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lance armstrong/ cancellara style: high cadence.

Unless you happen to be Nik Bowdler (BBAR 2008/2009) who favours a 77 tooth chainring combined with an 11sprocket and 165mm cranks

This gave him an *average *speed over 50, 100 miles and 12 hours of 27.3 mph!

1. Don't bother to get a special and expensive TT bike to start on - if you don't go fast it will only be an embarassment.
   The majority of TT riders are rarely in contention to win events, so most of the time they are aiming to improve their own times. In this context allowing yourself time to progress to the best equipment should give more scope for p.b.'s and so prolong your interest.
   
2. If possible, do some road racing. This should improve your speed, but more importantly may ward off the staleness and boredom which often come from riding too many time trials.
   
3. Andy W. is right - read the existing TT thread.
   

I now have (on loan) the Marcel Planes BSA light roadster which he acquired in 1913. I’m going to attempt the two 100 mile days on this bike, so last weekend (16th/17th April) I wanted to see if the machine and I were capable of the task. I rode the BSA Saturday and Sunday, and although I didn’t do 200 miles, I think I now know enough to be able to do it.

Saturday:
Weedon (Northants) to London NW10.
About 68 miles.

Weedon is near Northampton and may seem an odd place to start, but my other half had a reason to go there and a lift with her opened up some less familiar roads and gave me a slight tailwind most of the day.

 I came down the A 5 (Watling Street) most of the way – since this runs close to the M1 it is not impossibly busy with traffic. The road is constantly up and down, nothing steep but nowhere is it flat. The BSA currently has a Sturmey  TCW (i.e. 3 speed wide ratio,  back pedalling brake) with 48 x 20 sprockets and 26” wheels giving gears of 46.8,62.4 and 83.2” and this set up suited the conditions quite well since the middle gear was fine on the ascents while the top gear was low enough to be useful on the easy sections. Originally I had intended to do the main rides on fixed, but with the experience of these two days, I’m inclined to leave the machine as it is.
 Although I’ve never been keen on expensive modern bikes, even so I was surprised how rapid and easy my progress was on this ancient machine. The whole journey took five and a half hours – obviously I would have been quicker on a modern bike, but I think I was no more tired on the BSA than I would have been on anything else. I must admit that riding into a headwind or trying to keep up with other riders using modern kit, especially uphill, would have been challenging.

Sunday
NW10-Staines-Marlow-Beaconsfield-NW10.
About 65 miles.

To establish that I can do consecutive days, I thought I’d go on the Hounslow clubrun, which through my own inefficiency I missed at the Staines rendezvous. Perhaps not such a bad thing since the BSA’s braking arrangements do take a long time to get accustomed to.

 So I rode to Marlow alone, met some club mates in the café and continued back home via Beaconsfield. Apart from Winter Hill most of the outward trip was flat and this caused a bit of a gearing problem since top was a bit too high and the middle gear uncomfortably low. However I finished my second day without distress, reasonably confident that I can achieve what I’ve set out to do.

This thread badly needs some pictures. I have some, but they won't load at the moment. I'll try again later.

**The Sporting Fixed Gear 27
**.

The answer is: Yes -the event should go ahead as planned, and I hope to see some of you there.
.

Sadly a decision has been taken to cancel the Hounslow Sporting 27 scheduled for this Saturday (9th April)

With only two entries in advance the club feels it is unreasonable to ask the necessary helpers to turn out for such a small show. If any of you were intending to come and enter on the line, I can only offer my apologies.

I believe April may be the wrong time of year for this event, which was reasonably successful last October. Others felt it would fit in as an early season 'hard riders' event, but this just has not worked in practice. I will ask around later in the Summer and see if there would be support to try again in the Autumn - if the result is positive I will post again.

This was a competition to be won by the rider who completed the greatest number of 100 mile in a day rides during 1911. This was promoted by ‘Cycling’, as the magazine then styled itself, and a gold medal, value £5 (£500 – 1,000 today?) was offered to the winner.

And the winner was…..Marcel Planes, a penniless 21 year old Londoner, who completed 332 centuries on a clapped out roadster which was tied up with string for most of the year.

