Weekend Roundup
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Weekend Roundup
Well, I have nothing to report (except a nice walk up Beamsley Beacon). But there must be some tales of daring-do from the RR - let's hear it! And what else have you all been up to?
Much against expectations, the weather came up all sunny yesterday for the road race. Many thanks are due to all from the club who turned up to help and marshal. It all went smoothly and thanks to lots of help at the finish I didn't get too many extra grey hairs from sorting out placings and times. Andy did a good job with all the BC organisation, and watching the motorcycle marshals ride straight at an oncoming 4x4 and halt it with a confidently raised hand made it worth getting up at 6:30 in itself.
Press release going out today tells the story:-
"Clifton Cycling Club's annual road race defied the terrible weather forecast with exciting racing under largely blue skies today (Sunday). Over forty riders from around the region and beyond took part in the two stage event - following some rapid shovelling by marshals from the club to clear the roads of mud and debris!
The morning prologue times broke previous years' records, and local rider Phil Graves signalled his good form by recording a blistering 04:37 - a speed approaching 30mph average! Hamish Batchelor and Calum Nicholson also dipped below 5 minutes. In the afternoon's 89km road race, the field thinned quickly on the first of five laps of the grueling Bulmer/Terrington circuit. A select group of around twenty riders watched each other for the first couple of laps until Graves attacked on the climb towards Terrington, taking Lancashire RC's Danny Drake with him. The pair quickly built up a lead of over two minutes, which they then steadily stretched to more than five at the finish, with Drake taking the sprint by a couple of seconds. Graves' rapid morning's work reversed the placings in the overall classification though, with Team ProBikeKit's Calum Nicholson taking third, and Clifton's Nick Butcher being the best placed of the host club's riders, taking a fine 12th overall. Prizes, courtesy of club partner Cycle Heaven, went to the top three overall and the best-placed lower-category riders"
Will leave it to the Clifton riders to post their various perspectives on it....
Press release going out today tells the story:-
"Clifton Cycling Club's annual road race defied the terrible weather forecast with exciting racing under largely blue skies today (Sunday). Over forty riders from around the region and beyond took part in the two stage event - following some rapid shovelling by marshals from the club to clear the roads of mud and debris!
The morning prologue times broke previous years' records, and local rider Phil Graves signalled his good form by recording a blistering 04:37 - a speed approaching 30mph average! Hamish Batchelor and Calum Nicholson also dipped below 5 minutes. In the afternoon's 89km road race, the field thinned quickly on the first of five laps of the grueling Bulmer/Terrington circuit. A select group of around twenty riders watched each other for the first couple of laps until Graves attacked on the climb towards Terrington, taking Lancashire RC's Danny Drake with him. The pair quickly built up a lead of over two minutes, which they then steadily stretched to more than five at the finish, with Drake taking the sprint by a couple of seconds. Graves' rapid morning's work reversed the placings in the overall classification though, with Team ProBikeKit's Calum Nicholson taking third, and Clifton's Nick Butcher being the best placed of the host club's riders, taking a fine 12th overall. Prizes, courtesy of club partner Cycle Heaven, went to the top three overall and the best-placed lower-category riders"
Will leave it to the Clifton riders to post their various perspectives on it....
I went up to watch the race in the end, got there for the last lap, they where going like clappers 
Ended up doing 50 miles there and back with a nice tailwind on the way back, there was someone who I think did the race and he was quite far ahead so I decided to catch up, just to catch him I had to do nearly 35mph and hold 30+ they really do thrash it 
, had to stop in the end though as I was leaving Alice behind as she came along, I said to her, we will go at a steady pace 18-20mph to get there (any slower and we would not make it to see the race), and she was all like no need to sprint, yet at one point I let her go in front and she was doing 20mph fine.
Then on the way home at naburn the road was flooded about a 1.5ft deep, I could have just gone along the cycle path and gone up to stillingfleet that way but I thought thats no fun so I decided to pick my bike up and walk through it, the water was insanely cold but when I got back on my bike at the other side it did feel refreshing
On the cycle path alice fell off her bike and cut her knew, well crashed into a little kids bike as the little kid did not look at all and got on his bike and went into the middle of the cycle path, I knew what was going to happen as every little kid on the cycle path seems to do it, alice went right into the bike at about 15mph, think the breaks where abit worn as the back wheel locked, I breaked abit earlier and even my back wheel locked up, I think an air horn might have came in usefull. Bit annoyed that I scrubbed some of my GP4000 tyre off though
, next time any kids are on the path I'll just walk past.
