Club news
From the FPCC newsletter Oct 16th
19 October 2009
With the season almost over and winter club runs looming, a few final results and latest news…
ECCA 10 E2/10 - 26th Sep
This was 2009’s last hurrah for some and the Essex course was looking very promising with warm and still conditions at the HQ. A fairly massive field for this one, giving it one last go.
Well, it wasn’t bad but some wind got up, and times, on the whole, reflected the conditions - good but not spectacular. The general consensus had it at about 30seconds slower than it can be out there.
So…..Chris Lodge (me) 22m 16s. Best of the season but it’s been a quiet year ! Tom Boulton 21m 33s, showing off his current form. Louise 23m 35s and happy with a respectable 10 time to engrave on the club trophy.
And Matt Molloy rounded off his very impressive debut season with 20m 53s.
Fireworks next year!
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Le Duo Normand - Marigny France 20th Sep
Numbers were severely depleted for the big event after Ian Bibby’s difficulties in finding a partner fo 2009 and Nikki Hunt’s unfortunate crash the week before putting an end to her team partnership with Vince. It was business as usual in the mixte category for Louise and I. This is not one that we ever miss and going it alone meant that we had more space to ourselves at our usual hebergement with our friends Jacques and Jaqueline Lefevre. Luxury!
We enjoyed the usual dry and warm weekend for this one, somehow it almost always is and I have only seen one wet year in the last seven. The town of Marigny again pulled out all the stops to stage a world-class event and attracted a top feild of Pros from Katyusha, Cofidis and various national squads to show us enthusiastic amateurs how it’s done.
This year, the mixte field was looking a little classy on paper so our regular top ten place was going to be very hard work. So it proved as Louise and I slipped outside of that, picking up 13th but with a time not far off one that normally sees us several placings higher. – 1.31.29.
The winners were a fearsome copuple from Holland (well, she frightened me!) with 1.23.50
Our second team was Phil Murrell and Tom Boulton, riding in the non-licensie category. They opted for a local gite rather than our en famille option while a mixed team of our own Malcolm Steer and Cambridge CC’s Angus Wilson, riding in the Vets Category, were ensconsed in Malcolm’s house in nearby St Lo.
All three teams were up to the usual round of riding the course, frequenting the bars and cafes, and bumping into each other along with other old friends arriving in Marigny by the hour until it became a throng of cyclists and support teams.
Phil and Tom put in the ride of the weekend to take third placein their category with 1.20.20. That’s our highest placing since Louise and Helen took second behind Emanuelle Merlot and Julie Deheruelle in 2006. The winners in that category did 1.19.11 so our boys were not far away from extensive podium celebrations involving flowers, kisses and cuddly lions. You might have to book a later ferry and stick around next year lads!
Malcolm hung on bravely to Angus, who has hit some real form lately, and they clocked 1.26.07 for 13th in the Vets category.
When we’d done our bit, there was some added fun to watching the pros this year as the UCI had their man there enforcing the new bike regs. I was amazed at how unflappable these Pros actually are. Those that were sent away to tinker with the allen keys and change positions only 5 minutes from their start time just casually got on with it completely unfussed. Not one missed their start. It was in stark contrast to my “headless chicken on an electric fence” routine that occurs at Tempsford when I can’t find a matching pair of gloves with only 45 minutes to the off.
Best drilled squad was undoubtedly Katyusha, They approached everything with extreme Soviet -style professionalism and their riders only had to pedal as a squad of mechanics and helpers catered to every need. But after all that preparation. their top man, Laslo Bodrigi, came to grief on one of the Duo’s infamous fast corners and was a celebrity DNF. There was some talk the next day of hitting a patch of diesel but the organisers were having none of it and pointed out that several hundred teams had manged to avoid drama. It certainly emlivened the weekend’s “guess the winners time “ competitition!
When the weekend was all over, Louise and I meandered up through Normandy, the car low on the springs under the weight of wine, took in the sea air, and added to our encyclopaedic knowledge of Normandy’s restaurants. Another excellent Duo and already looking forward to 2010.
A very random selection of photos here for now before we select one or two for the website:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ChrisLodgeFPCC/DuoNormand2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPPwn7HxjtmkrwE#
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Tom gets some 55s
As we know, Tom has been going very well lately but has been fretting about the out of date LTS on his current entry form, which was no reflection of his capabilities. Of course he could have hidden behind that time for a while and launched ambushes with a number 9 on his back for the early part of 2010 or even wiped out a Middlemarkers field. Instead he chose to chase around desperately for any potentailly fast courses left at the fag-end of the season. It’s a ploy that usually only leaves you with a lingering sense of disappointment and a large petrol bill but the boy done good!
First up was a trip to the H25/2 for the VTTA event on Sunday 4th where he clocked a 55.46 for a new PB and a chance to tippex his entry forms. Just to make sure, he went back the next week for the Hillingdon event on the same course and lowered things to 55.30. That was done on a wet and windy day , so no gifts, and brought him 9th place .
We can forgive the use of the H25’s ski-slope start. The rest of that course is actually quite sporty and no fun in bad conditions. We know of at least one local rider who has lowered his own PB by commissioning a one-off chainring from Fibrelyte that invoves splicing three chains together and has a season ticket to Wales.
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LVRC TT Championships Sunday 11th Banbury
With Hugh a non-starter, feeling under the weather, I was the only one from the club to brave this one.
As a reward, I was put under the weather myself on a very grey morning of thick constant drizzle that was like riding through clouds. This event was a personal revenge match for me after last year when the cruel and hilly course found out my overgearing and I blew to bits and slid down the placings. No mistakes this time. I put the 42 inner on and was helped somewhat by a slightly kinder and shorter course this year. It was on the same roads and still very much what those old gits like to call a “roadmans” course (and what I like to call everything under the sun!) but at least I was prepared this time.
Fifth in my group and 38th overall with 48 something on some sort of 18 plus miles course. I doubt it was actually measured and it wouldn’t really matter if it was.
Medal winning times were about three minutes up on that ( Hugh, you’d have done that easy). It was impressive to see the various age group winners clustered at the head of the overall placings regardless of age. Those that went home with medals nd jerseys would have held their own in any Open event.