The night before the club open 10

Wondering what to do on Friday night, 23 April?

For those who would like a quiet night in by the fire I am probably not going to tempt you with this invitation to join me at the Epsom Playhouse. For those who like to get out once in a while to see some fine musicians stay with me on this one. This concert is not an exercise in nostalgia, but a revolt against time, a heart-rendering shout against mediocrity and forgetfulness, faithfully recreating the sights and sounds of Led Zeppelin at their awesome best. From the classics, Stairway to Heaven and Rock and Roll, to the gentle Going to California and the haunting Kashmir, I offer you an opportunity to share a night out watching the official number 1 Led Zeppelin tribute band. Letz Zep may leave you dazed but certainly not confused as to why they are hailed as leaders in their field. Awesome....and bring your ear plugs!

Please leave a comment if you are interested and whether you would like to meet for a Balti before.

The Flying Scotsman and a long ride through America

Tomorrow night, Tuesday 30 March, there's another evening of cycling on BBC1..so make 2 and a half hours of room on your video in readiness for those rest days in your busy training schedules.

The second part of The Man Who Cycled the Americas is on at 10:35pm. Followed at 11:25pm with the film about Graeme Obree and his washing machine...The Flying Scotsman.

Medium Gear 25 - result sheet

KINGSTON PHOENIX ROAD CLUB
MEDIUM GEAR 72 inch
CLUB 25 MILE TIME TRIAL
SUNDAY 28th MARCH 2010
G25/47
RESULT SHEET

                                           Scr/Hcp
No  NAME             TIME    HCP  HCP/T    POINTS   AWARDS
      
12. David French    1-06-05  PTT Weybridge Wlrs
13. Rupert Bole     1-06-53  PTT Kingston Wheelers (Unrestricted)
14. Colin Grey      1-10-18  PTT Norwood Paragon   (Unrestricted)
10. Simon Mitchell  1-10-36  Scr  1-10-36   7 / 3  1st Pl
8.  Richard Addis   1-11-23                 6 / 0
6.  Steve Hillier   1-16-11   6   1-10-11   5 / 4
7.  Jake Dodd       1-19-00  13   1-06-00   4 / 6  2nd Hcp
5.  Mark Gladwyn    1-19-51  14   1-05-51   4 / 7  1st Hcp
2.  Grant Pyke      1-22-43  15   1-07-43   3 / 5
9.  Rachel Watkins  1-25-54  13   1-12-54   3 / 2
4.  Ray Dare        1-27-28  14   1-13-28   2 / 2
11. Joe Bertorelli  1-29-35   5   1-24-35   2 / 2 (Punct)
3.  Mark McNamara   1-33-03  18   1-15-03   2 / 2
1.  Graeme Walker    D.N.S. (Apol)

Joe’s time without the puncture was about a 1-19

Richard decided to ride a medium gear on the morning so was too late to handicap.

Congratulations to Simon, the first Trophy winner of 2010. And the 12th time he has won The Brass Monkey Trophy


Thanks to Ron & Doreen who supplied the tea. On A Morning Not So Cold

Medium Gear Riders

Medium Gear 25 - start sheet

KINGSTON PHOENIX ROAD CLUB
MEDIUM GEAR 72 inch
CLUB 25 MILE TIME TRIAL
SUNDAY 28th MARCH 2010
G25/47
START SHEET

Remember that the clocks go forward overnight!

No  NAME                      HCP   START
1. Graeme Walker  (unrestricted)   08-16
2. Grant Pyke                15       17
3. Mark McNamara             18       18
4. Ray Dare                  14       19
5. Mark Gladwyn              14    08-20
6. Steve Hillier              6       21
7. Jake Dodd                 13       22
8. Richard Addis  (unrestricted)      23
9. Rachel Watkins            13       24
10. Simon Mitchell            Scr   08-25
11. Joe Bertorelli             5       26
12. David French   (Weybridge Wlrs)    27
13. Rupert Bole    (Kingston Wlrs unrestricted) 8:28

Awards:
1st & 2nd Handicap
1st Fastest plus Trophy

MEDIUM GEAR:
72.0 for example 48 X 18.
If the pedal has not accomplished a full circle at 226¼ inches or 18ft 10¼ inches or 5.746 meters the gear is too high

Those who wish, may ride unrestricted if required.


