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U
AG
Volume 16 No 02
LE
The official newsletter of the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists
G C Y CLI S
E OF V
E
RAN RAC
IN
Veteran Leaguer
TE
TS
The
Spring 2007
Inside
Editorial
Announcements & amendments
From the Chair: Don Parry
Obiturary: Felix Levitan
Point of View: Tom McCall
2
3
4
4
5
Why not dope? Gordon Daniels
5
Regional News
6
More news & comment
8
Don Parry profile: Jim Golden
9
Highway Code changes for cyclists
9
Essential Fats
10
Circuit of the Windmill
11
International News
11
Stallard event and points position
12
Results March – June
13 & 18
Pictures
14 & 15
Tour of the Abberleys 2007
16 & 17
Training for Speed: John Bettinson
19
How veterans made it: Dave Orford
20
Trust me – I’m a doctor: Ray Minovi
21
Caption competition
22
Letters
24
Reviews
25
Coaching Page:
28
AG
TS
LE
Executive Committee
Chairman
Don Parry, Castle Farm Cottage, 32 North Street,
Rothersthorpe, Northampton NN7 3JB Tel 01604
831969 [email protected]
C YC L
IS
U E O F VE
R A N RA C
G
IN
The Veteran Leaguer is the
official Newsletter of the
League of Veteran Racing
Cyclists
TE
Newsletter Editor
Ray Minovi,
45 Augusta Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AE
Tel/fax: 0121-449-1347
email: [email protected]
A victim of its own success
T
HE FIRST STALLARD SERIES events this season caused a good deal of heart
ache, especially the Claverdon Road Race. The race was heavily oversub
scribed, some riders left it very late to enter, and organiser Colin Dooley
had to return 50 entries. Clearly there may be a problem and it may recur.
Secretary
There are several reasons why entries were so numerous, but the main factor
Peter Wilson 52 Knoll Drive, Southgate,
is that a lot more people want to ride and to compete in the season-long event
London, N14 5NE.
0208-368-0698
– it’s the victim of its own success; second, there are always more entries early in
[email protected]
the season, when everyone’s dead keen to get started; and third, on this occaTreasurer
sion the loss of Eastway may be causing riders from the south-east to look
Ian Booth, 1 Arden Leys, Aspley Heath Lane,
further afield.
Tanworth-in-Arden, West Midlands. B94 5HU. Tel
What can be done? Suggestions so far include a three-week closing date, se01564 742002. email [email protected]
lection on points or based on last season’s positions in the overall table; automatic entry for national champions or even medallists; a vertical grid based on
Registrar
ability (identified by points or placings, etc) to run across the present age-related
Colin Dooley, 62 Gillhurst Road, Harborne,
system, which would eliminate ‘slower’ riders from over-subscribed events; runBirminghamB17 8PB
0121-427-2149
ning the first two races concurrently and a third (or a third and fourth) after
Stock Controller
they’ve finished. Most of these run counter to the fundamental principles on
Jean Flear, 14a Water Lane, North Hykeham,
which the LVRC is based and show a worrying tend ency to bring us closer to
Lincs LN6 9QT
01522-687738
BC’s way of doing things.
Events Co-ordinator
In any case, by April it was already too late to do anything for this season;
Barrie Mitchell, Holly Cottage, 15 High Street,
now’s the time to work at getting something in place for 2008. Any ideas? And
Marton, Nr Rugby, Warwickshire CV23 9RR
remember, any additional measures you suggest will mean that somebody has to
01926-632948
carry them out, do any extra paperwork and telephoning. Also worth taking into
account in any future discussion: at the sixth event in the Series, the Velocity
Newsletter Editor & Coaching Secretary
Deck Exercise RR at Rowlands Castle in Hampshire, only four weeks after the
Ray Minovi, 45 Augusta Road, Moseley,
Claverdon race, not a single B Category rider finished.
Birmingham B13 8AE Tel/fax: 0121-449-1347
[email protected]
Results Co-ordinator
Tom McCall, 1 Norfolk Road, Thornton Heath,
London CR7 8ND 0208-7680081
2006 Criterium Champions
Co-opted non-executive members
A
1. Colin Roshier
2. Simon Wright
3. Matt Seaton
One representative from each region
Advertising manager: Jim Golden, Foxglove
Cottage, 18 The Village, Keele, Staffs
01782-624631 [email protected]
Social Secretary: Mick Ives, 02476-304009
[email protected]
ICF Representative UK: Peter Ryalls 01246413515 [email protected]
ICF Representative Belgium: Graham Webb
[email protected]
Webmaster:
Jim Golden: [email protected]
LVRC Website: www.lvrc.org.uk
You can see The Veteran Leaguer
on the website in full colour
Page 2
For reasons which aren’t clear, the Criterium medallists in the 2007
Handbook are incorrect. Here’s what should have been printed.
B
1. Martin Hulbert
2. Mick Gray
3. Dominic Gabellini
C
1. Clive Burr
2. Andrew Donaldson
3. Malcolm Whitehead
D
1. Tom Wilson
2. Terry Devine
3. Ed Demery
E
1. Dave Gretton
2. Colin Summerfield
3. Roger Hornsby
F
1. Mick Ives
2. Tony Woodcock
3. Ken Haddon
G
1. Arnie Russell
2. John Dowling
3. Brian Bliss
H
1. Trevor Fenwick
2. Roy Godbeer
Cover Pictures
Phil Axe crossing the line in the prologue at the Tour of the Abberleys. He made
second-fastest time, being beaten by Roger Iddles, but won by over five minutes
after an attacking performance throughout. Photo: Ray Minovi
Small picture: See, I knew it were George Formby, because he was all big teeth,
twanging away on his banjo at the top of the banking, and as he came past he said
‘Turned out nice again, in’t it?’ Fred Lee & Dave Watson at Manchester. Photo:
The Veteran Leaguer: Spring 2007
Announcements, additions, amendments
Newbury: new organiser
Region 10’s Newbury Road Race 22nd July
has a new organiser: Donal Linehan,95
Greenham Road,Stroud Green, Newbury
RG14 7JE Tel: 01635 33269
Change of date 1
Region 10’s Beaulieu Road Race moves
from 16th September to 23rd September.
All other details as in Handbook.
Change of date 2
Region 5’s East Coast Road Race moves
from 30th September to 12th August. All
other details as in Handbook.
