Back from the winter break with a rather belated race report. For our annual club circuit race we returned to Hog Hill (after trying out the Velopark circuit the previous year) to use the lower circuit, but with a twist: there’s a relatively new cut-through halfway up the Hoggenberg, so this circuit does involve a bit of grinding uphill followed by a sharp left. On the day this was coupled with a savage wind which was blowing right into us on the climb on each lap, which really made it a battle to keep your momentum up. It also meant if you got dropped you were going to have a hell of a job getting back on.

Anyway, as always, the race began with the neutralised ‘President’s Lap’. Tradition dictates that no rider may overtake the club’s President until the first lap has finished. Given that we rolled out from the start directly into the headwind on the climb, this made for arguably the slowest start to any bike race in history as people weaved from side to side trying not to tumble over:

Anyway, as we socially made our way round chatting to each other on this first lap, ex-President Don Keen started a rumour that there were actually going to be two neutralised laps. This led to a bit of confusion which was only made worse by the fact that no one was quite sure where the lap officially finished anyway - was it one lap on from where we had started or was it when we crossed the finish line towards the top of the hill? As we started climbing I suddenly realised John 'El Presidente’ Summerhayes was sinking back into the bunch and seemed to be shouting out “you’re all disqualified” or something like that. A moment’s hesitation, then it became clear that, yes, the race was actually on and it was time to go.

In both of 2014’s LVCC circuit races at the Velopark a select bunch of leaders had stayed together for the first twenty minutes or so until the first prime - and then on both occasions the race was ripped apart by this intermediate sprint never to recover. I’d been caught out both times and so told myself before this race “don’t get caught out again - sprint hard for the prime even if you’ve got no chance of winning - this will be where the winning move goes, mark my words.” This proved to be utterly wrong - the winning move went in literally the opening seconds of the race.

Alex Sweeting and I found ourselves hopelessly positioned at the back of the bunch, waiting for the mythical second neutralised lap. It rapidly became clear that those at the front were going for it straight away and it was now or never if you wanted to be part of the action - Alex was bold and fought his way from the back to the front in the nick of time (burning up many matches in the process) (metaphorical ones), I was typically timid and didn’t start fighting my through the pack until I felt it was safe to get round people. Just one lap into the race a front group of five had gone clear, a second group was getting away, and my race looked pretty much over as my heart rate hit ridiculously high levels. 

The leaders were Carsten Meilandt, Pedro Lopes, Paul Roberts, David Veitch and Alex - surely no coincidence that these five are the club’s second and third cat racers (with the exception of Trevor Whittock, who hadn’t raced for over a year). They pulled away from a second group that was initially made up of Charlie Gregory, Soren Hansen, James Hodges, Tim Holmes and Trevor. Behind, I tried to pull another group which included Adam Luck and Huw Thomas up to the second group - I got within a bike length and then blew up. That was that then - the five leaders stayed away and the second and third groups disintegrated into ones and twos ploughing lonely and futile furrows.

Alex recovered sufficiently from his early exertions to sprint hard and win the first prime. However, ultimately he paid the price for these early efforts and was dropped to leave a front group of four to battle it out. Here is Alex’s race footage (the prime is followed immediately, and confusingly, by footage from after Alex crossed the finish line - he didn’t just decide to randomly loop back onto the hill mid-race):

Carsten tells the tale from the front: “David took many turns on the front, he’s too much of a gentleman pulling the 5 of us around. Pedro put a dig in at some point - he got a small gap and I had to put effort in to get him, but managed to close the cap quite quickly and soon we were all together again. It might have been here that Alex choose to stop for a cuppa? David and I had a word half way through: I thought me and him (well, mostly David) were on the front too much and I was trying to get David off so that Pedro could use up some of his bunny rabbit power. Anyway. Mr Gentleman was too nice and pulled us along for a few more laps. I wanted to see how people were feeling so I emptied my coffee and pushed a bit. Everybody stayed together….”