Event Details G25/47

We meet at the usual 10 HQ behind the church in Inholms Lane off Spook Hill off the A24. We proceed to the start normally all together, (sort of). Allow at least 10 minutes to get to the start as it is all up hill.

Start on A24 at Mill Lane, South Holmwood, 1 mile south of 10 start.

Continue south to Clarks Green rbt were TURN, (10 turn) retrace to Beare Green rbt were LEFT into A29 for aprox 8 miles (through Ockley) to bear LEFT onto A281.

The next part is easy to go wrong. There are 3 rbts, keep on A281 /A264 (A281)(A24) towards A24. (Do not go into the trading estate on your left)

To Farthing Hill rbt A24 bear left onto A24 North Bound keep on to finish on A24 at railway bridge near Beare Green village 1 mile before start.

Frank

Attempt at listing the course on Google Maps below:


View G25/47 in a larger map

Link to course map on Google

The Man Who Cycled the Americas

Something to record on the video....

Tuesday 23 March
10:35pm - 11:25pm
BBC1

1/3 - North America

Scottish adventurer Mark Beaumont has already cycled around the world, so last year he decided to try cycling the 13,000 miles from Anchorage in Alaska to the bottom of Argentina. And, as an extra challenge, he decided to start and finish the expedition by climbing to the summit of the highest mountains in North and South America. For most of his journey he has no companions other than his bike and his camera (which he calls Wilson, in what's presumably a nod to the Tom Hanks film Cast Away), while he battles wind, rain, heat, isolation , fatigue and occasional run-ins with grizzly bears. Now, three hours watching a bloke on a bike may sound as much fun as mending a puncture in a thunderstorm, but of course the relentless grind of the road is alleviated by the likeable Beaumont meeting various characters, capturing some stunning landscapes and having little adventures en route.

2011 Dinner - news from the committee

So the current (and probably final) results from the quick poll on the blog are:
21 for the Burford Bridge Hotel in 2011, and 2 against (someone's changed their vote!)
15 had enough to eat, and 7 didn't.
21 wouldn't be put off by a £30 ticket price but 3 would.

Thanks to everyone who voted - I didn't realise so many actually looked at the blog! - and it turns out it isn't quite so easy as I thought to vote twice, which means that multiple votes from the same household were not easy to achieve.

The hall hire charge that the Burford Bridge has quoted is such that we can afford to go there again - this was the concern as they had indicated that we had it at a substantial discount which made all the difference to the affordability for us. On the other hand with mostly weddings as their functions they aren't used to repeat business like us.


Thus the committee decision is to return to the Burford Bridge in 2011. The date should be 19th February 2011 - a wedding is pre-booked for our preferred "last Saturday in February" date, but never mind.

We will attempt to address the issue of not enough to eat for a number of people. (Personally, when the dinner plate was put in front of me my thought was "ah, it's one of those restaurants - snazzy cuisine, not large portions - but the reality was that I had quite enough to eat, and didn't need to eat anymore than I was given.) A number of people who actually had enough to eat said that they would have liked more vegetables: this is also something that we will attempt to address with the venue for next year.

Modifying one story that I was told, I rather liked the notion of calling the nearest pizza delivery place and asking for a pizza to be delivered to table 20 in the Tithe Barn at the Burford Bridge as an answer for not enough food!

Once again we will use the legacy from Cis George to subsidise the meal, but this time the ticket cost will not be less than the individual meal cost - there was one point where we began to panic that because of the subsidy more attendees were going to make for a much bigger loss on the dinner. One of the benefits of the Tithe Barn is all the space and the fact that we are not limited by numbers as has been the case at all the other venues in recent years - I think the capacity is closer to 200 than the 'less than 100' of other venues. I also felt that the large seperate bar area was a great benefit.