Change of organiser
Bayeux Landscapes Road Race on 29th
July. The organiser is no longer Mar tin
Markowski, as in Handbook. Organiser is
now: Roger Hornsby, Olney, Sandy Lane,
St Pauls Cray, Kent BR5 3HY. Tel: 0208302-4635
AB Championship details
19th August: the Championships will be in
the afternoon, A Cats starting at 1 p.m., B
Cats at 1.10. Distances will be 63 miles (not
as in Handbook). Supporting races, C/D and
EFG, start at 10 a.m. Headquarters is the Village Hall in Husbands Bosworth. All other
details as Handbook.
Region 2 Registrar
Handbook correction: Region 2 Registrar
is Fred Lee, 15, Grangefield Ave, Burley
in Wharfedale, Ilkley LS29 7HA Tel
01943864360 (not Alistair Cameron).
Lilley not Wakefield
Photo on page 12 of our last issue showed
Keith Lilley, C Category National Champion, then with MI Racing, receiving his
trophy from Bill Holmes, and not Steve
Wakefield. We understand that neither rider
was happy at being mistaken for the other.
Apologies to all concerned – we were
misinformed.
Pete’s email address
Peter Wilson’s e-mail address is wrongly
shown in the Handbook. The correct address
is: [email protected]
LVRC Website
The refurbished dynamic
website has been up and
running for some time now.
There will be a demand for the
Veteran Leaguer for years yet,
but it’s a quarterly, whereas the
website can be updated
instantly with current news,
results, changes of date.
Whatever you’ve got, Jim
Golden wants it. Contact him on
01782-624631 or
[email protected]
Stock controller wanted
Jean Flear will be stepping down at this
year’s AGM. We need a replacement stock
controller to look after a small stock of
championship jerseys & badges, and
occasionally to re-order stock. GSOH and
medium-sized cupboard an advantage.
Anyone willing contact Peter Wilson on
0208-368-0698, or email at
[email protected]
Missing
Mislaid at Severn Stoke Road Race: one Tshirt, ‘Olympic Games, Los Angeles 1984’.
Not vgc, but sentimental attachment. Finder
please contact Andy Eagers, 01332773718
To all contributors
The Veteran Leaguer welcomes all
contributions from anyone – letters,
comments, results, articles, reports,
pictures, anything as long as it’s not
just personal abuse – we can all get
plenty of that at home.
Our favourite way of getting material is by e-mail, but we’d much
rather have it handwritten than not
at all. If you can type it or supply it
on disk we’re even happier. Word,
.rtf, or ASCII are all fine.
If supplying pictures, please leave
them separate from the docu–
ment(s). Preferably, photos should be
in jpeg format.
Deadline for next issue:
2007
Postage: read this
This issue of the Veteran Leaguer is 28
pages.
If you send it out in a lightweight C4
envelope, with no extra enclosures at all, it
is exactly 100gms and you might be able to
send it for 37 pence second class ‘large
letter’, depending on your local post
office’s scales. A heavier envelope and a
single sheet of A4 copy paper will
definitely take you over 100gm, at which
point you move into the next price bracket,
which is 55p.
We therefore advise regional distributors to:
take a sample to your local post office
and get it weighed to be absolutely
sure.
keep local enclosures to a single sheet
use lightweight envelopes (they’re
cheaper anyway)
AGM
2007
is on 24th November 2007, at
Meeting begins 2.30 pm at
Napton Victory Club, Napton,
Warwickshire, near the Village
Hall. There will be an
organised ride in the morning.
See page 11 for details
Objective of the LVRC
The provision of a programme of
competitive and social cycling
events for male and female members
of 40 years of age and over
LVRC Shop
Cloth badges
Metal badges
£2.00
£3.00
Jean Flear, 14A Water Lane,
North Hykeham, Lincoln LN6
9QST
Tel: 01522-687738
Cheques payable to LVRC, please
Page 3
From the Chair
I
Don Parry
THINK WE should all loudly applaud
British Cycling and their team of com
petitors and support staff who have
achieved so much at the recent World
Track Championships. What a magnificent achievement. Eleven medals in total, seven of which were gold. One has
to pinch oneself just to remember where
we were just four to five years ago. I am
sure we all felt proud watching their performances on television. I certainly did.
The benefits to the whole cycling community are enormous and we in the LVRC
should be able to benefit from this raised
profile as much as any other area. Examples that immediately come to mind are
the potential of more races, increasing
membership in all disciplines, including
us and just a general raising of interest,
awareness and dare I even say it – goodwill.
We also seem to have found world class
racing cyclists who are attractive to and
comfortable with the media which might
just mean a step change in general media coverage of our sport in time. The
World Championship successes made it
on to the BBC 6 O’clock news on Monday 2nd April. When did that last happen?
With success, increased media attention and a generally higher profile also
comes responsibility. We are in the LVRC
are ideally positioned to be great ambas-
Obituary
Felix Lévitan
FELIX LÉVITAN, WHO has died aged 95, be-
gan his working life running errands at a
Paris cycling magazine and rose to become an organiser of the Tour de France
for 40 years. He laid the foundations for
the event’s rapid growth in the late 1980s
and invented two major parts of the
Tour’s make-up today.
Lévitan was born into a family of Jewish shoemakers in Paris’s 15th arrond–
issement. His brother was an amateur
cycle racer, and together they tried to
hang on to the best professionals of the
day as they trained in the Bois de
Boulogne or the Longchamp racetrack.
At 16, he began working as a telephonist on Le Pédale magazine.
His first published piece was entitled
‘Vouloir, c’est pouvoir’ which he described as his personal credo. Subsequently Lévitan worked for the newspapers L’Intransigeant, first thing in the
morning, and in the evening, its rival
L’Auto.
Though ‘appallingly irreligious’ (he
said), Lévitan was rounded up during the
Nazi occupation and probably only escaped an extermination camp because
his wife Geneviève managed to arrange
his transfer to Dijon.
When the Paris press was restructured
after the liberation (L’Auto, the Tour’s
sponsor, was closed), he was appointed
head of sport at the Parisien Libéré newspaper; and when a joint team was appointed by the Parisien and its sister
newspaper L’Équipe to run the first postPage 4
war Tour in 1947, Lévitan found his true
vocation. While L’Équipe’s head Jacques
Goddet concentrated on the sporting
side, Lévitan made the race pay. He
turned it into a commercial enterprise in
its own right by expanding the advertising caravan vehicles and making stage
towns pay heavily for the privilege of
hosting starts and finishes. The race’s prologue time trial was instigated in 1967 as
a way of getting more cash out of the
town hosting the ‘Grand Départ’. Most
importantly, he understood the significance of selling television rights, which
are now what pays the race’s way.
Small and dapper, with a frosty smile,
Lévitan was formally appointed joint organiser in 1962, and he copied the dictatorial style of his and Goddet’s predecessor, Henri Desgrange, overriding
commissaires and making his own rules.
