Sporting 10 Saturday 29th March
It was a record turn out for the Phoenix yesterday for an Open event, with 14 riders on the start sheet and to help things along the sun decided to make an appearance. After last week's grim conditions yesterday was much more tt friendly although there was still a healthy wind at times which made bike handling interesting. It was a great sight to see so many Phoenix cycle tops around and a hearty thank you to everyone that entered this event. There is no doubt that we are in the driving seat for the Rawson Trophy now, and it is up to us to keep our noses in front for the rest of the season. A particular well done to all those members who have competed in their first Open event and helped us to achieve a great team result.
Opinions on the course varied. It was not as hilly as last week's 21 but there were a lot of turns which required care and some very bumpy sections. The dash along Staine Street which I thought would allow some time to be made up was pretty tough, being a steady rise along its length and a tricky crosswind to contend with.
An early contender for this year's Adversity Trophy has to be Rick Opie. Suffering two punctures before even starting which left him having to find another start slot, only to then puncture again at 8 miles and have to top up the inner tube over the last two miles. The fact that Rick was still smiling at the end and hadn't thrown his bike into the nearest skip was quite remarkable. Well done Rick.
It was interesting at the pointy end for the Phoenix. Russell Williams achieved a low 26 to pip Simon Trehearn for the scratch win by 9 seconds. Russell has been training on his Wattbike and commuting over the winter and this has obviously paid off and hopefully we'll see more of Russell over the season. There were also age group wins for both Mike Morley and Grant. Well done gents. Steve Hillier and Brian Powney had solid rides with Brian just pipping Gavin Hughes, in his first Open event by a few seconds.
It was so encouraging to see more of our ladies out riding with Jake, a stalwart for the Phoenix at tt events, being joined by Helene, Angie and Deborah and hopefully we can build on this over the coming season.
Sporting 25 Sunday 30th March
Another lovely morning with no wind for a change. The major issue for this event was the two sets of road works; the A29 contraflow which is still in position from the Medium Gear 3 weeks ago and a new set on the A24 which appeared overnight, meaning that on this two lap course riders would encounter these four times! At least it gave us a chance to have a breather. Four Phoenix riders took the start and it was back to normal as far as club results go with Simon Trehearn taking the club win and myself in second 1 minute 17 seconds back, but I did get caught by the traffic lights for 1 minute 18 seconds. ;-) Jake Dodd took the handicap win with Brian Powney and Mike Morley earning another two valuable Rawson points. This course was considerably flatter and faster than last week's Sporting 21 and there were some decidedly quick times at the sharp end.
This weekend has been great for our Rawson Trophy campaign. If we can get 10 riders out for the next 25 then I think that would be a pretty unassailable lead. Come on, lets do it. We can all ride 25 miles so let's get our club colours on and smash it.
