Open 10 mile – 18^th September 2010

Our final open 10 for the season was blessed with exceptionally good weather and, with a slight southerly air flow favouring the return leg, the conditions were pretty much ideal for this course . We had one rider Ken Squibb of Cardiff Ajax who walked away with the fixed wheel award , sad to see that riding fixed is not so popular these days ! Tim Wood again provided a wealth of spot prizes so we were able to reward riders other than those fastest in the usual awards categories which is always a nice touch and hopefully encourages folk to support our events in the future . We must take this opportunity to recognise those who turned out to marshal, make cakes and help in the tea bar, (without which we would have run the event at a loss), so thank you all for your loyal support .With our next season’s` open events  already in the planning with our customary April and September dates lodged and

awaiting approval with the CTT we are looking forward to some new faces to turn up to help out ? 

                                                                                                                                                Derek Burnage   

JUNE IN FRANCE                                                               Graham Coulson

                The plan was to cycle camp across France to Switzerland and back with no defined end date, other than “about a month”.  It happened that a CTC camping group would be in Burgundy and the edge of the Jura at a time that suited me well, so I could meet them and have company for a week or more.

                Friday 4^th June I took the day ferry from Portsmouth to Ouistreham (Caen) arriving about 3pm and rode to St Pierre sur Dives, 30 odd miles, to find the campsite was well and truly closed.  Locked, barred, boarded up.  So my first night was spent in a hotel; the only one in the whole trip.

Saturday took me to Ferte Vidame.  The approaches to this small town are on a dead straight road whereby you can see the ruined chateau some considerable time before you get there.  The campsite was absolutely magnificent, but the town itself was a real let down.  A few bars along a main road and I had to search the backstreets for a small shop to buy food.  Sunday morning it rained, with a vengeance.  Heavy rain and thunder for about 4 hours.  In my good old cape I was dry and comfortable enough though.  I arrived at Toury and asked a passerby where the campsite was.  Of course the only passerby on a Sunday afternoon in small town France happened to be Spanish and did not know.  Eventually I found it, a small site of about 10 pitches with 6 of them occupied by itinerant workers.  These people look like, but should not be confused with, our “travellers” which France also suffers from.  In the afternoon I found a local time trial in the backstreets of the town and something like 7 km long with every crossing road barricaded and manned by marshals.  There were 100 riders or more and the local car park was a mass of club cars covered with advertising and with racks and racks of bikes.

                At 90 rolling miles Monday was a long day for me.  Bear in mind this is on a trike with camping kit.  Reaching my target town for the day, I decided to press on to make up time to meet the CTC group.  About 3pm I got to St Fargeau where I knew the campsite was a few miles beyond the town and just followed the signs which took me a circuitous and very hilly route.  I was stuffed by the time I arrived, partly because the weather had been hot and sultry, so pretty unpleasant.

                Tuesday 8^th I met the CTC group at L’Isle sur Serein after about 60 rolling miles in a morning with heavy showers.  One little lane I followed was along a narrow valley which was superb in that I saw no motor vehicles, no houses and only one person in something over 5 miles.  I arrived at the campsite in time to nip into town before the shops shut for lunch.   On my way, there was a loud BANG and suddenly the front of my saddle was flapping in the breeze.  The titanium saddle rails on my Brooks B17 had snapped just in front of the saddle, pillar clamp.  Oh poo!  I asked a local if there was a bike shop or anybody I could talk to.  He said “there is a garage up the road”.  I went there and explained my plight.  The owner told me there was a bike shop in the nearby town of Avallon, about 10 miles away.  However, while he was talking he had obviously been thinking because he wandered away for a few minutes and came back with a saddle.  A brand new, low end Selle Italia foam covered plastic thing.  I was extremely pleased to take it and thrust 20 Euros into his hand even though he asked for nothing.  He even loaned me the 10mm spanner to fit it.  This saddle lasted me the rest of the trip, another thousand miles and more.

                I spent the next nine days with the CTC group, moving campsites every third day and meandering across Burgundy to the edge of the Jura.  It was pretty wet so not the best for touring.  We caught the northern edge of the severe weather that saw flash floods further south.  Sunday in Burgundy, near Beaune, was amazing.  Lots and lots of cyclists of all sorts following signed cycle routes on the tiny roads that criss-cross the vineyards.

