The Spokesperson

VOLUME  10  ISSUE  4                VC SEVALE               October  2009

 www.sevale.co.uk

 

Editor: Bill Douglas: 01684 573831 email: billjdouglas@tiscali.co.uk

 

Forthcoming Events

 

VC Sevale Annual General Meeting & Slide Show

Thursday 12^th November @ 7.30

@ Manor Park Sports Club

 

                We hope as many as possible of our members will make the effort to attend our AGM at which we will, among other business, elect the committee for next year, After the formal part of the meeting Richard Klemperer has kindly agreed to gives us a slide show and talk about a cycle-tour of South America he made some years ago. Do try and come along. It should be a very interesting evening.

 

Annual Freewheel Competition

Sunday 27^th December 10 am

 

                Even the least fit of you stands a chance of winning this event, especially if you have over-indulged over Christmas. We assemble at the British Camp Car Park at 9.45 and start at the layby at the top of the hill above Chances Pitch. Afterwards we ride through the lanes to meet up with families at the Farmers Arms at Birts Street for lunch.

 

Riliability Rides - Sunday 10^th January 2010

HQ @ Barnards Green Cricket Club

               

                This is your chance to start riding off the unwanted avoirdupois you accumulated over the holiday period. As usual there will be two rides based around Bredon Hill, one of about 50 miles and a shorter one of about 30 miles or so. Signing on will be from 9 am onwards, and there should be the chance to join a group to suit your level of fitness.

 

Club Rides-Sundays-9 am @ Barnards Green

               

                September, weather-wise, almost made up for the rest of the summer, and we had some excellent rides, although numbers have been down a little this year. Over the next few weeks our destinations include Wellington Garden Centre, Ross-on-Wye, Evesham, Monkton, Ledbury and Stourport. If you have not been out with us recently now is the chance to catch up with old friends, (some of them rather older than others). As ever there will tea and cake at each venue.

 

Mike Amery and Sean O’Toole

 

                Having gone under 22 minutes for 10 miles this year for the first time, with 00.21.44 on the U47 Cirencester course in April, Mike has continued to chip away at his personal best. In July he recorded 00.21.38 on the same course, then, in September 00.21.34 on the Andover course. He also rode his fastest ever 10 miles on fixed wheel in our Open 10 miles in September with 00.22.39. Mike also improved his best ever 100 miles time by 15 minutes, as did Sean, remarkable improvements  by both men. Sean and Mike also improved their personal best times at 25 miles, conforming to a trend that riders of ‘more mature years’ (i.e. Veterans) often continue to improve as the years go by. (I heard recently of an eighty-one year–old getting under the hour for 25 miles.)

                Sean and Mike have also just completed a very full season of road-racing in the LVRC (League of Veteran Racing Cyclists) events.  Sean rode 13 events, including  3-day and  2-day stage races, while Mike completed 11 events. Each of them achieved a number of top-ten placings, with Sean coming 4^th  in the Prologue time-trial of the Ernie Clements Memorial stage race in August. Mike was placed 4^th and 6^th in bunch-sprint finishes, and in the Enville Road Race in September he was in the winning break and finished 5^th.

 

LVRC Track Championships – October 31^st and 1^st November

         

                Mike Amery  (tel. 01684 310168) is organising these championships and is seeking help from anyone who can spare one or two days to travel to Newport Velodrome (travel costs and refreshments provided) . Spectators are also welcome (free of charge) This is a great opportunity to experience track racing at an international venue.

 

 

The Wind Chill Factor

 

                The following is an edited and shortened version of an article written by Ray Minovi (who sadly died earlier this year) for the ‘Veteran Leaguer’ in 2001, which was sent to me by John Baker.

 

                As a junior I rode in the Cheltenham CC Christmas ‘25’.  Owen Blower and his teammates were also riding and arrived at the start with woollen tights and jerseys worn over the pyjamas they had worn overnight at the Teddington Hands Inn. Unbelievable! Like any real racing cyclist I naturally rode in shorts and t-shirt. It was a cold day, but it was only after the turn at Gloucester that you realized just how bitter the east wind was. Owen and his team mates picked up the first three places – I was picked up unconscious at the roadside outside Tewkesbury and revived with hot soup and blankets.

                When a blizzard swept the Coventry ‘2-up 25’  in 1994 I was well wrapped up; but I was still foolish enough to refuse the offer of the loan of an anorak to ride back to the HQ and suffered badly. At least one rider was taken to hospital with hypothermia. Even in a small country, where you are never far from human habitation, it is easy to get dangerously cold in these circumstances. A strong wind can quickly reduce even a ‘plus’ temperature to a minus value – the wind-chill factor.

