Has anyone got a bike bag Tim can borrow?

Club member Tim Burrows is riding the Paris-Roubaix Sportive in early June. He’s hoping to raise money for a few charities with his ride.
However, he’s lent his bike bag out (it’s now in Kuwait – don’t ask) and would like to borrow another one for the June trip. Do you have a bag he could borrow? He’s happy to collect. If you think you might be able to help, contact Tim on 07957 131855.
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The Busy, Busy Willesden CC

Over the next 10 days the Willesden is organising an impressive array of events. It all kicks off this Saturday….

Sat 17 Apr 2010
Track training – Free to WCC members
Organised by our track supremo Tony Woodford

Sun 18 Apr 2010
Audax 100km – 10 Thames Bridges.
Mick Hill has put together a great ride starting from Boulter’s Lock. A shorter 60km route is also available.

Wed 21 Apr 2010
Audax 100km
Rocco’s Wonderful Wednesday ride, starting from Ruislip.

Sat 24 Apr 2010
Audax 400km – Severn Across.
Chris Beynon’s annual ride ride from Chalfont St Peter to Chepstow and back. Through villages with fab names such as Lower Swell(honest!), Guiting Power and Yat Rock.

Wed 28 April 2010
Auadax 100km – Riverside to Riverside
Another Mick Hill special run. With the turn at a cafe on the bank of the Thames.

Sat 01 May to Mon 03 May
Isle of Wight Randonnee
Vyv Baker is organising two nights B&B in the IoW over the Bank Holiday weekend. On the Sunday we’ll ride the 100km Round the island randonnee. A fantastic event in the company of several thousand riders and lots of cake.

What have I missed out?

Miles Back
16 Apr 2010

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Sick notes out in force on Saturday

The Willesden road team will be out in force on Saturday to ride the Westerley CC spring criterium at Hillingdon circuit.

Confirmed so far are –

Tom London
John Williams
Rich Cooper
Pete Dixon
Richard Jerome
Chris (Jumbo) James

Rumour has it that they are all going like a bag of spanners, but you never know what might happen.

If you fancy watching them , the race starts at 1:30pm and will be around an hour in length.

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Westerley Evening 10m TT #1

Jumbo and I rode the first of the Westerley CC evening 10m TTs at Hillingdon last night. These events are a great way to try out time trialling in a safe environment. You ride eleven laps – actually about 10.4 miles.

This was the first TT where the new circuit transponder system was in use. Wires were carefully laid across the track, transponders attached to ankles and computers set up. This led to a slight delay in the start, but results were available immediately after the finish. the only thing they need to do now is to find a way of telling the riders when they’ve finished 11 laps! In normal circumstances I can count up to eleven without too much strain, but when racing four is about my limit.

Twenty riders started. The fastest was Roy Brook (Sigma Sport) with a 23:57. Chris returned 30:10 and I did a 28:24.

These 10s will run fortnightly through the Summer with the next event on Wednesday 28th April.

Lance Woodman (TT sec)

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Tuesday night – Hillingdon circuit

With Richard Jerome still suffering from a cold and Rich Cooper at a Spice girls gig, this left John Williams to fly the Willesden flag.

Report from John…..

Not exactly a glorious start to the season but enjoyable(ish) none the less. Un-surprisingly a large field in both races and with a howling North easterly making it very, very fast on the back straight and then like hitting a wall on the start/finish for the lads on the front and a mad, brake squealing frenzy behind. We caught the 4ths after 4 Laps (!!) on the start finish. There was the inevitable coming together and I got punted off onto the grass. Luckily my superior bike handling skills kept me upright (ahem). They didn’t keep me in the race though. I couldn’t get back on as the group was going down the back straight at 34+mph and i couldn’t get near that by myself. I had a word with the commisaire and took a lap out and got back on. As i was towards the back of the group i dropped out at one to go and missed the last lap stupidity. Mark Wilmott got taken out, he didn’t look badly hurt.

Two lessons learned:

1. 50×12 is not enough.
2. I’m very unfit.

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Prime Coaching – Performance Training

Thursday evening performance training resumes at Hillingdon Circuit from this Thursday 15th April 2010

Open for warming up from 6.00 PM – training session starts at 6:30 PM

Hillingdon Cycle Circuit,
Minet Park,
Springfield Road,
Hayes,
Middlesex,
UB4 0LF

Suitable for all novice to elite riders who want to improve their performance in either races, sportives, and/or time trials. The training will consist of group riding with riders of similar ability in groups of six to eight.

Sessions will be lead by qualified BC coaches

Signing on and light refreshments available

Helmets must be worn

Adults (18 years plus) £3 per session
Under 18s (14 to 17 years old) £2 per session

Parental consent required for all riders under 18 years of age
Younger riders may be accepted at the discretion of the Lead Coach

Brian Wright
Willesden Coach

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Reminder – track training.