However we hope that the ticket price will not have to go as high as £30 although it will be slightly higher than this year's £25.

Someone commented that as a guest of a member they did not feel that they should benefit from Cis' legacy and would have been prepared to pay the "full" price for a ticket. As we do not want to operate a two tier ticket price, my suggestion for anyone who feels this way is that either they send a seperate donation to the club (all donations gratefully received!) when paying for their tickets, or buy lots of extra raffle tickets with the difference. Historically we have always planned all club events on a break-even basis, erring on the side of a small loss, so income from the raffle is a bonus to the accounts.

And talking of the raffle - we have been discussing how we can change things around to sell the raffle tickets earlier and thus hold the raffle earlier so that those who do not want to stay late for the dancing can leave without missing the raffle. And also the issue of selling two lots of similar coloured tickets! One suggestion has been to set up a raffle ticket stall where Kat had her "Himalaya adventure" table this year to allow the raffle tickets to be bought before we sit down and then offer a final chance to buy tickets straight after the meal with the raffle itself close to the prize presentation.

Also, apparently it would now be a lot easier to arrange to go on to 00:30 or 01:00 rather than finishing at midnight - to allow more than just two hours' dancing for the energetic. We are looking into this, and just how much it would cost for the DJ post midnight, etc. Also some of the committee already think that midnight is a late enough night for them, so that one still needs some discussion...

If anyone has any other issues or comments - good or bad - about this year's dinner I would be interested to hear (email me), if we don't know what puts people off, we can't attempt to address it.

Sadly the one thing that we can't do an awful lot about is the price of the drinks, but that does seem to be the major cost - literally - of this as an excellent venue for the Club Dinner.

Lisa

South East Region Road Race/Circuit Race Commissaire Training

British Cycling - South East Region Road Race/Circuit Race Commissaire Training

This course will be held at Handcross Parish Hall, High Street, Handcross, West Sussex RH17 6BJ starting at 09:45 and finishing at 16:00 on April 17, 2010.

British Cycling is now introducing integrated training to work through the various levels of commissairing in road racing. There are now four levels of British Cycling road race commissaire. These are as follows:

Assistant Commissaire; Regional Commissaire; National Commissaire; UCI commissaire.

This training has been written in order to help new officials feel confident helping and managing road races as they happen. As a course provided by British Cycling the new assistant commissaires can feel confident that they will have the skills necessary to help at any region level road race. More experienced officials will be given a chance to familiarise themselves with the most up to date practice and share experiences.

This course is taught in five modules:

Child Protection
The child protection module covers best practice on how to deal with young and vulnerable persons. It also covers how the commissaire can use best practice to deal with real life situations that might present themselves.

Communication
The communication module covers how commissaires will set an example and maintain their authority during a race. The module also covers how different behaviour may unintentionally impact on a race.

Administration
The administration module covers how to check permits licences and the importance of keeping good records before, during and after the race.

Technical
The technical module covers the responsibilities of the commissaire regarding the competitors clothing and equipment, including how to set up and manage a gear check.

The competition module covers three areas. This starts by looking at discipline and sanctions available to commissaires. Then consideration is given to the interpretation of Highways Agency road markings and signs already in place on the road. Finally there is a competition simulation where candidates will need to record and interpret information during the race, decide a result and complete a result card. Candidates are then expected to use this training practically to be able to qualify as a regional commissaire. The minimum period of practical experience is six races.

Commissaire progression
Once a new assistant commissaire has completed the days training there is a structured process of gaining experience with set criteria. These criteria can now be met over a minimum of six races. Even if it takes more than six races, once a person has reached the required criteria they will be able to qualify as a Regional Commissaire.

To become a National Level Commissaire at least two years experience as a Regional Commissaire is required and attendance at the National training course.

National Commissaires become UCI Commissaires if they are nominated to the UCI course by British Cycling.

Please let me know if you wish to attend this course as I will need to organise training material and lunch for you.

