Willesden Cycling Club

Polar “Protrainer XT” Heart Rate Monitor.
Complete with case/manual. New batteries fitted plus new chest strap and transmitter.
Bargain at only £45.00 ONO

CAT EYE Stadium 3 Front Light
Bulb: 21watt metal halide (3500 candlepower)
Battery: Bottle 12v-4500mAH Ni-MH rechargeable with battery indicator
Charger: 12v AD 1622 Ni-MH
Operation Time: approximately 3 hours
Charging Time: approximately 3 hours
As new, complete with case, manuals etc £300+ new, will accept £180.00 ONO

Giro Helios Helmet
Red/black, as new £35.00 ONO

Contact Dennis Harris at den_har2003@yahoo.co.uk

Richard Melik

Hi guys and gals of the WCC, this is your Hon Sec calling

This year (2007) I am riding the PBP for the FIFTH time (who said get a life!?)
For those of you who don’t know (really?) this is a 1200km/750 mile ride that must be completed in 90 hours max.In my four previous rides I have got round in 89 hours, 89 hours, 89 hours, 88 hours.
This time I thought I might try to put the ride to some worthwhile use and use the ride as a charity appeal.

Many cycling charity collections go for The Heart business. I thought I would go for the children’s charity – GOSH – Great Ormond Street Hospital. Probably the greatest tragedy on planet earth is the death of a child. It ruins lives forever. Many children who are referred to the hospital have a poor prognosis.

Great ormond Street Hospital is at the leading edge of research but NHS funding is insufficient to meet the needs and so the hospital has to rely on charitable donations. I have launched the appeal at my own school with good response. Now I am inviting you to contribute to the collection
I hope you feel that any contribution would be worthwhile.

I have set myself two targets for completing the ride: 84 hours and 75 hours.
I am inviting you to make two offers/contributions – one if I meet the 84 hour target and an additional one if I make the 75 hour target. As things stand at the present time, if you offer an 84 hour contribution then you will probably have to pay up. However, for the additional 75 hour offer your money might be safe. I have had three weeks off the bike with a nasy bug so am behind with my preparation. However I am working on it so you have been warned!

If you would like to contribute to this worthy cause then please email me with your offer(s) at
michael.ellison@blueyonder.co.uk

Mike “The Bike” Ellison

The Willesden CC had a lot to offer yesterday. A long and a short club run, plus the Club picnic at Langely Park. All coinciding with the hottest day of the year.

Here is a photo of the Box hill club ride regaining their cool under the shade of a tree.(Photo from Steve Ayres).

The effects of the flooding are still being felt as the headquarters at Aldermarston can’t be used and any events due to be held in that area have been cancelled.

Our veterans were lucky to get a ride in the London VTTA 10 at Billington on Wednesday afternoon. Gill Reynolds was the fastest lady in 25.56, Brian Moon 26.56 and Ron Purdy 30.05.

All for now,
Cheers Gladys

For of those of you who don’t know what to do with yourselves between the PBP in August and the London-Edinburgh-London in 2009, then the Mille Miglia just might fit the bill.

Organised by Audax Italy this will be one of the longest Audax rides in Europe at over 1600 kms. Celebrating the famous car race the course runs down the centre of Italy on a route chosen for its quiet roads. I imagine it will be quite a scenic route as it spends a fair amount of time in the Apennine mountains.

The event will take place between 17 and 23 August 2008.

Limited info can be found on
http://www.audaxitalia.it/1001/1001_miglia2008.pdf

Ed Packard was persuaded to try his hand at road racing and together with Richard Jerome, Richard Melik and Chris James took part in the Terry Cronin 3/4 category event at Hillingdon Circuit. Chris had to change a wheel early on in the event and Ed tried to break away with 3 laps to go but was soon caught by the field. Nevertheless they all finished in the bunch.

Martin Lucas meanwhile was up North riding in the Mersey 24hr time trial and covered 409.88 miles.

Sunday morning saw Ed back to time trialling riding in the West London Combine 50 mile on the Amersham Road finishing in 2.09.54. Richard Jerome recorded 2.14.36 and Brian Moon 2.31.26.

Gill and Ron Purdy weren’t able to compete in the North Hants R.C. 10 as the headquarters were at the Aldermarston School which had been evacuated because of the floods.

All for now,

Cheers Gladys

Mike Ellison did a solo 400 DIY Audax last Sunday morning, connecting the three cathedrals of Westminster, Canterbury and Winchester. No wonder he was on his kneees by the end. Here’s his report.