Behind, things were somewhat less interesting - James and Charlie together, Soren somewhere, Tim somewhere else, half a lap further back came me and Adam. This seemed to go on for an eternity, just daydreaming and grinding round and round with Adam trying to fight off the feeling off the feeling of pointlessness. Then finally the leaders came round to lap us - we jumped on their wheels and got to see some of the action, but not for long:

This was followed by more of the same until things got interesting with about five laps to go. Adam and I were caught by riders from behind and then our new group was in turn caught and passed by the leading four - only I was stupid enough to try to follow them. I spent a while in the red hanging on to the back of them until an attack (from Pedro?) saw me shelled out and drifting back to those I’d left a few minutes before. Carsten tells us: “ I do love a bit of solo break away, so that was my tactic of the day and with 2 laps to go I hit the pedals and span them around a bit faster. I managed to get clear and then it was only to dig deep and dream yourself down to a nice warm Italian climb and bring it home :-)” So Carsten rode home alone to victory: 

Behind him Pedro got clear of David and Paul. Some way back, my group had no idea what position we were racing for - it was very difficult to tell who had been lapped and who hadn’t and who had retired (as it turned out, Charlie had suffered a mechanical with five to go and Soren says he stopped to take pictures of the final sprint - except there wasn’t a sprint in the end). James Hodges pulled us along for the last lap and a half and I had to turn myself inside out to stay on his wheel before timing my sprint to perfection in the very last metres - only to discover that Lewis Dixon was lurking behind and did exactly the same thing to me while James was actually a lap ahead of us anyway. Meh. My heart rate actually hit absolute maximum as I crossed the line, possibly my hardest effort of the season for a rather inconsequential 9th place:

The final positions were as follows:

1 Carsten Meilandt

2 Pedro Lopes

3 David Veitch

4 Paul Roberts

5 Alex Sweeting

6 James Hodges

7 Tim Holmes

8 Lewis Dixon

9 Jamie Fake

10 Trevor Whittock

11 Huw Thomas

12 Adam Luck

13 David Mosely

14 Paul Soor

15 Dave McCarthy

16 Rob Smart

17 Mark Freeman

18 Armin Hersch

19 Don Keen

DNF:  Soren Hansen, Justin Arsell, Charlie Gregory

For a variety of reasons (including a toddler, an imminent baby, a painful injury and the allure of St Albans) not one of Jess, Monika, Emma, Nicola or Chrystyna was able to take part, so the women’s prize was uncontested - hopefully this won’t be the case next time. 

This was run as a TLI event and everyone was happy with how it went. Here’s hoping we can put on three or four or more of these in the season to come.

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!

Sunday morning saw our first circuit race on the new velopark circuit in Stratford. Despite the fact that several riders in with a chance of silverware (I’m looking at you: Harry and Monika) were unable to take part this time, we had the biggest field seen in this event for many a year. Traditionally the first lap is a neutralised procession behind the club president so this was John Summerhayes’s first tour of duty leading the bunch round.

The first lap was completed at a relatively modest 19mph but then as soon as the line was crossed the real racing began and the pace shot up (the second lap was completed at well over 25mph - well, not by everyone!)

The higher pace soon had about half the field shed out the back, but a sizeable front group of 13 riders managed to stay together for about 20 minutes.

Then two things happend in quick succession which totally shook things up. First, a touch of wheels mid-pack saw time trial specialist Derek Trangmar crash heavily and his race was over. Nobody else went down, but the group got strung out. An unofficial truce was called for half a lap and some regrouping took place, but then immediately the signal went up to say that there would be a prime at the end of the next lap. Most of the lap was spent tactically with no one wanting to lead the group - Chris Pollard found himself maneuvered there with Jamie and Alex trying to nudge each other off his wheel. Then Tim S went for a long one and Jamie jumped onto his wheel, but as they rounded the final bend suddenly two men in black shot past at what seemed like twice the speed. I think this was Carsten and Mat. Alex went after them in hot pursuit, but was beaten by Carsten for the prime.

