Mont Ventoux

Maggie and I have had a very good week in Provence on a CTC holiday led by Chris Ellison. A number of people have spoken well of it, and we can certainly endorse their recommendation. The holiday is based at Buis les Baronnies which is in the middle of some very good cycling country - quiet roads, good climbs and good company.

Climbing Mont Ventoux was undoubtedly the highlight of the week - despite its fearsome reputation it's actually not too bad if you take it steadily, though the wind at the top really was something. One of the few places where the weight of a tandem is an advantage.

Stats for the week (all in statute measure - this was a CTC holiday) were 263.88 miles, 21,277.7 ft of ascent and a highest speed of 44.1 mph - faster than we've ever gone on the Holmwood course ...

12hour Riders

ECCA 12hr provisional result

For the first time in the 5 years I have been riding this event we had no rain whatsoever in the 12 hours. In fact we had brilliant sunshine the whole time and a very warm, dry Southerly wind (great for the long barrow that Frank was timing but horrible for us). Various folks out on the day have reported that their cars showed the temp as 28 or 29 degrees.

Despite all that, we managed:

Brian 213
Jake 207
Lisa 155 (with a very long sit down in the shade on the finishing circuit!)

Mike Levett (Lewes Wanderers) who has been riding the evening 10s did 206.

In other news for the weekend, John did 1:1:54 in the North Hants 25 on Saturday and 28:45 in the Richmond Park TT on Sunday where Tony T was DNF.


Frank reports that the Tandem Trike did 272 for 12 hours beating their own record by approx 10 miles, and were still on course late last night to beat the London Edinburgh record (though don't know yet if they managed it) they weren't expected to continue for the 24.


Lisa


Update: 12:15 Monday.
It's not fair, is it? Today would have been much better for the 12 with the wind much less, and more cloud cover giving us more shade and lower temps. The wind direction doesn't matter so much, so today would have been much better conditions. A lot of the field didn't finish the event, which I guess was down to the hot day.

Thanks to Ron, Doreen & Rosemary - chiefly helping Brian - and Simon & Jen helping Jake, for the assistance (especially sponges) to all three of us. And of course thanks to Pete for helping me, I couldn't have done it without him (even if it did take only 4hrs 20mins for me to start swearing at him - I was hungry and hadn't seen him for over an hour!!!)

Finally the report on the Long Barrow is successful attempts at 12hrs (270ish) and London-Edinburgh (19hrs 15 - approx 2 hours off old record) and the 24 abandoned. At 8am this morning Frank was in a bed somewhere......!

RRA London-Edinburgh attempt

Ralph Dadswell and Paul Mace are attempting the London-Edinburgh RRA record tomorrow, and scheduling for the 12 hour and 24 hour records in addition.

Our own Frank Cubis will be timing them for the entire attempt.

The schedule can be found at http://www.dadswell.co.uk and it is hoped that updates on their progress will be available on the Time Trialling Forum at http://www.timetriallingforum.co.uk


Think of Frank when you go to bed tomorrow night, he won't be back to his before Monday night - although at least he doesn't have to do all the driving!

Lisa

SCCU 25 - 6 Sept - IMPORTANT

The organiser listed in the handbook died earlier this year, so if you want to enter the SCCU 25 on September 6th 2009 (closing date 25th August) then you had better send your entries to:

Colin Derrick
43 Aviemore Way
Beckenham
Kent
BR3 3RP

Lisa

Eve 10 #12 - Result

KINGSTON PHOENIX ROAD CLUB
WEDNESDAY 5th August 2009 G10/42
RESULT SHEET

No NAME                TIME      HCP  Hcp/TIME Scr / Hcp AWARD
24 Stuart Pearce       22-35 PB  Scr   22-35     7 / 2  1st Fastest
20 Laurence Wintergold 23-21     0-45
16 John Beer           24-39     2-30  22-09     6 / 2  2nd Fastest
18 Simon Mitchell      24-55     2-30  22-25     5 / 2
8  Richard Addis       25-02 PB
14 Steve Hillier       25-34     3-30  22-04     4 / 2
6  Duncan Folkes       25-40     3-30  22-10     3 / 2
19 Bob Smith           25-56
23 Brian Powney        26-25     4-00  22-25     2 / 2
13 Jake Dodd           26-57     5-30  21-27     7 / 5  3rd Hcp/1st Woman
15 Graham Holder       27-22 PB  5-30  21-52     2 / 3
11 Chrystal Sheldon    27-24     6-00  21-24     6 / 6  2nd Hcp
17 Nick Hostler        27-31 PB  5-00  22-31     2 / 2
2  Tony D’Italia       28-40 PB  8-50  19-50     2 / 7  1st Hcp
9  Mark McNamara       29-54     7-30  22-24     2 / 2
12 Grant Pyke          30-06
10 Andrew Sooboodoo    30-13
7  Amanda Pearce       30-28 PB  7-45  22-43     5 / 2
3  Mike Morley         31-27     9-30  21-57     2 / 2
4  Lisa Colombo        31-50    10-00  21-50     4 / 4

D.N.S. Martin Callagham, Tony Tugwell, Ben Pearce

As can be seen from the 10 tables, last night was about the best night of the year, with everyone who rode doing their fastest evening 10 of the year.