In 1975 Lévitan devised the ambitious
plan of running the closing stage through
the heart of Paris, with the finish on the
Champs. President Giscard d’Estaing welcomed the idea and attended the finish,
but his police chief restricted the race to
a loop up and down the great boulevard.
The circuit is now the most distinctive
feature of the whole event. Lévitan also
introduced the ‘maillot a pois rouges’,
the so-called polka-dot jersey worn by
the leader in the GP de la Montagne.
Lévitan did not stop there. He initiated
the shortlived Tour Féminin, and was the
driving force behind the arrival of Colombian cyclists in the event in 1983. His
sadors for our sport. Our membership
includes highly talented people with great
experience of life and business which
should enable us to talk about competitive cycling positively with enthusiasm
and authority. Let’s make the most of it.
dream was to export the Tour to America,
with the race starting in New York and
then returning to France.
His vision of cycling as a world sport
was eventually realised, but his attempt
to run a Tour of the Americas, resulted in
his sacking in 1987, allegedly for mishandling funds, though he was later cleared.
The recipient of three grades of the légion
d’honneur, he returned to the race in
1998, but he and his event were never
truly reconciled.
His wife predeceased him.
Felix Lévitan, cycle race organiser,
born 12 October 1911; died 17 February 2007
Point of View
OPERATION PUERTO
RUMBLES on, but since
the sensational apparent disclosures and
naming of names just before the start of
last year’s Tour de France, there’s been no
positive follow-up. We’ve seen the Liberty
Seguros team disbanded, denying
Alexandre Vinokourov a ride in the Tour.
Two other potential winners, Jan Ullrich
and Ivan Basso, were denied a start by
teams who were running scared. We’ve
seen other riders affected and unable to
secure places in teams because they too
are apparently linked to Operation Puerto.
Discovery were criticised for taking on
Basso, and Ullrich’s career is effectively
over. Others not so lucky have disappeared
– no trace of Mancebo, for instance.
Now, I am a very simple soul. I feel that
anyone using banned substances should be
excluded from the sport. If there is an undisputed positive test, backed up by proof,
or a positive B-test, then there is no argument; but what I cannot get my head round
is all these ‘grey areas’.
Operation Puerto, with all its sensationalism, is not going anywhere. The Spanish
legal system seems unwilling, or unable to
pursue the matter. What it all really means
will now be nothing more than conjecture,
Tom McCall
which does our sport no good at all. Other
sports are also implicated, but that won’t
go anywhere either.
If I were very cynical, I’d suggest that all
this apparent disclosure was released on
the eve of the Tour for maximum disruption, perhaps to deny some of the leading
contenders their chance; but the Landis
affair brought them even more trouble.
Landis tested positive for testosterone,
but there’s a huge grey area here too. Testosterone occurs naturally in the body, but
boosting it artificially is not an overnight
fix, it is usually ingested over a period of
time. You could say that Landis misjudged
the situation, and got caught, but he surely
must have been tested on the last two days
of the Tour, as he was wearing the Yellow
Jersey. But no news of an additional positive test result here, so common sense says
that someone, somewhere has screwed up.
Quite honestly, in all this uncertainty, I
feel sorry for Landis, Basso and Ullrich, and
all the others who are affected by these
nebulous situations. In any court of law in
the civilised world, you cannot convict a
person by insinuation and innuendo, you
have to prove that the person is guilty. All
that Operation Puerto and the Landis af-
Why not dope?
In his essay, The Tour de France as Epic
(The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies),
Roland Barthes observes: ‘To dope the
racer is as criminal, as sacrilegious as trying to imitate God; it is stealing from God
the privilege of the spark.’ Is this romantic and unworldly?
Cycling was one of the first professional
sports. It was, and still is, regarded as one
of the hardest. The professional racer is
a worker and in this respect not very different from the suburban commuter.
However, there is a darker side to cycling. The use of performance-enhancing drugs is cultural and, moreover, institutionalised. Therefore, the doper rejects the legitimate pursuit of his trade
for a clandestine, illegal preference. He
internalises this mind-set and therefore
sees nothing wrong in what he is doing.
The peloton is a closed world where access is denied to all but those accepted
into its ways and customs. Only those
earning their living from cycling know of
the sacrifices - people outside of the cocoon do not understand, so what is
wrong with taking something to help
along the way? A rule of silence exists
fair have done, is to give the Press a field
day with bad publicity about our sport,
making it even more difficult to pinpoint
drug cheats. The only way forward now is
to brush this all under the mat, declare an
amnesty for all parties, and to bring in a
set of new stringent guidelines that all teams
must agree to adhere to, with severe penalties for riders and teams for any cheats
who are caught.
Away from all this: while I was down in
the South of France recently, I went to the
stage start of Paris-Nice in Sorgues, and I
saw Tom Boonen deep in discussion with
Predictor Lotto staff about his Quick Step
team bike. Word has it that Tom is not
happy – his new Specialized machine gives
him back-ache. A word of advice, Tom:
some modern materials can get too stiff for
comfort these days – how about a nice steel
frame!
(Since Tom wrote this, of course, the situation has changed, following confessions
by Basso, Riis, a string of Telekom riders
and others. At the time of writing only
20 Tour competitors have signed a ‘clean’
guarantee. We still don’t know who won
last year’s Tour, but this year’s should be
a humdinger. Ed.)
Gordon Daniels
that rubs off on to the fans, who reject
accusations of doping – or any other accusations that expose riders’ deviance.
That is why Richard Virenque, who took
two years to confess to drug use following the Festina affair in 1998, remains
popular in France and earns a crust as a
‘consultant’ for Eurosport. There is an
identifiable link between cycling culture
and popular culture.
The rider who wants to race clean has
a set of rules imposed on him by those
who use drugs. Christophe Bassons
breached the rules in his desire, expressed publicly, to race clean, and was
compelled to drop out of the 1999 Tour
de France because of his outspokenness.
One of his tormentors was the amazing
winner that year, Lance Armstrong, a
declared anti-doper.
Sport presents itself as a virtuous alternative for self-expression, where the discipline of training and the thrill of participation can bring success and perhaps
celebrity. Look at the way in which the
2012 London Olympic Games are being
sold to the public and to young people
in particular. Consequently, the spectre
of drug use among sportsmen and sportswomen is not cool. Sport was previously
fenced by professionalism and money.
Now the boundaries are set by drugs.
Morality cannot contain the problem.
Doping is a public health issue, because
its tentacles extend beyond sport and,
furthermore, it is a criminal issue.
