Willesden Cycling Club

No news on the road racing section of the club. I think they get dizzy riding round in circles at Hillingdon Circuit! Thank goodness for the time trialists.

They were in action in the London Vets 10mile event which started at Great Missenden. In spite of the frosty morning and the loss of an hour’s sleep due to the start of British Summer Time, Pete Cookson returned in 27.05, Lance Woodman 27.46, Chris James 28.03 and Gill Reynolds 28.23. They narrowly missed the team award but as Pete and Lance were recovering from colds they did well to ride at all. It was minus 3 degrees at 6.30 am when Chris left his house in Harrow Weald.
More next week- I hope

Gladys

On Sunday in the 25 mile club event on the Amersham Road Stuart Birnie was the fastest Willesden member recording a 1.03.14 to take 1st Handicap . This was in spite of having to stop twice for temporary traffic lights. Richard Jerome finished in 1.05.30. The strong headwind on the way out resulted in Brian Moon and Mike Jerome finishing in 1.22.02 and 1.30.48.

Good turnout for today’s race at Hillingdon cycle circuit where Richard Jerome, John Williams and Simon “Jane’s Bloke” all took part in the Cat 2/3/4 event.

To the surprise of all watching Simon, on the last lap, decided to produce a heroic effort and sprint from the back of the field. Unfortunately the grass verge, a couple of other riders and the tarmac all got in his way. Simon came down heavily and managed to receive a severe case of road rash. Ambulances (and Air-Ambulances) were called and he was shipped off to A&E for a quick MOT.

He says:
“Bit shaken. Went into shock so they called an ambulance. All rather embarrassing really and caused carnage! I won’t be sitting down for a few days…”

Other than that we are hoping for a speedy recovery…. that sprint was out of this world!

62 Lance Woodman Willesden CC 08:32
63 Richard Jerome Willesden CC 08:33
64 Mike Jerome Willesden CC 08:34
65 Brian Moon Willesden CC 08:35
66 Richard Cooper Willesden CC 08:36
67 David Walters Willesden CC 08:37
68 Stuart Birnie Willesden CC 08:38

Good luck!

Hi ALL,

Willesden CC are required to support this weekends 25 mile time trial. We will need to provide 3 marshalls for this weekend. If you can help, then please could you let me know as soon as possible. We currently have 5 willesden riders entering this weekends event, and the first riders off will be 08.01.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Regards

Suzz
surendra.patel@thomsonreuters.com

It was a beautiful day, and I set off full of anticipation/trepidation for deepest Hampshire and my first race of the season.

Thruxton circuit is 2.5miles long (well , kinda round with wiggley bits) and flatish with a long, slow rise . Interestingly, there didn’t seem to be any compensatory downhill part to the course.

There were 16 of us women – a bus load from Twickenham, a couple of London Dynamos, and a few from local clubs.

With my legs all scarred and scabby (I had been done over by the Gregarios in Majorca) and my ripped racing pants, I think I looked the part.

We set off at a very gentle pace and I was able to catch up on all the goss. It was like a cocktail party on wheels.

I think we had done one lap when I noticed that a girl had gone off the front. She seemed to hover about 50 yards off the front for ages before she started to extend her lead. We were still tootling along at about 20mph. I nipped up to the front smartish and asked the Twickers girls who it was . Bugger ! the worst news! Super-fit tri-athlete Natalie (Twickenham). ‘Well aren’t you going after her?’ I demanded, incredulously. ‘No, she’s too quick for us.’
Double bugger. ‘Well , I suppose I’d better have a go then.’

Off I went. It took me almost a whole lap to catch her: she was motoring along. I think the bunch had opened a bottle of wine and were passing round the vol au vents because there was no sight of them . Fortunately, Natalie wasn’t taking the shortest route round the circuit. She slowed up for me a bit too when she saw I was flagging. Once on her tail, we agreed to a 2-up. I should have stayed on her tail until I’d recovered properly because I could not maintain her pace, so she went on ahead of me.

By lap 8 I was pretty tired and I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see the bunch bearing down on me.
I could see them behind the mens race, not that far away. I gathered myself and put my toe down – I couldn’t afford to get caught – there was no sprint left in me, and I didn’t want all my efforts to be wasted.

So… basically, Natalie and I did a 22.5mile TT, half a mile apart (the distance stayed fairly steady), and the bunch came in about 30s behind me.

