NB - this was originally written in March 2017, some things have changed so I’ve added a few edits

When do you go?
We have club runs on Sundays almost every week (unless it’s Christmas Day or the weather is truly apocalyptic).

Where  and when do you meet?
We meet at the gates to the Town Hall on Forest Road in Walthamstow: http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=537723&Y=189785&A=Y&Z=115
The idea is for the various groups to depart at 9:00 am. Inevitably, things can get delayed by 5 minutes or so, but you shouldn’t gamble on this – if you turn up at ten past you will probably find everyone has gone. A few meet up for a pre-ride coffee in the Winwood Art District café (just round the corner at the top of Chingford Road, near The Bell), but most just turn up at the town hall from 8:55 am onwards.
The idea is to have a second meeting point at ‘Acorn Hut’ (aka the green tea hut) at High Beach in Epping Forest:
http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=541127&Y=198305&A=Y&Z=120
There are often several different groups (more details below) – the more ‘social’-paced groups try to meet there with the intention of departing again at 9:45 am. The faster groups sometimes do this too (on these occasions they normally take a diversion to do a climb up Mott Street on the way there, while the social group rides straight up the Epping New Road), but on other occasions they will get there earlier and depart nearer 9:30 am, or some weeks not go through there at all. If in any doubt, it’s best to check on the club’s Facebook page for the latest plans.

How many riders are there?
Obviously this varies from week to week, but I would say typically we might have about 20 when we set off from Walthamstow and pick up another five or so at High Beach. However, we don’t ride in one group – partly because different groups of people want to go at different speeds, and partly because of safety (a big group makes it very difficult for cars to overtake us and could lead to unpleasantness). Typically a group would have 8-10 riders in it. When the weather is bad, fewer people are likely to be out (although having said that, we still had over 20 riders when the temperature was -5C) and there are several weekends when the club organizes a race or other event and this means many people are not available for the club run – as above, check on Facebook to see what the situation is.

How far do you go and how fast do you go?
Again, this varies from week to week. We have started trying to designate different groups/rides with letters to make it simpler:
Group A: fast and hard, ranging from 19 mph to >20 mph chaingang, if you’re dropped no one is likely to wait for you (usually 50-70 miles)
Group B: moderately fast, with an average speed from 17 mph to 18.5 mph, possibly a coffee stop depending on what people want (usually 50-60 miles) (Edit: the pace for this group tends to rise when the weather gets warmer. For a while in the summer of 2017 the Bs were averaging 20mph)
Group C: social, 14-16mph, coffee stop very likely – distance as above, but depends on when people want to get back (Edit: this has now evolved into two separate groups, C going at 16-17mph, and Social going at around 14mph, generally following different routes)
Introductory ride, gentle pace (12-13mph), shorter distance (maybe 25-30 miles)
This doesn’t mean all of these groups necessarily happen every week, though: there should be a ‘B’ group and a social (‘C’) group almost every week, but A will only happen if there are enough fast riders around that weekend. Similarly, the introductory (‘D’) ride only happens if there is someone to lead it. We aim to put a route up on the club’s Facebook page by Thursday or Friday, which will be followed by the A/B groups, though not necessarily by the others. There is usually a discussion on that thread where people negotiate which groups they will be in and who will be the ride leader.
There is now also a monthly Women’s Group ride which has been going since December. This is usually slightly shorter (more like 40-45 miles) with a café stop and the aim is to go at a pace that everyone can manage (perhaps 14mph). This is also announced on Facebook, usually several weeks in advance. Of course, women are welcome on the normal rides every week as well, but are normally outnumbered eight to one or more – the women’s rides redress the balance a bit!

If you are coming out with us for the first time, try to choose the most appropriate group. If you are new to cycling and haven’t ridden far before, the introductory ride is the best place to start. If you are more experienced, it’s probably best to err on the side of caution in terms of which average speed would suit you best (i.e. if you’re not sure whether to go with B group or the C group, try the C group first) - you don’t want to get dropped on your first ride.

When would I get home again?
This depends on the distance and pace (see above), whether there is a café stop, whether you have to stop because someone has a puncture, whether there’s a horrendous headwind on the way back, etc. As a rule of thumb, the B group would normally get back to Walthamstow* some time between 12pm and 1:30pm. The A group is usually similar. If John is leading the social ride he often tailors the distance to what people say they have time to do – if enough people are up for a long one, they might not get back till 3pm, but if people want to get back earlier, then that’s what happens. You often get people who say “I have to be home by X o’clock” who peel off and turn back early, or who plough on when others stop for a coffee, so don’t feel obliged to stay to the bitter end if you’ve got other commitments.
*not that everyone goes back to Walthamstow – as the ride leaves Essex and returns to the fringes of London the groups start splitting up as people head their separate ways to Leytonstone, Hackney, Chingford, Stratford, or wherever they live.

What do I need to bring with me?
At the absolute minimum, everyone should have at least one spare inner tube, some tyre levers and a mini-pump. Ideally, you should also have a puncture repair kit, a little multi-tool and perhaps another inner tube. If it’s the winter or it’s raining, it’s best if you have mudguards (out of consideration for whoever is riding behind you) – race blades are fairly easy to fit (and remove) on most road bikes. If you’re likely to be out when the light is fading, or if the weather is particularly bleak, you should also have a front and rear light.
Without wanting to sound alarmist, you also need to be prepared for the worst – you could end up being involved in an accident that completely wrecks your bike and/or leaves you in hospital. Make sure you have some money with you if you end up having to get a taxi or train and some kind of ID and contact details if people have to call your next of kin. Take your phone as well, so that you can call for a taxi / lift from a friend if you need it. If it’s going to be raining, make sure your phone is in one of those waterproof pouches (I learnt this lesson the hard way).
Common sense says you should have at least one drinks bottle with you and something to eat (most people favour a banana and some energy gels), especially if your group is not going to have a café stop. When the weather is hot we often end up having to call in at a shop to buy more drinks.
Also, you should know how to get home. If you aren’t familiar with the roads in Essex (or sometimes Herts) you should take a map – or, much more common nowadays, either a phone on which you can access a map, or better still a Garmin with maps on it. If you’re going on the A/B group ride and you have a Garmin, download the route we stick up on Facebook and put it on your device. We don’t want anyone to get dropped on any of the rides and try to avoid this, but you should be prepared.

What is a ride leader? Who are the ride leaders?
The ride leader should know the route and either lead the way or shout out directions (though, hopefully, other riders in the group should also have the route on their Garmins). Ideally, the ride leader should also keep an eye on how many riders there are in the group to keep track and check if anyone has been dropped (especially as we can get separated at junctions / on climbs). The ride leader should also give a shout out if he/she feels there is a need to stop / slow down / go single file for whatever reason (though anyone can do this – it doesn’t have to be the ride leader).
We try to negotiate ride leaders for different groups each week on Facebook. If there is an A group, the leader is often David or Barnaby, the B group is often led by me (Jamie), Karl often leads the C group, John often leads a social group, Edward is the person most likely to lead an introductory ride, and Chrystyna and Monika have been organising the women’s group rides (Edit: now Alice).