I think it’s a great story, and mainly for my own satisfaction, but also as a tribute, I intend to attempt to do at least two consecutive 100 mile days riding a bike similar to Planes’ (preferably without the string). I believe the original machine no longer exists, but I am hopeful that I can use Planes’ own BSA which he acquired soon after his heroic year. I’ll aim to do this in the next few weeks – I think I’ll need plenty of daylight.

Most of my knowledge here comes from an excellent article in 'The Boneshaker' written by Roger Bugg. This is published by the Veteran-Cycle Club, a worthy organisation which I recommend to forum users. There is a lot of information available about Marcel, the Competition and how things turned nasty in 1912. If there is a lot of interest I will try to find a way to make it available. Incidentally, I am aware of the Century Road Club thread, and this club is part of the story, but I felt the centenary of the competition went beyond the scope of the original thread.

The back to back rides I think I'd best do on my own. However, if others fancy the idea of a long ride on a basic light roadster then I'm prepared to organise something later in the summer - well that's on the assumption that my experience with the first two days doesn't put me off for ever. I have got one taker already, the writer of the Boneshaker article. Let me know what you think.

Club events aren't really the venue for long distance exploits.

I'm struggling to find events to use as training rides before the 24hr in June. There's the Hounslow & District 100 and that's about it. All the 12hrs and most of the 100s happen after June. Audax on a TT bike is looking like an option but navigation will likely be a massive pain.

Can anyone suggest a good flattish, A road near London?

MDCC tester is right, you have to look at open events to find the longer distances. I suggest you consider the North Hants RC 50 on the Farnham-Alton course on 8th May, which seems an obvious warm up for the Hounslow 100.

I'm sure Hippy knows this already, but for the benefit of others, don't forget open events generally have a closing date 13 days before the race (check the handbook and allow for poor postal service), and they require an entry form (download from the CTT website).
If you are a newcomer to opens don't be put off by all those spaces on the form for distances you have never ridden - just leave them blank, but remember to sign the form at the bottom and send the entry fee.
It's those two things which will be of most interest to the organiser. The reason all the other information is requested is mainly to do with laying out the field, handicapping and what to do if the event is oversubscribed. To deal with these in reverse order:

1. Oversubscription. (i.e. too many entries) This has been rare in recent years, particularly at the longer distances. Apart from the BDCA 100 you can more or less forget this problem at 50 miles and upwards.
   
2. Handicaps. Nothing like as important an issue as it once was. The current open form doesn't give the handicapper enough information so they generally have to rely on guesswork anyway. Handicaps really work best in club events where the riders are known to the handicapper. Again don't worry if your form looks a bit empty.
   3.Laying out the field. This is about seeding - who gets the honour of an '0' or '5' number. If you are a novice the organiser will know where to put you, so again, don't fret about it.
   
   

I've gone to the trouble of explaining this at length because I believe there is currently a problem in that too many potential TTers seem to fail to make the step up from club events to opens. There are a number of possible reasons for this, but the least good one is that it's too difficult to fill in an entry form.

I'll mention just one club event, slightly longer and harder than the norm, the Hounslow fixed gear 27 this Saturday (see above).

So, 2 years on i would still like to do a tt, and am being turned towards the idea of a triathlon as well, problem is that i'm now running for half of my 50 miles commuting per week and that will only increase over the next few weeks, however my new gym as spin bikes which measure power, and i was wondering what might be a half decent amount of power to generate over 20-25 minutes on a bike?

Why not just turn up at an evening 10 and ride? No one will hold it against you if you don't go very fast, in fact most of the big names in British cycling started their careers with unimpressive times in club tt's.

Full list of West London club TTs is finally online
http://freespace.virgin.net/mick.fountain/lwdc/club-tts.htm

This list does not have the details of the 27 (see above) correctly since it gives the distance as 19.2.

The event has been omitted from the West London handbook, but the police notification formalities have been completed and it will take place

Hi

Are you still intending to run this next weekend?

**The Sporting Fixed Gear 27

** What a co-incidence - I had just logged on to put up a post as a reminder about this.

The answer is: Yes -the event should go ahead as planned, and I hope to see some of you there.

Although entry on the line will be possible, it would be best to let me know beforehand that you want to ride so that we can prepare a start sheet. If you give me some idea of your standard/past performances (if any), before Tuesday, I will try to include you in the handicap section. I you want to eol you should try to arrive before 1.30 pm.