                I left the group on Friday 18^th to ride up the Jura, ducking in and out of Switzerland, to Basle.  The gorges of the Jura were fantastic.  Steep sided, with a corresponding steep climb out the end of each one.  Again, lots of rain.  I reached Basle as planned on Sunday lunchtime, spent the afternoon wandering around town and then crossed back into France to the border town of St Louis where I lived in 1999.  It is still the mucky little town I remember.  There are lots of tram tracks in Basle which I can tell you are pretty unpleasant on a trike because you cannot usually ride alongside them and the width of the track is not a great deal bigger than a trike.  I dropped a wheel into only one and had to stop to get out of it because I could not just lift the rear wheel while riding due to the camping load.

                Striking north west, I headed towards the southern foothills of the Vosges where I camped at Masevaux for 2 nights so that I could do some climbing relatively lightly loaded.  It was pretty cold here, down to 4 degrees C overnight and when I set off to go up Ballon des Vosges it was 7 degrees and I needed to pull arm warmers down over my hands to keep warm.  I’d been over Grand Ballon 10 years ago and wanted to tick off Ballon because it is a much more winding climb and descent.  I met an 86 year old who had just been over the climb on his heavily loaded recumbent trike.  It had taken him 3 hours.  As he said, “so what! I am enjoying myself”.

                Heading further west I stayed in campsites in some pretty grim towns as well as some very pleasant ones.  One I recall, Malesherbes which is a bit south east of Paris, was really unpleasant.  The campsite was fine but the town had lots of housing estates and run down areas.  The local youth, all seemingly of North African descent, filled the time driving around playing crap rap at full volume.  A day or so before I reached here, my plans had suddenly changed.  Being quite nearby, I had intended to go to the chateau at Fontainebleau, but unfortunately one of my front teeth gave way.  I was tugging at a bit of stale baguette for breakfast when I felt something give.  It was a tooth that had been crowned many years ago and had now failed ending up pointing forwards.  I decided I could nurse it home rather than visit a French dentist and so be tied to a particular town while being treated, and hence I needed to plot a more direct course than I would have done otherwise.

                By now I’d been on the road 3 weeks.  The last few days of the ride were pretty hot and riding the exposed roads across corn fields south of Paris was unpleasant.  It was a relief to return to the shade of rolling roads as I reached the last 100 miles or so to the coast.   I got back to Ouistreham to catch the ferry on Wednesday 30^th June.  The price was a shock.  It seems that the afternoon crossing is popular and so has higher prices – 80 Euros, almost twice the cost of my outbound ferry.

                Summary – I went from Ouistreham heading roughly south east, passing south of Paris, through Burgundy towards Geneva, into the Jura where I struck north dropping in and out of Switzerland to Basle.  Then north west through the southern edge of the Vosges before striking more to the west to pass south of Paris once more and back to Ouistreham.  1500 miles, 27 days, longest day  90 miles, shortest day 9 miles to the shops a couple of times.  Total cost, ferries, food etc was £600.  Campsites were generally about 7 Euros, but the cheapest was a remarkable 1.8 Euros.  Burgundy I don’t wish to revisit because it was too picture postcard like and crawling with British.  The Jura was fantastic.  I spend most of my time on very minor back roads and so map reading is quite important.  It got exciting a few times where the minor roads became very minor indeed, to the point of being farm tracks.  One day in a very heavily forested area I became a little confused in an absolute maze of tiny lanes.  I had to think “if I head east, keep the hill on my left and do not descend anywhere, then I should get somewhere useful”.  Sure enough, I came out only about 5km from where I should have.  A bit of excitement, but in the rain and nearing lunchtime I could have done without it.  The saddle?  I still have it.  It was ok until the higher temperatures in my last week.  Being used to a nice leather saddle that breathes a bit I found the plastic one very uncomfortable in the heat, leading to a nasty case of sweaty bits after about 40 miles each day.  I met French, German and Dutch cyclists, sometimes alone but usually in couples.  All of them were going further than me and over longer periods than me.  Most seemed to be out for about 2 months.  These were not super cyclists or cycle tourists we think of in the UK, they were just people to whom 100km is a long way, but cycling is an everyday occurrence.  Quite remarkable.