Where do you go?
We have different routes every week, but the vast majority of the rides are in Essex. Broadly speaking, some routes head east of Epping Forest through places such as Abridge, Navestock, Ongar, Blackmore and Hanningfield. Others head north-east through places such as Theydon Bois, Toot Hill, Moreton, Matching Green and Hatfield Heath. Less frequently, we head north-west through places such as Nazeing, Roydon, Much Hadham, Broxbourne and Essendon.
Every now and then there are train-assisted rides where we ride out somewhere and get the train back. In recent times we have gone to Saffron Walden, Cambridge and Brighton.

What kind of bike do I need?
You should have a road bike. To be honest, unless you’re on an introductory ride, you would struggle to keep up if you were riding some kind of mountain bike or hybrid. Similarly, you ought to have cycling shoes and pedals that you clip into or you will find it very difficult. Although tri-bars (aka aero-bars) are great for reducing wind resistance in time trials, they are not appropriate for group rides so please don’t use them.

What do I need to know about group riding?
We have to share the road with other users, so be considerate. Unless we’re out in the middle of nowhere and we can clearly see that there’s no other traffic around, we’ll be riding either single file or two abreast, not sprawling all over the road. Two abreast is generally preferred – it means you can communicate with each other more easily and it also means any cars don’t have to travel so far to overtake us (i.e. a line of five pairs of riders is half the length of a line of ten individual riders) – but there will be times when it’s safer to ride single file (e.g. approaching horses, or approaching a tight bend on a narrow lane, or going at high speed on a descent).
You want to ride close enough to the wheel in front that you get the benefit of riding in their slipstream, but not so close that if they suddenly touch their brakes you crash into the back of them. Ride alongside the person next to you – i.e. your front wheels should be level with each other. Don’t ride with your front wheel level with someone’s back wheel – they can’t see you and could swing out and knock you down / slice your spokes.
Bear in mind that lots of people are riding close to you and they need to know if you’re going to do anything unpredictable. Whoever is at the front of the group should make people aware of hazards. If there is a pothole or something lying in the road, people will point at it – those behind should copy this so that the instruction filters all the way back (if it’s a serious hole, people will shout out ‘hole!’). If there is an obstruction on the left (e.g. a parked car, someone walking a dog, a jogger, a slower cyclist about to be overtaken), people will put their left hand behind their back and point to the right (before moving out that way). If someone wants to push in the line in front of you (perhaps when the group is changing to single file) they will point to show that’s where they want to go.
If you’re at the back and there is a car (or other vehicle) following the group and looking to overtake, let the group know by shouting ‘car back!’ or ‘car behind!’. If we’re on a main road with lots of cars, don’t feel the need to do this for every car, but if we’re on a narrow country lane and the car can’t get past unless we go single file, it’s important to know. When the car starts to overtake you can shout ‘car through!’. Again, if it’s a narrow country lane (especially a twisty one) and you’re at the front of the group, you should ‘car up!’ or ‘car ahead!’ if a car is coming towards us**. Whoever is at the front should also shout ‘slowing!’ or ‘stopping!’ if we approach a red light or a traffic jam. When we come to a junction, those at the front should say if we have to stop – if not, shout ‘clear!’. See also: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/article/izn20121221-group-ride-0
Be careful around horses. Slow down and go single file. Give a shout to let the riders and horses know you are coming. Pass as wide as you can. More tips here: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/knowledge/skills/article/izn20150106-Horses-on-the-road-0#wimtWI78eQXPPAg1.99

**a long-time club member has pointed out that the traditional shouts around this part of the world are ‘oil up!’ if there’s a car behind and ‘oil down’ if there’s a car ahead. To be honest, you will hear several variations (not least because the riders on the club run will come from all over the place), but if the shout comes from the front of the group it’s almost certainly a car ahead and if the shout comes from the back of the group it will be a car behind.

Will I be eaten by bears?
Bears have been extinct in Britain for more than a thousand years, so this is very unlikely to happen.

What if I don’t use Facebook?
Unfortunately, a lot of the communication about club runs between members currently takes place via Facebook. Hopefully when we have revamped our website the forum will get more use. This thread on the forum is sometimes updated with the route – you could try posting a question there: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/289309/

We now have 22 people on Strava listed as Lea Valley CC members (though not all of them are actually in the club in real life): http://www.strava.com/clubs/4788/members

When you look at the leaderboard for a strava segment, you can filter it to just show people from our club and then you can further filter it to just show times from this year. I did this on the final day of 2013 to see who had set the best times of the year on some of the most frequently ridden hills.

There are a cluster of hills in Epping Forest, heading towards High Beach from the west or the north. First to consider is Mott Street which is used for our annual hill climb. A large number of very similar segments have been set up for this climb, but the one which most accurately replicates the hill climb course is called ‘Mott St hc’ http://www.strava.com/segments/829134

The three fastest are as follows:
1 Jamie 02:41 2 Harry 02:45 3 Alex 02:53

However, this should be taken with a big pinch of salt as it doesn’t record the times set in the actual hill climb championship itself in November (probably because you cross the start of the segment when you approach the start line a minute before you set off). Harry was significantly faster on the day. Also, of course, Trevor was faster still and Nestor claimed third place, but neither of them are on Strava.

There are two versions of Avey Lane - the longer one from where it starts going uphill and the shorter one which is just the final steep ramp.

Avey Lane (long)

1 Jamie 05:06 2 Harry 05:12 3 Matt 05:44

Avey Lane (short)

1 Harry 01:49 2 Jamie 01:53 3 Alex 02:01

There are several segments for Lippitts Hill, but the best one is probably the short one which just covers the steep section from after you swing round to the left:

Lippitts Hill (steep section)

1 Harry 00:57 2 Jamie 01:04 3 Alex 01:12

Then there’s this one, a bit harder to find, but worth it:

Wellington Hill

1 Jamie 02:04 2 Harry 02:14 3 Matt 02:37

And completing the set of climbs to High Beach is this one:

Claypit Hill

1 Jamie 01:47 1 Harry 01:47 3 Matt 02:00

Another post to follow with some more climbs including Daws Hill, Banks Lane and Horseshoe Hill…

An early start on a fresh and sunny late September morning for our annual open 30-mile time trial (which takes its name from one of the two clubs which merged to form Lea Valley CC back in 1969). At my marshalling point at the Stumps Cross roundabout I saw no.5 - Colin Ward (Essex Roads CC) -  come storming past as the first rider. He was followed by…..absolutely no one for what seemed like an eternity (but was probably about ten minutes) as he was miles faster than anyone around him. In fact, he was faster than everyone, posting the winning time of 1:05:11, almost two minutes ahead of Sam Barker (Planet X). Colin’s average speed was 27.6mph which takes some doing on this rolling course on such a blustery day.

Just two Lea Valley riders took part: Robert Simpson got 7th overall with 1:11:07 and Trevor Whittock (pictured above) got 1:15:26. Fastest lady was Mary Bower (Chelmer CC) in 1:17:41.

Next weekend sees our final open time trial of the season: the Comet 25. Let Dave McCarthy know if you can help out with marshalling duties.

Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas to everyone! There hasn’t been a club blog since mid-August (which feels a lifetime ago in the current weather), so it’s time to write about what happened in the rest of 2017.

As usual, the end of August saw our outgoing President’s traditional long-distance ‘Summerhayes Summer Saunter’ bank holiday ride, this year to Southend. In addition to this, the weekend before I organised a car-assisted ‘East Anglian Adventure’ using this 82-mile route which starts and finishes in Thaxted and takes in some of the most picturesque places in that neck of the woods (Lavenham, Cavendish, Finchingfield, etc): https://www.strava.com/routes/6175019.

