Willesden Cycling Club

Willesden CC updates are now available straight to your moby via the technological marvel that is Twitter.

Our Twitter presence will not replace the established blog/web site, but will supplement it (not that type of supplement!) with brief toothsome nuggets of Willesden centric news and information. By joining (or “following” in Twitter speak) you can Txt short 140 character messages from your moby directly to the internet.

Some suggestions for using twitter is to quickly and easily let the club know –

– Your results from Road Racing, Time Trialling and Track.
– Update us where you are on an interesting Audax and where on earth Mel might be!
– Keep in contact during your tours and expeditions.
– Let others know what rides you are thinking of doing.
– Who won the sprint for the town sign during the Sunday club run.
– Who winning the argument at the club’s monthly meeting
– Reminders for upcoming events and deadlines
– Etc.

We already have a few “early adopters” but it would be great to have more.
Just go to http://twitter.com/Miles_Back and “Follow” us there.

Miles Back
10 Sept 09

A busy weekend for the time trialists this weekend.
Meurig James broke another club record on Sunday when riding in the Welsh National Championship 12 hour event. He covered 272miles 367 yards to beat the previous record held by Digger Baulch by over 10 miles. He finished in 4th place some 2 miles behind the winner and took the novice award for a first ride at the distance.

Gill Reynolds was 2nd fastest lady in the Reading 10 on Saturday finishing in 26.23. Pete Cookson recorded 24.17 and Brian Moon 28.40 in the same event.

On Sunday in the West London Combine 25 on the Amersham Road Pete Dixon was the club’s fastest and handicap award winner. Chris James recorded 1.08.53, Lance Woodman 1.08.46 and Brian Moon 1.13.47 Richard Cooper and Richard Jerome, taking a break from Hillingdon Cycle circuit, rode a 2 Up and finished in 1.03.19.

Jayne Paine rode at Scunthorpe Track in the last of the National Women’s 0mnium Series. She won the Pursuit, was 2nd in the Points, 4th in the 500m T.T., 5th in the Scratch and 7th in the Sprints to finish in 4th place overall for the meeting. She has 3 more meetings at Herne Hill and hopes to gain the necessary 14 points to gain her 1st cat licence.

Twenty-six longtime members of the club met for a lunch at Aylesford. The oldest member present was Nick Tidmarsh, aged 99, who joined theclub in 1927.
All for now,

Rick is an Audax rider Mark Brooking and Ray Kelly met on the Mille Miglia last year. He also happens to be the same rider who crumpled his titanium bike into a ball on this year’s LEL. After a trip to hospital he finished the ride on a borrowed bike.

Rick is the proud owner of a WCC jersey and sported it on a two back-to-back 246km Audax rides in Maryland last week. The two days composed of 306 miles, and 20,000 feet (6100 meters) of climbing. Rick rode with his buddy, Bill Beck , and has posted a load of pictures on –

Hi all,

I’ve been out in Sharjah, U.A.E. for nearly two weeks now and have settled in to the hotel and office. The beginning of my stay has coincided with hottest part of the year (low 40 C ) and Ramadan, so timing could have been better, but prospect is for it to cool off a little during September. All the eating places are closed during daytime during Ramadan but most will do a take away that can be eaten out of public view, and of course it’s “dry” though there are a few hotels & bars where a glass can be raised. I visited the Irish Village bar in Dubai last week for a good pint of extra extra cold Guinness with some folks from work.

The hotel is pretty comfortable and I have a sink, microwave and fridge/freezer in my room. The hotel gym and swimming pool are being refurbished and should re-open in September, however staff don’t seem able to confirm a date and until then there’s only two running , cycling and multi-gym machines. I tried a run by the lagoon (see pic) this morning at 05:45 and it was just about bearable at a steady pace.

I visited a work colleague of Paul Stewart at the weekend in Abu Dhabi. He cycles regularly with the local tri club and has a spare bike so we joined in with the Friday morning group at 05:30 for approx 110km of completely flat roads including lots of 3 lane highway with some smaller roads with little traffic once away from AD. Even the local guys said it was very hot by 08:30 and I was pretty cooked by the time we finished an hour later. On Saturday we had a short cycle followed by a swim at a good beach near the Sheik’s palace. I later visited the Grand Mosque which was v impressive before heading back to Sharjah.

