Dave Grundy
Dave was a long time member of Ratae Road Club - some might even say he was Ratae Road Club. Many members will already know that Dave, just 70, was tragically knocked off his bike and killed on Wednesday 19th November on the A5199 near Shearsby. Dave was a good friend of Welland Valley – he instigated the interclub challenge with Ratae and was always happy to help us out with marshalling or time keeping if we needed him – especially at events near Gilmorton where he lived.
Many of us have been shocked and deeply upset by Dave’s death – not least because so many of us ride so often along that road. I have sent condolences on behalf of the club to his wife and will e mail club members when I have details of the funeral arrangements.
New members
We welcome Andrew Weatherby, Matt Crabtree and David Bentley.
Winter leg stretchers
Don’t forget the Boxing Day Ten – 10am at Kibworth, with soup and mince pies at Chez Birch to follow.
The club’s reliability trial is on Sunday January 25th , this year on a new, improved 100km route devised by Phil Rayner. More details to follow.
It’s your club – are we providing what you want?
The number of club members taking part in this year’s Tuesday night time trials and Sunday club championship events has been significantly smaller than in the last few seasons. The committee is concerned about this – concerned that this is happening while our membership continues to grow.
Is the club meeting the needs of most of its members?
Is there something wrong with our time trial courses?
Increasing numbers of members are riding sportives – could we do more to support these riders?
It is a subject on the agenda for committee meeting on December 15th and it would help inform our discussion if we could take into account the views of as many club members as possible.
If you have a views on why there has been this decline and how the club could better serve you, please either e mail me your ideas before December 15th or, if you would like to come along to the meeting to make your point, please e mail me at dave@betula.myzen.co.uk .
Tour de France 2008
There are still places available for the club trip to the Tour de France, this time breaking new ground by staying in the Vosges in NE France from Wednesday July 15th to Monday July 20th watching the stage from Vittel to Colmar. The tour goes through Munster, which is a very easy ride (downhill) from the hotel. Munster is the home of a most formidable cheese and the main street has the most punishing cobbles I’ve ever had the misfortune to ride over on a bike – I presume that the tour route will avoid it. The countryside, towns and villages in the area are very attractive and, unlike riding in the Alps, it’s possible to have an easy day’s riding – eastward into Alsace it’s pan flat. If you haven’t booked yet, contact Chris Hyde on 07866 738912, e mail chrisatforge2002@yahoo.co.uk , or Phil Rayner on 07973479788, e mail philrayner157@hotmail.com
Annual Club Dinner and Prize Presentation
This year it’s at the Three Swans in Market Harborough on Saturday 17th January. Tickets, price £25, are going like hot cakes – if you haven’t got one yet, Wayne Holton’s your man – ring him on 07736 844473.
Calling all club trophy holders
If you were awarded a trophy at last year’s club dinner and haven’t yet returned it, please take it along to George Halls Cycle Centre. We need them back for engraving.
New club kit
Having seen the Whizz kids in their new kit I have been very much looking forward to the arrival of my order. It’s now arrived and doesn’t disappoint. I think it is very smart and it fits well. The zip pocket in the back of the skin suit is a very good idea – room for inspirational literature to read while you’re waiting at the start and for apparatus so that you can listen to inspirational music before and during the race, with a little space left over for a few sandwiches. If you’ve ordered and haven’t collected, not ordered and want to place an order, or want to see if there’s any of the old pattern kit at knock down prices in your size, contact Claire Waterfield as soon as possible.
Performance
I’ll start with something new for this section, namely Ironman Triathlon. Stuart Fry chose the very tough Lanzarote event in May for his first effort and finished in a creditable 13hrs 2mins. Stuart then spent the summer training for the Ironman UK at Sherborne in September and knocked 95 minutes off his previous best to finish in 11.27. Exactly 10 minutes behind was Graeme Hall – congratulations to both. The event consisted of a 3.9km open water swim, a 180km cycle and a 42km run.
In August, Gaye and John Taylor’s performance in the Merida TransWales 7day off road race was truly fantastic. Racing as a pair they completed the 550km race, with 15,500ms of climbing in 46hrs 47minutes to take 11th place.
Several riders have completed sportives over the season, both at home and abroad. Nick Clarke has completed at least four. New members Andrew Weatherby and Matt Crabtree are devotees. Tom Beynon completed the Marmotte, with its finish on Alpe d’Huez. I’m sure there are lots more but they tend to hide their sportiving lights beneath bushels.
