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by Rob Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:18 am
So, shall I go first then?
Not sure I know the full picture about who was doing what. I do know that there were several Saturday clubrun groups out on the road - would be good to hear about it.

Kit came in 16th in the Bikeline 2 Day - should be lots to write about there!

Up in Stokesley on Sunday we had the strange situation of Clifton riders competing in a TT and RR at the same time on (partly) the same roads and sharing comradely shouts of encouragement. In the 21 mile test, Nigel was 8th, Andy Jonno 14th, Nick B 16th and Steve Woody 23rd. It sounded like a good course. How was it?

The RR was a h/cap affair with Phil B starting with the 4ths, me with the 3rds and Muzzy with the 2nds. There was some heroic leg breaking, lung busting chasing done as the big groups split in the cross winds and, ultimately, after showing the colours at the front (of the various groups) for much of the race, we all finished as part of a very strung out second group, less than a minute down on the winner. For me personally it was interesting return to racing - enjoyed the buzz at the HQ - the familiar smell of embrocation and hiss of inhalers! It was like I'd never been away!
Last edited by Rob on Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

by Willy H Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:52 pm
My biking weekend was a bit different from most, I imagine.

For a start there were 3 weekend days. Highly to be recommended.

The mileage covered in those three days came to about 750 miles (no kidding), but of this 90% was bike on train, and just about 10% bike on roads in Norfolk, London and Surrey.

Total time on trains: 10 1/2 hours (67 mph ave)

Total time on bike about: 6 hours (12.5 ave)

Number of pages of book read: 380 (The Unnatural history of the Sea)

Hours of dozing on train: about 3

Number of Hunters sailing yachts launched: 19

(see www.huntersyard.co.uk)

Overall enjoyment rating: 10/10

by Helen Mon Mar 10, 2008 4:29 pm
Our weekends riding didn't quite compare to either Willy's or Robs

As usual our chance to get away was on the worst day weather wise but unlike lasts week MTB puncture fest we took the road bikes out round the Hawardian Hills and actually got to keep warm riding.
4 hours riding with a hard headwind home had us both feeling we had a good work out.So much so I even gave in to weakness and we took the car to Tescos and got to wave to Kevin's group in the car park.
Nick even managed a short MTB ride on Sunday through Escrick with Alice and Corisa. A heavy horse charging past you can do wonders for your bike handling.

Helen

by barberj Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:00 pm
I was out with Jason Drake riding round the Wolds for three hours on Saturday morning including a trip up the hill climb from Bishop Wilton. I hoped to go and look at the NYMBO event whilst we were over there but unfortunately ran out of time and brownie points as we had a 12noon deadline to be back for. Certainly had that headwind problem coming home!

by HowardD Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:58 pm
Kevin's Saturday ride was divided into 3 parts this week. I took a small group to Beadlam, Bernard (el presidente) guided the majority to Raskelf and Kevin took the remainder to, I think, Knaresborough. Highlight of the day for me was the delicious lunch at Beadlam Grange. We even had to wait for a table so popular is this establishment becoming.
On Sunday, I presented myself at the square at 09:00 ready to lead the club run, along a route kindly provided by Kevin, to Osmotherley. I was met by Dave C and, er, no one else. Nevertheless we set off and had a superb day. The weather was glorious and the scenery inspiring; I even found climbing White Horse Bank almost enjoyable in parts. We rattled (or at least Dave C's Cervelo seemed to, whereas my Madone just made swift, silent progress :lol: ) through Hawnby and arrived at "Chequers” just outside Osmotherley shortly before noon. I quickly parked my bike, took off my helmet and then promptly smacked my head hard against the quaintly archaic small sized doorway. The irony of this was not lost on me. I compensated for my throbbing head by indulging myself in a repast comprising of a home-made patty of minced beef sandwiched between bread and accompanied by pommes de terre frites, aka burger 'n' chips!
On leaving Osmotherley we found ourselves having to negotiate a ford which looked distinctly "iffy" to me - fast moving water quite a few inches deep running over slimy greenish cobblestones. I therefore let Dave go first and when, amazingly to me, he didn't come to any harm I gingerly made my own way across. We then had a few hundred yards of the A19 to navigate which proved much less daunting than I'd anticipated and we subsequently wound our way home via Kepwick and Sutton under Whitestonecliffe.
A great day and a route which I'd like to repeat again soon.

by nickb Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:14 pm
For me, the TT couldn't have been over any sooner! I made a big mistake-eating too much before the start resulting in an excrutiating stitch and i could barely breath! I never recovered!

Apart from learning my lesson big time it was a good course and fairly fast, the A172 was surprisingly quiet which was a releif. Good season opener.

Rob, where did you get those TT positions from??

by Andy J Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:17 pm
My first open time trial saw myself and three other Clifton riders up at Stokesley as mentioned by Rob. It was a great course with a mixture of everything, slow draggy climbs into the wind, fast A road section, more climbs and a few miles of tight twisty roads. Weather conditions were good with the wind not hampering progress too much, I even surprised myself placing 14th.

After my ride I had twenty minutes or so to kill before Nige finished his ride, so I ventured over to the road race to cheer on the lads. Looked to be a very healthy turnout indeed. Rob looked to be enjoying himself leading his bunch through the start finish, was there any farmers out cutting the hedges on the course like last week?

