WEEKEND RACE REPORT 12OCT09

TIME TRIALS:

This weekend Richie Davies and Dave Johnson made the long trip to Swansea for the penultimate Rudy Project. Very welsh weather made it utterly horrible but Rich placed second and Dave was the fastest vet on standard. Next weeks final round will be exciting as it is looking that Rich could get Silver overall and Dave a Bronze.

Sunday, Hillingdon CC organised a 25mile TT on the H25/2 course. This starts on the A404 near the Handy Cross roundabout through to the Sonning roundabout on the A4, before returning to Marlow by the same route. We had three of our Wycombe riders in this event the fastest being Geoff Powell who, inspite of being held up in traffic on the return leg on the A4 and slowing for an accident near the Bisham roundabout on the A404, recorded a time of 56.22. High Wycombe’s Pete Lawrence recorded 57:52, and women’s rider Anna Holder 01:07:25. Second claim rider Steve Golla recorded the second fastest time of the day with 51:39, with the fastest time being set by Steve Dennis of East Grinstead CC of 50:11.

Also on Sunday HWCC held their annual Uphill/Downhill Championship on Britwell Hill near Watlington. Despite the wind and cold and also slight drizzle, four club records were broken.

Matt Steven’s broke the senior men’s record and Kevin Holloway knocked seconds of off of his own vet’s record. Chrissy Radon took the ladies record and was 3rd fastest. in the Club Championship, while Sarah Slade took the lady veterans record. Fayle Day was even timed (roughly) up the hill on her horse Tom for a bit of fun.

RESULTS:

Matt Stevan 2.25 Senior Record
Kevin Holloway 2.54 Vets Record
Chrissy Radon 3.00 Ladies Record
James Norris 3.01
Alex Irving 3.09
Stewart King 3.17
Nick Southworth 3.20
Chris Grieg 3.48
Kevin Higgings 3.59
John Francis 4.04
Richard Wise 4.48
Paul Morrissey 4.57
Sarah Slade 5.06 Lady Vets Record
Tom and Dayle Day 8.30 Horse (Tom) and Rider
Simon Henley 2.50 2nd Claim
Andy Clark 3.05 Priv
Dan Abbort 4.03 Priv
Karla Body 4.15 Priv
R.Blowing 4.18 Priv
B Ditchburn 4.29 Priv
Richard Dean 4.36 Priv
A.Bronowicki 5.28 Priv

DOWN HILL CHAMPIONSHIP

This was a family affair with Joe and Kevin Holloway easily taking first and second spots by a big margin. Some 25 members took part and the top three placing were:

Joe Holloway 1st
Kevin Holloway 2nd
Matt Steven 3rd

SPORTIVES:

Alex Osborne completed the Wilier’s New Forest 100 Sportive 100 mile ‘Epic’ in a pretty decent time of 5h 58m to achieve Gold standard award. He’s now at Southampton University studying for an MSc in Civil Engineering, but seems to be doing more cycling than studying, having joined both the road and mountain bike clubs.

Slightly later than planned is a brief rundown on the La Lapebie Sportive in Luchon.

Back in September, a few of us HWCC riders packed up the bikes and club kit and took the flight to Toulouse. Our destination was Luchon in the Pyrenees. We were their for six days in total and spent the first three days doing recons of the route and riding some of the cols…just for fun!

The event was on the Sunday and was three different events during the day, a one col, a four col and a mammoth five col, only for the hardened, purely insane riders i.e. Paul Mace!

Myself and Stuart Smith opted for the four col event. Standing at the start line on a particularly cold Sunday morning amongst hundreds of riders, I couldn’t feel my fingers and the nerves were starting to get to me. The gun went off and the event started. Stuart Smith was off like a fox chasing a rabbit and that was the last I saw of him until the end. I can honestly say the first two cols for me were actually really enjoyable and the views and countryside were amazing. By the time I got to the feed stop I was really starting to feel the pain.

Dropping down into Spain the temperature was hitting the 30’s, heat, tiredness and lactic filled legs were getting to me. Still, I carried on and the only way to get home was up the final climb. Half way up I was wondering what an earth had possessed me to do this, the enjoyment of earlier was quickly fading and I was wishing I had just ridden the baby one col event. Still with some encouragement and support from some French riders and lots of ‘vive la femme’ from spectators I managed to find my legs again (just).

The descents for me were particularly testing as you all well know I am a horrendously bad descender, but I faced my fears, battled my way over the last climb, and dropped back down the many hairpins into Luchon.

With over 2500 metres of climbing, 65 miles over four cols the sense of achievement I felt in finishing was immense. I can honestly say this was the toughest challenge of my life to date but I am very pleased to have done it.

Paul Mace who rode the main event produced a sterling ride claiming gold. Stuart Smith climbed like a mountain goat and did an awesome ride finishing in the male category with 4.13 securing himself silver. I was slow as a snail in 6.18 getting bronze but hey at least I finished and the bears didn’t get me!

CYCLOCROSS:

On Sunday, Chris Miles took part in the second round of the Central Cyclocross league at Hemel Hempstead flying the flag for us in HWCC colours. This was his first cyclocross race and he was pleased with the result, placing 12th in the senior category. The course really played to his strengths as it was a mixture of parkland and wooded single-track. It was a bit like a mini MTB race combined with a bit of time-trialling for the open bits. Being cyclocross of course it rained for half the race which made all the off camber corners all the more fun.

ROAD:

No News.

TRACK:

No News.

MTB:

No News.

Tracy Jaquest
Press Secretary
tracyjaquest@yahoo.co.uk
07792886030