I was joined by Huw, Caroline, Alex and Tim. We set a decent enough pace in the sunshine, despite the fact that Alex’s front mech immediately stopped working and he spent the entire ride trapped in the small ring. One of our village sign sprints (to Radwinter) was a bit more dramatic than usual – just as Alex, Tim and I opened it up we were overtaken at high speed by a never-ending convoy of motorbikes which added a bit more danger than anticipated. We stopped at a pub for lunch just outside Lavenham and then rode the remaining stretch into a headwind. In the final miles Huw (who had cunningly avoided all of the sprints over the previous hours) left us all for dead and disappeared out of sight.

It’s nice to get out and explore some different roads every now and again like this with the aid of a car or a train. I’ve just bought a ‘Lost Lanes of the south-east’ book (http://lostlanes.thebikeshow.net/) with about thirty rides in it – I intend to try to do one a month in 2018, which obviously means getting a train or driving to the start/finish of each ride. Hopefully we can organise some unusual club runs in Kent, Sussex, Suffolk, The Chilterns and maybe even further afield.

September saw David Veitch break a club time trial record yet again and in some style. Back on the E2 25-mile course again, he smashed through the 50-minute (30 mph) barrier and then some, setting an incredible time of 49:07.

Meanwhile some of us were racing at Hog Hill. This video is cunningly edited to make it look as if Charlie and I were always at the front of the 4^th cat race:

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case when we actually got to the finish line. The same afternoon Tim took part in the 3^rd cat race and also finished in the bunch. Racing with rather more success that month was Patrick McGrath who took just two races in quick succession to amass enough points to move up to 3^rd cat, with a 3^rd place in just his second race. One to watch next season!

Late September / early October always sees our ‘Crescent 30’ and ‘Comet 25’ open time trial events. These are named after the two clubs that joined together to form Lea Valley CC in 1969 (so the events have been running longer than our club has been existence). I was marshalling for the 30-mile event at the roundabout by Duxford Imperial War Museum. To our surprise, there was an airshow on that day and the roads became increasingly clogged with traffic that at some points was stationary around three-quarters of the roundabout, and one of the two lanes was coned off just to add to the confusion. Nevertheless, the riders managed to pick their way through and still set impressive times. Colin Ward of Essex Roads CC won again with a time of 1:03:17. The fastest Lea Valley rider was Colin Ross who came 13^th overall in 1:11:25 (25.2 mph). Full results here: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/311505/

The following week’s 25-mile was held in typical end of season conditions: strong winds and loads of standing water from the overnight deluge. David McGraw of Cambridge CC won in 54:52 while Chris Parker was the fastest Lea Valley rider with 1:03:55. Again, full results are here: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/311506/

 Then came our ‘Gordon Atwell Tourist Trial’ event. As last year’s winner, Alex Sweeting was charged with organising it this year. It’s a bit difficult to explain this event if you haven’t done it. It’s kind of a mixture of a sportive, an old-fashioned reliability ride and a mystery tour. You aren’t given a route to download and stick on your Garmin – instead part of the challenge is reading instructions which you are given at the Burton End HQ beforehand and trying to plot them on a map. You then have to aim to get back at a certain time which corresponds to a particular average speed. Whoever gets back closest to their allotted time is the winner.

This is more difficult than it sounds – if you don’t know exactly how far you will be riding it’s difficult to judge how fast you should be going. Things were further complicated this year by a savagely strong west-to-east wind, which meant the return leg of the ride would be much harder than the initial miles. I rode with James Morris and we made the task even more challenging by repeatedly getting lost to the extent that during the first half of the ride we were scarcely ever on the official route (and at one point when we did finally get back onto it, we rode it in the wrong direction for several miles before realising something had gone wrong). We also lost a good ten to fifteen minutes in a Good Samaritan act helping a man who had somehow managed to wrap his chain round and round his pedal. Actually, I say ‘we’ helped him, but it would be more accurate to say James single-handedly removed the chain and the rear mech and got covered in oil sorting everything out while I stood around saying useful things like ‘how did you do that?’ and ‘I think you’ll need a lift home’. Anyway, needless to say we didn’t win. That honour went to Rosie Sweeting (who had recently married the organiser – I’m not saying that interfered with the judging, but some people might smell conspiracy there) and Jeanette Degiorgio.

Following this came the annual hill climb on Mott Street. This has been getting bigger and bigger in recent years and this year it was as big as possible: we had a full field of 60 riders and had more who wanted to ride that we couldn’t offer a place to. Our numbers were boosted by CC London, who had decided to hold their club event on the same day, and various other local clubs, especially Shaftesbury CC.

It was a very close-fought battle for first place with two Lea Valley riders a good ten seconds clear of the rest of the field. Last year’s winner David Veitch set a blistering time of 2:12 but that was only good enough for second place. Michael Krukov took first with a time of 2:11. We had about 25 riders from our club taking place – far too many to give a detailed account of everyone, but it’s worth pointing out very impressive debut performances from Steven Boyle, George Kemp and Lewis Miles and a significant improvement from young Aidan Kerrigan. The full results are here: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/312632/

Tim Stout of Shaftesbury CC took many photos of the event which you can find here: https://keepsnap.com/timstout/gallery/3500 They are available for download for approx £1.50 per photo (part of which will be donated to Children In Need) – the photos will be online for about one more month and then deleted.

The week after that was our club’s annual circuit race, the Len Cooper, at Hog Hill. The weather was cold, but much sunnier than last year’s foggy edition. As is traditional, we started off with a neutralised President’s lap and kept the pace relatively gentle during the unofficial ‘truce’ after that: 

Then the pace lifted as the hooter went to signal a prime would be held at the end of the next lap and this is where the race split apart:

In the second video clip above around the 1:30 mark you can hear the hooter and my rear cam shows Michael Krukov and David Veitch, the top two from the previous week’s hill climb, sitting just behind me at the front of the bunch. This was the shape of things to come (apart from me, obviously – as you can see from the rest of the clip I expertly slid from the front of the bunch to the back just in time to miss all the action). Michael won the prime and a front group of five emerged, initially closely followed by a second group of about six or seven. Before too long Michael and David had shaken off the rest of the front group and they spent the rest of the race in each other’s company, while Alex Sweeting, Paul Roberts (who already had a race from the previous day in his legs as he desperately searched for the single point he needed to maintain his second cat status) and Steven Boyle slowly dropped back to swell the numbers of the second group on the road.

David won the second prime and, as Michael freely admitted, was the stronger of the two of them on the day, but he was unable to get rid of Michael. The two of them lapped even the second group before going clear again to contest the sprint, in which Michael surged off David’s wheel to claim victory for the second week in a row. When the second group came round, Paul Roberts won a close sprint for third place from Steve Boyle. 

At the end of November we had our annual lunch / prize giving at Wanstead Golf Club. This year we were treated to Michael Hutchinson (multiple time trial record breaker and national champion) as our guest speaker. He did it as Q&A session and dealt well with our questions on topics ranging from the relatively safe topics of his own career and his Cycling Weekly column to more controversial issues such as the reputation of Wiggins and Team Sky in the wake of the TUE and mystery package revelations. Michael brought along some copies of his latest book (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/recyclists-9781472925596/) to sign and sell – I bought it myself this summer and can recommend it.