I'll just mention that last year some riders geared to about 90", and of those only Illy, who was fastest, wasn't certain that he'd been overgeared.

Course details on Hounslow website. First man off 2 pm.

There are now a few more pictures on London Cycle Sport.

Sorry, the pictures of the winners won't load, so that's all for now.

Wouter Sybrandy still drives his group in the closing stages.

A Grupetto jersey leads the remains of the break.

Illy finished ahead of the bunch.

Here is my report, written for the local papers, LCS and Cycling Weekly ( although I'm not very optimistic about the last one ).

I couldn't quite fit Illy into it without showing obvious bias. However for lfgss I can say I completely agree with BDW above. Illy himself tells me that he and Nic tried to cover every attempt a break in those first two laps, and taking Phil Griffith's comment into account I think we can see why he might have started to wilt a little.

Pictures will follow.

The Hounslow ‘Peter Young Memorial’ Road Race 2011.

Now that the Hounslow event attracts professional teams, there are often attempts by one team to dominate the race, but no one in the past has been masterful as the Motorpoint Pro Cycling Team was last Sunday (20th March).

The break of the day went on the third lap and consisted of five members of the six man Motorpoint squad (Marcin Bialoblocki, Ian Bibby, Tobyn Horton,Johnny McEvoy and Pete Williams). It also included Grant Bayton (Wilier Go Self Drive), Ian Knight (Team Corley Cervelo), Mike Wragg (Python RT), Nic Hutchings (CS Grupetto), Hugh Wilson (Wilier GSD), Gunnar Groenland & Lewis Atkins (both Twenty 3c Orbea) and Yanto Barker (Pendragon Colnago Le Col). These riders took all the top finishing positions.

A second break formed on the prime hill at the end of that third lap. This included the remaining Motorpoint, James Sampson and from Team Corley - Roy Chamberlain, Simon Gaywood, Ashley Cox and Jake Hales, plus the well known local rider Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport) and about ten others. However this group did not work together effectively, with most of the work at the front coming from Team Corley and the lone Sigma Sport man, but even so it managed to get within about 15 seconds of the leaders. At this point the original break became aware that the chasers were closing on them and they upped their game. Their acceleration caused the failure of a desperate effort by the one Motorpoint to bridge the gap alone.

By the closing laps on the finishing circuit the five Motorpoint men had all got away from the break and were divided between the two leaders, Williams and Bialoblocki who were doing a speedy two up just beyond the sight of the other three, Bibby, McEvoy and Horton. At the finish it seemed that Williams and Bialoblocki had agreed to ‘dead heat’ – a reasonable strategy since they had clearly shared the work evenly over the last few miles. However, although Marcin Bialoblocki made a victory salute, it was clear that Pete Williams was first over the line by half a wheel. 

Afterwards Williams generously said that the verdict might have gone to any of his team mates, but that “Once Marcin and I were clear, the others would not chase down their own jersey”.

 Phil Griffiths, the owner of the Motorpoint team and himself a former champion rider, was acting as *directeur sportif *for his team for this race. He said it was difficult to find enough races of an adequate standard for his team in Britain, which meant they often needed to travel to Europe to race. However he complimented the high standard of the opposition in this event and said that his riders had found it harder to get away than they had expected. “It was like a criterium for the first two laps” was his comment.

Here can be seen the current weakness in our bike racing scene as we approach 2012: there’s plenty of enthusiasm, money isn’t a problem and there are some great riders, but there is too much reliance on club volunteers, many of whom are becoming increasingly elderly. The Hounslow race almost came to an end last year through lack of a promoter, and this has been the fate of many other races. Whether more money would help is a moot point, what is certain is that more volunteers and organisers need to be found.

Result:
The two leaders covered the 85 miles in 3 hours 26 minutes. The remains of the break which sprinted for sixth place were 3 minutes 20 seconds behind the winner.