I’m in the office today as it’s the first day of working week over here. I was originally due to return to UK on 5/11/09 but it seems likely that project duration will be extended, possibly into December, in which case I will come back home for 2 weeks and then return to UAE for further stint.

Hope the weather is/was OK for you over the bank hoilday. I shall miss audaxing in UK during the autumn.

Cheers,

Martin

We are looking for a large Willesden turnout with most of the road team taking part.
Come along. Time trial starts at 7pm, you will need to get there earlier to sign on.

View Black Park TT in a larger map

Rich Cooper, Richard Jerome and Pete Dixon were both in action at Hillingdon circuit this week on Tuesday Richard Jerome got confused in the sprint finish and sprinted a lap early along with quite a few others.

Rich Cooper got caught behind a crash when Michael Wilmot (team quest) brushed his pedal around one of the corners. Thankfully there were no injuries.

Pete Dixon finished well adding to his points tally towards his 3rd cat licence.

On Saturday Richard Jerome took part in the e/1/2/3 event and Pete inthe 4th cat event.

Rich was stuggling to find any form over the 45 laps and used the race as training after the bunch split into two.

Peter was pleased to finish 4th and is now a 3rd cat.

Well done!

Meurig James finished in the top 10 of the Hirwaun Wheelers 25 on Sunday with a personal best time of 52.15. He is now taking a week off to join his girlfriend who is competiting in the Dragon Boat Championships in Prague next week. He then plans to ride in the Welsh 12 hour.
Also riding a personal best this weekend was Joe Foley in the North Hampshire 25 at Farnham finishing in 1.05.04. Gill Reynold’s time of 1.06.25 in the same event gave her the fastest lady Vet award. Brian Moon and Chris James finished in 1.08.36 and 1.08.40.
On Sunday competing in the Hillingdon Old Crocks 10 at Gt. Missenden Jim McKay recorded 28.56, Alan Gallacher 29.03, Brian Wright 31.15 and Ron Purdy 32.56. In the Ladies Invitation event on the same course Gill Reynolds was 3rd in 27.29 and Joanna Austin 4th in 28.45.
All for now.
Cheers Gladys

In my experience very few riders seem to sport m*dguards on their commute to work. Surely it’s basic potty training for cyclists?

I have just seen a new product on the CW website that seems very original in its thinking and elegant in it solution. So far so good, but it has a really scuzzy name – the Crud Roadracer.

See http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/394392/crud-roadracer-mudguards.html

Miles Back
21Aug 09

The annual John & Dulcie Walker road races have been forced to off the roads by Thames Valley Police and will now be held at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit on September 13.

The LEL (London-Edinburgh-London) has been been over for a couple of weeks now and riders have begun surface again to post some photos and films of the ride.

The Willesden CC were well represented on the LEL by Martin Lucas, Mel Kirkland, Yoshi, Mark Green, Peter Turnbull and Paul Stewart.

Here is one particularly good film that sums up the challenge of the event and the joy of an English summertime ride through the country.

Miles Back 20 Aug 09

Hi, I raced last night and got 7th place, now need four more points to
progress to Cat 3 (first season of racing), cheers, Peter Dixon.

Message from Suzz about the two-up time trial in September. A two-up is always great fun (no sniggering, I talking about cycling!), so let’s have a good turn out for the club. Just need someone to match my glacial pace and I’ll be on the line.

See Suzz’s note below for detail

Miles Back 18th Aug 09

The Next 25 mile time trial is to be held on 6^th September on the CC114 Circuit (near Great Missenden), with the first rider off at 07.31. It is a 2-up, but you can also ride as a Solo. The closing date for the event is Tuesday 25^th August, so If you would like to enter, then please could you let me know by Friday 21^st, as I shall be away most of next week.

Regards

Suzz

Despite the threat of rain on Saturday the 1st August we had clear sky’s and a fine afternoon for the club track champs with a turn out of 13 riders for the event. Although half were guest a good afternoons racing was enjoyed by all with Ray George winning the senior category and Kirsten Savage the under 16.

Meurig James has broken two Willesden CC records with a 19:56 for a ten and 3:45:48 for the 100.

The 100 was done at the Welsh National 100 and Meurig finished in 3rd place.

Well done.

Two cycling videos for your pleasure !

One total is total cheese, the other reasonablywitty. You decide!

Miles Back 15/8/09

(with due credit to NYC Bike Snob’s excellent blog).