The New Forest Cycling Club

Help Glenn celebrate 40 years of cycling

By New Forest CC press secretary Bob Jolliffe

DO you fancy trying out your race legs a week before New Forest CC’s club events kick off on Sunday, March 11 with the first of the pair of Forest Circuit Aggregate events based on Holmsley?
If you do, multi-talented veteran all-rounder Glenn Longland has laid on a pair of open 10-mile time trials on the Kings Somborne to Romsey road on Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4 to mark the 40th anniversary of his first race.
Glenn, who started with Crabwood CC and went on to form Antelope Racing Team, has done it all, and well: cyclo-cross, road racing, track racing and time trialling, at which he excelled, taking the 12-hour competition records in 1983, 1986 and 1991 when he became the first rider to beat 300 miles with a day-long tally of 300.08 miles.
He was also National 12-hour Champion in 1978, 1984-6 and 1989; 100-mile champ in 1984 and 50-mile title-holder in 1986 and 1987. He also won the British Best All-Rounder competition in 1986 and again in 1991.
And he can still turn in some cracking times against the watch, even on his hack bike complete with pannier rack.
Glenn is promoting a solo 10 on the P140, which starts at Compton just south of King’s Somborne and turns at the Greatbridge mini-roundabout at Romsey (take care here) starting at 3pm on the Saturday, and on Sunday is staging a two-up team time trial on the same course with the first pair due to set off south at 9.02am.
Roger Bacon will be riding the two-up with yours truly. I guess New Forest CC can make up a few faster pairings, judging by the enthusiasm for training both on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings.
Entries are £8 per rider for both events. Send them to Glenn Longland at 32 Testlands Avenue, Nursling, Southampton SO16 0XG by February 21. New-style Cycling Time Trials entry forms can be downloaded from the CTT website.
New Forest CC’s first club time trial is the traditional pipe-opener on the Holmsley-A35-Burley-Holmsley 10-mile circuit the following Sunday. Event HQ is Goatspen car park and the first rider will be away at 9.31am. The second in the series, over 12.8 miles, will take place seven days later.
See you there.

Club Kit

Contact Roger now to get your kit in time for the racing season.

Current prices and how to order – Click here.

Images of some items of club kit – Click here.

The latest training aid – Mince Pies!

A dozen riders set off for the Christmas Eve edition of the series of Saturday training rides led as always by Barry Wootten.   Around 43 miles for the full ride, with a couple of the riders peeling off early for domestic committments.

After several miles of warm-up there were a couple of worthwhile sessions of ‘through & off’ with  riders working really well as a group as everybody got the hang off it.

Their efforts were rewarded at around 2/3 distance when Julie Wootten turned up with a boot-full of mince pies & mulled wine!

And you could tell it was Christmas because all of the drivers were being patient & courteous – well, apart from the one going down Bolderwood!

It was a great finish to the year’s riding (well, only a few riding days left) and it may be the start of a new date on the club’s calendar, we’ll have to see what happens next year.

Thanks are sent to Barry from everybody that’s taken part during the year, and of course to Julie for the ‘dietary supplements’.

Lack of entries cancels festive 10

By New Forest CC press secretary Bob Jolliffe

LACK of entries for New Forest Cycling Club’s Boxing Day 10 on the Ringwood-Sopley course has led to the event being cancelled.
The number of people signing up to ride the open 10, which features fancy dress and festive prizes, has gradually been dwindling in recent years.
Last Christmas there were 40-or-so entries, but this year the number had nosedived to an unlucky 13, and after serious discussions between former event secretary Roger Bacon, club secretary Peter Weaver and this year’s organiser Maggie Bracher, the sad decision was made to cancel the event.
Further discussions will have to take place at committee level to decide whether to run it again on Boxing Day 2012.

Santa brings home the bacon with another Christmas w(d)inner

By New Forest Cycling Club Press Secretary Bob Jolliffe
BEING a member of New Forest Cycling Club is not all about getting the miles in and powering along eyeballs out. There is also some serious eating to be done, too.
More than 20, of mainly more senior members wearing cracker hats, tucked into some top fare at the annual Christmas lunch at the Old Farmhouse in Burley on what turned out to be a bit of a soggy Sunday afternoon.
Ecologically it was sound meal: unwanted veggies were often passed to neighbouring plates to be devoured by hungry bikies trying hard to top up on their vitamins and banishing waste.
However, with all those sprouts and parsnips, one has to question whether it did a lot of good to the ozone layer.
As well as the traditional turkey and cranberry sauce, there were alternatives in the form of beef and trout; and I believe there was a vegetarian option, though once I caught sight of the word “turkey” on the menu, I looked no farther.
For those with room to spare (or eyes bigger than their bellies,) after the starter and mains there was also traditional Christmas pud with brandy sauce among the sweets on offer.
The vast majority of those there did their cycling in the morning then took the easy option and drove to Burley after taking the wet weather forecast into consideration.
But there was a trio of toughies who opted to pedal: Ann and Pete Hawker who rode their tandem to Lyndhurst before climbing into the car and heading home to Winchester and club president Roger Bacon who forewent a tailwind home by giving away all his parsnips and sprouts.
Thanks for organising the event, again, Roger. (Now we know why he has that beard.)