And that was the end of the lead group. In the immediate aftermath of the prime there was confusion - the bunch was strung out in ones and twos, some riders were exhausted from the sprint and sat up, several riders were lapped in the vicinity of the finish line making it difficult to tell what was going on for a moment. When the dust settled Alex and Carsten were clear at the front, Pedro about 5 seconds behind them, Jamie about 5 seconds further back with Adam glued to his wheel, and the rest losing sight of the leaders for the rest of the race.

It looked for a while as if a new lead group of five would form, but when Pedro eventually caught the front two he immediately attacked. This impetus put paid to Jamie’s efforts to close the gap and then the front three worked together to stretch out their lead.

By the end they had the luxury of more than a minute’s gap. Pedro found himself in the lead on the final lap, but when the sprint came it was a battle between Carsten and Alex with the Dane taking victory by about a wheel.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Adam had slowed down on the final lap and were surprised to suddenly see newcomer Barnaby appear from nowhere to catch and attack past them. Jamie leapt onto the wheel and Adam stayed on his, then Jamie sprinted hard at the end to take fourth with Barnaby ahead of Adam. Not long afterwards they were chased in by Mat S, Chris P and Nicola who took the women’s prize in her debut.

I’ve been given official results for the first fourteen riders, the others were lapped several times and it got too confusing to untangle who was where:

Bright sunshine and an icy cold wind greeted another strong field for the final race of the calendar: twenty-three riders in all, including the outgoing club President, Don Keen, who led the field on the traditional neutralised opening lap.

There was a fair amount of surface water after the filthy autumnal weather we’ve been having, and as a result the usual bend after the finish line was closed and a far more technical turn further on was used instead. This strung riders out into single file and caused gaps to open even before the pace split things up.

Our last circuit race here in the summer had seen a leading group of 8 or so staying together for much of the race and the same was true this time around (although both Alex Sweeting and Nestor Salazar disappeared from it with punctures only to magically rejoin ten minutes later!). After about half an hour came the solitary prime - as soon as it was signalled Alex attacked and opened up a gap of twenty yards or more. The group behind started to fragment and Alex looked certain to win the prime, but then Trevor Whittock launched a devastating sprint into the headwind and caught and passed Alex just before the line (dare I say reminiscent of the astonishing Cavendish stage win from last year’s Tour?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbQeKRUAdXE )

Anyway - in the Len Cooper race of 12 months ago Trevor also attacked to win the prime and dropped his breakaway companions (Robert Simpson and me) in the process before riding on to victory. Was he about to do the same? I took no chances and pulled the group back to Trevor. Riders took it in turns to go to the front and try to burn people off, but the headwind in the home straight discouraged solo attacks so a shrinking lead group stayed intact.

Finally, as the group started to fracture, the decisive move came as Pedro Lopes and Trevor opened up a gap and put their heads down. Realising the danger I tried desperately to bridge across, but just wasted energy stuck in no man’s land until the remnants of the chase group hoovered me up. The gap to the leading two went from five seconds, to ten seconds, to fifteen seconds. We tried to organize a chase, but when Nestor went to the front he blew us off his wheel - by the time we’d got back together there were only three of us (me, Alex and Nestor).

Then Trevor said goodbye to Pedro and soloed away to victory while Pedro slipped inexorably back towards the chase group. We caught him with maybe a couple of laps left to go. As we passed Don on the final lap he yelled at us to chase hard after Trevor, but he was out of reach by this time and all thoughts were on the final sprint for second place. Nestor was arguably the strongest of the four of us at this stage, but found himself doing the work on the front while the more cynical of us (i.e. me) sat on wheels until the very last moment.

Trevor came in alone to win yet another club championship, then fifteen seconds later the four-way uphill sprint for second opened up. Pedro recovered well from his exploits with Trevor and surged to second place (one better than he managed in the summer circuit race), while Alex (in his debut circuit race) managed to keep Jamie a length behind him to claim third. Nestor paid for his efforts on the front and took fifth. After another 30 seconds their erstwhile lead group companions trailed in, with Matt Walsh beating Adam Luck to sixth place and David Moseley the  only other rider to avoid getting lapped.