Kingston Wheelers

35  Steve Saunders    21-08
50  Ben Elliott       21-13
31  Phil Ember        22-02
44  Jonathan Lewis    22-54
46  Wes Swaffer       23-20
40  Luke Wallis       23-22
38  Alan Sherman      23-30
49  Dave Ladkin       23-31
26  John Coolahan     23-49
36  Keith Griffin     24-16
42  Chris Gilligan    24-29
45  Colin Gray        24-36
48  James Wasley      24-38
32  Dave Pinch        24-45
39  Danny Clifford    24-55
30  Dom Trevett       25-03
41  Leona Kadir       25-05
33  Simon Parton      25-45
47  Harry Skinner     26-18
27  Rachel Przybylski 26-35
28  Cathy Clifford    26-44
37  Robin Cartwright  27-59

Frank Cubis

Thanks to the Wheelers for putting the signs out.


And a special thanks to Ron & Doreen (and stand-ins Judy & David) for providing the teas all year.
And also to everyone who has provided cakes, biscuits and donuts during the season for our after race snack. (Personally, I really like the jaffa cakes!!!!).
Lisa

Barbecue 15th Aug 6pm

Just a reminder about Phoenix Barbecue Aug 15th. 6pm sat at Jake and Garys.
All members and friends and sat riders invited.
Bring something for cooking or side dish, rice, pasta, salad, rolls, pudding etc, and a bottle. If anyone has a marque bring it just in case!
Jake

Alpine Passes

I've just got back from an enjoyable few days cycling in the Alps with my two sons. Our purposes were rather different - I wanted to cross some passes, revisiting old favourites and adding on a couple of new ones; they wanted high altitude training for a savage triathlon that they're doing in Norway next week. That means big mileages and big climbs. With me, it's one or the other these days, but with a bit of planning we were able to meet everyone's needs. We rode separately, but had lunch together every day, shook hands on some big passes and generally had a very good time.

We chose passes that the Tour de France has been over, either this year or in the last couple. This gives good atmosphere, with the 'Go Wiggo' graffiti on the roads, and real humility when you compare the times of the Tour riders with your own. My passes were Petit St Bernard, Cormet de Roselend, Col des Saisies, Alpe d'Huez, and a double crossing of the Galibier, going Lauteret-Galibier-Telegraphe-Galibier-Lauteret. I've done each side before but the double was a treat.

Here's the team at the top of the Alpe d'Huez. It was a very hot afternoon - about 34 degrees at the bottom, probably more part way up. I attributed my rather pedestrian time to this, until I found that Henry (he's the Bianchi one) had taken more than ten minutes off his personal best. So, just like Lance Armstrong on the podium in Paris last week, you can see that the chap in third place has the wistful look of one who realises that his best times are behind him, and that it's downhill from here.

My ride reports wouldn't be complete without maps, so here are a couple - the Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez. The week's stats are 221.84 km; 6506.9 metres of ascent with a moving average of 13.62 kph. This last of course, is a balance of going up very slowly but down very fast.... Mark

Cycle shoes & pedals

John Barron a friend of mine has a pair of size 8 Specialised shoes & Shimano Ultegra pedals as shown.He offers them at £20 .He can be contacted 0n 'jmgbarron@tesco.net'

Ray

Eve 10 #12 - start

KINGSTON PHOENIX ROAD CLUB
CLUB 10 MILE TIME TRIAL G10/42
WEDNESDAY 5th August 2009
START SHEET

No NAME               HCP   START
1  Martin Callaghan   6-45  19-30-30
2  Tony D’Italia      8-50  19-31
3  Mike Morley        9-30  19-31-30
4  Lisa Colombo      10-00  19-32
5  Tony Tugwell      10-00  19-32-30
6  Duncan Folkes      3-30  19-33
7  Amanda Pearce      7-45  19-33-30
8  Richard Addis            19-34
9  Mark McNamara      7-30  19-34-30
10 Andrew Sooboodoo         19-35
11 Chrystal Sheldon   6-00  19-35-30
12 Graham Walker            19-36
13 Jake Dodd          5-30  19-36-30
14 Steve Hillier      3-30  19-37
15 Graham Holder      5-30  19-37-30
16 John Beer          2-30  19-38
17 Nick Hostler       5-00  19-38-30
18 Simon Mitchell     2-30  19-39
19 Bob Smith                19-39-30
20 Ben Pearce         0-45  19-40
21 Paul Foley               19-40-30
22 Matt Chapman             19-41
23 Brian Powney       4-00  19-41-30
24 Stuart Pearce      Scr   19-42

AWARDS:
1st, 2nd & 3rd Handicap
1st & 2nd Fastest
Fastest Woman

Frank Cubis

RRA attempt

Robecca Romero and James Cracknell have scheduled an RRA attempt on the Lands End to John O'Groats mixed tandem record. Further details can be found on the RRA website: http://www.rra.org.uk/ look under "notices" for the original schedule (PDF format) and an updated one.

They aim to start on Monday 3rd August at 5am from Lands End.

There is a story in the telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/5940583/James-Cracknell-Lands-End-to-John-OGroats-cycle-record-aim-with-Rebecca-Romero.html

Finally there is a Google map of the route, on which we might be able to follow their progress:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112463924814795169379.00046ffd18e57eb8ace45&z=5
As I am just off to race, I haven't checked this last link, but it is also linked to from the Telegraph story (I missed it, but Pete spotted it).

Lisa