                Wind direction can be crucial. Side or tail winds have much less impact than headwinds; the faster you ride into the wind the more the wind-chill effect is increased. For example an actual thermometer reading of 10 degrees Celsius in still air will be reduced to an effective temperature of -3 degrees in a wind speed of 40 mph. A still air reading of -1 degrees will be reduced to -16 by a wind speed of 20 mph. Experienced cyclists try to choose a route so as to ride into the wind on the way out and return with it behind them. The  two variables of wind and air temperature determine wind-chill.

                Cold weather clothing should protect all the skin surface. Modern developments in thermal clothing have reduced the need for many or very thick layers, and are often only tolerable in really cold conditions. Dress appropriately: thermal clothing for low temperatures with little wind (below zero), wind-proof clothing when it is 10 degrees above but blowing at 20 mph.

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                I remember vividly a day in late February about, 48 years ago, when I rode with Ray Minovi down to Gloucester to take part in a 100 miles tourist trial into the Black Mountains. The exact route escapes me but it was not long before we were buffeted by wind-driven snow showers as we rode into the hills. These lasted most of the day and we were lucky not to suffer injury as we skidded through the lanes. It was very cold in the wind and the snow I didn’t own a tracksuit then, and sports-dedicated thermal clothing was still several decades away. I probably wore an old pair of trousers over my padded shorts, and above the waist a cotton singlet, viyella shirt and a thick woolen jumper, topped off with a jacket from an army surplus store. There were no overshoes of any sort, but we managed to escape hypothermia, possibly because neither of us had heard of it at the time. Unfortunately, as we rode back through Upton-on-Severn in the dark, Ray skidded on black ice on the sharp turn opposite the ‘Pepper Pot’. He came down very heavily and took a lot of skin off his left palm. He gave no indication of being in pain, but his verbal outpourings are best listed under ‘expletives deleted’. Ray was a hard man on a bike, as anyone who ever rode with him will testify. It must have been a very cold day indeed at the Cheltenham 25 to reduce him to unconsciousness and prevent him finishing. (ed.)

 

 

Claims for Awards

 

                Please note that claims for medals for 10, 25, 50 and 100 miles must be with me no later than 31^st October, and for performances in Open events to be considered must be accompanied by an official result sheet. I do not have the time or inclination to trawl through other clubs’ results’ sheets on the internet. Similarly riders in Road Races must submit details of the points they have gathered during the year in order for them to be considered for the road race trophy. Claim forms can be obtained from and be returned to me, Bill Douglas,  1Eversley Close, Malvern. WR14 2LA (See above for tel. and email  contact)

 

 

 

Notes from a Tour - conclusion

 

                The A835 north of Ullapool is not always the most interesting of roads. The scenery nowhere has the awesome splendor of Glencoe or The Five Sisters of Kintail, although there are stretches where the remoteness and isolation of the terrain generates a different kind of beauty. There are only a few hamlets by the roadside north of Ullapool, and no towns. Even Durness,  my next destination is only a village. Elphin, Ledmore, Inchnadamph, Kylestrome and Scourie left me with no lasting memories, and I do not recall there being a single café along the 72 miles from Ullapool to Durness.   With a south-westerly at my back the going was not too hard, but it was with relief, on a grey damp day, that I crested the last rise before the long descent to the coast. Durness Youth Hostel sits close to the cliffs above the village. In 1964 it consisted of two black-painted huts, probably ex War Department. Inside the furnishings and fittings echoed the unpretentious and functional nature of the buildings themselves. The bunk beds had seen better days, the bedsprings sagging and creaking alarmingly under my weight, the mattresses feeling as if any comfort they may once have suggested had been squeezed out of them by a steamroller. But the stove worked and there is nothing like hot food after a long day’s ride to lift ones spirits. In 2003 I again stayed at Durness Youth Hostel while on a bicycle tour. I was strangely pleased to see that externally it had changed not at all in 39 years, but relived to find that the beds had been updated and that the warden had installed a number of his late mother’s possessions in the lounge area. The route north of Ullapool is much the same as it was then, the hamlets do not seem to have grown at all, although I did refresh myself at  a wayside café that was not there in 1964. A word of advice. If you are hostelling or camping this far north you should be aware that shops are few and far between, and tend to close early in the evening, and all day Sunday. Their stock is often very limited, as is the supply of fresh fruit and vegetables.

                The road across to Tongue follows the coast for a while with deserted sandy beaches and wave-carved cliffs, before heading south to make a long loop around Loch Eriboll. As you cross the Kyle of Tongue there are often flocks of waders, ducks and geese making the most of the mudflats and shoreline.