As always, a lot of silverware was dished out – so much that it would be impossible to list every single prize here, but here is a taste…

Colin Ross picked up multiple prizes including Club Time Trial Champion, Club Best All-Rounder, Club Time Trial Handicap Champion, Best 30-mile TT, Best 50-mile TT and Best 100-mile TT

Trudy Sharam picked up prizes for Best Women’s 10-mile TT and Best Women’s 25-mile TT (breaking both club records in the process)

David Veitch won the Best 10-mile TT and Best 24-mile TT setting new club records of 19:29 and 49:07 

Paul Roberts became both Club Road Race Champion & Club Track Champion

Michael Krukov won the Len Cooper circuit race, the Hill Climb and became Senior Road Race Champion 

Most improved riders: Jemma Taylor & James Morris (who also won the Betts Trophy for the ill-fated first day of his ride up to Edinburgh)

Winners of the Gordon Atwell Tourist Trial, Rosie Sweeting & Jeanette Degiorgio

The club runs are still going strong, despite the wintery weather. Alice Cutter has taken over running the Women’s Rides from Chrystyna (who has now had her baby, we’re glad to hear) and these are still happening once every couple of months. Here is their Blackmore café stop on the November ride – the next one is coming up in January.

Meanwhile, the usual reminder that ideally everyone should have a rear mudguard during the winter months, otherwise you will end up looking like these guys (Lewis, Simon and Simon):

Even more extreme, this is George Kemp’s bath after he decided to try off-roading in Epping Forest with James Morris and Chris West:

Over the festive period we had about 15 riders on the Christmas Eve club runs – some doing 45 miles with a supposed coffee stop at a pub that was actually closed (and which we only discovered wasn’t going to open after we had sat outside it in the cold for 15 minutes), and some doing 70+ miles with a loop around Hanningfield Reservoir. One week later only 8 of us braved the weather on New Year’s Eve – not surprising given that there was something of a storm going on when daylight broke, but in the end it wasn’t that bad on the ride.

Away from riding we had a good turnout at The Castle in Walthamstow Village for our drinks to celebrate Christmas and also a multitude of birthdays – by a strange coincidence about half a dozen members have their birthdays either on or just before Christmas Day.

Less successful was our AGM the week before. In order to actually pass any votes and elect club officials (including the new President to replace John) the meeting has to be quorate. Given the ever-growing membership of the club that now means we need about 30 members to turn up on the night, but we only had 12 and so nothing could actually be voted on. We have had to reschedule the AGM to have a second attempt: it will now be on Tuesday 9^th January from 8pm – 10pm. (Edit: No, it won’t! It will now be the following Tuesday, i.e. 16th January). Please make every effort to attend if you can, otherwise we’ll be in administrative limbo (and John might have to remain club President for eternity). In case you didn’t know, club nights are no longer weekly, they are monthly, and they aren’t in the church hall any more. We are now based in the Scout Hall, 205a Wood St, Walthamstow, London E17 3NU. See you there and have a good 2018!

Jamie 1/1/18

Hi again. Time for an update on what’s been happening since April before the Tour de France gets underway and takes all of our attention. First off, some good news: Alex Sweeting is back on his bike again after several months out following his nasty crash and recently got married to Rosie. In the meantime several of us have tried to emulate his crashing skills, including Adam Luck who was suffered a terrible crash in a road race, Harry Sewell faceplanting into the back of a car, Roland Karthaus wrecking his shoulder, Barnaby Barford hitting the ground with his pedal while cornering in the Nocturne Brompton race and somersaulting off his bike (while wearing a jacket and tie - the indignity!), and last (and definitely least) my slow-motion embarrassment as I rode into the kerb while stopping at Hatfield Heath in the club run.

Yet more club time trial records have been broken (subject to official ratification, etc.). Trudy Sharam set a new fastest women’s time for 25 miles in our open time trial on the E2 course in April with a time of 1:04:53. She then followed this up by breaking the club record for 10 miles the following month, again in our open event on the E2, doing 25:32. Congratulations Trudy! In the same event, David Veitch broke the club record for the men’s 10-mile, crashing decisively through the 20-minute barrier with a fantastic time of 19:29 (an average speed of 30.8mph). David also won the 10-mile event at the ECCA Festival. Chapeau again!

These are by no means the only good times that have been set by our riders recently - there have been PBs all over the place. This is not necessarily an exhaustive list (it’s difficult to keep track of everything with so many people riding for the club these days), but some of the highlights:

Colin Ross did a 20:49 in our 10-mile event. He also did 56:05 in the ECCA 25-mile TT in late May and managed 1:58:12 in his 50-mile debut.

Ellen Dyverfeldt was not far behind Trudy in the 25 with a time of 1:06:09.

James Morris has broken through the hour barrier a couple of times, with his best being a 57:55 in the VC Norwich event in May. He also managed 23:59 in an ECCA 10-mile event.

Adam Bishop (who recently saw a cat) also set a PB in the VC Norwich event with a time of 58:14.

Mark Freeman recently smashed his 25-mile PB to pieces with a 1:06:55 on the E2 course. He’s also done some good work with Karly Bunyan and Dave McCarthy in the three-up section of the Victoria CC 10.2-mile time trials.

And Neil Davies and Alex Galloway came a creditable 2nd* in the two-up 10-mile event at the ECCA Festival with a time of 24:59.

Apologies to anyone who has been missed out!

Sticking to the world of time trialling, our Tuesday Tens have been proving as popular as ever this year. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to make it to a single event this season as I’ve been working every Tuesday evening, but from scanning the results, it would appear that the fastest Lea Valley riders taking part have tended to be Paul Roberts and Tim Holmes, both racking up top ten placings with times of about 23.5 minutes. Well done to everyone who has been racing in these (or helping out - always appreciated. Some photos from the Velopark:

Talking of Paul Roberts, he has been quite consistent in road races this season with an 8th place at the Velopark in April, a 9th at Hog Hill in May, and another 9th in Milton Keynes the same month. Here he is in action at the recent London Nocturne event:

And here is Roland (pre-accident) also at the Nocturne:

Tim Holmes also has also scored some BC points this season with a 6th place at Hog Hill in May. Tim and Paul also raced together in a road race at the start of May, which meant they missed our club-members-only circuit race on the lower circuit at Hog Hill. This left they field open for Michael Krukov, our latest second cat racer, to dominate the race. The race took place on a grey and chilly Sunday morning and was unofficially neutralised for the opening laps until the first prime was announced:

With the prime announced I attacked hard near the turn halfway up the hill. Not long after, Michael caught and passed me and disappeared off into the distance never to return:

This left a group of about ten of us fighting it out for second place, occasionally lapping dropped riders, but never catching a glimpse of Michael until, with the race nearing its conclusion, he came round to lap all of us!

At this point I decided to latch onto his wheel in a cunning attempt to drop the rest of the bunch. Needless to say, Michael son dropped me (and everyone else) before soloing to victory more than a lap ahead of the field.

The final laps saw a flurry of attacks in the battle for second place. Aidan Kerrigan, Harry Sewell and Trevor Whittock all tried to get away, but I heroically and selflessly chased them down before being outsprinted by wheelsucking scum who had hidden all race (not that I’m bitter about it).

In all seriousness, Harry sprinted well to claim second place, with a close battle behind going (we think) to Lewis Dixon ahead of Aidan and George Kemp. (Edit: just seen the official results and Aidan actually beat Lewis!)

