Midland DC

As the Echelon 10 mile tt had to be cancelled in July, Don Picken kindly said he would let us use his event in August for our points series. The K48/10 is not a fast course and the winds at the weekend, plus occassional downpours didnt make it any easier! The event was won by James Perkins, Zenith RC in 21.19.  Ron Hallam was the first vet on standard with a plus of 7.3. Second was Tony taylor a plus of 6.14 (this is his first event since his epic lejog experience). Third was Rob Weare with a plus of 5.22.

Results (PDF)

Is anyone is interested in mid week walking or weekend afternoons? I thought it might be a good way of keeping in touch with people if we set up a walking group. Starting end of October/November, locations all over the Midlands (just like meeting at different races).

If so, get in touch:

01789 205974
alexinstitches@googlemail.com

Alex Laycock

The last event in the Women's Series was marked with riders wearing black armbands in respect for Cath Ward who died tragically the week before while competing at a club time trial.

Cath, who had taken part in three of the 2010 events, was a most determined competitor as heard during recent tributes at her funeral. Her first sport was cricket, playing at university but again in her forties when she was instrumental in forming Dorridge Women's Cricket Team as their captain. Known affectionately by her husband as a ‘sledger', Cath had also been an enthusiastic runner when injury forced her to quit before completing her third marathon.

She then took up something more sedate, golf - but there was nothing tame about her spirit and her passion to win meant she was soon collecting the trophies. Her last ‘obsession' was cycling and she had already made impressive gains over the last two years. Although not in the running for any prizes this year, Cath was on a mission to get faster and was definitely someone to watch. She will be sorely missed, however her attitude and encouragement to other female riders will be remembered by many, not least of all those who raced with her during this series.

Nadine Mayhew

Twenty six riders took part on the original K1/10 circuit to Five-Ways, Fen End and Temple Balsall because of road works on the out and back Knowle-Five Ways course.

The weather was really quite chilly for August. The sky was overcast and threatened rain at any time. In fact all riders got a good soaking at the bottom end of the course and had to contend with wet roads although the Shirley RC officials at the start and finish fortunately did not get wet.

Alex Grzegorczyk, Leamington C& AR showed how much progress she's made to achieve her highest placing of the Series and finish in third with 26.19. Michelle Drakeley, Concorde CC caused some upset at the top with her first win of the season in 25.48 but this was not enough to deny Nadine Mayhew winner's place of the Series ahead of Rebecca Slack, London Dynamo. Nadine of Cult Racing was 40 seconds behind Michelle.  Claire Sadler, Bicester Millennium CC finished in 26.26 and Sue Semple, Stafford RC in 26.38 fourth and fifth respectively.  

	Michelle with Ossie

In the final points table Michelle finished close behind Rebecca in third followed by Claire and Elizabeth Clayton, CC Giro. Beth was Top of the Vets on the night, with 1.50 up on Standard and a 26.48. The overall Vets winner was Moira Goodway, Banbury Star CC after her outstanding performance in the penultimate event.  

Janet Marsden, for the third successive event, achieved the closest time to her PB. She completed LEJoG ?? in June on the Ride Across Britain, which might explain how much she has improved in these last three events and was the well deserved winner of the Series Improvement table.

Another rider who has shown consistent improvement this season is Gabriela MacKinnon, Team Midland Racing whose time of 29.06 gave her third place in both the events PB table and the overall Series table. She finished just behind Alana Collis, Ashfield RC, 28.34. Lucy Tomlinson, Warwicks Uni Tri Club rode her fourth event of the series to finish in 33.50.

Roger Thorp worked extremely hard with a big team of helpers from Shirley RC and energetic club members shuttled the results between the finish and results board by bicycle!

"Thanks to Ossie Smith, President of the Shirley RC who gave a very moving and fitting address to everyone about Cath Ward, and a minute's silence was held in her memory," said Ruth Eyles, Series organizer. "He then presented the medals and trophies to the overall winners. Well done to all riders who took part both tonight and during another successful Series."