Now the race season has just started, would it be worth having a spreadsheet on the site to show who intends riding what, could be usefull for arranging lifts etc?

by Andy J Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:18 pm
Results are on the CTT website

by PhilBixby Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:46 pm
"Now the race season has just started, would it be worth having a spreadsheet on the site to show who intends riding what, could be usefull for arranging lifts etc?"

We attempted this a few years back but it sort of ran out of steam by late spring. Perhaps a better way would be to set up a new "Events entered" forum on here, and simply post on it when you enter something and use responses to sort out lifts. Arthur?

The RR was fun in a shambolic way (there seems to be some sort of pact in 4th cat groups to deliberately shun any organised method of working together) - I certainly enjoyed 5 out of the 6 laps!

by paulM Mon Mar 10, 2008 8:51 pm
I think I managed to just about sample the pain and pleasure in each of the groups in Sundays Neil White Memorial pursuit. This is a great event to open the season with and an event I've done ok in in recent years - well, better than yesterday anyway. I started with the second cats which appeared to be the smallest group. It was a baptism of fire and my turns at the front became more sporadic as the race progressed - and there was very little shelter from the wind. However we made up the 2 or 3 minutes on the 3rd cats after 4 of 6 laps with the "scratch" group nowhere in sight. I was hoping to recover a bit in the now large bunch but a jumpy horse split the bunch and meant myself and Rob (who started with the 3rds) both had a frantic chase. Coming through the finish with 2 laps to go the group split again with myself and Rob again finding ourselves in the wrong half with some equally tired riders. After a disorganised chase we got within a 100m of the group so I put my head down and just managed to latch onto the back. But the effort was too much and I couldn't hold the wheel in front. Rob & co came round me and closed the gap again but that was me gone - I saw the 4th cats group get caught as I slid off the back. I sat up with the intention of a steady ride back to the finish but was caught by the Elite group. I'd recovered by then and rode with them for the final 10 miles or so. However they weren't travelling any faster than the 2nd cats were, although they were better organised. We picked up several small groups on the final lap including one containg Rob but never caught the leaders. A strangely enjoyable race and a good workout and I was glad I hung on to the finish.

by ClaireG Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:37 pm
Cath, Peter, Siobhan and myself formed a cheerleading team for the 3 Clifton riders in the Road Race. It was a good multilap course for spectating, although the wind was rather chilly for us, never mind the riders.

Cath and I started our adventure once the RR was completed. We navigated a great route back from Stokesley via Hutton Rudby, Swainby and then the climb over to Osmotherly. We also took the ford, but unlike Howard & Dave, we are the girly swots who ALWAYS listen to Kevin and ensured we kept our bottom brackets dry by taking the bridge over on the RHS!

The short stretch on the A19 is always an unpleasant reminder of those bizarre timetrialling days where chasing the 'time' seemed to solely reflect your ability, never mind the drag from the 70mph articulated lorries! It is a shame that route back from Osmotherley doesn't have a lane alternative for this 1 miler.....

After that, we agree with Howard, the quiet lanes and lumps and bumps through Nether Silton, Cowesley back to Sutton and Kilburn are fantastic and were surprisingly sheltered from the wind.

We then took a fairly standard route back through Coxwold and Crayke, a very enjoyable 52 miles for the afternoon and a great use of time to make the most of the day.

by Kit Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:57 pm
The Bikeline 2 Day: There's a full write up on the BCF website, these are the stages from my perspective.

Saturday morning 1 mile prologue TT - rolling course, mostly uphill and a headwind all the way up. Felt like I turned my lungs inside out for a finishing position of 22nd and a cough that's still with me.

Saturday afternoon was a 30 mile RR - mostly flat and fairly windy with echelons and some very sketchy bike handling. I got in a break with Tom Southam and 4 others that stayed away for a while but the gap was never more than 30 seconds and we were brought back. Then a second break went and stayed away, I finished 21st on the stage leaving me 24th overall.

Sunday's stage was 85 miles. An early break went, we (Kinesis) had decided not to go with it as, judging from the course (flat until a biggish climb with around 15 miles to go) and the strength of the Rapha team (who held the leader's jersey with Dean Downing), it was unlikely to stay away. Subsequently, the first 2.5 hours of racing were a dull affair - sheltering from the wind and trying to stay in the top 30, remembering to eat and drink and waiting for the break to be caught. They were, the pace increased, and I stayed near the front in the company of 3 teammates as we negotiated the narrow unclassified road before the climb. We hit the climb, I accelerated to the front and by the top we were a group of 12. Down the very fast descent (top speed 64mph!) there was a minor regrouping and around 25 riders came together to contest the finish. The run in was incredibly fast, a few small attacks failed to stick and I didn't manage to keep far enough up through the tight corners before the finish and only finished 17th on the stage. Cumulatively that was good enough for 16th overall - pleasing but with room for improvement. The Kinesis team put 4 riders in the top 20 overall (11th, 13th, 16th and 18th) and are consequently well satisfied with the weekend's results.

by MarkA Thu Mar 13, 2008 5:15 pm
We combined family visit, trip out for Liz and an audax ride for me in the Peaks

2180m of climbing and a mix of roads i had seen before + some new

Ran out of steam Aston/Ladybower and final pull over Stanage but all in all top day out

No idea how anyone manages to race round this territory! Kit?

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