The New Forest Cycling Club

Club lunch at Burley on 09 12 2018

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Geoff Smith

I’ve had the following information from Bob Jolliffe, many of the long term members or older riders will remember Geoff racing as well as being involved in club organisation.

Former long-term New Forest CC secretary Geoff Smith is in Southampton General Hospital with a broken leg after falling from his bike on the A337 at Downton on Friday.

A club life member, Geoff, who is in his late 80s and lives at Everton, turned to go back about a half mile to retrieve his saddlebag which had somehow become detached and fallen into the road.

He got to the bag, turned and stopped safely putting his left foot on the verge. But he had difficulty in unclipping his right foot and fell into the road breaking his right femur, said his grandson Mitchell.

Geoff is expected to undergo an operation to set the bone today, Sunday, November 4.

He is expected to make a full and speedy recovery.

Weekend Round-up 28th Oct – Updated!!

Update from Bob Jolliffe with his weekend activities –

New Forest CC’s 66-year-old Bob Jolliffe had a brilliant social weekend at the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists’ Track Championships at the Derby Arena Velodrome, even if his attempts at racing were lacklustre.

Despite only finishing in one event of two entered, the Group F (age 65 to 70) 500 metre time trial, he felt the journey had been worth the effort.

He took 51.086 seconds to complete the two laps of the track on the Saturday, but failed to finish Sunday’s 2000m individual pursuit after tying up badly at the start of the sixth lap and pulling out.

“This was the start of my attempt to get a gold medal in the 2019 World Transplant Games, which is a home games, being held in Newcastle next August,” said Bob, who had a life-saving kidney transplant in 2009.

“I need to develop more speed and power if I’m going to succeed. In both this year’s British and European games over-60s’ road races it was in the last kilometre that I failed in my bid for gold. Silvers are okay, but I think I’m capable of going one better. The power training should also help me improve my time trial efforts over 5km too.

“I had been training on the turbo since mid September specifically for the LVRC Champs, but against some top opposition in my age group, I obviously have a long way to go.

“My start let me down in both events. I had only one outing on Calshot before the weekend and I’ll admit to being petrified starting out of the saddle straight into the bend. More track time is needed. I’ve got a few training sessions at Calshot in mind for the winter and I really need to get down to Bournemouth next season.”

Socially though, it was fun, Bob stayed in the same hotel as many of the riders including former top UK pro Geoff Wiles, met veteran World Champion Geoff Cook and set up camp at the velodrome in the same pen as a couple of great Scottish riders and Drew McDonald, brother of fellow British Transplant Sport rider Steve, who was located in a nearby pen.

Time Trials

Stewart Ward and Stuart Peckham were in action this weekend, as I believe was Bob Jolliffe, although I haven’t had a result from Bob. Both Stus raced in the Test Valley weekend, quick report from each below:

Stuart Peckham said ‘The weather was cold,with a crosswind on a out and back course didn’t make it feel that bad,24 DNS out of sixty odd riders ,I was satisfied with my time. ‘

Stewart Ward – ‘I rode with Ian Patterson (Team New Forest) who was part of the winning 4man RAAM team from June this year. We were racing as a composite 2up as part of the Glen Longland Test Valley weekend. This was the event rearranged from earlier in the year originally postponed due to Snow. On the new and testing P730, a rolling out and back course starting from the outskirts of Stockbridge. We rode well and finished 2nd overall, only being beaten by John Sibley and Nick Buis (2 further members of the RAAM team) by the narrowest of margins (4 seconds), and ruing the time lost when we caught our 2 min men and lost a bit of time in traffic. Second overall though and first composite made the outing worth braving the cold and windy conditions.’

Cyclo-cross

Catherine Pascoe took second place in the Women’s V50 event at Sparsholt College in the combined women’s event, where she finished 20th out of 26. The weather was cold and dry with some damp off camber technical sections. Antony Green tried his hand at the event and finished 19th from 49 finishers.

January Events

December Events

Weekend Round-up 21st Oct

Time Trials

A number of New Forest Riders entered the (RTTC) CTT National Circuit Championships at Thruxton. Nick Buck was a DNS, but Bob Jolliffe recorded a 5th place in the v65 to 69 category recording 33.18. Antony Green was two seconds off the 50-54 category win, recording 24.40 for a silver medal.

