in my mind.
There have been some phenomenal performances on the Sportive front this year, none more-so than on Mont Ventoux. I wasn’t aware when of the immensity of these performances when I mentioned them in the August newsletter. Bill made his 3 ascents of Mt.Ventoux, the classic route from Bedoin plus the routes from Malaucene and Sault in a total elapsed time of 8hrs. Andrew Weatherby and Matt Crabtree did the climbs in a total time of 8hrs 30. All are now members of the exclusive Club des Cingles du Mont Ventoux (which roughly translates as 'Club of the Madmen of Mont Ventoux'). Only madmen, and very fit ones at that would attempt such a feat in a single day.
We seem to be producing more cyclo crossers each year thanks in no small part to Dean Barnett’s hard work and encouragement. Lisa Parsons and Chloe Parrington are having great seasons in both local and national events. I notice that Erin Billington is rapidly climbing up through the ranks too and Vic Barnett continues to amaze.
It was great to see that Andrew Wood, Adrian Killworth and Dean Barnett contested the Three Peaks Race in September and that Dean has lost none of his descending skills. I think it’s about time Dean was a bit more selfish about his cycling – spending a bit more time on regaining his ascending skills and a little less on improving everyone else’s riding.
Preparing for next season
Go on! Make the break into riding open events.
We’ve lots of riders performing heroically in sportives at all levels and riders, even novices, seemingly have no fear of entering these because it is well known that, from their outset, they catered for all abilities.
Riders know that our club events, both time trials or circuit races also cater for all abilities, so there’s no fear of disgracing oneself and coming in half and hour after the rest of the field – and it is great to see that members enter in droves.
Open races are no more the preserve of the super rider than club events but they do give you a chance to compete against different riders on different courses and at different times on different days.
I am concentrating here just on how to enter open races.
Firstly, how do you know what races there are?
For time trials, you can see all the events on the CTT (Cycling Time Trials) website and you don’t need a licence. The course, the headquarters, the organiser’s name and telephone no. are shown – and that, annoyingly, is not quite enough. You need the organiser’s address – you could phone and ask for it, but you’d be better off buying a CTT handbook which gives all the details you require. I shall be making a bulk order in the near future – if you would like me to order you a copy (price £7.50), let me know asap (0116 2792756 or dave@betula.myzen.co.uk ).
You then need an entry form – even if it’s an open event being organised by WellandValley. Download the application form from the CTT website – click on ‘site map’, then on ‘forms and guidance notes’, then on ‘entry forms’. If you are under 18 you need a parental consent form completed – that comes on back of the entry form. You’re asked your best time for time trials at different distances – if you don’t have fastest times that won’t matter – just write NPP (no previous performance). The entry form must reach the organiser 10 days before the event – the cut off date is always the Tuesday of the week before the event. Entry fees vary between £6.50 and £8.00.
For road and circuit races, you need a licence. There are a number of ways you can get a licence. You can buy a day licence for an individual event. This will cost you £10 per event if you are not a member of British Cycling. If you have not previously been a member of British Cycling you can get free ‘Bronze Membership’ if you are a senior or veteran, and free ‘Silver Membership’ if you under 16 (see later message from Dean Barnett, your friendly BC representative). With bronze membership you can get a day licence for £5 per event. If you are going to concentrate on road racing it’s worth buying a racing licence that will last you for the season – see British Cycling website for prices.
All open events and are listed along with contact details of organisers on the British Cycling website. As with time trialling, it’s best to get a racing calendar and you can get one of these along with one of the higher categories of British Cycling membership.
To be sure of getting entry for a race you need to complete an entry form and get it to the organiser at least 3 weeks before the race, however you can usually get a race if you send in your entry a week ahead of the race and in most races you can ‘enter on the line’ i.e. turn up on the day and get a race if there are spaces.
For some races, you don’t need to enter in advance – all entries are ‘on the line’. Locally this applies to circuit races at MalloryPark and at Milton Keynes Bowl. As with time trials, Under 18s need a parental consent form completed. Juvenile riders can’t race on open roads but are eligible to race on closed circuits.
You can download an entry form from the BC website. On the home page, scroll down to ‘Explore British Cycling’, then click on ‘Sport – Home’. Then click on ‘Road’, then scroll down to ‘Road Entry Forms’ and click again, then hey presto! Junior riders need to have parental consent form completed –again it’s on the back of the entry form
Road races are more expensive – they range mainly from £10 to £15 – they’re more costly to organize. The prize list is usually better than for time trials though, and you do generally get more miles of racing for your money.
If you’re over 40 you may prefer to consider racing under the auspices of the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists. This comes much cheaper – see the LVRC website. You race in age category – 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, and so on. At the front end of the race in each category the standard is high – Phil Rayner very comfortably holds his own with BC 1st category riders, but the pace is more gentle further back. It is also quite acceptable to race out of category. There’s no reason why a novice 40 year old can’t ride with the 60-64s – it’s often done.
British Cycling Membership
FREE MEMBERSHIP FOR NEW MEMBERS IN BC CLUBS
With the WellandValley being affiliated to British Cycling we are entitled to a number of free memberships for those club members wanting to join British Cycling for the FIRST TIME.
You can join British Cycling at Silver level (if under 16years) or Bronze level (if over 16years).
More details from Dean Barnett, your friendly BC representative.
New courses for club time trials
Bill Barrie has devised new courses for 2010 for the two early season hard rides and for one of the ten mile series.
The first March hard ride will go from Medbourne to Stockerston, then to Horninghold, Hallaton and back to Medbourne.
The second one follows the route of the first round to the eastern edge of Horninghold and then takes the left turn back up to the Medbourne-Stockerston road. It then goes left to Stockerston, back to Horninghold, then to Hallaton and finishes in Medbourne.
The new ten mile course, likely to be used in May, will start in Thorpe Langton then goes to Welham, Weston by Welland and then left onto the B664. The road bears left north of Ashley and crosses the Welland valley. Take first left then first left again to Slawston. Go through Slawston and turn left to pass through Cranoe and past the turn to Stonton Wyville. Take the next left to Church Langton and the finish is on the hill up to Church Langton.
With increasing numbers of junior and juvenile riders taking part in time trials, as well as an ever rising toll of serious accidents on main roads, we are looking to moving as many of our courses as possible onto quiet country roads.
Misterton Madness Cyclo-Cross
Massive thanks to Club members and friends who contributed to a successful days racing at Misterton Hall.
Special mention to George Halls Cycles and Dawes cycles for supporting the Under 10's and 12's event.
£260 was donated to Misterton Hall Trust and the club made a healthy profit mainly due to the sterling efforts selling refreshments.
Dean Barnett
Dave Birch 25.11.09