(Photos: Ruth Eyles)

Full results....

From Mike and Marina Bloom: We hope this is of interest to you and , where applicable, may generate enthusiasm for people to want to ride a 12HR next year

At 05.40hrs Marina started (N0 40) on the above event, by 17.40 her 12hrs was up and she'd ridden 242.172 miles to qualify her for 1st lady, 2010 lady vets gold medallist and 9th overall in the event.

She consumed 10 tins of creamed rice, roughly the same amount of litre bottles of water and nearly two complete Aldi Teacakes. (somebody work out how many calories that was) For those interested she did not need to make a loo stop throughout which helped to maintain her final above 20 mph average speed. Also it shows how balanced and correct a a diet it was for her on that day. (always a slightly unknown factor on long events that one) She now looks as though she's lost a bit of weight!!

She did the first 50 miles in 2hrs 15mins 19secs, 100 miles in 4hrs 41mins 43secs.

The event was won by evergreen rider Ken Platts who is 58 yrs old with280.663 miles! Another rider of note was 80 year old Peter Horsnell who achieved 208.973 miles and his, I think, over 80 yr old wife Mary was seen out on the course all day from start to finish, not in a car but alone on her bike! So there is hope for us old ones yet.

The event was held at Great Chesterford, nr Cambridge. Initially on the A11 & A14 roads but after 09.00 was routed on a series of roughly 12 mile, more rural, circuits and the a finishing circuit was 13 miles and near the event HQ.

Cheers all,

Mike & Marina.

Click here to view the latest rankings

How have the rankings changed in July?

Just five open events took place in the Midlands District in July, three 10-mile events organised by Leamington C&AC, Coventry CC and Rugby RC, and two 25-mile events by Walsall RCC and Warwickshire RC. 329 rides were done by 234 riders from 78 different clubs. The most prolific riders were Emily Whitmore, John Dixson, Steve Batsford and Jon Simpkins, each of whom completed four events.

As usual it is those riders who have completed five or more Midlands (K-course) events in the last 12 months who we will focus on, because anyone who has not yet done five events will not have a ranking or points score which reflects their level of performance.

The Leamington 10 proved a fruitful event for Martin Hackley and Emily Whitmore, both of Team Endura - MI Racing. Martin achieved his highest placing yet of 18^th and Emily her second highest points score leading both to be promoted from 4^th cat to 3^rd cat. Ron Clews (Wyre Forest CRC) also made the jump up from 4^th cat to 3^rd cat thanks to a 23.09 in the Rugby 10.

An emphatic leap into the 2^nd cats was made by Steve Batsford (Banbury Star CC) during July, his consistently improving results leading to an increase of over 100 points and a ranking of 33^rd after lying only 71^st back in April. John Herring (Leamington C&AC) and Peter Ward (Stratford CC) both moved back up to 2^nd cat status in July after sliding down temporarily in June and Simon Harradine (CC Topp) returned to 1^st cat after briefly slipping to 2^nd cat.

Very little has changed at the top of the men's rankings but change looks imminent at the very top of the women's table. Even without five counting events Michelle King (Cult Racing) has moved up to 2^nd place in the rankings thanks to an outstanding 9^th place and 22.05 in the Coventry 10. She looks set to take over the top position from Ruth Eyles (Beacon Roads CC) if she can complete five counting events before the end of the season.

Finally, congratulations to all the riders who have just completed five counting events for the first time and been categorised above 4^th cat this month. The riders are:

• Tony Ball (Team Swift) - 2^nd cat
• Mike Wheeler (Team Lutterworth Cycle Centre) - 2^nd cat
• Ian Ward (Walsall RCC) - 2^nd cat
• Dave Tedds (Hinckley CRC) - 3^rd cat
• Martin Millington (Stratford CC) - 3^rd cat
• Peter Ding (Ludlow CC) - 3^rd cat
• Adrian Tayles (Rugby RC) - 3^rd cat
• Alex Grzegorczyk (Leamington C&AC) - 3^rd cat
• Richard Coleman (Stourbridge CC) - 3^rd cat

For general discussion on the rankings, please join in with the topic on Time Trialling Forum.

