The new route replaces the old 100k RT and takes us over parts of the old 100-mile RT. It includes the climbs of Streatley Hill and Whitchurch Hill, so make sure you have the right gearing and a good armoury of swear words.

There is a map and GPS file on the website, and there will be some maps available when you sign on. If you can, either print off your own map or download the GPS file. Best of all is to learn the route before you ride it.

There’s a café and toilets at the Hillier Garden Centre in Hermitage, which is the half way point. You’ll pass the garden centre on your left as you come in to the village.

Whilst the hardy Winter Series racers were strutting their stuff at the Hillingdon Ciruit, see report, a number of HWCC club members were taking advantage of Gordon’s foresight in booking the West Wycombe Village Hall for a morning of turbo training. Ably assisted by Margarest on tea and cakes, Gordon ran a tough endurance based session. The (indoor) riders completed a 90 minute training session with the useful diversion of some classic racing videos showing on the projector. With the weather turning warmer this is not likely to be repeated, this year, but it may be a useful club activity if the Siberian weather returns. Keep your eyes on the website and message board for updates. Contact Malcolm Binns if you can’t access the message board.

Sunday 12th February

A mix of Celts, Angles and Vikings descended on Calshot for a 4 hour training session at the tiny indoor velodrome. With such a powerful horde of riders, you’d be expecting some aggressive riding and fast sprints. The riders did not disappoint, with hard sprinting in all the race scenarios and notably James Hunt getting a personal best for the flying lap. Many thanks from all the riders to Alasdair and the excellent coach Keith Wilmott. A top quality session that left us all wanting more. Next sessions, for experienced riders, are on 11th March and 1st April. Contact Alasdair for further details.

4th Cat Racing

The race started at a sedate pace of approx 20mph with the Peloton happy to do a 7 lap warm up before any real action kicked off. Coming up to about lap 10 the pace was increased as a few riders tried the inevitable breakaway escapes, these where all pulled back by a very a warmed up Peloton. Jeff Roberts made several attacks at the front, raising the pace and trying to stretch the peloton, then slipping back into the pack after a few laps of hard effort.

Sat at the front was Stuart Smith and just behind him Tim Osborne – Jeff and Paul Morrissey sat at the back following the wheels. With the “5 laps to go” board showing the pace stepped up again with the Peloton staying together and aiming for a tight bunch sprint.

Peloton with snow on the ground

Smith, Osborne, Roberts and Morrissey where all together coming up the main straight, however eager elbows and some poor bike riding caused Smith to be elbowed off the circuit onto the grass. He showed some superb bike handling skills, and whilst he was out of the sprint he was completely unscathed. Osborne ,Roberts and Morrissey seeing a chance of a good position all kicked (avoiding the crash as per Smith) and all sprinted for the line – Osborne, Morrissey and Roberts in that order – We await the results however all riders seriously enjoyed the race .

The Imperial Winter Series has been a fantastic experience for all riders and all the HWCC riders are planning the rest of the season so it’s really energised their team and racing spirit. The encouragement and motivation supplied by HWCC members and the HWCCRT has been inspirational. Special thanks from the HWCC 4th cats go to Karla Boddy, Adam Britain, Joe Clarke, James Walker and James Norris whose advice and support made the series so enjoyable and exciting.

Expect to see some of these riders move up to 3rd Cat status in the next year

Ask yourself a question – WHY DONT I RACE – just do it .

Other racing

In the other days races at Hillingdon, HWCC were represented by the Race Team. A full report is available on their Blog.

Overall Winter Series E123 podium

Please send Gordon an email or respond on the message board tonight so we have an idea of numbers. If there’s limited interest then the session will be cancelled, and the message board and website will be updated.

If you have a spare turbo then please bring it to the session, as the club only has 2 spares, and they will be issued on a first come first served basis.

4th February, 4th Cat Racing

On a shockingly cold Saturday a bunch of certifiable lunatics gathered at Hillingdon circuit for the penultimate round of the Imperial RT Winter series, amongst them the ever hopeful HWCC riders Stuart Smith, Paul ‘Cipo’ Morrissey, and Tim Osborne.

With the temperature just a couple of degrees above zero, not ideal racing conditions, which is probably why many had stayed away and the usual field of fifty riders was reduced to thirty or so starters.

Gathered in the warmth of the club room, talk was of tactics, temperature and the burning desire for BC points. The team headed out for a ‘warm up’, but in reality it was a severe cool down as they rode round a few times trying, and failing, to get their heart rate and body temperature up. Assembling on the line, some riders looking like polar explorers with balaclavas, hats, buffs, thick gloves and about five layers of clothing. Deciding what to wear is tricky indeed, ask Adam Brittain (see below)!