Another brief racing mention: well done to all those who took part in the Tour of Cambridgeshire event

The club runs are going very well. Over the last month, the B group seems to have got faster and faster (to the extent that we might need to change the definitions given in the FAQs: https://leavalleycc.tumblr.com/post/158561646193/lea-valley-cc-club-runs-faqs

The B group have averaged over 19mph several times recently and even 20mph on this sun-drenched club run:

Here are a taste of some of the many photos from A group, B group, C group and Social rides in the last couple of months:

I should also mention that Huw Thomas successfully completed the frighteningly ‘challenging’ Fred Whitton sportive in the Lake District, while James Hislop did and end-to-end in Ireland: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2017/jun/07/mizen-to-malin-bike-blog-six-days-ireland-lands-end-john-o-groats

And finally, some upcoming events. We have the ‘Bill Major’ 25-mile time trial on the E1 course (based at our HQ in Ugley) on Sunday 9th July. This is not an ‘open’ event so the field will be quite small (probably 20 riders). If you’re interested in entering or marshalling (help needed as always!), have a look on the forum: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/events/3098/

One week later, on Sunday 16th July, is the annual reunion event at our other HQ at Burton End (near Stansted Airport). A great chance to eat, drink and socialise (plus some of us will be riding up there and maybe back again), get more details here: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/events/3102/

Spring is here at last and the racing season is well and truly underway. One of the traditional ‘season openers’, on the first Sunday in March, is the Hainault Hilly time trial which follows a route a shade under 30 miles that takes in the climb of Theydon Mount twice. We had three riders entered for this, but things didn’t really go according to plan: the weather forecast was for hours of torrential rain, strong winds and temperatures of just 2C. Two of us bailed leaving just Adam Bishop to take part. He discovered that they had had to amend the route (so the hill was no longer in it), but he didn’t get that far anyway, puncturing after just 20 minutes. A resounding success for Lea Valley.
The following weekend saw the first event that we organise each year: the Frank Truman 25-mile time trial on the E1 course which starts and finishes near our race HQ in Ugley. The weather forecast was pretty similar to the previous week, but fortunately this was wrong and the event took place in dry conditions and without usual killer headwind on the return leg. The E1 is not a fast course and you are doing well if you can get under an hour there – nevertheless, the top 18 riders all managed this and the winner, Stuart Travis (Team Bottrill / HSS Hire) set a cracking time of 51:49, more than two minutes ahead of the second-placed rider and only about the same margin short of Alex Dowsett’s course record.
We had eleven riders from our club taking part in the solo event: Colin Ross, Barnaby Barford, Charlie Gregory, Alex Galloway, Adam Bishop, James Morris, Tim Holmes, Chris West, Jamie Fake, Neil Davies and Chris Pollard (in that order). Colin did a 1:01:05, 15 seconds faster than Barnaby, while Chris’s time was 1:08:07 which meant that even our slowest riders averaged over 22mph on a slow course in their first race of this season – a better sign than the previous week’s washout.
This time trial also contained a two-up event. The fastest pair were John Mulvey (Cambridge University) and Sebastian Dickson (Thanet RC) who got a time of 52:52, while from Lea Valley our pair of Mark Freeman and Dave McCarthy did 1:12:31 and Trevor Whittock came out of semi-retirement to partner ex-LVCC Gary Boyd 1:08:51.

The following weekend there was a smaller ‘interclub’ time trial (between Shaftesbury CC and ourselves) on the same course but in brutally windy conditions. James Morris and George Kemp took part and both managed about 1:07:00 on a day which was probably two minutes slower than the previous weekend.
On the first weekend in April, many of us were in road racing action. On the Saturday four of us headed over to Hog Hill for CC London’s ‘Hog With The Occasional Hill’ crits. This involved an unusual course: most of the race is on the lower circuit and in this edition it involved taking the lower cut-through (rather than the usual one halfway up the hill), but every twelve minutes or so we would be directed up the Hoggenberg to complete a lap of the full circuit. To be honest, the lower cut-through didn’t prove popular with us: the corner is really designed to be taken from the opposite direction which made it very tight. Unless you were at the front of the bunch you had to grind to a virtual standstill to squeeze round it which made everyone bunch right up and people got squeezed out every time.
Anyway, there were just under fifty starters in the fourth cat race, including me (Jamie), Charlie and Huw Thomas. Charlie was most active at or near the front, although Huw did manage a short-lived dig off the front mid-race. The pack stayed largely together, though a few were shelled out early on and others lost contact each time we were directed up the climb. The riding was a bit sketchy and jittery and there were a number of small crashes, although thankfully most of the time this just involved single riders going onto the grass and managing to get back up again. The exception came when we were in the closing stages of the race – as we descended the full hill from the third and final full circuit it meant we were approaching the right handers at nearer 40mph (instead of accelerating up from about 5mph having squeezed round the cut-through). On the second and longer bend there appeared to be a touch of wheels between two riders on the outside just ahead of me and one went somersaulting off at high speed. As we continued round for our final laps we could see him lying on his back not moving while the organisers tried to look after him: a constant reminder of the danger of cycle racing.

After 45 minutes the race reached its climax and Charlie found himself in a good position for the sprint with space opening up ahead of him on the right hand side. One guy got a length or two clear to claim first place, but the battle for second was an incredibly close four-way lunge with Charlie being judged to have come fourth overall in the photo finish. With those early season points on his licence it shouldn’t be long before Charlie makes the move up to 3rd cat.

