Wednesday 23 March 2011

Thruxton

Meanwhile Andrew McCombe has been showing fine form at Thruxton 20/03/11 with a fourth place finish out of a field of some 88 in his Cat 3 race. Keen to repeat his success the following week 27/03/11 and with a field of around 100 riders he made a tactical mistake by sprinting too early and was beaten to the line, however points could still be in the bag…waiting on final results…

Our promising young rider Jamie Fry was in action at Thruxton also 27/03/11 in the U14-16 group with around 20 starters; his race bike is being repaired (faulty frame) so he was racing on his Winter hack, which was under geared, meaning he was pedalling faster than most (they say leg speed wins races!); anyhow, he managed a respectable 5th/6th place but feels he could have done better with the correct gearing.

Monday 14 March 2011

Goodwood & SERRL

Meanwhile Scott Oatridge who has been working hard through the Winter months made an early start to the racing Season competing at Goodwood 13/03/11 finishing 37/70 saying ‘it was good to blow away the cobwebs and to get used to riding in race formation again’; last Sunday he promised to be ‘more animated’ 27/03/11 he was racing a SERRL event on the open roads and narrowly avoided what sounded like a severe coming together of around 8 or 10 riders sprinting for the finish line – emergency services were called to the scene. Prior to that incident, Scott attacked several times, but no one was prepared to pull their weight so they were caught on all occasions.

Sunday 13 March 2011

On the Road with Colin Bezant

I rode the Maidenhead & District Hilly ‘29’ on 13 March.  The event was reduced to 21 miles missing out the final 3 mile long hill due to roadworks which might have helped me make up one or two places – I finished 17 out of 34 starters with 53:50

On Saturday 26 March I completed the Dean 300km Audax which starts and finishes in Oxford, taking in the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean, the Severn Bridge, and Marlborough.  I finished 2nd out of 100 starters (not that its a race) in 12 hours 27 minutes – its a bit like doing 3 club runs back to back -  so this was good practice for the National 24 hour time trial at the end of June which is my main goal.

CCB on the Costa Blanca

Four members, Jeff Triner, Jon Harris, Karl Smith and Ralph Colegate, spent 5 days riding the hills of Southern Spain covering 350 miles and climbing around 28,000ft. Noted climbs were the Col De Rates and the Col De Tudons and many others besides. We were invited to hitch up with a group of riders who were on a training camp with a UK coach with support from Ciclo Costa Blanca.

Thursday 3 March 2011

The Puncheur Sportive

Six members of the CCB; Jeff Triner, Jon Harris, Jamie Fry, Karl Smith, Ralph Colegate and Scott Oatridge road this undulating course on what turned out to be a fine and pleasant day. We climbed 4346ft in 69 miles and all finished in the top 20 out of more than 375 entries; young Jamie Fry recovering from cramp finished 14th to ensure he was the first CCB rider to cross the finish line which was the top of Ditchling Beacon.