RSVP glyn@surreyleague.co.uk

Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who is already a road/circuit commissaire or is thinking of becoming a road/circuit commissaire in the future.


Glyn

Glyn Durrant
British Cycling - South East Region
& Surrey Cycle Racing League
Competition Administrator

glyn@surreyleague.co.uk
07852 167477
Skype: surreyglyn

www.surreyleague.co.uk
www.southeastcycling.co.uk
www.britishcycling.org.uk

Spring Onions

On Sunday 14 March the South Western Road Club organised the Spring Onions Sportive, a distance of a mere 100kms or about 63 miles. Starting at Leatherhead the route headed south via Abinger Common, Walliswood, Ellens Green and on to Wisborough Green near Billingshurst and then north to within 3 miles of Godalming, then through Albury before climbing Coombe Bottom Hill and returning to Leatherhead.

Five riders from the club entered; Bob Townley (DNS?), Stuart and Ben Pearce, myself and John Beer. I didn't see Stuart or Ben, but John passed me riding off from the start with a group of riders as I was arriving at the leisure centre where I signed in and joined the next batch of riders to be set off. By this time it was 14 minutes after John at 09:28, a most acceptable time of the day to do an event. One of the riders in the group was Matt of Pearson Cycles and soon we started to enjoy a chat at the back of the slow group when after a couple of miles a SWRC rider came flying past. Without a moment's hesitation Matt (who was with his father) agreed that they needed to be riding at a quicker pace and off we went after the new leader. This was not a great idea as I soon found that the pace was a bit too quick especially as we still had over 60 miles to go!

I remember arriving at the top of White Down Hill and enjoying a very swift descent. With some trepidation braking hard to make the hairpin at the bottom and hoping that my brake cables didn't snap! After I crossed the A25 I recognised that I was now on the hilly 50 course and making the long ascent up the steady climb to Abinger Common. I was riding on my own at a comfortable but energetic pace. Soon the benefits of riding in a sportive became apparent; a well sign posted route means no stopping to check directions and lots of riders to chase down to keep my interest. As I descended down south of Leith Hill there were several riders fixing their punctures including Matt and his Dad. I knew that they would soon be back on their bikes and riding at a faster pace than me so I set myself the challenge of beating them to the finish. Of course I didn't stop to tell them that the gauntlet had been laid before them and I only had about 50 miles to go. Oh dear!

I soon passed a tall cyclist who I noticed decided to take advantage of my "petit" (well I would like to think so) slipstream. After a mile or so he did the gentlemanly thing and passed me and I took full advantage of his much larger slipstream and soon found that I could stop pedaling and still be dragged along. He told me that he did the same ride last year and wanted to beat 4 hours but he had spent too long at the feeding stop. We agreed to have a go at beating 4 hours....a second challenge. The feed stop arrived; in a field was a man holding a hose to refill our bottles and near him were several boxes of bananas. Here I saw John again briefly and whilst I was eating a banana and filling up, without me noticing he took off on the return leg. I was soon back on my bike with a third challenge...to catch John.

Within a few miles we were climbing again. A long hard drag of a climb ended with me on my own again. Without a murmur I had dropped my tall companion. Rather than stop I set about chasing down John and soon met up with two other riders who without any encouragement were happy to ride at my pace. After several more miles I saw a group in front and soon recognised our distinctive club kit, at the back of the bunch. I rode alongside John and commented how easy it is back here. John agreed and then pointed out that the group had been following the two ladies at the front of the pack for some time and it appeared to be a good arrangement! It was fine for a short while but I had two challenges to achieve so I went to the front and picked up the pace. John followed and we two upped through Albury until Coombe Bottom Hill, at which point my legs started to remind me that this was the longest ride I had done for some months and I had probably done more than they wanted to. John gradually opened a gap as we climbed. The photographer was perched by the side of the road next to the sharp left bend which felt like a 1 in 4. John was now over the brow and I was in danger of losing him. Knowing that John is a cautious descender I set off hard. I caught him before the main road crossed the route and then we two upped again to the finish...although on reflection I don't remember John coming passed to take his turn in these last 3 miles and I do remember trying very hard at times to shake him off!