A composite team made up of members of the RAAM team, with Stewart Ward representing NFCC took the bronze medal in the 4 up TTT event.

Cyclo-cross

Ian MacDonald and Catherine Pascoe rode the Sotonia event at Southampton Sports Centre. Ian took 5th place in the V60 category and Catherine took 3rd place in  the women’s V50+.

Weekend Round-up 07th Oct

After a week of no club activity (well nobody sent anything) there was apparently a historic local two day event on, with 5 NFCC riders spotted on the start list. Gerry Read has some photos on the gallery pages, so it must be true! Reports anticipated…

Wessex Cyclocross League round 4 at Standlake Arena, Witney near Oxford.

Report from Catherine:

This was one of those courses that scared me as I rode the practice laps. It was very very technical, with big run ups, steep drops, roots and tight turns in the wooded section and lots of berms and tight turns on the lumpy bumpy grass area, as well as what the organiser described as ‘the whoops’ which wouldn’t have been out of place on a BMX course. I deliberately gridded myself towards the back at the start, scared that I would totally mess up somewhere and fall off in front of better riders if I started further up the pack. In the end I loved the course which, at race pace, flowed really well and was childishly good fun! I was the only woman V50 so stood on the podium by myself. No other NFCC riders took part.

press@newforestcc.co.uk

Glen’s 2 day Time Trail

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Weekend Round-up 23rd Sept

Update from last week – Peter Weaver made another attempt on the 71 year old’s 25 mile record, his previous attempt thwarted by the event being cancelled! He rode the Southdown Velo event in 1.12.38 and claims the age related record.

Further to last week’s cyclo-cross opener, event registration is with Poole Wheelers (the event is a joint event) and hasn’t yet been completed. However the event will be at Crow Hill on 20th January so  add an entry to your calendar.

Basingstoke Cyclo-cross Wessex League round 2

Catherine Pascoe rode a wet and slightly muddy event to finish 36th out of 46 entrants, and 3rd V50 woman. Philip Sparkes also rode, in the V50 men, finishing 35th out of 41 entrants. Well done Philip, hopefully you enjoyed it!

Time Trials

Antony Green rode the E2/30c, and in spite of missing a sign and taking a diversion costing 2 min 02 seconds, recorded 1.03.01. The event was wet and windy, with more of a headwind on the way back, but oddly the event saw some fast times, possibly due to relatively slow moving traffic in the weather conditions.

Remember to send any info to press@newforestcc.co.uk

Weekend Round-up 16th Sept

The Cyclo-cross season has started! More news on the NFCC event will be sent out via BC email in the next week or so once the event has formally been registered with British Cycling. The club is an affiliated member of the Wessex League, so all NFCC riders can take part.

Report from the first round by Catherine Pascoe

The race was held at Newbury Racecourse, using the land within the horse racing circuit. The course was pretty flat and on rough lumpy grassland, making it hard work to ride over. The course designers had used all the various hillocks and hollows to create short banks to ascend/descend and lovely flowing berms. The addition of an unrideable sandpit and two plank hurdles completed the technical parts of the course. 
For the first time in the history of the Wessex League there is now a separate women’s race, and this is also the only league in the country to recognise the need for a separate race for women. In recent years the women have ridden with the V50 men, dealing with being effectively shoved out of the way by often aggressive men. For this inaugural women’s race, 48 women took part, across the junior, senior, V40 and V50 categories. It’s a shame there was no champagne but we did have a big group photo taken after the race! The atmosphere was brilliant as we were all so pleased to finally have the race we wanted. 
I raced my little socks off after a really good start and finished 30th out of 48 riders (all cats) and 2nd V50. I actually got to stand on the podium and won some cash! Photo to follow!
Sadly no other NFCC riders were there. Perhaps next week…. Basingstoke – a very good course for those who are relatively new to ‘cross, so enter via British Cycling and give it a go! Mountain bikes are welcome.

No other race reports this week – remember to send them to press@newforestcc.co.uk.