Huw finished mid-pack in 24th place and I was a second or so behind in 30th. After that, Tim was our sole representative in the 2nd & 3rd cat race. This was also over 45 minutes and on the same course, but whereas our race had average 24.4mph, Tim’s one showed the higher standard with an average of 25.6mph. I think this was Tim’s first race involving 2nd cats, so a bit of a shock to the system after the winter months off, but he coped well with it and managed to come in with the bunch in 31st place.
The following day saw more riders in action in the two road races put on by Chelmer CC on a 14-mile loop in the Roxwell / Leaden Roding / Willingale area of Essex. The two races are run simultaneously (about ten minutes apart) with the ‘challenge’ event (which is mostly 4th cats with a handful of 3rd cats) doing 42 miles and the higher cat race doing over 70 miles. The challenge event is very rare in that it prioritises entries from 4th cats giving them an opportunity to race on the open road which can be difficult to come by normally (most 3rd/4th races are the other way round: 90% 3rd cats and a handful of 4ths). We hoped to have a team of six or seven riders in this event, but unfortunately it was massively oversubscribed (the organiser said he had over a hundred entries) and in the end only Barnaby Barford made the cut, with Tom Orr making it onto the reserve list.
On the day, Tom did get a ride. He was with the bunch for the first twenty minutes, but then found himself suddenly losing contact: “Was badly placed going into a corner and wasn’t expecting the mega acceleration out of it, so found myself about 10m off the back, and couldn’t close. I knew it was over for me as a race when the commissaire came through I pretty much knew I wouldn’t get back on. Swept up a few other dropped riders, but none of them wanted to ride with me so I basically rode a 30 mile TT.”
Barnaby, on the other hand, had a much more successful race (until the very end): “That was fun, classic Barford. I’ve been on tougher club runs to be honest. I didn’t listen to Uncle Trevor or Michael. It was fairly easy, put in 4 or 5 attacks, chased down attacks, kept in the first 6 riders most of the race. Wasn’t sketchy at all, quite polite actually, knew a few ELV riders so that was nice. Got to the final km or so and a Range Rover came the opposite way heard a big fall behind me, the clattering of carbon on road – ouch! Only a few left in the sprint I was super well-placed, I could almost smell victory, got up to sprint and my hamstring totally cramped - haha! Had to sit up for the last couple of hundred metres and didn’t contest the sprint at all. So all in all good fun, quite a bit of faff one way and another. I’m not very good at sitting in, I found that a bit boring so it was fun having a go, but to be honest each time it was difficult to get a cohesive through and off break and as the race wasn’t that fast I think everyone still had the legs to close things down. I guess I hoped to do better but for my first race it was fun.” A major improvement on last season when Barnaby’s race-ending cramp occurred in the opening seconds of his first race.
Meanwhile, new member Michael Krukov was in the higher category race on the same course. Michael has only started racing this winter but has been making incredible progress and had already been promoted to 2nd cat status by the time most people started their seasons. He has been racing crits mainly, but is very keen to get involved in the ERRL road races and this was his first taste of the action. “My race was just over 71miles, covered at a 25.7mph average. If anyone wants a breakdown… There were some very strong riders/teams on my start list so I got paranoid that a break would go from the first lap, never to be seen again. I spent the first 30mins near/at the front, responding to everything and my Garmin showed 310W -5W/kg (normalized) so I was close to blowing up. Having wasted enough energy and it looking unlikely that a break would form, I went to the back of the bunch, where I sat for 90 minutes, soft-pedalling and averaging 180W, which felt amazing. With about 45mins to go, I followed the wheel of a rider overtaking the bunch and slotted in among the first 10 riders at the head of the race, a position I held until around 3miles from the line, when I started rapidly losing position because the rider I was drafting faded hard (possibly cramped?) and trains of riders moved up on both sides of me. Rolled in with the congested bunch despite legs wanting to sprint! All the big hitters I singled out before the race placed outside the top 9 so the finish was a bit of a lottery as the race wasn’t really hilly/windy, which would have rewarded those strong/brave enough to detach themselves from the bunch. A few lessons learned and absolutely stunning weather are the positives! Not too many negatives as it’s only my first road race and there’s a lot to learn!”
Michael was back in action the following weekend in the CCA Primavera 2nd/3rd/4th cat race near Cambridge. “The race was a lap too long. I ran out of fluid/food early, which had a huge impact in today’s heat. Five went off the front with 2 laps remaining and the bunch completely gave up, almost coming to a standstill.
I attacked on the last lap with another rider - we got a solid gap quickly and caught one up the road. Worked well as a 3-up before I got dropped on the long climb with around 10km to go. Happy I didn’t give 100% to stay in contact, as I would have likely blown up and been swallowed and spat out by the entire bunch.
Dehydrated and dying, I have no idea how I held on solo to the line, before collapsing. 10 points in the bag though, but can’t stop thinking about what might have been if the race was shorter or I had just two more gels.”
That same weekend saw our club’s second open event of the season, a 25-mile time trial on the fast E2 course up near Newmarket. This attracted a VERY high quality field and the times were superfast. Amazingly 24 riders went under 50 minutes with two riders managing 45s: Matthew Smith in 45:59 and winner John Dewey (both of Team Bottrill / HSS Hire) in 45:20. Until last year, this would have been the competition record!
Our own David Veitch came 30th overall with a time of 50:23. This was a personal best, beating last year’s time by about 30 seconds, and means he has broken the club record again for the second year in a row! Rather than celebrating, David was bemoaning the fact his power was 25 watts down on last year. I recognise this perfectionist streak in myself: many is the time that I’ve sprinted to 31st place in a 4th cat race but instead of basking in the post-race glory, I’ve berated myself because I knew deep down that if I had focused more and tried harder I could have been 28th. Anyway, congratulations (yet again) to David and thanks to everyone who helped out with marshalling and other duties at the event – we will be looking for more volunteers for our next time trial, a 10-mile time trial (also on the E2 course near Newmarket) on Saturday 6th May.
Other dates for the calendar: the very next day (Sunday 7th May) we will have a circuit race on the lower circuit at Hog Hill. This is for club members only: you should have received a newsletter the other week which told you about this – if you didn’t get this, your membership has probably lapsed so click here to renew: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/club/profile/1376/lea_valley_cc  And following hot on the heels of this, our Tuesday Tens series of time trials at the Velopark circuit begins again on Tuesday 9th May.
The club runs are still going strong and we have been able to split into more and more groups to cater for people wanting to go different distances / at different speeds. The ladies’ group rides have now become a regular monthly event and Monika is leading the next one tomorrow (Easter Sunday). Now that the evenings are lighter and warmer again the plan is also to revive the weekly Thursday evening rides on the Velopark circuit – this should happen later this month.

Happy Easter!

You might be thinking about racing on the road for the first time, but don’t really know how it all works. Here’s a little guide to try to explain it all.

First of all, the big divide is between road racing and time trialling. Road racing is where you all start at the same time and the winner is the first rider across the finish line, whereas time trialling is where you ride individually against the clock (usually the riders are set off at one-minute intervals to keep them apart). For historical reasons there are actually two different governing bodies controlling these events: road races are under the control of British Cycling (which used to be known as the BCF – British Cycling Federation) while time trials are controlled by CTT (Cycling Time Trials, previously known as the RTTC).
Doing a road race in a bunch takes a certain amount of bike-handling skill and courage, plus, of course, you have to be strong enough to keep up with everyone else. For this reason, most people trying out racing for the first time start off by doing time trials – you are far less likely to crash and you go at whatever speed you can personally manage. So, we’ll look at time trials before road races.

The majority of time trials are held over a particular fixed distance. The most common distances are 10 miles and 25 miles, though there are also races at 30 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles and (for the masochistic) 12-hour events (where you ride as far as you can in 12 hours). Usually these courses go out and back on the same road: for a typical 10-mile race you would ride in one direction for approximately five miles, do a 180-degree turn at a roundabout, then ride back in the opposite direction to the finish line which is fairly close to the start line.
Broadly speaking there are two types of courses. A ‘dragstrip’ is a course where you can expect to set a fast time – these are usually busy dual carriageways and are fairly flat. A ‘sporting’ course is slower and would usually be on quieter, smaller roads and be a bit more undulating. Time trials are not held on closed roads, so you will constantly have vehicles overtaking you and you may well have to slow down or even stop at roundabouts. There are marshals on the courses, but their job is not to stop the traffic – they simply point you in the right direction.

The CTT splits the country up into about 20 districts. We are in the ‘London East’ district (which extends into Essex and beyond), which means our courses begin with the letter ‘E’. All time trial courses have a code name (a tradition dating back many decades to when cycle racing had to be carried out secretly) which begins with the letter of the district. The courses that we use for our own events are the E1 and the E2 (in fact the names are a bit longer than that as they also include the distance), both up in northern Essex / southern Cambridgeshire. On the CTT website you can find maps of the various courses. Here is the E1/25b: https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/course-details/e1-25b . This is a sporting course on B-roads which we use for several of our events. We have our own Race HQ building nearby: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/253853/.