Some are prepared to accept that drug
use is part of professional sport, a business, and that its participants should be
allowed to fuel up and make the most of
what is likely to be a short career. The
spectacle of apparently superhuman efforts is at its most seductive in the Tour
de France – for example, Pantani and
Virenque climbing in the high mountains.
However, these people miss the point.
Doping is cheating and against the rules
of fair play and sport is predicated on
the principle of equal competition. This
brings us back to Roland Barthes. He was
right in his views on doping. There can
be no compromise, no looking the other
way: to accept anything less than the
natural talent of the racer is to signal that
doping is unimpeachable.
Page 5
News from
the Regions
Region 2
Nearly 30 years after the death of Peter
Fryer, killed in an accident on his way to
work, a dozen vets were among the many
mourners at the funeral of his wife
Margaret who has died aged 69.
Peter, a member of South Leeds R.C.,
used to win First Category road races
despite the handicap of a withered arm,
and was a natural choice when it came
to naming the season-long series that ran
for nearly 30 years. Our condolences to
Margaret and Peter’s two sons Paul and
David.
Please note that Jim Morrison has
changed the date of the East Coast Road
Race to 12th August (formerly 30th September). Dave Hamilton
Region 5
A big thank you to Chris Godard who
will be putting on the C and D Champs
at Harworth, also a race for the As and
Bs. The Harworth course is really easy to
marshal, we have good relations with the
police, the changing rooms are always
available with shower facilities. As I’ve
said before help is always available. All
you members out there doing nothing
but race – think about it!
Jenny Downing won’t be organising the
Tom Simpson memorial after this year. If
anyone out there wants to take it over
for next year, Pete Ryalls and John Downing offer their support and help. It’s one
of the most popular events on the calendar: if we lose it, it’s gone forever.
Sad news that Geoff Warren has
passed away after a short illness. Geoff
Region 9
was one of our older riders but even at
70+ still gave 100%. Our sympathy to
wife Sylvia and children David, Richard
and Carol.
John Downing
Region 6
First casualty of the season was Les Archer’s Enville Road Race, the victim of
sheer bad luck. A few days before the
event a vehicle crashed into a building
on the circuit – and then some local cretin set it on fire, making the whole place
unsafe. With half the road fenced off and
traffic lights are operating Les postponed
the event to 10th June – only three of
the original entrants have asked for their
money back.
Thanks to massive contributions of
time and energy from members of this
and neighbouring regions, and to generous help from Martin Bush, Tom Wilson
and Jack Parker, the Tour of the
Abberleys was once again a success.
There were imperfections, of course, but
you need a little tension, and all the problems were eventually sorted out. But with
around 60 helpers, twelve cars, and a
turnover of over £3000, it’s a massive
project. Ray Minovi has said that he’s not
doing it next year, so what happens next?
All good wishes to Chris Duffield, recovering from his horrendous dog-induced fall in Mallorca – lower leg broken in 11 places and held together with
27 screws. But Chris is back on the turbo
in his conservatory, and soon, we hope,
out on the road.
The season has started on a very sad note
with the news of the sudden death of
George Harding from cancer. George was
a well-liked quiet man who was a regular competitor in the over 60’s group. He
will be missed and our heartfelt condolences go out to his family. In his memory
his club, the Haverhill, generously donated £50 to the prize fund of the region’s first road event run by Tony Woodcock and the Glendene in wretchedly
windy and cold conditions. The very
good turnout was evidence that promoters will feel the loss of Eastway in increased entries from riders scratching
around for a ride. Bill Butterworth’s Hillingdon alternate Wednesday evening
events have been very well attended but
surprisingly few of the old Eastway gang
are turning up in this western outpost –
They may possibly be turning to, heaven
forbid, Time Trials! Martin Hulbert and
Costas Pierides were early season collarbone casualties, with Martin thankfully
back in the saddle and competing.
Upheavals in the successful Twickenham CC have spawned two new clubs:
the Imperial and the 316. The 316 have
taken many of their LVRC big hitters while
Big Bill Butterworth has joined the Quest.
We’ve still got nothing to replace
Eastway. The main services have been
taken on to the Hog Hill site, which is at
least a start. If the famous newt survey
has not been started, planning permission will not yet have been granted. Even
if construction starts this month I fear we
will not have its use for at least another
18 months. The plans shown on the BC
web site look far too complicated and
I’m pretty sure will not, on the grounds
of cost, be fully implemented. The ‘Royals’ Dockland’s circuit has been abandoned. If the Rammey Marsh circuit had
been accepted it might now be in op-
Costa Blanca Spain
Cycling Breaks
Training and Touring base
Winter 2007
Hotel villa or apartments
prices from £125
Guided riding & planned
routes
Cyclosportives
Discounted weeks
Tel: UK 0121-288-1143
Bike Hire
Spain: 034-966-780-132
Dordogne:
South-West France
www.CicloCostaBlanca.com
Page 6
V Quiet well-maintained roads, very little traffic V Varied terrain ideal for
training and touring V free route maps 40km –120 km V 6 gîtes in block,
tranquil private woodland setting, views over countryside V Self-catering
accommodation for max 24 people
For brochure contact:
V Suitable for individual or block
bookings V Secure cycle storage
Mike and Olwen Melling
V Swimming pool with hydrotherapy
Tel: 01548-852089
facility June – September
Web site: www.nieudegat.com
e-mail: [email protected]
eration with all the facilities we enjoyed
at Eastway, including Emma back serving of the tea and cakes. All would be
right with the world with God back in
his heaven. M. Humphreys and his merry
men are now even trying to put the skids
under the legacy plans for the proposed
post-Olympic circuit planned for the
Eastway Velopark. Will they ever learn
that half a loaf is better than none?
All’s not gloom and doom, though:
Deal’s attractive Betteshanger circuit
comes on stream this year and racing is
back on at North Weald on Tuesday
nights at 6.30 p.m. Norman Bright has
worked hard in getting this facility back
on track. Riders in LVRC events will also
have to be members of the TLI, but will
enjoy a reduced entry fee.
Another piece of good news for the
region’s north-east are well-advanced
plans for racing to start on Ford’s car testing circuit at Dunton, at the junction of
the M25 and the A127. It’s unlikely that
separate LVRC events will happen, as BC
will be in charge. Although the Eastway
fall-out continues to depress, there does
appear to be light at the end of the tunnel – but will it be allowed to shine on
the LVRC?