Reminder Track training this Saturday the 17th April free for Willesden members bike hire if you need one £3.00 please try and come along to Welwyn the club has hired the track and we need as many as possible to attend arrive at 1.30 for a 2.00 start on the track.
Tony Woodford 07951 191 620
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TT News – 10/11 March – UPDATED

I’ve been away, so if I’ve missed your result please let me know and I’ll update this report.

WLC #3
It was sick note city at High Wycombe CC‘s West London Combine ’25’ at Great Missenden on Sunday. Brian Moon, Richard Jerome, Simon Wicks and John Williams cried off with ‘colds’ while Richard Cooper had to turn back whilst driving to the event because he hadn’t packed his bag neatly enough.

Luckily Peter Dixon and Chris James were there to defend the club’s honour which they did in some style. Peter scored a great second place with a 1:00:02 behind Peter Lawrence (VC10 – 58:58). Chris recorded 1:15:23 for second handicap (behind Peter) and full bragging rights over assorted Richards, Simons, Brians and Johns.

The Netherlands
Meanwhile I was in The Netherlands riding De TijdstrijdersCup, a 40.8km time trial near Almere. Despite a serious knee injury and, yes, let’s be honest, a bit of a cold, I struggled to the finish in 1:09:20 before collapsing. The picture is of me with 500 metres to go. I’m sorry about the legs. There’s a fuller, and slightly more honest, report on my blog here.

Forthcoming
Looking for events over the Bank Holiday weekend of 1/2 May?

  • On Saturday 1st I’m thinking of riding the West London CA 10 mile event on the H10/1 (Aldermaston). 
  • On Sunday 2nd, Peter Dixon and I are heading to the Icknield RC 25 mile event on the F1B/25 (Tempsford). 
  • There’s also a West London CA ’25’ on the H25/4 (also known as the HCC113 – see above) starting from Great Missenden.
  • On Bank Holiday Monday there’s a VTTA (L&HC) ’10’ on the H10/22 at Marlow. It’s open to all categories and I’m sure there’ll be a decent WCC turnout for it. 

Care to join us for any of these? Or tell me where you are riding.

Lance Woodman (TT sec)

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The Tweed Run

Not sure if anyone from the Willesden was on this ride over the weekend, I think Hippy has done something similar in the past. Looks to be a lot of fun and more comfy than Lycra!

More details at http://tweedrun.com/

Miles Back
12 Apr 2010

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Annual Luncheon of the Old Timers

The Annual Luncheon of the Old Timers Section of the club took place at Aylesford yesterday.

Among the 24 present was the club’s president, Jimmy Love, Wally Severn and Reg Daniels who were all members of the club’s winning pursuit team in the 1950s and one of the club’s founder members, Nick Tidmarsh who will be 100 years old in September this year.

Photo by Ron Purdy

Gladys (via LW)

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Isle of Wight Randonnee

Each May Bank holiday the Isle of Wight turns Willesden Green (see what clever word play that was). For a number of years we have been going over to ride a wonderful event discovered by Brian Moon – The Isle of Wight Randonnee.

A signature feature of this event is it outstanding value for money… it’s completely free to enter. You have a choice of the 100 Km round the island route (highly recommended) or a shorter 55km loop that takes in all the best the North East corner of the island has to offer.

The ride usually attracts around 4,000 riders, though I have to say that they are not all Willesden types – despite it being a freebie. There are half a dozen controls spread around the island and you can start and finish at any one. We usually start from Alverstone, just outside Sandown. The cake at the Yarmouth control is worth the trip on its own.

Vyv Baker is organising two nights B&B (1st and 2nd May) at the Bertram Lodge in Sandown. The cost is a very reasonable £30 per head per night. Please contact Vyv to reserve your place via – vyvienbaker(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk

Further details on the ride can be found at http://www.cycleisland.co.uk/ or the B&B at http://bit.ly/9472TN

Miles Back
09 April 2010

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Road racing / Easter weekend

The ‘roadies’ were a bit quiet this weekend with only 2 riders racing.

On Saturday Peter Dixon rode at Hillingdon circuit and finished in the middle of the pack in a bunch sprint.

On Sunday Peter Dixon and Richard Jerome rode the Surrey league road race at Cutmill, they were hoping to get a result on the Hilly circuit until they realised they had to ride 7 laps of the course and we both dropped from the main bunch.

Pete was suffering from the previous two days efforts and went out on the climb on the second lap. Richard Jerome managed to finish but was also dropped with 2 laps of the circuit remaining. Richard finished 28th.

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West London Combine event #3. Start sheet + other TT news

WLC #3
The next West London Combine event on Sunday (11th April) is a 25m TT run by High Wycombe CC on the Great Missenden course (HCC114).