Top turbo

Barry Wootten, who is going to go on a British Cycling course and become club coach, is already getting some members revved up for next season with his turbo training sessions at the clubroom in Tiptoe Church Hall on Wednesday evenings.
Two have taken place already with seven members attending the first and six the second. The third session is due to take place tomorrow (December 14) with Chris Hughes in charge because Barry is busy.
Idea is to take your own turbo, towel, mat and bike along . . . and be prepared to put in some hard work.
Barry is not one of those coaches who stands on the sideline and shouts. He actually does the exercises as well. At the moment they are based on the pyramid system of building speed and they fit in well with his Saturday morning training rides which are being run off at between 15 and 16mph to build a broad base at the bottom of the pyramid to allow lots of layers to be built up.
Cost is £3 a session to help pay for the hire of the hall. There is room for up to a dozen turbo trainers at a time, so contact Barry at barrywootten@gmail.com or club secretary Peter Weaver at verwooddesign@btinternet.com ( 01202 822001) to book a spot first.
No decision has yet been made whether to stage turbo training on December 21 because of the close proximity to the Christmas festivities.
There will definitely not be a session on December 28, but it will be “all systems go” from January 4.

Events Schedule 2012.

The Event Schedule for 2012 is now on the Events page.

Thanks to Roger for getting it ready so soon.

Wednesday Turbo Training.

The first of a new series of group turbo training sessions has just been completed.

Thanks to everybody that supported it, but special thanks to Barry Wootten for organising it and leading us through the exercises.

8 members took part (we think that 10 is probably the most that the room will cope with) and another 3 interested spectators were there – presumably checking it out for future weeks.

I occasionally use a turbo alone in my garage and I have to say I hate it – but this was different.   Being in a group, being ‘gently’ coaxed along by Barry, and being able to fire questions at him while we trained all helped to turn it into an enjoyable 90 minutes.

Having tested the water we now know that there’s enough support to make this a regular weekly meet that will hopefull carry right through to the the start of the racing season and give us a flying start.

If you want a place at future sessions contact peter@verwooddesign.co.uk or barry.wootten@gmail.com .

New Training Blog.

Barry Wootten has started a training blog that looks as though it will grow into a really useful resource for those that want to develop their fitness ready for the next racing season (which presumably means most of us ?).

It’s already got some general advice on the ideas that the winter training schedule is based on.

There’s a link on the Links page but for the moment you can get to the blog direct here.

Whitewick on form again – this time at the top table

By NFCC Press Secretary Bob Jolliffe

Contact him on 01425 616525 or by email at bob.jolliffe@btinternet.com

NATIONAL 100-mile time trial bronze medallist Steve Whitewick was guest of honour at New Forest Cycling Club’s annual dinner and prize presentation at Lyndhurst.
Utag-Yamaha rider Steve, from Totton, gave an inspirational talk on how he started bike racing 10 years ago after a health scare in his early forties and by dint of hard work reached the high standard which saw him clock a dozen 30mph-plus 19-minute ten milers this year alone.
New Forest CC’s Club Champion this year is John Heffernan who was presented with the Cooke Cup. He also won the Broomfield Bowl for fastest club 25, the Thoresby Cooke Cup for short distance best all-rounder, the Thorney Hill series and is the club’s most improved rider of the season.
Other award winners include: Colin Humm (first in division one of the 10-mile series), Geri Robinson (1st div 2, 10 series), Konnor Bracher-Walsh (1st div 3, 10 series), Terry Jefferies (fastest over 55-yr-old in 10 series), Carolyn Weaver (1st woman, 10 series).
Terry Jefferies also won the Wareham Cup for fastest club 50, the Marsh Shield for club best all-rounder, and the awards for the veterans’ best all-rounder and short distance all-rounder.
Colin Humm took the Keith Mitchell Shield for fastest forest circuit, Morgan Williams was road champion and Martyn Dymond cyclo-cross champion; Dan Mitchell won the Handicap Cup and Tim Barry the Hincheslea Cup for club person of the year for his work on the website.
Totton schoolboy Konnor Bracher-Walsh won the Drayton Cup for junior best all-rounder and the Jonathan Bottomley Cup for fastest junior in a club 25-mile.
Hugo Walters (15), who finished his season on a high note taking fourth in a circuit race in Portsmouth, received a special award for his efforts on the track and in circuit races in addition to collecting the Knightwood Cup for junior champion and the Pope Cup for winning the hill climb.
A total of 73 members and guests enjoyed the celebrations at the Crown Hotel.

Annual Dinner

Our Annual Dinner & Prize Presentation on Saturday 19th November at Crown Hotel, Lyndhurst was a great success.   We celebrated the completion of the club’s competition season and nearly 80 members and friends of the club enjoyed a delicious three course meal.   There are some photos on the Gallery page.

The dinner was followed by a very interesting and motivational speech by our guest Stephen Whitewick.   Stephen is one of the top rider’s nationally and we are delighted that he’s a regular visitor to our events and has set several of our course records – Thank You Stephen!

Club President Roger Bacon provided a speech in return, welcoming the vistors and thanking all those who assisted with running the club and its events over the season, prior to the main business of the evening - the presentation of the trophies & awards by Stephen.

That was followed by the raffle with great prizes donated as usual by club members and friends.   It was boosted this year by some truly excellent prizes, generously donated by the following local companies – Gone Biking Mad (New Milton), UK Cycling Events, Primera Sports (Bournemouth), Dawkins & Lodge Opticians (Hythe), GA Cycles (Shirley) and Forge Cycleworks (Ringwood).

It was a sell-out event and a great evening was had by all – make sure you don’t miss next years….