      **Pos.**
     **Rider**
     **Team**
     **Category**
         1.
     Pete Williams
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         2.
     Marcin Bialoblocki
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         3.
     Ian Bibby
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         4.
     Johnny McEvoy
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         5.
     Tobyn Horton
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         6.
     Yanto Barker
     Pendragon-Colnago-Le Col
     E
         7.
     Lewis Atkins
     Twenty3c-Orbea
     E
         8.
     Nic Hutchings
     CS Grupetto
     1
         9.
     Grant Bayton
     Wilier/Go Self Drive.com
     E
         10.
     Mike Wragg
     Python RT
     E
         11.
     Gunnar Groenlund
     Twenty3c-Orbea
     1
         12.
     James Sampson
     Motorpoint Pro Cycling
     E
         13.
     Hugh Wilson
     Wilier/Go Self Drive.com
     1
         14.
     Roy Chamberlain
     Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo
     E
         15.
     Simon Gaywood
     Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo
     E
         16.
     Dale Appleby
     Cycle Premier-Metaltek
     E
         17.
     Ashley Cox
     Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo
     E
         18.
     Jake Hales
     Team Corley Cycles/Cervelo
     1
         19.
     Kristian Downs
     Twenty3c-Orbea
     1
         20.
     Wouter Sybrandy
     Sigma Sport
     E

5.5hours with Quest. In spite of one bloke's double pinch flat we made it out to Chobham in time to watch the end of the Hounslow? race. Saw poor illy deep in the pain cave and I think Nick (also Grupetto) come in 3rd? Good day's cycling.

I'm surprised by 'Hounslow? race'. I thought I'd made it clear it was indeed the Hounslow race, hardly even mentioning its official title 'The Peter Young Memorial RR'.

Nic did go well, but actually finished in eigth place. This might have been taken for third place if the Motorpoint team were ignored - they took the first five places.

The race split with the break of the day going within the first hour. This group contained five out of six members of the Motorpoint team ( I guess the sixth one was left to police the bunch, just in case,like), but it also included Nic, who, judging by the photographic record of the race, was on the front much of the time.

Illy was looking tired towards the end, but he was smart enough and strong enough to get into the second break which at one point looked as if it might catch the leaders. I think the race was perhaps ten miles further(85 miles in total) than he really wanted to go, but, bearing in mind it takes courage and strength to be in any sort of break at this level of racing, it was a much better effort than last year's ride.

A fuller report will follow.

What a difference a year makes!

Last time Illy was hoping to finish in the bunch and now there is a CS Grupetto team with Nic Hutchings as a serious contender for a win.

Nic's results so far this season suggest great form: fifth in the Roy Thame event last week, but more impressively he came second in Perf's Pedal Race last month ahead of Magnus Backstedt and other big names. It may not happen next Sunday, but when a rider is consistently near to the winner, it's generally just a matter of time before he gets in the perfect position and achieves his own victory.

Illy will have his work cut out as a lone domestique up against a field largely organised into powerful pro or semi pro teams. However I know he is confident and I believe his form also is good.

This should be a race worth watching - look at the programme on the Hounslow and District web site (it's under 'open events') to see a map of the course. For those who don't fancy a ride out through the suburbs there's the efficient main line service from Waterloo to Staines or Weybridge.

The race distance is 85 miles. Here is the preview I have written for the local papers:
**
Hounslow & District Wheelers Road Race Preview (2011)**

Next Sunday (20th March) sees the 41st edition of the Hounslow & District Wheelers’ Peter Young Memorial Road Race.

This is one of the biggest sporting events in the Surrey area that anyone can watch for nothing, just by standing at the roadside. The race has again attracted a full complement of eighty competitors (plus reserves), and of these twenty five are elite (professional standard) and a further eighteen are first category licence holders.

With such a good quality field it is hard to predict a winner. Ben Luckwell (Wilier-Go Self Drive), a disappointed man in second place last year, must be a contender, while Marcin Bialoblocki (Motorpoint) has been placed in the Hounslow race in the past, and more significantly was the clear winner of the Jock Wadley race last Sunday. Joshua Gosslin (Guernsey VC) has shown good form this year, as has Nic Hutchings (CS Grupetto) who took the second place in Perf’s Pedal Race last month. Yanto Barker (Pendragon) was runner up in the Hounslow event in 2009. Finally Wouter Sybrandy (Sigma Sport) must be mentioned, both as a rising star and as a second claim member of the promoting club. We wish him good luck on Sunday.

It was thought that last year’s race might be the last, since the hard working organiser, Jeff Marshall, had announced his determination to retire. A number of club members rallied round to offer help and some of the work has been delegated, but there is still a heavy load on Jeff’s shoulders. Everyone who enjoys this race should spare a moment to think about the work that goes into it.