Meanwhile, the E2 course is a dragstrip on the A11 dual carriageway near Newmarket: https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/course-details/e2-10

To take part in a CTT event you have to be a member of CTT-affiliated club (which Lea Valley CC is). Perhaps a little confusingly, to pay your £25 annual subscription and sign up to the club you actually have to go to the BC website (even if you have no intention of taking part in any BC events). Follow this link and then click on the ‘join our club’ button: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/club/profile/1376/lea_valley_cc

Time Trials are usually either ‘Open’ events or ‘Club’ events. A club event is intended to be only for members of one club and can be quite a small affair with just a dozen riders or so. An open event is open to members of any CTT-affiliated club and can have a field as large as 120 riders. Riders are seeded according to their ability (when you complete the entry form you give your previous fastest times, if you have any, so that the organiser knows how good you are). The fastest riders are given the numbers finishing with ‘0’, the next fastest riders are given the numbers finishing with ‘5’, and so on. The idea is to minimise the chance of riders of a similar ability ending up riding together – you are not allowed to ride with anyone else. You are set off at one-minute intervals. If a rider catches you and overtakes you, you must not try to sit on their wheel – you have to let them draw clear of you and not take shelter.

The serious time trialists (or ‘testers’ as they are known) scour the country looking for the flattest, fastest dragstrip courses and live in hope of a ‘float day’ when the weather is absolutely perfect and they can set a personal best. Because of this, races on the fastest courses are usually oversubscribed and organisers only let the fastest 120 riders onto the start list. If you are looking to race for the first time, it would be best to enter a race on a slower course like the E2 or the E91 (in The Rodings area of Essex) as these don’t usually fill up – or, of course, enter a club event.

You can find lists of events on the CTT website and nowadays you can enter them online. Follow this link (and then filter the district to ‘London East’): https://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/find-events

There are some time trials that are a bit different to these. Several are described as ‘hilly’ and follow a course which involves plenty of climbing and a series of left turns instead of just out and back. These are usually over non-standard distances (e.g. the ‘Hainault Hilly’ is about 29 miles long). Also, at the end of the season in October and the start of November there are a series of hill climbs. These are very short and involve just a few minutes of agony racing up the steepest hills in the area.

In terms of equipment, you can race a time trial on a normal road bike, but you will find that the fastest riders are using specialist time trial bikes with aero bars, aero helmets, disc wheels, etc. If your budget doesn’t stretch that far, you can spend less than £100 on some clip-on aero bars that will probably make you about 1mph faster – quite a good investment when every second counts.

Now we turn to road racing. The biggest road racing organisation is British Cycling*. To take part in their races, you need to become a BC member (gold or silver) and pay for a racing licence: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership

When you first get a licence you will be a ‘4th cat’ rider. If you manage to finish in the top positions of a 4th cat race, you will gain some points (typically ten for first place, down to one for tenth). Once you have gained at least 12 points in one season you will be promoted to 3rd cat status. Similarly, if you get enough points at 3rd cat level you can move up to 2nd cat and so on. Races can be held for more than one category to compete in, so for example a 2/¾ race is open to 2nd, 3rd and 4th cat riders. At the higher levels you need to earn a certain number of points per year to keep your status, otherwise you get relegated down to the category below, but 3rd cats can never be relegated to 4th cat status.

You are most likely to start out by doing ‘crits’ (or ‘criteriums’ to give them their full name) on purpose-built road circuits. Traditionally, the famous circuit in our area was Eastway, but this was bulldozed to make way for the Olympic Park. However, there are three circuits within easy reach which have opened up in recent years. The Velopark circuit is about one mile long and loops round by the Velodrome in the Olympic Park (near Stratford and Leyton) – this is fairly flat and not terribly technical. Hog Hill (aka Redbridge Cycling Centre) is a bit further afield near Hainault. If the full circuit is used it’s about 1.25 miles long and involves a vicious climb on every lap, but sometimes the races use a shorter version and avoid the hill. Hog Hill is more challenging than the Velopark, both in terms of climbing and in terms of technical cornering. On one hand, this makes it harder to race – it’s much harder to sit in the bunch than at the velopark and races are often quite attritional at Hog Hill, with the bunch getting thinned out every time it goes up the hill. On the other hand, it’s actually safer with fewer crashes – partly because the bunch gets thinned out and partly because the sprint finish is up a steep climb. Outside of London, but still easy to get to in less than an hour, the Cyclopark circuit is just off the A2 on the outskirts of Gravesend. This is 1.8 miles long: there are couple of tight bends and a long, draggy climb rather than anything steep. Although most people see the race season as running from March to September/October, you can actually find crits organised on these circuits all through the year.

A typical crit for 4th cats will be over a set time, rather than a set distance. So the race might be described as “40 minutes plus 5 laps”. This kind of racing requires a very different effort to a time trial. Instead of one constant level of exertion, you are constantly having to vary how hard you work: one minute you will be sprinting as hard as you possibly can just to stay in touch, the next minute everyone is free-wheeling and looking at each other. Initially it’s all about being able to stay with the bunch (it’s so much easier to ride in the pack than on your own, so if you get dropped it’s very difficult to fight your way back to the bunch). As you get better at that, it’s all about learning to maintain a good position or even being able join the right break and stay clear and, of course, being able to sprint at the end of the race.

Races on the open road are longer than crits. While a crit would usually be between 15 and 30 miles, a road would be between 40 and 100 miles or more (depending on the level of riders taking part). These races are based on circuits (usually raced anti-clockwise so that every turn is a left turn) between 5 miles and 15 miles in length. The roads are not closed, but you ride in a convoy, so up ahead of the bunch there will be at least two cars to warn oncoming traffic of what is coming up behind them, while behind the bunch there will be a commissaire’s car, a first aid car and (if you’re lucky) a car with spare wheels and so on. You must stay on the left hand side of the road when there are white lines down the middle.

You can search for events using the ‘calendar’ on the BC website: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events?zuv_bc_discipline_filter_id=21
As mentioned earlier, you’re more likely to have a crash in a crit or road race than in a time trial as you will be riding in very close proximity to dozens of other riders (perhaps even 80 riders in one group). Because of this you need to have experience of group riding before taking part in a race. It’s also well worth watching the series ‘Ride Smart’ and ‘Race Smart’ videos to learn about racing safely in a bunch. Here is one of them: britishcycling.org.uk/knowle­dge/article/izn20141117-Road-How-to-corn­er-in-a-bunch—Racesmart-0
Good luck!

*There are also races organised by other organisations, such as TLI and LVRC.

The period of hibernation is almost over with the start of the season just a month away now - time to look back on what’s been happening over the last three months. The last blog told the story of our annual circuit race, the Len Cooper, which was held at Hog Hill and won by David Veitch: http://leavalleycc.tumblr.com/post/153824557288/len-cooper-2016

This time we pick up the action one week later with the club’s annual Hill Climb up Mott Street in Epping Forest. As always, the event was held on the first Sunday in November and this year it was sunny, but cold. We had a great turnout: 13 riders from within Lea Valley CC and nearly 40 in total with several from Hackney CC, Islington CC and Shaftesbury CC joining in the action (in Shaftesbury’s case this was because the event also counted as the 32nd Association Hill Climb). There’s not much you can say to report a hill climb: everyone set off at one-minute intervals and put in one big effort for two to four minutes that left them with their lungs burning, but then at least they could relax. Well, apart from one poor bloke who got 90% of the way up the hill and then found his way blocked by a combination of vehicles and horses – he had to go back down to the start and do it all again.