Riders’ Digest

                As well as their participation in our Club evening time trials a number of our members have taken part in a wide range of open time trials during the season. New members like Russell Burford and Julian Bouchet have done particularly well. Russell, as a juvenile in his first season’s competition, has concentrated on our evening events. His progress from April through to September can be assessed by comparing his time of 18 minutes 9 seconds for his first ever time-trial of 5.5 miles in April with a time of 14 minutes 54 seconds for the same distance on the same course at Hanley Swan in September. His time for 10 miles progressed from 33minutes 57 seconds in April to 27 minutes 28 seconds in August, this last a very impressive ride on the ‘lumpy’ Chance lane course. He might well have beaten this time in the Club’s Open 10 in September had he not had a mechanical problem.

                Derek Burnage, who has acted as a sort of cycling mentor to Russell has, at my request, submitted the following comments about his active encouragement of this our youngest competitive rider:

                The 2010 cycling season saw the arrival of Russell Burford onto our club scene. Introduced to cycling and encouraged by his mother, the Burford family are no strangers to cycling because Russell’s grandfather (his Mum’s dad) was also competitive in our sport.

                My first ride with Russell was from the Bluebell Pub in October 2009 from where we set off down the Guarlford Road to turn at the Plough & Harrow and head into Hanley Swan. It soon became evident that he was keen to become competitive in cycling, and as we made our way to Hanley Castle and then on over the Old Hills to Callow End and Jennett Tree Lane I could see that Russell had a lot to learn about riding a bike and more particularly using his intrinsic fitness to best advantage. Having returned to our starting point we called it a day for our first outing and arranged to meet up again the following Sunday.

                As Sundays went on our riding distances increased. Russell’s stamina developed so that by early Spring he wanted to join the Sunday Club Runs, and managed distances of 60 to 70 miles. Able to cope at this level was exceptionally encouraging, especially at the tender age of 15 and it was not long before he made regular rides in our club time trial series. Having set him a target to beat evens on the Chance Lane 10 in his first competitive season I felt it was just about achievable however, such was his determination he out performed my expectations by recording times that lifted him well clear of the bottom of the result sheet.

                Provided Russell can maintain his cycling fitness and enthusiasm over this coming winter I am certain he will continue to improve during 2011 (especially since recently acquiring a very decent carbon fibre Giant bike)!

                We warmly welcome him into our club and hope he derives the same pleasure in participating in the sport as we more seasoned folk do.                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                Derek Burnage

                Perhaps the most remarkable ride this season has been by Julian Bouchet  in the Welsh CA ‘100’, when, in his first time-trial at this distance, he recorded 4 hours 17 minutes, less than a minute slower than Mike Amery in the same event. Afterwards Mike confided to me that he thought he might be lucky to hang onto the Senior Best All-Rounder trophy in future seasons, if Julian continues his progress. I know Julian is disappointed that he did not get under the hour for 25 miles this season, but with a very creditable 62.08 he is surely able to knock at least 2-and-a-half minutes of that time next year. In his first 12 hour ever Julian rode 218 miles, leaving him plenty of room to improve towards evens for the distance.

                In the same 12 hour event that Julian rode Will Davies recorded 238 miles, which puts him right up amongst the best ever distances over this time by a Sevale member.

                Mike Amery has recorded personal bests at 25 miles – 53.58 and at 10 miles this season, as well as 4 hours 16 minutes over 100 miles. After recording his personal best at twenty-five miles on the U46 in the morning Mike was second overall in the Ludlow open 10 in the afternoon.

                In the Welsh CA ‘100’ Steve Price insisted on riding his ancient Moulton 3 speed to record 5 hours 6 minutes in his first attempt at the distance. Steve, if only you would ride a ‘proper’ racing-bike in these open events think how much faster or further you would go; or are you hooked on the attention from the  ‘groupies’ who gather around after you finish to marvel at your valiant ‘steed’?  Sean O’Toole improved his best 100 time to 4 hours 29 minutes in this event.

                Bill Douglas recorded 5 hours 3 seconds in this ‘100’ which, although it was a 25 year personal best, was a disappointing ride in that it was just 3 seconds outside evens. His bike computer showed a time of 4 hours 54 minutes 28 seconds, but unfortunately the official timekeeper’s watch did not pause, as Bill’s computer did, when he stopped twice, ‘to do what had to be done’.  Bill also recorded 66 minutes 11 seconds in a ‘25’, another 25 year personal best, in this his last ever season of time-trialling.

