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Race
Report 16/5/99 - Dave Johnson
Redmon
Hilly 75 mile TT on Sunday Quite a nice day with gentle Northerly.
None of the hills are particularly steep, but there are lots of
drags that go on and on and very little flat fast road. In fact,
some of the surfaces are as bad as those on the Bath Road Hilly
50. And that's bad. Started quite well on the minor and very pretty
roads West of Dorking, going fast but smoothly, and catching people
right, left and centre. In second place after 30 miles but then
had to stop for road work traffic lights for half a minute. Still
going comfortably. Then slowly but surely we turned into the gathering
wind for the last 25 miles, which got grimmer and grimmer. Still
these interminable drags, but now with an unflagging headwind. It
was here that I started swearing at the road, my bike, the weather
etc. As a result, the valve cover on my disc wheel started flapping,
first against the chain stay and then, as it got looser, against
my leg. I had to stop to tear it off, losing another 30 secs. Finally
finished in 3.01.25 and was promptly sick from the effort. Back
in the changing rooms and it was clear that a ride had been done,
as Andy Cooke of the Chippenham, this year's star in the making
Malcolm Cox and ex BBAR Nik Gardiner all failed to dislodge me.
Turned out I'd won, with a course record, (actually it was the first
time that this version had been used!) and, of course, was fastest
vet on standard. Forty Quid Marvellous.
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Results
Roundup - 31/5/99
Martin
Freeman and Adam Henley competed in the Kingswood Festival
'GT HONDA INTERNATIONAL' - a BCF Junior National Points Series race
held at Bristol on Sunday. Martin was riding as part of the GB Junior
Squad and Adam was one of the youngest riders in the strong international
field of 60. The 117 km race was marked by unseasonable cold, wet
and windy conditions, made tough by the 1 in 6 climb of Hinton Hill.
On the 3rd lap of the 5 lap race, both Martin and Adam were well
placed, but on the 4th climb of Hinton both suffered and lost contact.
Over the summit and they got back to the main bunch - Martin finding
the strength to compete the final sprint and take a superb 3rd place
with valuable National Series points. Adam also finsihed strongly
taking 17th place.
Karl Freeman represented the West Thames Division
in the BCF's National and under-22s Point Series event held at Edenbridge.
First stage was a short hill climb TT where he finished in 11th place
with a time of 04:20. Second stage later that day was a 55 miles road
race which finished with a large bunch sprint with Karl finishing
in the pack. The winner was David Magowan (Planet X). The final stage
on Bank Holiday Monday was another road race covering 80 miles using
a 15 mile circuit including 2 short but steep climbs. With 30 miles
covered, a group of 8 broke clear and Karl had to spend a lap on his
own bridging the gap. The stage was won by Robin Sharman from the
Midlands Division with Karl in 15th position. after the 3 days KArl
finished in an excellent 10th position overall - and still 2 years
to go in this category. Overall winner was Michael jackson (Anglia/Condor
Cycles)
Disappointment for Helen West on Saturday when
she and 119 other competitors dicovered after the event that the North
Bucks Road Club's '10' had been ridden over a short course because
the timekeeper started the race at the wrong point. However, prizes
were still awarded and Helen took 2nd place in the Ladies race with
a time of 24:07. Ian Welch clocked 20:17. Winner was Andrew
Horner (Team Cambridge) 19:13.
Cyril Lewis notched up another win in the Vets
race promoted by the North Bucks Road Club on a 10 mile hilly circuit
around the village of Astwood in Bedfordshire on Sunday. 40 riders
competed over the 40 mile race in drizzly conditions which saw a 5
rider crash on lap 2. Cyril avoided the trouble and sprinted to victory
in the over-65s category taking a splendid 6th place overall.
HWCC riders took part in the Luton Wheelers' 50 mile
road race held on a 7 mile circuit near Mentmore Towers. They were
in the main pack as they neared the finish which almost ended in
disaster when a marshall allowed several cars onto the finishing
straight as the 40 strong pack sprinted for the line. Many had no
choice but to hit the brakes and slow to avoid a crash. Nevertheless,
Martin Freeman in his second event of the weekend took 8th
place, Mike West 13th, and Adam Henley, also competing
for the second time, finished 15th. Winner was Tom Cox from London.
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Results
Roundup - 6/6/99
Karl
Freeman competed in the West Thames Division of the
BCF's Road race Championship held over a 17 mile circuit based around
Thame on Sunday. Riders covered 90 miles over 5 laps of the relatively
flat course with an average speed of 26mph in hot, windy conditions.
The field of 80 riders contained Elite, 1st and 2nd cat riders.
It all came down to a bunch sprint, and Karl, still a first year
Senior suffered an attack of cramp in the closing miles and therefore
was not able to give of his best at the close crossing the line
in 20th place. The winner was Tony Gibb (Team Quest) with Paul Crook
(Heffs Bike Shop) in second position
Brother
Martin achieved a splendid victory slipping off the front
of the pack in the supporting Junior and 4th cat race. Covering
3 laps of the same circuit the 50 riders covered 53 miles. Again
the pack stayed together despite the efforts of Dave Johnson
and Peter Lightfoot at the front. It was also a good result
for Adam Henley who sprinted into 7th place.
Dave
Johnson scored a superb win at the Salisbury Road Club's Open
'10' for Vets and Ladies on Saturday. The race was held on a rain
soaked A303 at Andover and Dave's time of 20:47 put him on top of
the 119 also-rans.