A picture of the winner crossing the line? I’m afraid we don’t have one as our photographer for the day was Alex’s girlfriend, so instead here is a photo of Alex beating me to third place:

Full results (courtesy of Dave McCarthy, who acknowledges that their may be some minor errors!):

1. Trevor Whittock
2. Pedro Lopes
3. Alex Sweeting
4. Jamie Fake
5. Nestor Salazar
6. Matt Walsh
7. Adam Luck
8. David Moseley
…and at one lap…
9. Chris West
10. Mark Freeman
…two…
11. Chris Pollard
…three…
12. Chris Brown
13. M. Bimrose
14. Jon Scarlett
15. Tom Lowles
…four…
16. His excellency the Outgoing President
17. Rob Smart
18. M. Tubbs
19. J. Mathias
20. Gabriel Hanley
21. Armin Hersch
22. Steve Maunder
…five…
23. Edward Ward

Thanks again to everyone who helped with judging and organizing the race and everyone who took part. Looking forward to more of these next season and to the annual dinner in a few weeks’ time.

Jamie

And so the time has come, the waiting is finally over. Last year saw the influx of new, faster and (relatively) younger members which made the club circuit race and hill climb championships much more competitive. A select group has been training through the winter, acquitting themselves very well on the murderous Sunday training rides to Great Dunmow and back. The 2014 season opened with a time trial or two to warm us up, but today was the day the fledgling Lea Valley racing team would get its first taste of road racing.

Saturday morning: Alex is having a tasty fry up, Matt is taking off his heavy winter tyres and putting on his lightweight racing ones, Harry is steeling himself for his first race on a circuit he has never even seen. What can possibly go wrong?

I met up with Harry and Matt at the town hall. The unexpected sunshine of the last two weekends had disappeared and been replaced with a cold wind and a menacing looking sky. Within minutes off us setting for Hainault a hailstorm came crashing down on us. Was this an omen? “Turn back, go home!” screamed the wind. We pressed on and were greeted with the site of the busiest Hog Hill I’ve ever seen: dozens of cars parked in the road as the car park was overflowing (a massive field of 120 women took part in the race after our one).

Our glorious leader, Trevor, was unable to race today so it fell to me to offer words of wisdom. “How early should you start sprinting for the finish?” asked Alex. I confessed that I’d only taken part in a couple of sprint finishes up the Hoggenberg (usually dropped before that) and these had seen me rolling in to claim 13th or 17th or some such irrelevant position, so I wasn’t best placed to answer this. We headed onto the circuit to familiarise ourselves (Harry had never been there, Alex and Matt had only ridden the Tuesday 10s in the opposite direction, and I hadn’t race on the full circuit for nearly a year) but were called to the start almost instantly so didn’t get a full lap in. The wind was blowing from west to east, which would make for a speedy descent and tricky cornering afterwards and a nasty headwind on the climb.

We lined up in a large field of about 65 riders. Briefing over, the whistle went and we were off! Immediately there was craziness with people needlessly sprinting to the first bend and weaving all over the place. The pace was fast and behind me I could see people getting dropped almost straight away, but up ahead I could make out the other Lea Valley riders with what looked like Harry well-positioned up in the top ten. Up the hill for the first time, suffering but still in contact, this was going to be good.

Or was it? Approaching the hill for the second or third time I saw Matt and another rider walking along the grass at the side carrying their bikes. What had happened? Then, at the top of the climb, I saw Harry at the side trying to pump up his tyres. What on earth was going on?

Meanwhile the hammer was down and the bunch was fragmenting. Fourth time up the hill I found myself losing contact. My average speed had been 23mph up to this point and I just couldn’t sustain it on this circuit. Up ahead of me a gap was opening, so the bunch that I was losing contact with was itself losing contact with what was left of the main group. Alex was in this mini-bunch of 8 or 9, but soon started drifting back to me. We looked at each other - less than 15 minutes gone and nothing much to aim for now, just the opportunity for some decent training. “Well, that was good,” I said. “I’m going to stick to cricket,” said Alex.

