Clifton CC

This weekend was a big one for the MTBers.

The Club entered the Mountain Mayhem 24 hour race at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire and has spent the last 6 months planning and training for it.

An advance party took Friday off work to set up Camp at the ground and the rest arrived at various points throughout the evening to be greeted by a BBQ and good spirits.

The weekend was a long one and too much to go into here but super weather, good conditions and absence of serious mishaps made for a great event. Lots of tales of heroism but all very team spirited in aid of the cause.

The girls team got a podium finish with 3rd place, snatched in the last half hour of the race - they had been 7th for a big part of the race.

However, without any shadow of a doubt, the ride of the weekend was Wayne Elliott who entered the Solo Category - on a rigid Singlespeed! He just missed a podium place at 4th in Category but was the winning Solo rider of the Singlespeed class. Anyone who's ridden a 24 hour event knows what an mental and physical challenge it is so well done Wayne, I take my helmet off to you.

Special thanks also to Ginie who sorted the catering for the teams.

Clifton's elderly gentlefolks race team was down at Harworth for the Tom Simpson Memorial RR on Sunday. As usual this was a big event with about sixty starters in each of the three races; Muzzy got an EOL in the 40-49 A/B race, I went off in the 50-59 C/D race, and Dave Cook flew the flag in the 60+ (and some of them were very "+") E/F/etc event.

A typical pattern emerged where one of an early spate of attacks went clear and disappeared up the road, while the rest of us stayed together and attacked each other unsuccessfully until another small group slipped away a lap or so before the end. I stayed up front and carefully watched riders who I knew were strong, and got into a number of small groups off the front with them but each time we got pulled back. A couple of laps from the end everyone who'd been sitting in until then woke up and the final half-lap to the line was the usual messy, fast-moving bunch. I got baulked by just about every rider who sat up in the middle of the uphill sprint, and crossed the line twenty-somethingth.

Good fun though; I remember early attempts at this race where I was pleased to just about hang onto the back, so the winter of suffering has brought rewards even if they haven't included, yet, an envelope with a fiver in. 52 miles at 23.5mph and 245W Normalised Power.

Well done to the on and off road racers of the weekend!

Much shorter ride for me, but if the quantity wasn't there, then there was certainly quality....
Family camping weekend in Swaledale. Got up early on Sunday and was on the road not long after 0730 with a 2.5 hour window to ride through some of the most beautiful countryside in the UK. From Muker I tracked round Kisdon to Keld then up Tan Hill (catching much early morning wildlife unawares, including a curlew feeding its fledgling on a dry stone wall as I passed...) Then big descent to Langthwaite and the climb over to Low Row where passed by the first car of the morning. Then L for a mile or so before a R turn and up "The Fleak", Andy Johnson's favourite climb. Truly memorable views up Swaledale with not a cloud in the sky.

Less than 30 miles all told, but memorable stuff.

I was in awe of Wayne doing 17 laps (149.6 miles on a hard offroad course, 23800 feet of climbing) 4th out of 17 in the Single speed teams category (as their was no solo singlespeed category) and 13th in the solo (out of 142 which includes pro's)!

I think next year they need a Wayne category.

As well as the girls coming third! An honourable mention must go to Paul Scott who got 5 of our 6 fastest times and was in the top 25 for the first half of the first lap.

It quite a hard physical course, 8.8 miles (with 1400 feet of climbing). There was only one descent where you could carry any speed. For a course that was accepting 2500 riders it was surprisingly narrow, which meant you had to do a lot of traffic navigation shouting left or right. The first wood was especially narrow being just a handlebar wide in most places.

Riding overnight means you do strange things. I managed to have my front fork locked out for most of the lap I did at 1am in the morning and forgot to turn my head torch on to a higher setting than low.

Highlights for me were the very steep dusty decent where I was forced by a rider into a rut and managed to slide almost sideways down the hill without falling off and the final descent where you were going flat out to the finish line.