The Cheltenham & County CC 25 on 5th September, originally to be held on the U46B/25 near Cirencester, will now use the U707/25
between Tewkesbury and Evesham.

Course details can be viewed on Bikely at :-   http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/U707-25

The Headquarters will be Ashchurch Village Hall, situated half a mile from Junction 9 of the M5.

All other details remain unchanged.

Charles Zanettacci

As most of you know, the weekend of racing on the K33 courses (24/25^th July) had to be cancelled due heavy traffic conditions and associated Police controls.  It has not been possible to move the "10" and "25" to another weekend at this stage in the season so it has been decided to amend the Series by using the following events to act as counters.  (There will still be 7 events but one of the "25's" is replaced by a "10")

28^th. August          BDCA                    "10"             Don Picken

25^th, September    Coventry RC          "10"              R. Hodge

If you wish to maintain your presence in the Series, try for a better placing in your Age Group or make an end of season bid for honours -  enter the above events in the usual manner.  As always - don't forget to enter your details in the section marked "For Veterans" .   Please  tell other members of your Club about these changes if they are involved in the Series - not everyone uses the Internet!!  Please make fresh entries for these events - Don will extend the closing date for his event by a few days as time is short!

Our grateful thanks are due to Don Picken and Richard Hodge for their kind co-operation in enabling us to effect these changes and maintain the Points Series for the remainder of the season. 

Having just purchased the team prize - almost a certainty for the Wyre Forrest lot - here is a quick reminder there are 3 events left of the series  Remember to enter the Coventry CC 25 on Aug 14th and then my 2 hill climbs September 26th, which are in fact now run under the Warwickshire RC as  promoting club.

Cameron from Banbury Star is heading towards winning the junior trophy, yet as juniors only need 3 events to qualify theres still time to create some competition for the lad!

Alex Laycock

On July 24th Marina Bloom, Born to Bike, got off her bike after the National 24 hr to collect a gold medal. Not only was she first lady with 412.75 miles but also 16th overall out of 61!

The day after she reports she was only off the bike for 14 mins, so that is some indication why Mike Bloom also aches today after all the running around after her

Massive admiration for Marina (yet not tempted myself!) absolutely awesome thing to do!

On 18th July I fell out of bed for the VTTA National 50 at Great Missenden, Stuart Mc Kie's alarm was set for a gruesome 3am!!!

Summer seemed to have evaporated, it was a bit chilly,dull and "are my brakes on?" type of wind.  The H50/4 course was contrived especially for this event.  I vowed NEVER to do it again but am sure I probably will.  Ron Hallam, who has been racing for years and years, echoed everyone else's thoughts - it was the worst 50 course he has ever done!  It was a great challenge.......yes perhaps I loved it for its drags and roundabouts and Paris Roubaix style tarmac.

Marshalls were plentiful and seemed a happy bunch, signage and directions were superb an the best start sheet booklet I've seen for a long time, courtesy of Jim Burgin.

4 riders went under the hour,the winner being D.Johnson, VC10 with 1.56.01- winning lady on standard and actual was Nicki Hunt 2.17.19 a plus of 37.50.

First on standard was Dennis Milson, Mid Shropshire Wheelers, 2.16.24, a plus of 50.56.

We had 5 Midland vets there:

• John Gabriel 2.10.55 (+29.19)
• Stuart Mc Kie 2.10.59 (+ 23.23)- he got confused and sat up at one point thinking hed finished so in fact his time includes some non race pace
• Vince Jenkins 2.11.09 (+40.07)
• Moira Goodway 2.20.41 (+29.26)
• Alex Laycock 2.24.09, just managed a plus of 4.36...........ha!

Alex Laycock