We were joined by another rider and set off in pursuit of the next group up the road. The race had been smashed to pieces now and there were several groups and loads of individual riders racing round in no man’s land. Unfortunately Alex lost contact, so I spent a while with a Dulwich Paragon rider fruitlessly trying to get back to the group. After 35 minutes or so, the inevitable happened and we were lapped by the leaders (who had been whittled down to a select group of just 9 or 10 riders with the next group on the road absolutely nowhere to be seen). I slotted in on the back and rode around with them - it was staggeringly easy. Partly this was because there was less chaos now that the group was so much smaller, but partly it was because they had slackened the pace right off to about 21mph per lap. I began to get confused: was this actually the leaders or was this a group of hopeless cases that had somehow formed behind me and swept me up? I asked one of them and he said “we are the leaders, we’re just going a bit slowly.” He looked strangely like Phil Hersey, the successful 1st cat rider from Eagle. That’s because he was Phil Hersey, the successful ex-1st cat rider from Eagle (who appears to have taken some time out from racing and consequently been busted back down to 3rd cat level). Not long after that they suddenly put the hammer down again and left me for dead on an innocuous flat section of the course.

Lapped riders were instructed to leave the circuit with 3 laps to go so I only had a couple of laps left to do now - cheered on by the rest of Lea Valley who were standing by the finish line recounting their various tales of woe. I chased down a Finsbury Park rider and unleashed a devastating sprint last time up the Hoggenberg (which, to be honest, he didn’t bother to try to react to) to secure that all-important uncredited 49th place (or whatever it was). Game over.

So - what had happened? Harry had been charging up the hill right near the front on the very first lap when he started to lose control and realised he had a puncture. Unfamiliar with the rules (notify the comms, take one lap out to sort out a mechanical, rejoin when and where they tell you to - realistically, if you haven’t got a spare wheel, your race is over), Harry went racing off to his locker to locate a spare inner tube, pump and tyre levers. Meanwhile, on just his second lap Matt’s wheel was punctured by some glass and he had to carry his bike back to the start, his race lasting less than five minutes. At around the three lap mark Alex had suddenly found himself throwing up his fried breakfast over the racing jersey he had borrowed from me - no wonder he was fading when I caught up with him shortly afterwards. And finally, Harry sneaked back into the action (almost certainly breaking the rules in the process) with his replaced inner tube, spent a short while chasing after us and then suffered yet another puncture. At that point, understandably, it was time to call it a day.

So - not a glorious opening race, but it’s early days yet. Hopefully that’s got all the bad luck out of the way for the season!

Well, it’s three months since Ride London and the last blog and the season is now over (with the exception of our upcoming circuit race) – time for a roundup of what’s been going on in that time both in terms of racing and, first of all, the more social side of riding. Karl Bunyan reports on a club jaunt to Yorkshire:

“A motley crew of six LVCC riders - Justin, Kevin, Ann, Tony, John and myself - set up base in the Yorkshire Dales for a week of leisurely riding. Or, as Kevin would have it, “training camp”. We’d been promised hills the likes of which we’d never find in Essex, and it didn’t take us long to find them. Pen-y-ghent at around 16% average was just the start, and attempting a 20% climb straight after a steak pie with chips for lunch is not to be recommended. And somehow the very same hills seemed even steeper the next day, and the next.

Day three was accident day when, firstly, Justin and I helped pull a motorbike out of a field after the rider lost control on a bend. Later on, when the two of us tacked an extra 25 miles onto the day’s ride, I had to search for a small spot of mobile reception to call out the recovery vehicle (Kevin and Tony) when Justin decided to test the build quality of his bike, his helmet, and himself, against a dry stone wall. Needless to say, the wall fared better in that encounter.