                After a night at Tongue Youth Hostel I headed south for Aberdeen where I intended to visit my aunt. My main interest on this trip so far had been in the western highlands and Skye, so perhaps I did not take as much interest as I should in the less spectacular attractions of the north-east of Scotland. I concentrated instead on notching up the miles each day, conscious also that I had to be in Edinburgh for a given day in September. Somewhere north-east of Dingwall, head down, fighting a southwesterly, I became aware of someone shouting at me from a layby. A couple were sat in folding chairs by a caravan and the man was calling for me to stop. As I did so the woman asked me if I wanted a cup of tea. Did I? You bet! And the large piece of Dundee cake she forced me to accept. The couple were from Hull, my birthplace, and I have never forgotten their simple act of kind hospitality.

                At Strathpeffer Hostel the warden was keen to tell me that just across the road, behind a high wall and ornate gates, lived the Duchess of ____________, who had been involved in a scandalous adulterous affair, which apparently had been improving the circulation figures of all the tabloids since I had begun my tour. It was at Strathpeffer that I first came across a plastic plate when a pretty young American girl emptied the contents of a saucepan of vegetables onto it. Saucepan in one hand, plate in the other she hestitated a moment, seeking somewhere safe to place the plate while putting the ‘pan in the sink. Without thinking she put the plate down on the top of the peat-burning stove. A moment later the kitchen began to fill with noxious fumes from the melting plastic, to be followed by the delicious smell of sizzling vegetables. The poor girl burst into tears as her dinner carbonized on the top of the stove. She had spent forty-five minutes preparing, chopping and cooking the ingredients for her meal,  only to see it burnt to cinders in a few seconds. I offered her a share of the generous pan full of corn beef hash I had prepared, but it seems  she was a vegetarian, and made do with a cheese sandwich instead.

                When my aunt opened the door to me in Aberdeen her very first words were, “Ye cannae stay here.”  She need not have worried as I had no intention of staying with her, having formed a very unfavourable impression of her on my two previous visits. I had only called in because I had promised my father, her brother, that I would. So unlike my generous-hearted father she was the sort of person on whom Aberdeen’s reputation for meaness is too often based.

                After two days in Aberdeen time became of the essence, as I was due to meet up with the members of the cast of two plays that my college was putting on at the Edinburgh Fringe. Once again I recall little of the route south, being more concerned with my arrival than any attractions of the road I was on. Arriving mid-afternoon of the day I was due to meet up with my fellow-students I made my way to the digs that the college had arranged for me. Here I was told by the landlady  that I could not leave my bicycle in the hall in case it scratched the wallpaper. She assured me that my bicycle would be perfectly safe locked up at the front of the house. Needless to say it was stolen on the second night of my stay, and I never saw my trusty Holdsworth again.

                Our performances on the Fringe were well reviewed; in both plays I took the part of an old man – I had even grown my first beard to avoid the sticky mess each night of applying and removing false hair and spirit gum. I enjoyed my fortnight in Edinburgh nearly as much as the tour I had just completed; but for the theft of my bike it would have all have been  perfect. Without a bike I could not train during my fortnight in Edinburgh and feel that this affected my performance in what was to be my final twelve-hour event. But that long bicycle tour bred an interest in cycle-touring that I did not dream at the time would take me nearly forty years to extend.

                                                                                                                                                          Bill Douglas

VC Sevale Open  10 – September 26^th

 

            In contrast to the freezing wet conditions which obtained in our March open 10, September 26^th  was one of the best days of the season – warm and sunny with only a slight breeze. Out of the 44 entries Dean Robson of  Somerset RC recorded the fastest time with 00.20.45. Fenella Brown of Beacon RCC was the fastest lady with 00.26.51, while the team prize was taken by Worcester St Johns with a combined time of 01.07.01. Mike Amery was the fastest VC Sevale rider coming 11^th overall with a time of 00.22.39. Henry Walker (junior) recorded 00.27.50.

                As ever the event would not have been the success it was without the unselfish help of those who baked cakes, marshaled, pushed off,  served refreshments, washed up, swept the floor of the hall and  slaved over a hot lap-top as the times came in. Thanks are due to you all for the way you have supported me and the Club  in our two open events this year.

                                                                                                                                                Bill Douglas

Bicycle Wanted for lady with alloy rims!

 

                Seriously folks I am looking for a lady’s bicycle or frame, size 20” to 21” for my daughter. It must be of step-through design, capable of taking a standard child seat which clamps to the seat tube, so no oversize alloy tubes. Good condition preferred, although the paint finish does not have to be perfect. If you have a complete bicycle then a low bottom gear would be useful. No rusty tip-fodder please.

                If you have such a machine or frame contact me, Bill Douglas – see details above. Thanks