Richard Wall
LVRC Public
Liability Insurance
For the over 40s this is without
doubt the best value on the
market. It covers members for
both social and competitive
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Page 7
More news and comment
BC finally object to
ODA plans
THE 2012 OLYMPIC bid seems to have
resulted in London cyclists losing irreplaceable facilities. It is another (very
large) nail in the coffin of grass-roots cycling. What happened to ‘Sport for All’?
As yet there’s nothing to replace
Eastway. Rammey Marsh was rejected;
work on the alternative, Hog Hill, has not
yet begun, although the main services
have been taken on to the site. It’s unlikely to be in use now before 2008.
After various public displays of ill-feeling, the temporary circuit in the ‘Royal
Docklands’ has been abandoned.
Early this year the Olympic Delivery
Authority (ODA) announced that London’s post-Olympic facilities at the
Velopark will be wedged into a space
which is around one-third of the size
originally ‘promised’. Local regions and
the Eastway Users Group (EUG) immediately demanded that British Cycling
take action. BC’s board rejected all the
requests, expressed confidence in chief
executive Peter King’s handling of affairs,
and insisted that size doesn’t matter.
Finally, as we go to press, BC have at
last made a formal objection to the ODA’s
plans for The Olympic Velopark Legacy.
Racing back at
North Weald
WHEN I
VISITED the airfield on my way
back from a ride in Essex, writes Norman Bright, the guy on duty, Alan, told
me that they were shocked that we’d
been banned in 2006 and we should do
something about it. I contacted the new
manager Darren Goodey who organised
a meeting with me and Andy Lyons, who
re-planned my unsuitable circuit to give
us nearly two miles of path, much of it
wide enough for safe attacking and then
wrote an excellent report.
In March I met the leisure group. They
all wanted us back and all I had to do
was cover health and safety, first aid, and
risk assessment. We’re staying with TLI
who have first-class third party cover.
So there you have it. I didn’t do it
alone: I brought the horse to the water,
Page 8
Alan, John and Darren took it across,
Andy got it into an unassailable winning
position, the SECA executive took to to
the last furlong, but it’s the riders who
will bring it to the victory it richly deserves.
We want North Weald to be the premier circuit in the whole South-east, not
just Essex. The races will be handicapped
and I am not allowing thugs to ride.
There’s no need to swear at other riders
or to lean on them. I can ban riders or
suspend a licence for two weeks without consulting the National Executive.
Fees are on a sliding scale. Basic price
is £8 for the majority; for those in the
shorter, young riders races, only £2. We’ll
have over £100-worth of prizes for the
first events, plus points worth £1 each.
Costs are high, about £300 per race, and
races will be one hour to 90 minutes
duration. My aim is to self-fund SECA and
accumulate a surplus with which we can
expand our activities – for instance, send
a team to the World’s in Belgium.
Although the airfield races are under
TLI rules we are happy to have BC and
LVRC officials on the SECA executive and
hope that our efforts may help to heal
the damage done to the sport by some
officials who have banned TLI.
I am convinced that with North Weald
to the fore for Tuesdays, and hopefully
Hog Hill for other days, we will turn the
sport from being fiefdom for Sport England-funded officials who are fully paid
but not exactly professional in their ability to turn cycling into a well-funded sport
for all. We do not want blazers at North
Weald.
North Weald Airfield Races 2007
TLI Tuesdays from May
www.theleagueinternational.com
A warm welcome to all LVRC
members. We have an Over60s race & other vets will
have the choice of three
races.
Annual General
Meeting
The 2007 Annual General Meeting of
the LVRC will be (as advertised in the
Handbook) on 24th November 2007 at
the Victory Hall, Napton, Warwickshire, beginning at 2.30 p.m. There will
be a two-hour ride in the local countryside beginning at 10.30 a.m. (map
on page 11).
Nominations for officials and committee positions, and proposals for
discussion must be sent to the Secretary, Peter Wilson, by 31st August
2007, at 52 Knoll Drive, Southgate,
London, N14 5NE, tel: 0208-368-0698
[email protected]
Annual Dinner &
Prize Presentation
The LVRC Dinner & Prize Presentation will again be at Dunchurch Park
Hotel, Dunchurch, Warwickshire, on
24 November at 7.30 p.m. Tickets
£25 and all details from Mick Ives on
02476-304009. Accommodation
available at the Dunchurch Park.
For sale
Cycling is My
Life, by Tom
Simpson. Exlibrary copy,
good condition.
Offers for this
now fairly rare
book, proceeds
to charity, to
the Editor, [email protected] or
phone 0121-449-1347
Wanted
Cycling Crazy, by Chas Messenger,
a collection of Chas’s pieces from
The Leaguer, published late 1960s
or thereabouts.
Also wanted: very early copies of
Coureur/Sporting Cyclist, pre1959. Editor, [email protected]
or phone 0121-449-1347
Returning to cycling at 41, to ‘try it while he was young enough’, Don Parry has become increasingly committed to the
sport and last autumn was elected Chairman of the LVRC. Recently he talked to Jim Golden about his ideas for the League.
I believe in dialogue
Our new chairman, Don Parry had two
particular priorities when he took over
from Pete Ryalls at the last AGM, the first:
to get a viable website up and running.
Log on to www.LVRC.org.uk and judge
for yourselves.
His second aim: A constructive dialogue with what many vets regard as the
enemy – BC – might be a little more difficult to accomplish. Like Baldric, he has
a cunning plan to achieve a closer relationship, which he would rather not reveal this early in his reign.
Don is a member of Nene Valley
Wheelers and, like so many of our members, a comeback rider – to the extent of
finishing second in last year’s ‘D’ Category championship. But unlike a lot us,
he is a man with a pedigree from his previous life.
From Morecambe he start cycling with
Lancaster CC and then moved on to Lune
RC. He began racing at 13, riding the
famous crits on Morecambe front, and
recalls later on seeing Les West, then a
Holdsworth pro, holding off the cream
of Britain’s paid ranks for an hour.
1966 was probably his finest hour,
when against the odds near Bristol, he
sprinted to victory in the National Junior
Road Race Championships, leaving Ian
Hallam and Graham Moore, the oddson favourite on home ground, in his
wake.
It left such a lasting impression on
Hallam, that when he met Don during
his successful comeback a few years ago,
he asked: ’Have you still got that kick?’
A spot on the GB Junior Squad came
the following year and a win in the Manchester Velo Junior Tour of the Peak of
which he has embarrassing memories
due to the extreme cold due to the painful post-race thawing out of his most delicate parts.
College in Manchester and training
sessions with the late Pete Buckley and
former Milk Race rider Kevin Wood followed. But seeing how student life could
be without the inconvenience of cycling,
Don stopped spinning the pedals.