Fatigue was setting in, as was the showery weather, and, after a day of walking/climbing/falling, we weren’t good for much more than riding to the nearest cafe. But even with climbs, the crashes, the aching legs, and the poltergeist (another thing to ask Justin about), it’s hard to beat days riding in beautiful countryside followed by evenings of good food, maybe a recovery Guinness, and gloriously inane banter.”

Here’s a photo of Tony on one of those climbs – Karl has told me not to mention that Tony was off his bike and walking up it not long afterwards, so I’ll keep quiet about that.

The Bank Holiday weekend usually sees the ‘Summerhayes Summer Saunter’ with the club President (John Summerhayes) leading a ride out to the coast and everyone piling onto a train back again. This year so many people had so many commitments that it was decided to stagger it over two weekends – one would see a car-assisted ride in northern Essex (i.e. drive up there and then ride, not hang onto the side of a support car with a ‘sticky bottle’ for three hours) and the other would be a ride out to Southend. Sadly, August this year was a bit of a washout – the ride to Southend was in pouring rain while the northern Essex one was dry but unseasonably cold. My reporters tell me the pace was gentle with half a dozen riders on each ride. The Essex version involved a route which was something of a mystery (even to John) in search of the highest point in Essex before eventually abandoning the map and going off to gather apples (???).

Meanwhile, we had several well-attended club runs in September, with the ‘fast group’ getting some decent training in. I managed to film some bits and pieces:

Through-and-off heading up to Epping –

In the lanes and then sprinting for the Moreton village sign –

and Harry took this photo which I like:

The end of September / start of October also saw us heading up to the race HQ at Ugley for several time trials. First up came the ‘Len Waters Memorial’ which is a slightly difficult event to explain: it’s a team competition, but it’s based on individual riders’ times. So an unlimited number of riders from any club can take part, but they don’t ride together as a team – they do individual time trials and the fastest five riders from the club have their times added together for the team competition. Although we came nowhere near beating Shaftesbury and Eagle for the team prize, it was a good day: four of our five riders set new PBs. David Veitch was fastest, going under the hour with 58:56. Alex Sweeting got 1:01:03, James Hodges 1:03:50 and Jamie Fake (me) 1:04:12 - all of us taking substantial chunks off our previous records. Only Soren Hansen (a late replacement for a sickly Tim Holmes) was disappointed, coming home in 1:08:22 in his first individual time trial – disappointed because he knows he is capable of going much faster than this (as his circuit racing performances have shown).

The following morning saw the ‘Crescent 30’ (the Crescent being one of the two clubs that were merged to form Lea Valley CC in the 1960s) organised by Mark Freeman. In foggy, but dry and wind-free conditions, Colin Ward broke the course record (which was already held by him) to win the event in 1:05:06. Adam Bishop was the fastest Lea Valley rider in 1:20:21, followed by Mark himself with 1:35:30 and Armin Hersch in 1:35:30. Full results can be found on the forum: http://leavalleycc.microco.sm/comments/12546224/

One week later came the ‘Comet 25’ (Comet being the other club that formed Lea Valley) organised by Dave McCarthy. Our intrepid reporter says: “Another beautiful autumn morning, though the clear skies meant a cold start for the riders. The stately old E1b/25, even on a lovely day, managed to squeeze quite a few riders over the hour, but there were many other impressive rides.  Despite knocking over a minute off last year’s time, Rich Price (London Phoenix) was again pushed into second place, this time by Colin Ward (Essex Roads), with whom he has been battling for the SPOCO prize all year.  So another triumphant weekend for Colin. There were great improvements on their 2014 times by Julia Freeman (Easterley) and our own Chris West. Julia won the Ladies prize and Chris took the Handicap prize. Congratulations also to the East London Velo for taking the team award and, contrary to scurrilous gossip at the time, they would probably still have won even if the full Chelmer squad had turned up. No offence intended and no suggestion that any rider was complaining!  The Lea Valley trio scraped into third, well done chaps but unfortunately no prizes.”

Adam, David, Alex and Pedro Lopes headed off to Tring for the near 40-mile ‘Cog Café’ team time trial in a loop around Aylesbury. Adam was dropped a third of the way into the race but fought round on his own, while David and Alex did their best to stick with Pedro’s brutal pace – a sign of things to come in the hill climb?