Full details of the riders and the course, which lies between Chertsey and Chobham, can be found on the club website: http//www.hounslowanddistrictwheelers.co.uk

Out with HDW inc Clubman today

http://connect.garmin.com/player/72819093

Chris is hilarious to ride with, on our way back at windsor he was muttering that the pace needed to be dropped a bit, I was flagging so was happy about this. Chris took the lead and we were off again at over 20mph. In the car on the way back he was talking about French band desinee this is a distraction tactic- I think he is a closet Belgian hard man.

Prancer is mistaken about my origins - my lack of skill in French pronounciation does not qualify me as a Belgian.

I may have been doing 20 mph after Windsor (we did have a tail wind), but I'm sure I was going slower than the two previous leaders.

Our route yesterday is one of my favourite TR's. I believe it's good for the ride to have a* denouement* - a point where it becomes clear who is the strongest - after which everyone can relax a bit. On this one it's the second major climb - the one up to Stokenchurch. It's not steep, but there are nearly two miles of it and since we've already done about 45 fairly hilly miles it's usually enough to sort out the real hard men. Although the road here is the main A 40 there are amazingly few cars on this section, presumably because it's so close to the M 40.

 However in these days of super bikes I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't make things a bit more challenging by leaving the B4009 at Chinnor and doing the much harder ascent of Chinnor Hill to Bledlow Ridge. One disadvantage would be that I would be so far off the back I wouldn't see any of the action.

You will note that we did not do the 100 mile ride as advertised. It was decided to postpone this because of the rain but we hope to have another go in two weeks time (our Road Race is next Sunday, so no ride then).

My thanks for these generous comments.

I would just like to make it absolutely clear the I was *not *one of the chattering old blokes who rode past Prancer on a climb.

I don't know who they were - I was almost certainly off the back at the time.

Got hopelessly lost and ended up doing a huge loop and 20 miles in we were only about 3 miles west of Cambridge and had to hit the A roads - not particularly fun.

I never feel fully equipped unless I've got a good map with me.

When I first started going on HDW training runs (see above) I was near the start of a long drawn out comeback - it took me a long time to get back to where I was when I was fourteen. At that time our TR's were pretty ferocious - they were led by Martyn Roach who was then the current national 12 hour champion, and there was no question of waiting for anyone who weakened - it was a case of 'see you Wednesday' (at the clubroom, that is). Martyn, who always rode at the front, would rarely say where he was taking us and would just work on what he called a 'need to know basis' - e.g. 'we're turning left in 100 yards'. The thinking behind this was to stop the faint hearted from turning off and leaving the group before we came to a big climb.

I would usually get dropped miles out into unknown territory and be in such a state that I would not want to be waited for, preferring to crawl home on my own.

And that was why one of my essential bits of kit was a small scale map of the whole of the area north, west and south of Staines to enable me to find the easiest route back.

Don't be put off by reading this from coming out with us - we're a lot mellower nowadays.

Where do your clubruns start from clubman?

Staines Bridge, the Egham side, on the corner of 'The Hythe'. 9.15 Sundays.

It's not essential, but it would be nice to hear beforehand from anyone wishing to come. A p.m. to me would be fine.

Which RR clubman??

The Hounslow 'Peter Young Memorial RR' .

85 miles around two circuits near Chobham, Surrey - I should be able to post the full programme nearer the time. This has been an annual event for many years and is currently run as an Elite,1,2,3 cat race.

Because it comes in late March this race always seems to mark the end of our Sunday training run season.

Staines - Berkhampstead- Staines, via Colnbrook, Gerrard's X, Chalfont St Giles and Chesham, then a loop up to Northchurch, into Berko and back through Chesham.

67 moderately hilly miles, left 9.25, back at Staines 1.45 pm.

Quite a standard ride - I mention it here because our Road Race is on the 20th March, and this means next Sunday's (13th) training ride will probably be the last of the season. We are hoping to have a special 100 mile day - I don't know how well supported this will be, but if any of you would like to come get in touch with me for more details.

Shite. I just suggested an idea, and without the definite nod that as a proposal it would be in from Corny I hadn't put finger to keyboard.

I am in exactly the same position.

Yes, those two. I know I should have put the link in, but my computer skills are somewhat lacking. Sorry.