Cathedral Crusade 400K

As expected no-one turned up to try the ride. Obviously too hard! The ride started off very well with a puncture in the first 200m! For various reasons it took an extremely long time to fix and I eventually restarted at 06:00.

Westminster Cathedral at dawn

The first leg to Canterbury went very quickly – 92K in just over 3 hours, which is probably a little too fast for me and I may have paid for it a little later on. The A2 is OK – nice and wide with plenty of cycle lane space. The road rolls a bit but it’s not too bad. I didn’t stop on this bit which is why it went by so fast. Made a mental note to slow down a bit.

Caterbury Cathedral

The next leg – 203K to Winchester – was a bit different.
Firstly it was into a south-westerly headwind. This was a mistake. I had looked up the weather conditions and so I knew which way the wind would be blowing. I had decided to ride the course in a clockwise direction and for some unknown reason I didn’t change my mind. It would have been much more sensible to ride it anti-clockwise direction and get the benefit of a tailwind. However it was too late for that.

Winchester Catherdral

Secondly, even though it was a main road bash I managed to lose the route on a couple of occasions and ended up doing an extra 25K. I took the direct route through Ashford, Tunbridge Wells, Crawley, and Petersfield and it was OK – very little traffic and mostly a good surface. I had to stop a couple of times to refill the bottles, but that was it. Finally arrived at Winchester at 21:00 – the computer said 330K in 15 hours. This equates to about 300K in 13.5 hours which is possibly a little fast for me, especially as I had a lot of headwind and no-one to draft behind.

I didn’t need to stop for long because I had plenty to keep me going but then I saw the ‘Big M’ sign and weakened. After a couple of burgers, a hot apple pie, and a large coffee I finally set of on the last leg at about 22:15. This one was the slowest. I have never been much good at judging pace and rely on the computer to keep my concentration. At night I can’t see that so I am lost. As it turned out I averaged a tad over 20kph for the 110K so it took me just over 5 hours. It was a relatively easy ride – A33 then A30 – and the only problem was at Basingstoke where once again I lost the route. I couldn’t find a sign thar said ‘London A30’. Eventually I found a couple of friendly plods who sorted things out and put me back on course. Once again I didn’t stop on this leg – and I bottled out of ending back at Westminster, instead heading straight home.

Finally arrived home (Ickenham) with the computer reading 440K in 21.5 hours. This equates to about 400K in 19.5 hours which was just within my maximum aim of 400K in 20 hours. I would like to have done it a little faster – 400K in 18 hours – but it was still a good ride for me.

Overall it’s not a particularly challenging ride, and I reckon a strong audaxer could easily get round in well under 16 hours, depending on how long they stop for. Being a main road bash, route finding is a doddle except in the main towns, so if you have a go then take maps for the towns sections.

Mike the Bike
Hon Sec.

The ACP has just started confirming entries to the PBP. For those of you who choose the have the documents returned by email, you will now find 24 assorted files awaiting your inspection . Happy printing!

Your swipe card and frame number will be issued to you when you report to the event HQ in Paris.

OK let the panic buying begin (I’ve already started mine!), but only after you have paid Kelly for your Support costs.

John Davies (Dossard 4251 … what’s your number?)

My thanks to the CTC for pointing me in the direction of a lovely old film made in the 1950s. I have had the film on a betamax video cassette for over 15 years, now it is available via the miracle of Youtube.

The documentary follows a group of riders taking the train from Willesden Junction to Rugby for a cycling tour. Enjoy a by gone world of stress free railway journeys, car free roads and an incredibly cheesy commentary.

John Davies

PBP Entries

Peter Marshall published a list of PBP entrants on the 4th July.
If your name is not here then he has not received your entry!!!
Some fast talking and groveling might secure a place, but you need to contact Peter of AUK today.

Peter has received completed entry forms from the following WCC riders –

Ayres, Stephen
Brooking, Mark
Davies, John
Deaner, Andrew
Ellison, Michael
Falvey, Denis
Fisher, Danny
Green, Mark
Hopper, John
Kelly, Raymond
Kirkland, Melville
Lazarus, Norman
Lucas, Martin
MacDowall, Bob
Mitsumoto, Minoru
Oliver, Ian
Sekido, Yoshiji
Turnbull, Peter
Wainwright, Tim
Williams, John