Tuesday Evening Time Trial

The final visit of the year to the “hilly” course on the NFCC Time Trial calendar… Warm weather took its toll on some riders where other put their head down and embraced it.
Find a full report, results and a link to images by CLICKING HERE
 
As always with Club TTs, the events simply couldn’t happen without the help and support of the Members that volunteer their time to help with the organisation and running on the night – contact press@newforestcc.co.uk if you have an hour or two to spare on a Tuesday evening and would like to get involved.

PNECC – Dick Evans Memorial Summer Series

Charlie Hill once again made the trip to Mountbatten Cycling Circuit for round six of the PNECC – Dick Evans Memorial Summer Series on Wednesday Evening. The only rider there from NFCC, it was a battle of will against a few clubs/teams that had larger numbers and used their riders to consistently block and attack throughout the race. Charlie held his own and despite a small group getting away up the road, he held on for 7th place in the final sprint, strengthening his lead in the overall competition for who can gain the most British Cycling points in one season!

Thursday Evening Chain Gang

Back to our traditional Brock – Burley course this week. Either that was a popular decision or due to the lack of Thursday night races this week nine riders assembled on the start.
I’ll take a poll on which course riders prefer or whether to alternate for the rest of the season.
Unfortunately for the slower riders amongst us it looked like the start of a Cat2/3 race with many of the club’s fast riders fired up and ready to go. I felt I was doubling the average age and halving the average speed!
Club Racing Captain Joe led out through Brockenhurst and kept the pace sensible for the first leg to the A35. As usual the second leg to Burley started to increase the pace and riders started to get shelled out the back and formed a second group.
On the third leg the second group stopped on Station Road as there was something orange on the side of the road, we thought it was a Red Squirrel but on closer inspection it was Joe with a puncture. We stopped as he shouldn’t be out in this strong sun for too long and found out the reason he was going so fast was that he had no pump, inner tube, tyre levers in a cunning plan to increase his power to weight. Tools and spares were duly leant, and the repair expertly dealt with and all rode onto the finish.
Excellent night for chain gang and some good pictures on Strava showing the skill and precision of the group as usual.

RCR Fat Creations Goodwood Summer Series Rd.3

Escaping to Goodwood for the final round of the RCR FatCerations Summers Series, Phill Brown managed to get to all three events this season and put on a reasonable show in his red and green jersey each week.
Despite being the only NFCC rider in another strong field of around 50 riders, Phill kept his wits about him and played the field to his advantage, using riders from other teams to do a portion of the work to catch the breakaway that escaped right from the gun. A few laps later, Brown bridged a gap to join another strong group of 12 that managed to get up the road and put all the skills learnt from Barry’s Chain Gang session into practice to help keep the group motivated and stay away from being caught.
With only a few laps to go, the group was becoming fatigued with riders unable to pull through and sitting up rather than working – Along with another rider from Chichester City Riders, Brown escaped off the front of the breakaway group but his fellow escapee couldn’t hold the pace, so they sat up together and waited for the other riders to catch them. After a lap catching his breath, Brown put his head down and got through the final chicane in first place and used the tailwind section on the start/finish straight to attack the group and ride off solo for the whole of the final lap, crossing the line alone in first place with about a 500m lead over three chasers that set off after him.
With a podium in the first race and a win in the final one, Phill ended up second overall in the Race Series.

Omega Portsmouth Circuits

For the second time in a week, Charlie Hill tired to make himself dizzy racing laps of Mountbatten track at the Omega Portsmouth Series races – from his strava activities, it looks like he did a mind blowing 107 laps this week!
A solid bunch races hard on Friday Evening despite the rising temperatures and Charlie held on well to the main pack for the duration of the race. The final lap saw a bunch kick for the line and Charlie fought his way through the field to clinch and excellent second place.
With Charlie’s annual points tally due to hit 39 when the results go live, that leaves him only two points off gaining his Cat2 licence – Chapeau Charlie.

Saturday Club Ride

With the sun set to full and a certain Mr Brown due to be away, there was a great turnout for the Saturday club ride this week of around 20 riders at the start. A safety conscious route made of two smaller loops was created to ensure multiple locations for refilling water bottles should they be required. Leaving Brockenhurst and heading south towards Lymington and East Boldre, the route switched back to Brock for the first refill point before a north westerly loop and a well earned coffee/cake/ice-cream stop at The Potting Shed in Hyde.

Sunday Club Ride

Mr Sunday (Phil Harris) had a real treat in-store for the riders on the Sunday Club Ride – a trip to the seaside on what must have been the sunniest day of the year… Bliss. Heading east from Brockenhurst for a quick lap around the lanes of Bucklers Hard, two groups of riders then enjoyed a second loop to Lepe seafront before heading back at full speed behind Robert “Speed Machine” Nuttall to Setley Ridge for refreshments – the crumble seemed to be a real treat!

Southern XC MTB Series

The New Forest Cycling Club had the most club riders in a mountain bike event in living memory at the final round of the Southern XC series held at Crow, near Ringwood on Sunday 17th July. It was great to see so many club jerseys, and they even got a mention from the commentary box for being a local club. The course was very rooty, dry and dusty, with lots of short sharp climbs and plenty of twisting single-track.
Chris Heron and Vance Russell rode the Sport Men’s race. Vance had the faster start of the two but, by the time they set out for their 4th and final lap, they were riding together, before Chris pulled away to finish a minute and a half ahead of Vance. Chris finished 30th of 37 starters, while Vance finished 31st.
Crossing the line just ahead of them was Mick Anglim, who had ridden 3 laps in the Super Vet category. Mick doesn’t ride many off road events and was pleased to stay on his bike for the whole race. Mick finished 10th of 11 Super Vets.
Graham Sharman rode the Men’s Open race, which was 3 laps. He finished a superb 28th out of 51.
The men raced at 9:30am, with the three categories going off separately with a short interval between. At that time the temperature was building but just about bearable.
In the Women’s race, Catherine Pascoe started later at 12:30pm in the Grand Vet category when the temperature was 28+ degrees. Feeling the pressure of the heat during the practice lap Catherine sensibly decided to ride within herself for the race. However, even this was ‘a big ask’ and Catherine really suffered in the heat, reduced to riding to survive rather than racing flat out. Even so, Catherine was ‘in the red’ for the entire race but finished 3rd of the Grand Vet Women, nearly 4 minutes off the pace of the 2nd place rider who she usually beats.
Excellent results for all involved and great fun to ride at our local course at Crow.

L-Ang-L Audax

As part of his preparation for LEL (London Edinburgh London, 1500km, 1300m ascent in 125hrs) Bill Mayes participated in the LAngL (London Anglesey London, 1000km, 1100m Ascent) and finished in just under the 75hrs cut off. The event was very well organised and friendly. The route included Oxford and Hay-on-Wye with the turnaround at Llanerchymedd before returning via Snowdon, Ludlow, Stow-on-the-Wold and Windsor. The scenery was very much the highlight of the event although Bill found every aspect great. The early part was dominated by concerns about meeting the cut off time but once that was a virtual certainty Bill was able to relax, enjoy the scenery more and indulge in numerous ice cream stops. Yes it was hot.

Bill believes that, given the low average speed required, speed is not the issue on long distance Audax events but understanding your personal kit, sleep and fuel regime is paramount. Bill participated in 200, 400 and 600 Audax events in series to build up his understanding and took the opportunity to talk to a number of participants. His plan is to participate in Paris Brest Paris (1200km, 10000m, 90hrs) in 2023.

Get Involved:

If you find yourself out and about representing NFCC, don’t forget to jot down a few words, snap a few photos and send them over to press@newforestcc.co.uk.