Ended up doing 50 miles there and back with a nice tailwind on the way back, there was someone who I think did the race and he was quite far ahead so I decided to catch up, just to catch him I had to do nearly 35mph and hold 30+
they really do thrash it , had to stop in the end though as I was leaving Alice behind as she came along, I said to her, we will go at a steady pace 18-20mph to get there (any slower and we would not make it to see the race), and she was all like no need to sprint, yet at one point I let her go in front and she was doing 20mph fine. Then on the way home at naburn the road was flooded about a 1.5ft deep, I could have just gone along the cycle path and gone up to stillingfleet that way but I thought thats no fun so I decided to pick my bike up and walk through it, the water was insanely cold but when I got back on my bike at the other side it did feel refreshing
On the cycle path alice fell off her bike and cut her knew, well crashed into a little kids bike as the little kid did not look at all and got on his bike and went into the middle of the cycle path, I knew what was going to happen as every little kid on the cycle path seems to do it, alice went right into the bike at about 15mph, think the breaks where abit worn as the back wheel locked, I breaked abit earlier and even my back wheel locked up, I think an air horn might have came in usefull. Bit annoyed that I scrubbed some of my GP4000 tyre off though
, next time any kids are on the path I'll just walk past.Having not raced for 5 weeks i was unsure of how long i would last yesterday. The TT hurt a lot and i wanted to go home after that! I was shocked to look behind on the first lap and see only about 20 riders left in the field and i was racking my brains for a good excuse to pull out myself! I coulnd't think of anything good enough so i carried on and felt good in lap 3 and 4. Lap 4 i attacked half way up terrington and got a good gap which i held to the Sherrif climb quite comfortably hoping at least someone would come accross but they never did. Instead they were chasing and starting to close in by this point so i had no choice but to sit up. I paid for my effort in the last lap and had no legs at the finish but still happy with the result. I just wish there were more events like this in the calendar.
*I only handed one of my numbers back in... who should i get it to?
*I only handed one of my numbers back in... who should i get it to?
Really enjoyed the day once I recovered from shoveling the loose chippings from the foot of Bulmer Bank with Jason.
The race itself was good to watch from my marshaling position on the mini rounderbout in Sherif Hutton.
The whole event seemed to go smoothly, and was very well organised.
If you did not get involved this year I can really recommend you to do so next year as the more marshalls you have out on the course the better it all looks to the competitors and spectators and it gives you a great insight into the world of cycle racing at club level.
And lastly well done to Nick Butcher as I feel just staying with the bunch all the way on such a tough course is exellent.
The race itself was good to watch from my marshaling position on the mini rounderbout in Sherif Hutton.
The whole event seemed to go smoothly, and was very well organised.
If you did not get involved this year I can really recommend you to do so next year as the more marshalls you have out on the course the better it all looks to the competitors and spectators and it gives you a great insight into the world of cycle racing at club level.
And lastly well done to Nick Butcher as I feel just staying with the bunch all the way on such a tough course is exellent.
In case you have not had the pleasure yet, and are at a loss what to do for your next holiday I can recommend 'De Ronde van Nederland', or tour of Holland. No mountains, which is actually very acceptable for a change, and always plenty of cycling company in all categories.
I covered the whole country 90% on fast traffic free bike paths, in all about 700 kms, from West to East to North (into Germany) into West again arriving in Amsterdam on a Friday at around 5.
If you think you have bike handling skills think again: Thousands on bikes milling around, nearly all on mobiles, many with 2 kids on board, it's like being a bee in a beehive: great, and everyone happy!
Lots of club riding too, the largest group I saw was at least 50, ALL in uniform too! But some were already plonking bums on cafe terraces at 10 am, which showed a whole different approach to social riding. (but they may well have started at 7 or so)
On saturday Rabobank held a nationwide sponsored cycling event, where local organisations (such as churches!!!) took part in rides for which the bank paid out sponsor money into their organisation! Can't see that happen here soon. Countryside was filled with groups of cyclists.
Plenty to achieve in dear old blighty yet!
I covered the whole country 90% on fast traffic free bike paths, in all about 700 kms, from West to East to North (into Germany) into West again arriving in Amsterdam on a Friday at around 5.
If you think you have bike handling skills think again: Thousands on bikes milling around, nearly all on mobiles, many with 2 kids on board, it's like being a bee in a beehive: great, and everyone happy!
Lots of club riding too, the largest group I saw was at least 50, ALL in uniform too! But some were already plonking bums on cafe terraces at 10 am, which showed a whole different approach to social riding. (but they may well have started at 7 or so)
On saturday Rabobank held a nationwide sponsored cycling event, where local organisations (such as churches!!!) took part in rides for which the bank paid out sponsor money into their organisation! Can't see that happen here soon. Countryside was filled with groups of cyclists.
Plenty to achieve in dear old blighty yet!