So like so many riders he carved out a
successful business career and a family,
two daughters, now 26 and 23, and kept
fit by playing squash, settling in
Northants.
Aged 41, he decided to start cycling
again, in his words ‘to try it while he was
young enough. Recently I have become
more and more committed.’
Since then he has won the Percy
Stallard three times in the C’s and D’s
and has been second twice in the National Championships, the first time to
Terry Devine as a B.
‘2006 was my best season as a vet with
nine wins and eight or nine other top
threes,’ he said. ‘ I used to be a sprinter
as a junior and I can still raise a good
finish, but now I can also hold my own,
climbing with my own age group.
‘When I became Chairman I had two
aims. Getting a decent website was a
priority. For potential new members, par-
Jim Golden
ticularly those at the young end of the
age scale it was important. We have to
be forward looking.
‘We have to accept that many of those
in their early forties may not have heard
of Les West let alone Percy Stallard and
try to move forward. I also believe in dialogue and want to keep a constructive
dialogue going, particularly with BC.
‘Like it or not we have to work with
them, particularly as it looks as if in future there will be greater emphasis on
things like properly trained marshals for
races, thing like that. But mainly we need
to attract more people at the entry end
of veteran racing and try to encourage
them to play a greater role in the furtherance of our sport.’
Using cycle lanes not compulsory – Highway Code changed
THE
GOVERNMENT IS to change crucial
wording in the revised Highway Code to
make it clear that it is not compulsory
for cyclists to use cycle lanes. As it stood,
two rules would have seen cyclists held
liable if they were hit by motorists while
they not using cycle lanes. 11,000 CTC
members emailed the Driving Standards
Agency and crashed their computer.
The proposed revisions are:
Rule 61: Cycle Facilities. Use cycle
routes, advanced stop lines, cycle boxes
and toucan crossings unless at the time
it is unsafe to do so. Use of these facilities is not compulsory and will depend
on your experience and skills.
Rule 63: Cycle Lanes. These are
marked by a white line (which may be
broken along the carriageway. When using a cycle lane, keep within the lane
when practicable. When leaving a cycle
lande check before pulling out that it is
safe to do so and signal your intention
clearly to other road users. Use of these
facilities is not compulsory and will depend on your experience and skills.
CTC director Kevin Mayne said: I am
convinced that at the final stage of the
process only CTC could have achieved
this outcome, with our focus, our knowledge, our ability to bring together the
whole cycling movement and the respect
we are given by government’.
The Highway Code now contains more
than 40 rules changed for the benefit of
cyclists.
The CTC is asking cyclists to sign an
online petition in support. Visit
www.ctc.org.uk/campaigns
Page 9
The Feeding Station
Essential fats, good and bad
F
bad press most of the
time. Saturated fats in particular
are linked to a range of ills,
especially heart disease. Fat is a significant
factor in weight loss, but many people
confuse nutritional benefits with calories.
All fats and oils have virtually the same
calorific value, around 700 kCals per
100 grammes.
True fats, neutral fats, or triglycerides
formed by the combination of glycerol
and three fatty acids. Oils are liquid at
room temperature (20°C ); fats are solid
at room temperature. Both are often
referred to as ‘fats’. Each gram of fat or
oil produces about nine calories of
energy. Fats are the primary source of
energy during prolonged aerobic
exercise. The release of energy from fat
requires more oxygen than the release
of the same amount of energy from
carbohydrates. Fat metabolism therefore
puts a greater strain on the oxygen
transport system. Excess fat is stored as
body fat in adipose tissue. Excess
carbohydrates and proteins may also be
converted into fat and stored in adipose
tissue to provide energy (e.g. during the
fasting state between meals), heat
insulation, cushioning, and buoyancy.
There’s a lot of confusion over the part
dietary fat plays in causing disease. The
confusion stems from the bewildering
number of types of fat, and there is
disagreement about how harmful or
beneficial each type is. Nevertheless, it’s
beyond dispute that high intakes of
dietary fat are linked to obesity and
coronary heart disease. Doctors speak
with one voice when they say that we
need to restrict our total fat so that it
contributes no more than 35 per cent of
the total calorific intake in the diet. Only
10 per cent of calorific intake should be
saturated fat, the form of fat most clearly
linked to disease. The average person in
North America and the UK derives 4045 per cent of his/her calories from fat.
AT GETS A
Saturated fat
Saturated fats come mainly from animal
sources (such as beef, butter, whole-milk
dairy products, the dark meat of poultry,
Page 10
and poultry skin) as well as some tropical
vegetable oils, such as coconut and palm
oils. Consuming large amounts of
saturated fats can result in fatty
substances such as cholesterol being
deposited in the walls of arteries. This
may lead to atherosclerosis (narrowing
of the arteries) and high blood pressure.
Many governments throughout the world
have recommended a decrease in the
consumption of saturated fat to reduce
the risk of heart disease.
Unsaturated fat
A fat which is not fully saturated with
hydrogen. There are two main types: cis
fats and trans fats. Most natural vegetable oils contain cis fats. Trans fats form
straight-chained molecules that can pack
tightly together. Trans fats have properties similar to those of saturated fats,
making them more harmful to health
than cis fats. Butter, milk fat, and some
vegetable oils that have been hydrogenated contain significant amounts of trans
fats.
Polyunsaturated fat
Polyunsaturates are classified as cis and
trans fatty acids according to their
chemical structure. In nature,
polyunsaturated fatty acids are usually in
the cis form, but hydrogenated
polyunsaturates (e.g. some margarines)
have a greater proportion in the trans
form. Consequently, although it is
recommended that up to 6 per cent of
food energy may be obtained from
polyunsaturates, no more than 2 per cent
of food energy should be obtained from
trans fatty acids. A number of
polyunsaturated fatty acids occur in high
concentrations in fish and vegetable oils
and are thought to be particularly
beneficial to health.
EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid, is one of
the active components in fatty fish diets,
such as those of the Inuit of the Arctic
regions, that appear to provided some
protection against coronary heart disease.
Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a
constituent of evening primrose oil,
starflower oil, and human milk, forms
Fat table
Fat
Saturated
MonoPolyunsatur- unsaturated
ated
Highly saturated
Vegetable fat
Coconut oil
90
10
—
Palm oil
50
30
20
Animal fat
Butter fat
65
30
5
Beef fat
50
45
5
Chicken fat
30
50
20
Monounsaturated oil
Olive oil
15
75
10
Canola oil
5
60
35
Peanut oil
20
50
30
Polyunsaturated oil
Safflower oil
10
15
75
Sunflower oil
10
20
70
Corn oil
15
25
60
Cottonseed oil
25
20
55
hormone-like substances (prostaglandins)
that play an important role in a number
of metabolic processes. The optimum
daily dose of GLA has not been
established, but usual intakes are 40 mg
per day, taken as oil of evening primrose.