We finished and we were signed in and at this point I found that I had cycled the course in 3 hours and 57 mins, although the official time makes no allowance for the stop, so I did it in 4:02, at an average speed of 16mph. The fastest rider did it in 3:18, but then they must have been racing! The slowest in over 6 hours, and I guess that they probably weren't///and were perhaps tempted by one of the many pubs. Stuart did 3:44, Ben 3:53 and John 4:16.

It was a hard but very enjoyable route and I will be planning to do it again next year, although perhaps next time I will not do a 25 miles off road ride the day before.

Steve


Edit:
Link to the result from the SWRC website here:
http://www.swrc.org.uk/word_docs/SpringOnion2010Times.xls

It opens/saves an Excel spreadsheet when you click on it.

Stuart and Ben Pearce are listed in the result - though Stuart doesn't have the club name against his. Steve seems to have been lost from the paperwork!!! (the paperwork got mucked up as the brevet card they issued to me was for S Taylor number 305, even though my number was 306).
Lisa

As links don't seem to be clickable in comments - the pics site:
http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/gallery.tlx

.

Antelope 3Up TTT

13th March sat ride

Not too cold today, I was on my new racing bike so the fast ride was very fast this week with Simon keeping the speed up at the front and me tucked in. Simon moaned I wasnt much protection when I was on the front , so I got in to race mode very low position and he moaned louder ! Good to see Brian out today. Looks like we will be going back to Burford Bridge next year as everyone seems keen. They will keep prices low again. Asking around the other clubs I think our dinner is now the most glamorous in Surrey !

Good Friday Meet 2010

FRANCO MARVULLI STARS AT HERNE HILL

Multi World Champion in Scratch and Madison, Six Days track star Franco Marvulli is coming to Good Friday for the first time.
As well as looking to win the prestigious Golden Wheel 20k Scratch the Swiss Champion he is also aiming to take the honours in the British Pacing Association Derny Paced GP.

Tough opposition will come from Endura’s Alex Blain who has had a fantastic ride in the recent Tour of Murcia. The Frenchman is no stranger to the track and is looking forward to riding at Herne Hill.

Mallorcan Toni Tauler, Silver medallist in The Beijing Olympic Madison, returns to stake his claim to the Golden Wheel – he too has unfinished business from last year!


TICKETS

Tickets can be purchased online from the website: www.bristowevents.co.uk/goodfriday.html or can be bought on the day.

The Dinner Polls

Thanks to everyone who has voted in the polls so far. I am amazed to find that there are 20 people looking at the blog on a fairly regular basis. Knowing that people are looking at/using the blog and the website is added incentive to keep things updated.

Contrary to my initial impression, it seems that the polls do not allow you to easily vote more than once, so where there are two members wanting to vote from the same computer and with little PC knowledge they can only submit one vote between them - fear not, we are still interested in your answers and also that of Grant and anyone else who can't get to read this post!!

After a week, there are 18, 19 and 20 answers to the questions - I expected a possible mismatch for the last question against the first two (anyone who didn't go this year would have an opinion on the third question, but not the other two) but I am intrigued as to why there are different numbers of votes for all of them...

Actually I am intrigued as to who the other 18 people are (I know that two of them are Pete & myself!).

Anyway - these will be considered at tonight's committee meeting, although I am not sure that a definite decision to return to the Burford Bridge will be made tonight, but it is possible that a definite decision not to could be made (if they are asking too much for the hall hire to make it work).

Lisa

About the Medium Gear 25

Further to a question that has been asked:

During the year the Club runs a series of 10 and 25 mile events (and nominates a few open events to cover other distances and add extra 25s). Some of these 10s or 25s include special events, like the Medium Gear and Consolation 25s or the 2Up and Championship 10s.