Our final time trial of the season (or some might say several weeks after the season has finished) is the club hill climb up Mott Street in Epping Forest. Despite the thick fog that greeted us last Sunday, a very large field assembled (over forty riders – easily the biggest I’ve seen for the event) with several different clubs represented. Conditions weren’t too bad, but most people’s times were 5-10 seconds down on last year (though only Tim had to grind to a halt to avoid descending horses). There was a mistake in the provisional results on the day and Ross Hallard looked surprised to be declared the winner by a sizeable margin – sadly for Ross, this has now been corrected and he has slipped to tenth. This year’s winner was David Ross with a time of 2:20, just one second ahead of Ned Jackson from Islington CC. Fastest Lea Valley rider was Pedro, who came third overall with a time just under 2:24, narrowly beating other Lea Valley riders who filled the next three spots: Carsten Meilandt, David and Soren. Fastest woman was Alicia Speake, who managed the climb more than 20 seconds faster than her nearest rival. Picking up the woman’s prize for Lea Valley was Chrystyna Chymera. Full results available on the forum: http://leavalleycc.microco.sm/conversations/277155/#comment12612836

And finally, to road racing. Well, basically, things calmed down a bit after Carsten’s early summer purple patch. Those in their debut road racing season continued their promising starts: Tim picked up some points, as he reports: “Post Ride London, I raced in a few crits, most notably at the Velopark summer series. I think I raced three of them. For the race on the 19th August, I survived the 4th cat divebombers and got myself into a good position and contested the sprint finish. I came 8th. That was my first, and only, top ten finish. I was really grateful to Trevor Whittock, Adam Bishop and James Hodges who came along to support. Despite being pretty exhausted from a summer of racing and Ride London (in retrospect I probably should have taken a break from the bike) I was racing well tactically and felt strong enough to chase down breakaways and contest sprints. This led to a couple of desperate attempts to pick up more points at Hog Hill and Hillingdon. All to no avail. But lots of fun.”

Also in the 4th cat Velopark races in August were Charlie Gregory (racing for the first time) and Lewis Dixon, both managing to finish with the pack, though it wasn’t all good news for Lewis: “I got a mid place finish in my first one. Felt great. 2nd race, I crashed on the penultimate lap. Felt awful. That led to the lack of motivation that ended my season. Aside from that, I rode round brands hatch for 24 hours with a team of 4, which I really don’t recommend. Never doing that again.”

Personally, I did three more races at the Cyclopark circuit near Gravesend and finally got the hang of it, finishing with the bunch each time (though still nowhere near the points – 22nd was as good as it got for me).

In a year that has seen an unbelievable number of crashes for our riders, one man has definitely had more than his fair share, but Alex still found time to squeeze in one more (with another bike biting the dust). Prior to this, he managed a few more races: “I entered 3 1st/2nd/3rd races with Carsten and Paul at Velopark. Managed to avoid major mishap. But improved my ability to experience pain. Race 1 I managed to sprint past Paul for the minor placing a at the back of he bunch. Race 2 just about hung on after avoiding a massive crash. Hated it. Race 3 attacked from the gun. Lasted 10 mins. Rode home with my number still pinned on and was in bed before the race finished”.And last, but not least, Paul Roberts finally picked up a point in his comeback season, with 10th in a 1st/2nd/3rd crit at the Velopark. He also had plenty of good late season form with top twenty placings in both the Eagle and the Maldon & District road races. He and Carsten were also pestered by Alex Dowsett at Hog Hill who insisted on having his photo taken with them:

The final, final, final action of the season comes next weekend with the annual ‘Len Cooper’ circuit race for club members to decide who is the road race champion for 2015. This year we’ll be using the lower circuit at Hog Hill. Meet at Hog Hill at 9am next Sunday (15th November) – the race will be 45 minutes plus 5 laps. Further details on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1660222340926506/