Thanks for to my team of:

Jason Wells
Sarah Wood
Jez Ash
And our Polish substitute (Whose name I kept getting wrong). Chris Wilson having broken his collar bone last week. who turned up having ridden for three weeks with the club and ridding a new bike for the first time.

Gives you some perspective when the pro's were riding 25% faster than me and I was overtaking way more than passed me.

The backup for the event was excellent with us having two gazebo's, two fridges, 4 workstands and about 1 ton of food. Thanks also to Paul and Ginie for making tea and food on demand throughout!

I should also mention my 4 year old daughter Laura (with her 7 and 9 year old sisters) who managed about 15 miles riding to, from and at the York Cycle Show!

Big well done to the MTB-ers who sound like they had a sensational weekend! I quite like the sound of a 24-hour team relay; it’s a pity the roadies don’t appear to have stuff like that, or do they?

I did my first Ron Kit 150. A large group containing a strong Clifton contingent rode out of the Knavesmire in a fine, misty rain and proceeded to battle into a fairly stiff breeze all the way to the Danby Moors Centre. The headwind seemed to increase to hurricane strength on the exposed Moors and made Blakey a lot harder than it should have been…and it was a real battle not to be blown off the bike in the final northbound leg into Castleton where I’d managed to lose my group and needed to pedal hard just to go downhill! We regrouped at lunch as we tacked around the northerly mark at Danby and then ran under full spinnaker all the way back to York. We also managed to give our nostrils a serious pounding by getting stuck behind a tractor towing a huge open-ended trailer full of farm manure for a few miles through Rosedale before finding clear air and catching up with other Cliftonites again at the Marton control point cake-fest. By the look of the very impressive times registered by some of our guys ahead of us at the Knavesmire finish, they obviously had enjoyed a different type of cake than I had! The ride was a nice challenge and I felt a bit wind-battered afterwards as though I’d just sailed the Fastnet!

D.

I did the Tom Simpson Mem RR on Sunday. Stayed with the pack for 5 of the 8 laps, including making an attack on the 3rd lap and leading for at least half a lap, then on the uphill finish straight I got dropped as the group splintered a bit aided by 2 guys falling off in front of me. Anyway pressed on in TT mode, latched on to the A/B group which was good fun for a couple of miles. Really enjoyed the race as it was my first for over a month and my ankle stood up well.

Highlight at the finish HQ was the Tom Simpson showcase including the bike he used to win Paris-Nice.

Ron Kit for me. Similar to Darren's account above - I can reiterate his comments about the headwind above Rosedale. Spirited ride back with John S - with intermittent cameos by Pete K and his group who seemed to be giving it full welly on the flat and then pacing themselves on the climbs.

Glad that Shaun made it round after his mechanical travails - I gather you have now joined me in the Shimano DA wheels club!

Ron Kit 150. Cold, grizzly and windy. Blakey was "interesting" but things are looking up - I kept sight of the folks in front of me, and dropped off the back slightly less quickly than in the past few weeks. Touched 25mph going up Fryup (the flattish bit at the top I hasten to add). Accused of smiling by Dr Dave - need to work on that, can't be having people thinking I'm enjoying myself. Nipped past the muck wagon just outside Rosedale. All things considered can't complain.

Rode the Tom Simpson Mem RR A&B cat race. Had had my entry returned due to a full field but turned up anyway on the off chance and at £12 for entry on the line its still good value. 10 laps of a 6 mile circuit at close to a 25 mph average. A small break got away and stayed away. Did a few turns on the front but there never seemed to be much of a coordinated attempt to get them back and to be honest my contribution wasnt that effective. Pretty cream crackered by the end but did well in the bunch sprint at the end and was probably close to a top 10 placing. It was a good effort by the promoting club Dinnington CC with 3 LVRC vets races running at the same time in the morning and a BC national junior event in the afternoon. Never done a memorial race to a world champion before or been to an event that had a podium - well not recently anyway. Maybe next year or maybe the year after......