In these special club events it is the special event and the riders adhering to the special conditions (like limited gear for the Medium Gear or riding a 2Up in the 2Up) that attract the club awards - the prizes that are credited to riders for handicap and placings. Any club member wishing to just ride a regular TT at the distance is welcome to do so and (if entered in advance) will be credited with 2 club event points for supporting the club event, but will not necessarily be entered in the handicap competition for the event.

Riders who enter any of the club events late or on the line - subject to there being enough space (we are allowed only a certain number of riders for each event) - will be riding only for a time, but the time will be recognised by the club for all of the other Club Trophies.

So the bottom line is that you can enter the Medium Gear 25 but choose not to ride the limited gear if you wish - just tell Frank.

Do I have to ride "fixed" in the Medium Gear?

No. You can use fixed, single free, or regular gears as long as you keep below the 72" limit.

If I ride gears do I have to stick to the one gear?

No. The 72" is a maximum, you can use lower gears.

Do I have to stop the mech off to prevent me using a higher gear?

No. We trust riders. Stop it off if you don't trust yourself! If you inadvertently change to a higher gear for a couple of pedal revs and immediately change back down you maintain the spirit of the event. If use the higher gear for any length of time we expect a confession at the finish!!!

What does 72" mean?

For a fixed wheel bike this is easy, for a geared bike you must roll the bike backwards so that the rear wheel pushes the pedals round. For one revolution of the pedals, the bike must travel no further than 18' 10 1/4" (which should be 5.8m, but I'm not guaranteeing that!).

Alternatively it is recognised as a chainring of 48 teeth and a rear sprocket of 18 teeth.

As most geared bikes don't come with a 48 chain ring, divide the chainring size by 2.66666667 (2 & 2/3) and round up. So for a 52 tooth chainring the rear sprocket needs to be 19.5, and as you can't get a sprocket with 19.5 teeth the answer is 20. With really light tyres you can get away with a slightly higher calculated gear, so we measure the gear out on the morning.

Do I have to ride on a limited gear?

No.

If you want to ride the Medium Gear Club Event and compete for the club awards - yes.

If you just want to ride a 25 on the same morning as everyone else - no, but tell Frank when you enter.

Can I ride Tandem?

If you want. You'll probably just be riding a 25 rather than the Medium Gear Club Event (we'll talk about it at the committee meeting - if we remember!) but yes you can ride tandem.

I bet this all just confuses things...

Lisa

British Cycling Organiser's Seminar

British Cycling - South East Region Organiser's Seminar

This course will be held at Handcross Parish Hall, High Street, Handcross, West Sussex RH17 6BJ starting at 09:45 and finishing at 16:00 on March 13, 2010.

This course is aimed at both informing new race organisers with regard to running a road/circuit event and keeping existing race organisers up to date with current practice

Road/Circuit event Organiser Training will be supported by qualified tutors, the Regional Road Race Organisers Handbook and a candidate pack.

This course is free to attend, but you will need to be a British Cycling member. Lunch tea/coffee will also be provided free of charge.

This course will be split into the following five modules:

Child and Vulnerable Person Protection.
The child protection training will cover good practice when dealing with young and vulnerable people with the added information on the responsibilities of the race organisers to protect the data that they have accrued.

Communication.
The communication module will deal with using various methods of communication to their best effect. It will also deal with recruiting volunteers, gathering materials and resources necessary to put on a road/circuit event. Candidates will also develop a project timeline keeping track of who they will need to communicate with and when. Consideration will also be given to checks on materials use in races.

Administration.
Administration will deal with budgets, licence checks, record keeping, and the various forms that are used by British Cycling to record events.

Technical.
The technical module will look at conducting and interpreting a generic course risk assessment. Candidates will learn about the differences between generic and specific risks and how to deal with these. They will also try to develop a traffic plan concerning a specific real life road racing circuit to give an idea of the signage and marshalling necessary to run a road race.

Competition.
The competition module will look at the more practical things that an organiser will be involved with when setting up the course. This will include the fitting of radios, placement of signage and equipping race marshals.

Please let me know if you wish to attend this course as I will need to organise training material and lunch for you. RSVP glyn@surreyleague.co.uk

Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who is already a road/circuit event organiser or is thinking of organising a road/circuit event in the future.