Nutritionists advise us to make sure that
we have sufficient quantities of the
essential fatty acids in our diets, but warn
that we should keep our total fat intake
below 35 per cent of dietary intake.
Monounsaturated fat
Fat not fully saturated with hydrogen; that
is, each molecule contains at least one
pair of carbon atoms connected by a
double bond. Monounsaturated fats
include oils from olives and peanuts.
Olive oil, unlike a number of
polyunsaturated fats, appears to decrease
harmful low-density lipoproteins without
reducing the beneficial high-density
lipoproteins. Olive oil is 75% mono–
unsaturated fat. Eating monoun–
saturated fats rather than saturated fats
reduces the risk of heart disease. V
The Circuit of the Windmill
The Circuit of the Windmill, 24th November 2007, is not a race, but
an organised ride. It will start at 10.30 a.m. at Napton Victory Club,
Warwickshire, and will take in the south Warwickshire lanes for two to
two and a half hours. There will be a buffet lunch before the AGM,
which starts at 2.30 p.m.
M45
J17
A4
A4
26
Dunchurch
5
J12
Gaydon
M4
0
A423
B4
45
1
123
123
A5
123
Southam123
123
1234567
1234567
1234567
1234567
Daventry
1234567
1234567
A425
A45
Napton
Priors
Marston
M1
Flore
J16
The LVRC Dinner & Prize Presentation
will again be at Dunchurch Park Hotel,
Dunchurch, Warwickshire, on 24 November at 7.30 p.m. Tickets £25 & details
from Mick Ives on 02476-304009
A gentle ride through the south
Warwickshire lanes in the Autumn
sunshine. It says here.
International News 2007
Donaldson wins in
Belgium
N4
2
Leader in the C category of the Percy
Stallard Series at the time of writing,
Andy Donaldson, Kingsnorth International from North Yorkshire scored an
excellent win at Zeveneken in the E
category on May Day.
ICF Road Race Championships
5th August 2007, Hillegem, East
Flanders (near Zottegem, south and east of Ghent)
Ghent
N46
Hillegem
Herzele
A1
Zottegem
0-E
40
Aalst
N42
Hillegem
Zottegem
Herzele
N8
Brussels
60+ start 9am; 50+ 10.30;
40+ 12.30
Peter Ryalls will do block entry
Entries on LVRC form with s.a.e. and
£6.00 to:
11 Devonshire Close, Dronfield
Derbyshire S18 1QY
Tel 01246-413515
ryalco @btinternet.com
Date of birth required as condition of entry
UCI Masters Championships, St Johann, Austria
Andy Donaldson (left) and Peter
Greenwood in their successful break
in the Staffs Oatcake race in which
they finished first and second, each
winning his category.
World Cup Road Races: 19 – 21 August
World Masters Road Races: 23 – 26 August
World Masters Time-trials: 22 August
Information from the website, www.masterswm.org,
or from: Harald Bauman, A-6380 St Johann in Tirol, Postfach 77, Austria.
Czech Republic
European Masters Road 28 Jul – 1 Aug
www.masters-em.cz
Page 11
Percy would have been pleased
Staffordshire Oatcake Road
Race: Stallard Series 1
The first Percy Stallard Series race of the season produced a massive
entry, around 110 riders finally entering or signing on the line, and bright
sun, clear skies and a fresh breeze produced effort and enterprise which
would have warmed Percy’s heart to witness. The Swynnerton circuit
rewards fitness and initiative, attacks came the minute the flag fell, and
the judges had no difficulty in placing all those in the points.
Race 1
Paul Stubbs showed his strength early, and thereafter he was constantly in
action at the front (picture, top right), finally getting clear with Mike Jones
and staying away to the end, taking the sprint by lengths. The pair were
followed by individuals, small groups, and finally the bunch.
Race 2
Kevin Shand put in a big effort on the first lap and came through with a
good lead. But there was a strong reaction, out of which Peter Greenwood
and Andrew Donaldson emerged in an efficient two-up which survived all
the way to the finish, Donaldson taking the sprint comfortably. A long string,
well spread out, preceded the bunch, still a dozen strong, which contested
a weary sprint.
Race 3
After a lap the strong men came to the fore. On the climb through Swynnerton,
Tony Taylor and Dave Rutherford (middle picture) opened a gap on a group
containing World Champion Roger Iddles, Les West, Mick Ives, Derrick
Woodings, Bob Richards, Trevor Horton and Brian Ellis. When they made
contact, the reaction shed Ives, Richards, Woodings and Ellis. The remaining five (bottom picture) got established but split on the long drag up through
the finish, leaving West and Iddles, both E Cats, together. At the finish West’s
sprint beat Iddles’ strength. The rest came in at intervals, with Ives finishing
a lone sixth to take the F category.
A 1. Mike Jones; 2. Vince Page; 3. Matt Seaton; 4. S. Alexander; 5. M.
West; 6. M. Perry
B 1. Paul Stubbs; 2. Julian Cann; 3. Steve Jones; 4. S. Davies; 5. C. Griffiths;
6. J. Murray
C 1. Andrew Donaldson; 2. Joey Williams; 3. Steve Jolley; 4. M. O’Connor;
5. B. Davidson; 6. R. Keeler
D 1. Peter Greenwood; 2. John Watchman; 3. Kevin Shand; 4. S. Davies; 5.
T. Wilson; 6. G. Smith
E 1. Les West; 2. Roger Iddles; 3. Trevor Horton; 4. A. Taylor; 5. D. Rutherford; 6. B. Peto
F 1. Mick Ives; 2. K. Haddon; 3. D. Elliott; 4. P. Ryalls; 5. R. Richards
G 1. Brian Ellis; 2. John Dowell
Percy Stallard General Classification after Eight Rounds
A - 1. Malcolm Smith, 15; 2. Simon Alexander,
13;3eq. Carl Halpin, Sean Smith, 11;5eq. Richard
Binks, Vince Page, 9; 7eq. Simon Keaton, Phil
Rayner, Craig Wilson, 8; 10eq. Dave Compton,
Mike Jones, Ben Luckwell, Matt Miles, Giles
Pidcock, Martin Webster, 6
D - 1. Tom Wilson, 24; *2. Peter Greenwood, 21;
*3. Ralph Keeler, 14; *4. Graham Owen, 12; 5.