Helen
and Mike West produced PBs on Saturday in the Reading CC '25'
on the A4 at Woolhampton. In wet conditions Mike broke the hour
for the first time with a 59:35 giving him 14th place out of 100
riders. Helen sliced a minute off her previous best time clocking
1:06:00 and taking first place in the Ladies race. In the process
she beat Vet Bob Lambert who recorded 1:06:46. Winner was
Hanu Stemp (Charlottevill CC) with 55:48.
Simon
Henley took 3rd place in the 10 lap Milton Keynes Under 16s
race held at the National Bowl on Saturday. Brother Adam
finished in 6th place in the 30-lap 3rd and 4th cat race with dad
Harry finishing in the main pack.
The
British Airways '25' held recently on the Handy Cross - Bisham bypass
carried a first prize of 2 air tickets anywhere in the world. The
honours went to Michael Hutchinson (Cambridge University CC) with
a 58:08. Fastest HWCC rider was Frank Pressling 58:40, then
Peter Lightfoot 59:50, Gary Marshall 1:01:31 and Dave
Baldwin 1:02:30 (PB).
Stuart
Dangerfield, coached by Gordon Wright, rode to a Bronze
medal in the RTTC National '25' held in Yorkshire on Sunday with
a time of 51:54. Winner was Chris Newton (Linda McCartney RT) 50:47
followed by Rob Hayles (Clarence Wheelers) 51:10.
Race
Report 13/6/99 - Dave Johnson
The
Hounslow '100'
Rode
the Hounslow 100 mile time trial on Sunday. The course, round Thame,
is the worst course in the country, involving horrible road surfaces,
hills, HILLS, I SAID, and a rising wind and that scourge of the
very occasional British time trial - hot sunshine. Good riders entered
included Robin Jackson of the promoting club, Nik Gardiner, roadie
Doug Crow from Twickenham - a dark horse with no time trial experience,
Andy Cooke of the Chippenham, Dave Birch - recent winner of the
Anfield hundred, and little me, ably assisted in the team ace by
Gary Marshall and Jeremy Rogers. The race ran a wide
gamut of weather conditions, starting with the 'a' of fog and ending
with the 'b' of hot wind, something we've all suffered from in our
time, I'm sure. Lager and Curry.....Curry and Lager. Start delayed
for an hour and a half due to the post-dawn fog, so two extra widdles
and an extra dump later, we got going. Visor of funny hat immediately
steamed up, but as I can't see anyway, no problem. Started to suffer
after about a mile. It got worse from then on. You know, after about
50 hard, lumpy bumpy miles, when you need to go into a smaller gear,
but you can't pedal any faster because you've been using big gears,
so you just slow down, so you change up again, and the awful pain
returns but now you've got nowhere else to go and then it goes uphill
and into the wind a bit more and a column of juggernauts comes the
other way and the wind coming off them punches you in the gob and
you slow down even more and then you're embarrassed to find that
you've started to cry........ Anyway, Doug Crow won in 3.50.48.
His first time trial. Rowan Horner was second, having caught me
for 5 minutes, 1.52.40 and I managed 3rd - 1.59.30 - faster, despite
worse conditions, than last year's Westerly 100 on the same course.
Legs and brain now don't work at all. If they ever really did.
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Results
Roundup 13.6.99
Cyril Lewis
won the League Interenational Veteran's Road Race Championship held
at llandyrnog near Denbigh North Wales. The hilly 30 mile course
started with a mile long drag into the wind. With half a mile to
go Cyril found himself at the front of the pack and as the bunch
approached the uphill finish 2 riders jumped past him with 300 yards
to go. Cyril got on their wheels and attacked with 50 yards to go
and took the victory, the Championship Jersey and a gold medal.
The following Sunday he was in action again taking 2nd place in
the Severn Stoke 40 mile hilly road race. He was 7th overall and
just edged out of 1st place for his category by Midlands Champion
Alan Boden (Warwickshire RC)
Tony Briggs
completed the Super Randonneur series of rides organised by
Audax UK. The series consists of completing rides of 200, 300, 400
and 600k in one season. Last weekend he set off with 40 other riders
at 6am on Saturday morning in an attempt to complete the 370 mile
ride within 40 hours. The route took the riders from Saffron Walden
in Essex to Daventry, down through the Cotswolds to a nigh time-control
near Bath. The weather was appalling at this stage, and the riders
were faced with flooded lanes - at one stage having to push the
bikes through knee-deep water. After leaving the control at 2.30am
on Sunday morning, better weather and a tail wind helped the riders
eastwards towards Reading before crossing the Thames and riding
along the Chilterns to Milton Keynes before finally heading east
back to the starting point. Tony completed the ride at 8.00pm -
just after a hail storm hit the group 2 miles from the finish
Another stunning
performance at the weekend from Dave Johnson in the Hounslow
and District '100' based around Thame. Thick fog delayed the start,
and despite the slow course, Dave clinched 3rd place overall and
took first in the Vets category with a time of 3:59:30. Garry
Marshall 4:50:40 and Jeremy Rogers 4:51:23 both did well
on their first attempts at a '100' TT. Winner was Doug Crow (Twickenham/Stairmaster/Evans)
3:50:59
Karl
Freeman won the bunch sprint at the end of the Aylesbury Elite category
120k road race having missed the winning break of 13 riders.The
tough uphill finish into Cublington caught many riders out but Karl
showed his strength as he left the main bunch taking 14th place.
In the supporting 40 mile race covering 4 laps of the same circuit,
both Mike West and Andy Hawes road a strong race to finish in the
main pack.
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