I copped a tenner, and we all had a very nice day

The road racing really got going this weekend with 4 of our team taking part in various races.

Lance and John both took part in the Spring Chicken Road race, Lance’s first road race for many years ended in dissapointment as the fast pace at the start left Lance struggling with the pace. John faired slightly better however suffered with a puncture on the last lap.

At Hillingdon circuit a Willesden rider actually finished a race, Richard J and Simon were down to ride at Hillingdon circuit. Unfortunaly Simon could’t find the circuit and Richard couldn’t find his legs finishing 35th.

Still its only March!

UPDATE – Jayne Paine came 2nd in a 25mile womens circuit race at Thruxton on Sunday. Well done Jayne!

Just a reminder that the Westerly & Willesden QUIZ NIGHT is NEXT WEDNESDAY, 18th March at the Westerley clubroom 8:30 pm start Courtesy of our Question Master, Tim Childs.

Snacks will be provided, along with decent beer and good company.

Feel free to bring a guest.

Come and meet old friends … and a warm welcome to our new members, too!

Directions to the clubroom:
http://www.westerleycycling.org.uk/WCC-Contacts/WCC-Clubroom.htm

For more info contact Roland on
+44 (0)1753 885997
or
+44 (0)7909 681661

The road racing didn’t go so well this weekend.

Richard Jerome took part in a 70 mile road race on the Alford Crossways circuit Richard was dropped after 10 miles which he blames on lack of speed training and the terrible wind.

John Williams did much better on Saturday at Hog hill, he lasted until the 17th of 20 laps before being dropped.

Hopefully this should improve as the season continues!

This weekend saw the first of the West London Combine TT’s.

Willesden were out in force and posted some great early season times.

Well done to everyone that took part!

Willesden’s very own Keith Wilmot has been interviewed by British Cycling as a nominee for the British Cycling Volunteer Award. You can see the interview in full here.

For details about the Randonnee search IOW RANDONNEE on the web.

Prime Coaching is holding a series of training sessions at Welwyn track starting on Saturday 4th April, which is an ideal opportunity for any rider, Novice, Intermediate and Experienced, who is planning to take part in the Welwyn Track League that starts on Friday 24th April.

The series continues on Saturdays 20th June, 4th July and 1st August,and are 2 to 4 PM with a briefing and warming-up at 1.30 PM.

The cost is £10 for adults (16 years plus), and £5 for youths.

For further information and to reserve a place contact Tony Woodford, telephone 0795 119 1620, or email anthony.woodford1@ntlworld.com.

Thanks,

The Willesden Reliability Trial was a great success again. Blessed with clement weather a total of 116 riders pitted themselves against some of the toughest roads in the Chilterns. All had to be signed on, fed and watered. Special thanks must go to Gladys, Ron, and family for sterling efforts in the kitchen. Thanks also to Liam, Rocco and Jumbo for helping out with signing on.

Found

A pair of riding glasses were found in the hall yesterday. Mail squadra.verde@gmail.com with a description if they’re yours.

The calendar has now been updated to include the dates for the 2009 West London Combine Time Trials.

Please let Suzz know if you would like to take part by sending him an e-mail here.

Ray has given us the new kit pricing for the year which can be found here.

If you would like any new kit please contact Ray Kelly and he will order it for you.

Don’t forget its 2 weeks until the Willesden Reliability Trial, John Williams has been working hard on arrows for the event and we just hope the recent bad weather will improve.

Starts at 9:30 22nd Febuary from Ickenham Guide Hut in Community Close in Ickenham ….See you there!

The Hemel Hempstead CC reliability ride planned for this Sunday has been cancelled. the amount of snow that has fallen this week in the Chilterns (and is still falling in places) combined with the frosty temperatures predicted for the next few nights has forced us to admit that the roads will not be safe. Some of the roads are quite possibly impossible to be passable even by 4×4’s such is the state of the roads around the area.

Edit: Just had a report that one road – Small Dean Lane – where there is a very steep hill has been closed to all traffic since Monday and is not expected to open before Sunday.

The dinner and dance was a great success, thanks to everyone who helped to make it a great night.

We have a selection of photo’s from the night

Are you on Facebook?? If so head on over to the new Willesden Cycling Club Group here.