A mercifully short briefing by the commissaire and they were off. It was immediately obvious that no-one was going to tear this race apart, more a matter of let’s get it over with and get back in the warm. Pace settled at about 22mph average, slowest of the race series, at times it was like being on a fastish club run, but round they went grinding out the laps, not much happening.

The 3rd Cat riders caught the 4th Cat peloton something like half distance, a good indication of the fairly sedate pace, but at least this would avoid a repeat of the sprint finish debacle of round 9 when the 3rds and 4ths got tangled up on the last lap – see race report.

And so it went on, everyone counted down the laps.

The HWCC team had all learned that to have any chance of a top ten finish you needed to be in the top fifteen or so. Tim and the team managed to do this pretty well all race, Tim at the front, Stu alongside and Paul just behind. Were they protecting their designated sprinter? Probably not….

At one point, alarmingly, Tim found myself riding in third place, and in serious danger of having to do some work at the front. You can’t teach that old dog a new trick, so he skived off and slid back a place or two. There had been precious few attacks, but with just over a lap to go, Cipo animated things when he launched himself into a solo break coming off the back straight and past the club room. He soon pulled out a twenty metre lead. Cries went up from the bunch ’Attack, Attack!!’ and the speed shot up and he was swept up into the peloton going up the hill.

Last lap and the inevitable mad dash started, pace went up, and the whole bunch was strung out. Coming into the last bend Tim was somewhere near the front, but none of the team were close enough to the front to be in danger of winning.

The final dash for the line started and for the first time in the series Tim wasn’t overtaken in the last 100 metres, and to his astonishment he actually overtook someone! When asked for his memories of the race Tim reported that “Fifty metres to go, and fighting the strong desire to give up, I thought ‘bollocks’, dug deep and pipped him on the line. Not good enough for points though, 11th place. Grrrrrr!!!!!” Clearly Tim has something to aim for next week, with BC points on offer for the first 10 riders. He didn’t reminding that this is his second 11th placing this series.

Stuart came in a few bike lengths back in 17th, and Cipo, having paid the price for his heroic attack came in 26th.

Weather permitting, they’ll all be back again for more next week. Crazily addictive this Hillingdon racing lark!

Other racing

Steve Golla and Geoff Powell raced in the supporting E123 race (shurely some mistake – Ed) with Steve finishing in 4th, firmly cementing his 2nd position in the series long league table. James Walker raced in the 3rd Cat. A full report is on the HWCC Blog, and also linked from the HWCC RT Race Calendar.

Geoff racing hard

Adam Brittain raced at Hog Hill, and struggled with the adverse weather conditions. A report is on the RT Blog.

Saturday’s  Round 10 of the 4^th Cat  Imperial RT winter Series at Hillingdon ended in disappointment and frustration for most  of the riders. After 50 minutes of fast and furious riding the 4^th Cat riders caught the 3^rd Cat race with 300 metres to go, which rather ruined the sprint finish to the line.

Fifty riders on the start line, five Wycombe riders had entered, Paul Morrissey, Tim Osborne, Stuart Smith, Creighton Varney and Andy Colsell. The race distance being of 40 minutes and 5 laps, it started very fast and only Stu and Andy looked comfortable in the opening stages, holding their places near the front.

Creighton admitted he wasn’t feeling well and made the sensible decision to drop out after 5 laps or so, bitterly disappointed not able to better his fabulous 6^th place of his previous race.

Tim and Paul, starting at the front, soon managed to work their way to the back of the bunch hanging on by the skin of their teeth.  Tim was certain that he would be dropped, and was on the point of quitting too, but hung on.

Tim racing in the Winter Series

Unfortunately Paul had a mechanical problem and took a lap out but rejoined and sat in the bunch for the remainder of the race.

Feeling more comfortable as the laps counted down, Tim spent most of the time sitting on Andy’s wheel, Andy looking very comfortable and steady, with Stu somewhere alongside, all three at the sharp end and hopeful of scoring some points.

So bell rang, last lap, immediately it speeds up, furious pace down the back straight some riders not able to keep up, gaps appearing, Tim got boxed in by a slowing rider, so had to work extra hard to regain his place, Andy and Stu still looking comfortable, down the main straight, past the club room, last corner, start to climb the hill, sprinters getting ready, all hell about to break loose, and then  ………………………………………………………………………..
there’s bl###y 3^rd Cat riders all over the place in front.  Arghhhh!!!!!!