Congratulations to Vic Barnett for once again sweeping the board at the Huntsman World Masters Games in Utah – winning 3 different mountain biking categories.
Each successive press report seems to mention a rider trying cyclo-cross for the first time – and they clearly enjoy it as they’re back in the results the next week. Keith Sperry has established himself as one of the very best veteran riders in the Midlands and it goes without saying that Vic Barnett is leading his age group in the National Series. Lisa Parsons was delighted for herself and for the club to win her first ‘cross’ race and it was fittingly in the club’s Misterton event in October. Gaye Taylor and Jill Postlethwaite represented the East Midlands and Lisa Parson the Southwest in the Interregional Cyclo-cross Championships at Husbands Bosworth. Taking in their race numbers after the event they looked as if they’d spent an afternoon bog snorkeling rather than cycling. John Taylor, Graham Atkins and Adrian Killworth are regular performers – Adrian’s chewing gum must get very gritty in ‘cross’ races.
Back to road riding – Gavin Hinxman has finally achieved a PB for 25 miles and Colin Griffiths was 2nd on actual times and 3rd on standard times in the Rudy Project time trial series. Only false modesty would stop me mentioning my 3rd place in my age group in the British Time Trial Championships. Phil Rayner was the runaway winner of the LVRC Percy Stallard road race series and it was great to see Phil and Colin Griffiths each win their age category in Nick Barnett’s Fleche Waltonne event.
Congratulations to David Clarke for his total domination of the club championship – and failing to win the hill climb leaves him with something to work on for next season!
Linda Hubbard’s time trialling, ever since she stopped taking advice from me, has gone from strength to strength – in the last newsletter I mentioned her 25minute ‘10’. She has now bettered that with a ‘24’.
On time trialling
No sooner had I decided to write this piece that I looked at Colin Griffiths’ blog and read his musings on time trials on country roads and this was followed closely by a piece in similar vein in Cycling Weekly.
Many time triallists spend their cycling life chasing the elusive personal best – this is liable to involve travelling the length and breadth of the country to events on busy, flat dual carriageway roads (the busier the better, ideally with lots of coaches and wagons), preferably with a long 1in 6 slope down hill from the start that you don’t have to climb to the finish. This doesn’t guarantee the PB – you also need a warm, calm and slightly overcast day. So you get your PB – as do most other riders in the event. What good is that?
Well it is some good – if you are male and want to ride the National 10 or the National 25, both of which are likely to be oversubscribed, riders are chosen according to their fastest times. There are always places for women in Nationals – even if you only ever ride your time trials in a long, flowing skirt and riding a ‘sit up and beg’ bike, though of course with an aero helmet.
If you’re ‘fast time obsessed’ I’m not going to convince you of what’s to follow – heaven knows, I’ve tried! I’m really aiming at riders new to time trialling, and the open minded!
Time trialling, I believe is about beating other riders, not about times. If you go fast, so do most other people. If you go slowly, so does most of the field. However if you know most of the riders in the race, especially those who are of a similar standard to yourself, your aim is to beat their time – this way there’s a challenge on any course, whatever the conditions. It’s about you responding to the course and conditions better than your ‘opponents’ – and I use that word advisedly. How do you get to know the opposition? – ride a series – locally there’s the Northants and District series of 10 time trials over the season, the Leicestershire series and, if you want to travel, there’s the national Rudy Project series. While there’s hardly a cycling equivalent of ‘apres ski’ at time trials, even at ones that are part of a series, most riders wait for all of the results to come in, and even chat to one another – which seldom happens at an open event on the further reaches of the A1 – even if they are friendlier ‘up north’.
Finally there’s the question of whether it’s better to time trial out and back along busy dual carriageways or whether it’s better to ride circuit courses in the countryside on minor roads with features to provide variety like hills and corners - our club courses at Sulby and Clipston would be typical (though each contains a short section of A road). I’m sure that courses like this are the future of time trialling – not least because of ever increasing traffic volumes on dual carriageway trunk roads. Northants and District and Rudy Project courses avoid busy main roads.
Coaching bits
I’m aware of not having produced any words of coaching wisdom in this newsletter – got the ideas but not the time at the moment. Lest some of you fear drifting through your cycling winter like a rudderless ship, I’ll get something written in the next week or two that will turn you into a cycling superstar for next season and will e mail it out.
Dave Birch