Glyn

Glyn Durrant
British Cycling - South East Region
& Surrey Cycle Racing League
Competition Administrator

glyn@surreyleague.co.uk
07852 167477
Skype: surreyglyn

www.surreyleague.co.uk
www.southeastcycling.co.uk
www.britishcycling.org.uk

Club Dinner - again!

Our treasurer has done the sums and the bottom line seems to be a £500 loss on the 2010 Club Dinner. I found the venue to be an excellent one and would be happy to go there again - costs permitting. I have put three polls on the right of the blog --> to get a feel for what others think about the evening and what we do for 2011. The next committee meeting is on Friday (12th) and we will discuss this and almost certainly make a decision to try to go back to the Burford Bridge, or to go somewhere else. Going back to the Burford Bridge, or not, will depend both on the charge for the hall hire for 2011 and what we think members are prepared to pay for the tickets, so I think the final decision on venue for 2011 could well skip to the following meeting in around 6 weeks' time.

As a thought the 1952 dinner cost 12/6, which Pete has checked out as equating to £38 now on a "then and now" price comparison website...

Finally: a vote of thanks to Brian P for all the hard work in both sorting out the dinner and chasing everyone up to come along. From what I have seen, he put in more work for this dinner than has been done by any of our organisers in recent years (and they didn't exactly slouch!).

Lisa

I know that not everyone can see this blog, but it is an easy way to get a quick idea of what a number of members think.

P.S. Click on the yes/no button and then click "vote" for each poll. If you want to see the result without voting (again), click on the "show results" link.

P.P.S I have no way of knowing who has voted (or what you voted), so please only vote the once - it looks to me as if the poll allows you to keep voting ;~) Thanks. And if you have any comments on the polls, please add a comment to this post.

C&M hilly 50 March 6th

Ed and I need your help next Saturday (March 6) from 0900 till as late as you can stay. 70+ (1 CM, 1 MW) riders have signed up so far and if the weather's fine, hopefully there'll be a lot more on the day. Anyone used to handling money (possibly dirty) should apply. As neither of us has a car, drivers are especially welcome as we'd like to use the display thingie and/or Ed's pasting table. If you can pretend you know what's going on or just want to soak up the atmosphere, do come along. I recced the route very slowly last Wednesday, a wet feet jobbie especially where the Tilling Bourne had overflowed into Raikes Lane near A25. Surrey's highway engineers still havent located Longmore, Sheephouse and Hoe Lanes so the spirit of the ride is intact though hidden under several unavoidable pools of water. I've had printed routesheets/maps (B/W) and will produce laminated/coloured versions of same for display on the day. But if you want to make your own contribution (use up those old printer cartridges or whatever), please do so. Let me know if you can help (preferably this weekend as I'm for Stirling and back before Wednesday's dinner). Graham Hill 0208 549 0366

Hilly 50 - Course Report

I rode the Hilly 50 this morning, principally to see what conditions are like, and I am pleased to be able to report that they are pretty good. The roads are mostly dry and clear. There is still some water running off the fields here and there, but it's not much and there is no standing water. In one or two places there is some gravel - but then there usually is. In two places - Hound House Road at the back of Pitch Hill and at the bottom of Raikes Lane - part of the bank has fallen, but each of these is well marked with cones and tape and should cause no problems.

If the weather matches the forecast we should have a good ride.

Mark

Prize Winners

Club Dinner 2010

Well what a great night , only just got over the hangover ! Congratulations to Brian on finding this venue and getting the cost down . He worked hard phoning people up and getting numbers up from 75 last year to 113. An evening to remember. Lots of cross toasting .Lots raffle prizes and loads of dancing to the brilliant new disco , time just wizzed by then it was midnight. People rose to the club colour challenge and lots of colourful ties , waistcoats , sparkly frocks. My best moment was air guitaring with Rachel and Jackie to Rocking all over the world Status Quo. oh and collecting my shiney trophies.
Jake