We have a team of seven riders taking part with the road team (Jerome, Cooper and Williams) turning up en masse this time. In a statement Richard Jerome, road supremo, said: “If we can’t show the testers how it’s done I will eat my hat a piece of chocolate cake.”

The start order and handicaps are…

No. Name Handicap Club Start
time
27 B Moon 8:30 Willesden C C 7.57
28 P Dixon Scratch Willesden C C 7.58
29 S Wicks 4:35 Willesden C C 7.59
30 R Jerome 0:05 Willesden C C 8.00
31 J Williams 12:30 Willesden C C 8.01
32 R Cooper 8:00 Willesden C C 8.02
33 C James 5:40 Willesden C C 8.03

International Event
Meanwhile, I will be travelling to the Netherlands for the weekend to ride the 40.8km Tijdstrijders Cup TT near Almere. It is one of a series of Dutch TTs throughout the season, so I shall be interested to see how it goes.

Westerley 10s at Hillingdon
If you want to try time trialling away from traffic the Westerley CC are offering just that. Starting from 14th April they are promoting 10-mile time trials at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit.

Events are scheduled for 28 April, 12 May, 26 May, 9 June, 23 June, 7 July, 21 July, 4 August and 18 August.

An innovation is the use of transponders which will have the benefit of keeping track of laps covered on the 0.94-mile circuit.

The time trials will start at 7.15pm with an entry fee of £5 plus a returnable £10 deposit for the use of a transponder.

Further details are available from the Westerley’s Roger Wolsey, telephone 020 578 5594 or e-mail: roger@wolseyofacton.co.uk.

Lance Woodman (TT Sec)

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Wendy, Lynn and Mark completed their third monthly 200km ride, which puts them well on the way to achieving their Randonnee Through the Year Award. Mark’s report follows ….

Miles Back

RTYRA Round 3 – Boudicca’s Revenge

Various factors dictated that round 3 would have to be a Sunday Permanent ride. So three of Willesden’s finest Pioneers (Lynn, Mark & Wendy) elected to ride Tom Deakins other Perm titled ‘Boudicca’s Revenge’ – the reasons for this title became clear as the ride unfolded. The route had never been ridden in one hit so the event creator volunteered to join us for what was effectively the inaugural ride.

The highpoint of the weekend was the pre-event pasta party the night before: a huge overdose of pasta followed by an extremely naughty chocolate mousse and a fine cheeseboard to fill up the corners. Jim left Wendy with us for the night and headed home.

Before we knew it it was time for a huge steaming bowl of porridge followed by toast before setting off into the gloom of the early morning. The car windscreen froze up by the time we got to the end of my road!

When we made it to the Start at Great Dunmow the temperature had dropped to minus 5 degrees. Tom led us out on an alternative route to avoid some of the first wet laney wanderings as they would have frozen overnight – the B road alternative was used until the temperature had a chance to rise above freezing.

The day was dry & bright with a rising NNE to niggle at us for the remainder of the day. Conditions were far too favourable – something we had not had much experience of so far this year. i.e. no snow or rain or sleet, but it still had a pretty good kick in


Tom Wendy and Lynn enjoying the sunshine


The first control with facilities was reached by an icy ford at Sutton – where a chap with a posh camera trying for an atmospheric shot came a cropper on the icy edges.

Pretty but icy!

We had a round of cheese toasties in the little café that was once a stationers in Potton Market square. The girl in charge was willing to dash over the road to get us some beans to go with some toast – but we decided to stick to the menu.

Excellent Potton Market Cafe


The next leg to Chatteris was fairly featureless, no wonder Boudicca revolted, she needed something to break the horizon! Diversions on the A14 funneled a lot of traffic onto what is usually a quiet route. It was very pleasant crossing the many arched bridge in St Ives with the chapel in the middle in bright sunshine – which was followed by a long featureless fenland crossing to the haven of the

Green Welly Transport Café at the halfway point, perhaps Boudicca wouldn’t have revolted if she’d known about this place, this was the turning point and progress was a little easier with a bit of wind assistance.

At the next turn there was a warning about a flooded road which was on the route. At last something to make the ride memorable! When we got to the flood it was gone !!!!

Next check was the A14 services near Boxworth for coffee and stickies. A bit pricey after the delights of the Green Welly but needs must. The last leg was the longest and also the hardest. I went off the front to set up a picnic. The route took us over what must have been the steepest hill in Cambridgeshire – a bit gratuitous but at least it was quiet.

The team regrouped in the bus shelter at fowlmere- our picnic site – worryingly Lynn refused a ‘Scary’ Bakewell tart. It was now properly dark with about 30km of mainly lanes to contend with.