                                                                                                                                                              Bill Douglas

                      Steve Price                                                                                      Mike Amery

                         Sean O’Toole                                                                     Bill Douglas

Club Runs October 2010 to February 2011

Club Runs meet at Barnards Green Bus Shelter at 09.00 on Sunday mornings except as indicated.

There will be a full runs programme throughout the year so why not come along and join in for all or part of a ride?

Eric Gorton (01684) 568015 is now ready to take club runs leaders ideas for the next list covering the period February to June.

 Don’t delay volunteer today!

As a general rule distances are greater in the summer than in the winter.  The speed of rides is typically at a 15mph average.  The speed depends on conditions and those present – the object being to keep the group together.

Sevale at Blenheim Palace                                 Graham Coulson

                Sunday 3^rd October was the 3^rd Bike Blenheim event which incorporates a Sportif of two distances, a time trial in the palace grounds, a Brompton massed start event, cyclo-cross, bicycle polo and more events and displays.

                This year the Tricycle World Championship time trial was incorporated into a block in the main time trial.  We fielded 46 solo and one tandem trike in a field of 350 riders.  The time trial is over about 12 1/2 miles and is 3 laps of internal roads in the grounds.  These roads are about 8 feet wide apart from the area immediately around the palace where they are wider.  There are long descents through trees around bends with poor sight lines, there is a climb of more than half a mile, general ups and downs, a couple of narrow bridges, two cattle grids which had covers fitted for the event.  Since it had rained overnight, and continued to rain on and off all day, the surface was wet and slippery with leaf mould etc in places.  It was quite interesting riding in places and one hump backed bridge immediately followed by a cattle grid which threw you off line for the following right hand bend was exciting indeed for the tricyclists.

                I recorded a time of 43:23 which put me in 22^nd place out of the 39 starters compared to the winning time of 32:04 by Carl Saint from Yorkshire Road Club.  This also put me in 10^th place on handicap.  You cannot accuse me of “racing”, I merely took part, maybe riding a little quicker than usual and did not even remove my mudguard which meant I finished without a mud splattered face.

                Of the bicycles in the time trail, there were a couple of 27 minute rides.  Almost 28mph on roads like that on a poor day.  Sevale was not the only club from this area.  Worcester St Johns had Roger Alma riding a trike and 8 other riders on bikes, the fastest of whom was Martin Staines with 31:42.  Given that Martin recorded 23:48 in our September open 10; you can judge for yourself how you might have fared.

                Having 350 riders to start meant that riders were spaced at 30 second intervals.  There were two start lanes, one for odd numbers and one for even.  Bearing in mind that there were riders on their second and third laps when I started things were a bit busy and I almost always had a rider in sight, usually one who had just passed me.

                The Brompton event was very entertaining.  750 riders held in 5 adjacent start areas.  All machines were fully folded with saddle and handlebars retracted.  The machines were lined up about 25 yards from the starters and on the command the riders had to run to their machines, reassemble them (which for some took about 20 seconds) and then get out on the circuit which they covered twice, so about 8 miles.  Each block was set off at about 30 second intervals.  Riders had to be dressed in shirt, tie and jacket but trousers and shoes were the riders’ choice.  Many people had made a real effort and looked really spick and span, at least until they’d ridden in the rain.  The winning time of 22:52 equates to about 21mph.  Given that Bromptons don’t climb at all well (apparently you cannot honk and the slow end of the field walked the hill), that is another staggering performance.

                If you consider that the sportif events had something like 2000 entries, the TT had 350, the Brompton race had 750; then add events like the cyclo-cross and you probably have 3000 and more participants over the day, plus the spectators; it was quite a sizable event.

Echelon Cycles are here to cater for all of your cycling needs. We stock a range of bikes and can custom build you one from as little as £499. We offer a full array of accessories as well as a huge selection of clothing and nutritional products. Echelon has demo products such as saddles and wheel sets for you to try before you buy. The shop has a fully equipped workshop to carry out all service and repair work. We can advise on training and nutrition as well as offering a position analysis service.

For further information go on line to www.echelon-cycles.co.uk or simply pop in to the shop! We look forward to seeing you soon!