And make sure you get in touch with Joe A.S.A.P. to book your ticket(s) for the annual lunch / awards giving which will be on 6th December:

Following the success of our first club criterium on the new velopark circuit in September, there was a lot of interest from club members in making this a more regular thing. So we tried to cram one more race in before the end of the year, deep into mince pie season. Unfortunately the date we originally chose clashed with the UCI Track World Cup event in the velodrome and we weren’t able to use the circuit. Rather late in the day we were able to book it for the following Saturday instead. With minimal publicity, plummeting temperatures and a whole host of office Christmas parties taking place, it was feared that hardly anyone would turn up. However, race organisers Joe Mumford and Trevor Whittock were relieved to find 14 riders on the start line this morning, eager to get going before they froze stiff.

Although the temperature (according to my Garmin) was a very chilly 1ºC, there was a clear blue sky, very little wind and no ice on the road, so conditions were about as good as they could be for this time of year. In the absence of John Summerhayes, there was no neutralised ‘president’s lap’ in this event, but the first lap went off at a relatively sedate pace anyway (with Alex Sweeting and me keeping things nice and slow at the front). As we got into our stride the pace rose from a gentle 20mph to a more challenging 22-23mph – no great shakes perhaps in the summer, but harder work in these temperatures wearing full winter gear and with considerably less fitness.

There were a few little digs to test the water, but nobody got more than a couple of bike lengths clear and the bunch stayed more or less intact with just two or three riders getting shelled out. Then, much as with the race in September, things got shaken up by the prime. Or, more accurately, David Veitch shook things up and there happened to be a prime at the same time. As we entered the home straight towards the end of the sixth lap David moved clear (with no knowledge at this point that a prime lap was about to be called). Immediately realising the danger, several riders tried to bridge across to him. Alex and I had been at the front of the bunch just a minute earlier, but were caught out near the back by this move. Alex powered past me and I tried to jump onto his wheel and failed. As it became increasingly clear I didn’t have the legs to get across, first Tim Holmes and then Lewis Dixon jumped off my wheel to have a try themselves – and each time I simply couldn’t follow. They managed to form a chase group about ten seconds behind David V, consisting of Alex, Tim, Lewis and Adam Luck. Meanwhile I sank back into the next group with Nicola Toms, David Moseley, Huw Thomas and Tim Stroud (and possibly Jon Scarlett – who retired at some point with cramp). David V soloed his way to win the prime with ease and then sat up to let the chase group come back to him.

A few more laps followed with the front group of five leading the chasing group of five by about 30 seconds, though to be honest – there was no chase. We had slackened off and were thinking about the all-important sprint for sixth. Then halfway through the 11^th lap David V put the hammer down again and dropped everyone. Alex, Tim and Adam tried to chase, but got further and further behind, while Lewis was spat out of this group and spent the rest of the race in no-man’s land. There was no catching David V and he came over the line on his own finishing the 12 laps in approximately 32:30. Alex outsprinted Tim to claim second place, with Adam just behind them. Lewis came in on his own for 5^th and then the next group came home with Tim Stroud impressively outsprinting me for 6^th and Nicola again holding her own against the men.

Final Results:

1. David Veitch (32:30)

2. Alex Sweeting (at 25 secs)

3. Tim Holmes

4. Adam Luck

5. Lewis Dixon (at 1 minute)

6. Tim Stroud (at 1:25)

7. Jamie Fake

8. Nicola Toms (at 1:30)

9. David Moseley

10. Huw Thomas (at 1:35)

11. Dave McCarthy (lapped)

12. Rob Smart (lapped)

13. Armin Hersch (lapped)

DNF – Jon Scarlett (cramp)

PS – have a look at the ‘strava flyby’ website to see the race unfold:

http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/#228862137,2PGjDQHwow23RaQNfoekDYLbow2mQaQNYi6kDQ==

First, tick the boxes of the Lea Valley riders (these are the ones with the high green scores), then drag the speed button downwards to slow down the playback, then press the play button.

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!