We grimped/walked up the ‘revenge’ section on the Icknield Way and had a slow descent along frost damaged lane. I was using a new Edelux front light for the first time – a dynamo powered LED light with an awesome output. Positioned in the middle of the road I was able to illuminate the worst of the potholes on the rough descents. It was a welcome relief to get on a B road with a better surface as we skirted round Saffron Walden. Then with 20km to go the route took us the pretty way to Thaxted with a few more climbs thrown in to finish us off.

The smells from a curry emporium in Debden were most tempting.

Lynn and Tom admire the view

I waited with Tom in Thaxted for Lynn & Wendy -we had already covered well over 200km in the time limit. Now came the kick, the temperature dropped this combined with the last few climbs led Lynn to a new experience – a severe attack of the bonk with all of the dizziness that goes with it. She was cold & had had enough. Wendy fed her chewy bars then continued the ride with Tom towards the finish. After installing Lynn in the warmth of the Swan Hotel with the bike secured outside I made a dash for the Arrivee and the car and made a hasty departure to pick up Lynn – it was now -3 degrees – no wonder she was so cold!

Lynn Re-fuels

Wendy Re-fuels also.

218km covered – if you want to experience this ride in the summer it is on the calendar as the Flitch bikes 204km on Saturday June 5th. The route will be the same, but hopefully it will be warmer!


Next installment – The Dorset coast 200

Mark Brooking

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Jayne Wins!

Jayne Paine reports:

I’m just back from the Portsmouth Easter Circuits circuit race – which I WON! My first ever road bike win!

There were only seven of us, so we were racing with the 3rd Cat men, which changes the tactics completely.

In the afternoon there was a track omnium, in which I cam 3rd! ( out of 3!) . Still I got my entrance money back!

Well done, Jayne – top ride.

LW

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Yoho Bike Hotel

Vyvien Baker has found this unusual hotel in Kenting, Taiwan. Based at the South end of the island that manufactures most of the world’s bicycles, the Yoho bike Hotel is a little different.

You can ride straight in to Reception and sign in with out getting out of the saddle. Further more you can ride into the lift to take you to your room. Each room is kitted out with bike hangers on the wall, so you do not have to leave your pride and joy. A “bike spa” is available to wash your bike together with an on-site mechanic and bike shop.

Happy Easter to every one.

Miles Back
03 April 2010

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Easter weekend TT results – updated

Please let me know if you have any TT results over Easter (lance (at) lancewoodman.co.uk).

Three Willesden riders braved the rain to ride the High Wycombe ’10’ at Kingston Bagpuize on Good Friday and were rewarded with a gap in the showers while the event ran. Despite the cold and windy conditions Peter Dixon rode to another personal best with 23:43 and 29th place. I battered round to a 27:06 and Peter Cookson did a 28:00. The winner was Richard Prebble (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta RT) with 21:23.

The prize giving was enlivened with some raffle prizes and Peter D came away with a Smarties Easter Egg (left) and I won a pack of SIS energy products. With last week’s vets team medals the prizes are beginning to add up.

On Easter Monday I travelled to Weobley for the Hereford and Dist Whs ’25’. It was a tough day on a tough course and I recorded a 1:12:52. Enough said. The winner was D Robson (Somerset RC) with a 57:57.

Lance Woodman (TT Sec)
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Severn Across 400k – help requested


Due to unprecedented demand, Chris Beynon has asked for some extra help over
night on the 24/25th April at Chalfont St Peter.


Can you give a hand?

Please contact Chris direct –


or phone: 07753857049

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Welwyn Track Session – Free to Members

Looking forward to the Good Friday Meet at Herne Hill? Still buzzing from all those Olympic medals? Did you enjoy watching the World Championships on TV? Yes? Then why not give the velodrome a go yourself?

The club have hired Welwyn Track on the 17th April for all club members to try track riding.

  • Never ridden the track before? No problem – Welwyn is an easy track to ride and there will be coaches to ease you gently into the techniques of the velodrome. 
  • You’re an expert already? – come along and brush up your technique in preparation for the Central Region championships and other events later in the season. 
  • Just feel like a training session with a difference? No problem – come to Welwyn and have some fun.

If you do not have a track bike, no problem, we will have bikes for hire. The session cost is free to all Willesden members, but you will have to pay a small fee if you hire a track bike.

Arrive at 1.30pm to register. We’ll be on the track from 2pm to 4pm. 

If you’re coming, or have any questions, please email Tony Woodford (anthony.woodford1@ntlworld.com) or phone him on 07951191620.

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Good Friday – Herne Hill

The Good Friday Track meeting at Herne Hill is the usual start of the Willesden CC Easter weekend.

Full details of the event can be found at http://www.bristowevents.co.uk/goodfriday.html

The first of the 18 races starts at 1pm and the meeting usually finishes around 5:30pm. I hope to be there, but don’t let that put you off.

Miles Back
29 March 2010

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