Some brave (or foolish) riders tried to ride through the 3rds, but most of the bunch just sat up and rolled up to the finish line assuming (wrongly) that no points would be awarded. Disappointing for Andy as I’m sure he would have been a top 10 finisher. Oh well, there’s always next week!

Rather meaningless official result – Andy 14^th, Stu 29^th, Tim 30^th, Paul 48^th.

Average speed 24mph - courtesy of Stuart.

Other racing

See the HWCC RT blog for details of other racing last weekend.

Steve Golla, Geoff Powell and James Walker were in action at the Imperial Winter Series whilst Adam Brittain raced in the East London Velo Winter Series round 3 at Hog Hill. Race reports are being posted on the News page, and also linked from the Race Calendar.

Turbo training in West Wycombe

We had a bumper crowd last night at the Turbo Training session. Twenty five club members, and guests, braved the wintry conditions to get to West Wycombe Village Hall last night. This was the second in the ten week series, lead by club coach Dr Gordon Wright. More details available here.

All the club’s training sessions are proving a great success, with large numbers attending the, established year-round, core fitness session and a chain gang session also running. All these club training activities are on Wednesday night, centred in West Wycombe.

Be there early if you want to grab some space in the turbo or core training sessions!

The race conditions meant anyone moving out of the shelter of the peloton would have to chase hard to get back on. Even with these windy conditions the race averaged 25mph, so there was definitely safety in numbers. The conditions kept the bunch together throughtout, with only limited opportunity for a break-away, no one feeling foolish enough for a suicidal charge. Stuart managed to stay pretty close to the front for the majority of the race with only a few minor incidents involving wheels and riders touching. Fortunately there were no accidents this week, and with 5 laps to go Stuart was in the top ten, Cipo and Jeff safely tucked in but towards the back of the bunch. In the final sprint Stuart managed a very creditable 16th place with Cipo and Jeff coming in with the bunch but neither placing in the top 30. A superb, measured, ride from Stuart and next week will see a much bigger HWCC field in the 4th cats (at the time of writing there are 5 confirmed entrants) so fingers crossed for some better results.

Further details of the other Winter Series races have been posted to the HWCC Race Team Blog. In the Cat 3 race, James Walker placed 8th and Joe Clark 24th. Steve Golla placed 4th in the E123, with Geoff Powell 30th. Jamie Pine (London Dynamo) won, confirming his place at the top of the E123 Series leaderboard with Golla in second and Adam Brittain (though absent at a training camp) holding onto eighth place.

Course details:

2012 Fees
Club Members £3.50 which includes £ 2 Cycling Time Trials Rider Levy
(Note: Levy doubled for 2012)

In the 4th Cat race, Stuart Smith and Creighton Varney lined up with high hopes of points (top 10) following their top 20 finishes in the previous races; Tim Osborne was keen to put last week’s DNF behind him with a strong showing, and Paul Morrissey was hoping for a decent story to tell back at the club house. Four strong riders all with something to aim for.

In the 4th Cat racing this season there have not been very few (if any) successful breakaways, so all the riders knew that the key to a strong finish was their positioning in the final laps. As always the safest place in the bunch is at the front or back, so with about 15 minutes to go when two lead riders fell at the tight hairpin our riders were able to safely negotiate the accident. Both riders were safely on their feet in a moment, but the bunch had sped on. This minor accident meant that leading into the final few laps the bunch was together, and any advantage our riders had at the front was nullified.

Coming into the final lap Varney was the best placed, right at the front, clearly with a top 10 finish and his first points foremost in his mind. Just behind our lead rider, unfortunately, with about 300m to go a rider veered across the track, causing two riders to collide. This put a front wheel into a rear mech, causing about six riders to fall. Varney’s sprint for the finish is improving week on week, and his 6th place finish was well deserved. Osborne was caught up in the tumult, but his keen bike handling skills allowed him to dodge a sliding rider. His push for the line resulted in a fantastic 11th – a personal best placing.

Smith and Morrissey were held up behind the last lap tumble, and they both safely rolled in for 27th and 31st respectively. All the HWCC riders hope that those who fell have a speedy recovery, and look forward to seeing all series riders back on the track racing next week.

In the other day’s races Steve Golla continues to show the youngsters how it’s done with a 4th place in the E123, James Walker, James Norris and Geoff Powell finished mid-pack in the same race and Joe Clarke placed well in the Cat 3 race.

Chapeau to all the riders – HWCC is having a great start to the racing season!