This video gives a flavour of what it’s all about:

Harry Sewell was back on photographer duties again, here is a selection of his photos:

In the 2015 edition, David Ross was the fastest rider with a time of 2:20. David isn’t actually in LVCC (although his brother Colin is) so the club champion in 2015 was Pedro Lopes (third overall with a time just under 2:24, with David Veitch and Carsten Meilandt bunched up within 3 seconds of him). Carsten wasn’t around to challenge this year, but Pedro and the two Davids were. This year’s winner (not only for LVCC, but overall as well) was David Veitch with a stunning time of just over 2:11, about two seconds ahead of David Ross in second place. There was no real competition to David from within the club this year: Nestor Salazar was our next best rider over 20 seconds back and Pedro sank to fourth overall within LVCC behind Tim Holmes. Well done to everyone who took part – a special ‘chapeau’ to Trevor Whittock (previous winner of this event on many occasions) who has not raced for a couple of years and hardly rides now, yet still turned up and beat me by five seconds to my dismay.

Full results here:
Rider / Time / Club / Overall Position / LVCC position / 32nd Association pos
18 David Veitch 2.11.42 Lea Valley CC 1 1 1
15 David Ross 2.13.67 Velo Club Motel 2
33 Matt Steel 2.20.98 Shaftesbury CC 3 2
10 Logan Moncheux-Irons 2.24.67 CC Hackney 4
19 Nestor Salazar 2.33.13 Lea Valley CC 5 2 3
26 Blake Gravenor 2.33.70 Islington CC 6
31 Dan Ryan 2.35.01 North Road CC 7
34 Samuel Thienel 2.35.95 Shaftesbury CC 8 4
20 Richard Parrota 2.36.39 Shaftesbury CC 9 5
22 Tim Holmes 2.36.70 Lea Valley CC 10 3 6
17 Pedro Lopes 2.39.95 Lea Valley CC 11 4 7
21 Johnathan Sutcliffe 2.42.82 Islington CC 12
08 Joshua Willis 2.43.07 Lea Valley CC 13 5 8
30 Serakhsa Kuthn 2.43.98 Islington CC 14
25 Trevor Whittock 2.47.32 Lea Valley CC 15 6 9
07 Colin Ross 2.50.20 Lea Valley CC 16 7 10
04 Andy Hodkinson 2.50.36 Shaftesbury CC 17 11
23 Jamie Fake 2.52.57 Lea Valley CC 18 8 12
02 Richard Johnson 2.58.09 Shaftesbury CC 19 13
27 Hannah Wylie 3.00.01 Islington CC 20
03 Aidan Kerrigan 3.01.54 Lea Valley Youth CC 21
01 James Morris 3.02.09 Lea Valley CC 22 9 14
05 Chris West 3.08.32 Lea Valley CC 23 10 15
13 Connor Dash 3.08.67 CC Hackney 24
11 Kat Wates 3.09.30 CC Hackney 25
09 Neil Irons 3.09.92 CC Hackney 26
16 Adam Jones 3.23.36 Hub Velo 27
37 Lucie Mouler 3.24.45 Private 28
39 Laurence Bellamy 3.25.07 Shaftesbury CC 29 16
06 Stewart Weston 3.34.18 Shaftesbury CC 30 17
32 Gary Jackson 3.36.82 Shaftesbury CC 31 18
28 Kath Hibbert 3.40.82 Islington CC 32
38 Derek Trangmar 3.40.86 Lea Valley CC 33 11 19
29 Alice Honetson 3.43.32 Islington CC 34
35 Mark Freeman 3.54.73 Lea Valley CC 35 12 20
36 William Green 3.54.95 CC Hackney 36
24 Dave McCarthy 3.55.61 Lea Valley CC 37 13 21
14 Jessie Feeney-Davies 3.58.09 CC Hackney 38
12 Charlie Dash 4.10.70 CC Hackney 39

In December we had our annual awards lunch in Wanstead - another great event. No surprise that David Veitch picked up a tonne of silverware after his annus mirabilis (in addition to winning the hill climb and circuit race in consecutive weeks he also broke the club record for the fastest 10-mile and 25-mile time trials), but there were plenty of others in on the action including Paul Roberts as the best road racer (he managed to move up to 2nd cat before the season was over), Adam Bishop with the fastest 50-mile TT (amongst others) and Neil Davies with the fastest 30-mile TT. Mike Keen was surprised to find himself winning the Betts Trophy for his trike-related foolishness. Special mention also went to Nicola Toms for her stunning performance in the track World Masters this year.

The club runs have been going strong through the winter, despite the conditions. Two weeks ago it was so icy that we had to stick to the route of the old A11 up to Sawbridgeworth and back - the temperature hit -6C on the way up and never climbed above zero for the whole ride. Despite this, we had over 20 riders and had to split into three groups. December also saw the first of the women’s rides organised by Chrystyna and Monika:

The next one is coming up next weekend (12th February). The whole idea of the women’s ride is that nobody gets left behind, so don’t worry about the pace. Check our Facebook page for details or if you want to ask Chrystyna or Monika any questions.

On the subject of club runs, the feedback we had from the survey last summer (see here: http://leavalleycc.tumblr.com/post/146913040653/july-2016-survey-results ) made it clear that people would like a designated ride leader and agreed average speed before they set off. We have been trying to implement that: this post on the forum explains the intended system with A / B / C / D groups: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/298206/#comment13398460. Where possible, a post will go up on Facebook / the forum by Thursday or Friday with the intended route and any ride leaders who have already stepped up. Please respond to these posts to let us know if you will be out, if so - in which group, and if you want to be ride leader. Every week we get newcomers contacting us through the Facebook who ask about joining the rides - often people are worried about overdoing it on their first club run so they want to know if there will be a slower/shorter group they could join. It’s a great help to us if we know exactly which groups will be out on the weekend coming up so that we can give people the right advice.

If you’re reading this on Saturday evening, you might like to know that tomorrow’s B-group are planning to go to Cambridge. Some will get halfway there and turn back, some will ride Cambridge and get the train back, and a hardy few are planning to do over 110 miles riding there and back. At some point we should have another train/car-assisted ride to take in the vicious hills of Surrey/Kent, especially seeing as Pedro has moved down there.

Our second wave of new club kit recently arrived - people were able to pick up their winter gear from the church hall on Havant Road on the Monday evening. Emma will be doing this again the coming Monday (6th Feb) so it’s not too late to get some kit (even if you haven’t pre-ordered). We will have another purchase window opening soon for delivery in the spring, have a look at what to choose from: https://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/299103/#comment13432093

And finally, if you’re thinking of racing this season, it’s time to start thinking about which early season races to enter (unless, like Tom and Charlie, you’ve already started doing freezing January crits). Several of us will opening our accounts at the Hainault Hilly time trial on the 5th March. Details here: https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/race-details/14558

The following Sunday (12th March) is the club’s first event of the year: our 25-mile time trial on the E1 course (based at our race HQ in Ugley, not far from Stansted Airport). You can enter this as a solo rider or with a partner as a ‘two-up’ (but don’t forget, you must have paid your subs before you can enter any races as a Lea Valley CC rider - do it here: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/club/profile/1376/lea_valley_cc

As always, if you aren’t riding we would be grateful for anyone to help out with marshalling. See you there!