Dave Maughan, 10; 6. Allan Ramsay, 8;7eq. Steve
Davies, Joe Rowe, 7; 9. John Herring, 6; 10eq.
Pete Constable, Alan Kemp, Barrie Mitchell, Kev
Shand, John Watchman, 5
B - 1. Paul Stubbs, 29; *2. Julian Cann, 15; 3.
Steve Davies, 9;4. Colin Griffiths, 7; 5eq. Rob
Cannell, Nigel Jones, Jeff Lynch, Steve Marrows,
John Murray, 6; 10. Graham Payne,5
E - 1. Tony Woodcock,. 27 *2. Les West, 18 3.
Roger Iddles, 11=4. Trevor Horton, 10=4. Dave
Rutherford, 106. Mike Allen, 97. Dave Hargreaves,
88. Tony Taylor, 7=9. Sid Lovatt, 6=9. Brian
Sunter,
F 1. Mick Ives, 29; *2. Ken Haddon, 24; *3. Geoff
Mindham, 20; 4. Bob Richards, 14; 5. Ron Pyne,
12; 6. Peter Ryalls, 9; 7eq. Brian Dacey, John
Downing, 6; 9eq. Dave Birch, Jack Wright, 5
C - 1eq. Rob Barlow, *Andrew Donaldson, 23;3.
Dave Scargill, 15; 4. Joey Williams, 13; 5. Chris
Davis, 12; 6eq. Gary Hill, Steve Jolley, 9; 8. John
French, 7; 9. Barry Ford, 6; 10eq. Brian Davison,
Mac McGready, Robert Whitfield, 5
Page 12
G - 1. Brian Ellis, 29; *2. Roger Smith, 24; *3.
John Dowell, 22; *4eq. Bryan Bliss, Jack Watson,
11; 6. Dave Elliott, 10; 7eq. Alan Preece, Arnold
Russell, 5; 9eq. Geoff Sheard, Vic White, 4
Andrew Donaldson & Peter Greenwood
Results: March – June
Glendene Early Starter, Essex 18 March
Race 1 A/B/C 1. Andrew Cullinane (A); 2. Mick
Gray (B); 3. Edgar Medellin (C); 4. A. Meilak (A);
5. S. Hime (A); 6. J. Murray (B); 7. M. Seaton
(A); 8. B. Butterworth (C);9. J. Sharp (B); 10. K.
Elderfield (B)
A 1. A. Cullinane; 2. A. Meilak; 3. S. Hime
B 1. M. Gray; 2. John2 Murray; 3. Jeff Sharp
C 1. E. Medellin; 2. Bill Butterworth; 3. J. French
Race 2 D/E/F 1. Terry Devine (E); 2. Graham
Owen (D); 3. Dave Griffiths (D); 4. R. Hewes (D);
5. Sue Gray (D); 6. G. Mindham (F); 7. D. Woods
(D); 8. P. Cooper (D);9. J. McMillan (E); 10. R.
Fraczek (D)
D - 1. G. Owen; 2. D. Griffiths; 3. Ron Hewes
E - 1. Terry Devine; 2. John McMillan
F - 1. G. Mindham; 2. B. Dacey; 3. T. Workman
Nene Valley Early Season RR, Towcester
11 March
Race 1 A/B/C: 1. Edgar Medellin; 2. Mick
Donnelly; 3.Greg Ashley; 4. A. Cullinane; 5. J.
French 6. M. Smith
A 1. M. Donnelly; 2. G. Ashley; 3. A. Cullinane
B 1. Edgar Medellin; 2. Jim Moffat; 3. Neil
Goodridge
Race 2 D/E/F 1.Graham Owen; 2. Klaus
Heathcock; 3. Tony Taylor; 4. Phil Bayton; 5th M.
Allen; 6th B. Mitchell.
C 1. John French; 2. Joey Williams; 3. Ralf Keeler
D 1. G. Owen; 2. Phil Bayton; 3. Barrie Mitchell
E 1. Klaus Heathcock; 2. Tony Taylor 3. Mike
Allan
F 1. Geoff Mindham; 2. Mick Ives; 3. Derrick
Woodings
Mark Ide Memorial
Severn Stoke, Worcs.15 April
Race 1 A/B/C 1. Peter Georgi (A); 2. Charles
Zanettaci (A); 3. Dave Barnes (A); 4. B. Austin
(B); 5. T. Wood (B); 6. I. Noons (B); 7. M. Perry
(A);8. V. Page (A); 9. J. Williams (C); 10. M. West
(A)
A - 1. P. Georgi; 2. C. Zanettaci; 3. D. Barnes
B - 1. B. Austin; 2. T. Wood; 3. I. Noons
C - 1. J. Williams
Race 2 D/E/F 1. Les West (E); 2. Barrie Mitchell
(D); 3. Joe Rowe (D); 4. R. Iddles (E); 5. M.
Hackley (D); 6. M. Carty (D); 7. D. Elliott (F);8. J.
Powell (D); 9. K. Haddon (F); 10. B. Cartland (D)
D - 1. B. Mitchell; 2. J. Rowe; 3. M. Hackley
E - 1. L. West. 2. R. Iddles
F - 1. D. Elliott; 2. K. Haddon
Arrow Road Races. Verwood, Dorset, 15 April
A - 1. R.Tilley; 2. M.Chadbourne; 3. N.Archibald.
B - 1. A.Woodcock (E); 2. T.Jarrett; 3. M.Gibbs.
C - 1. S.Heffernan; 2. M.Hulbert; 3. G.Longland
D - 1. G.Owen. 2. D.Griffiths; 3. R.Hewes.
E - 1. C.Mannakee; 2. W.Rains. 3. R.Williamson.
H - 1. T.Fenwick.
Leeds Mercury Road Race Bishopswood 15 April
A 1. Mel Blackford; 2. Dave Compston; 3. Russell
Hepton
B 1. Colin Griffiths; 2. Colin Bell; 3.Paul Buxby
C 1. Phil Axe; 2.Rob Barlow; 3.Gary Hill
D 1.Alan Kemp; 2. Denis Thompson; 3.Allan
Ramsay
E 1.Richard Booth; 2. Brian Sunter; 3. Dave
Gretton
F 1. John Downing; 2. Pete Ryalls; 3. Jackie
Wright
G 1.Brian Bliss; 2. Roger Smith
Percy Stallard 2: Claverdon Road Races
Warwickshire, 22 April
A 1. Carl Halpin; 2. Phil Rayner; 3. Simon
Alexander; 4. V. Page; 5. A. Gautier; 6. A. Heaney
B 1. Paul Stubbs; 2. Julian Cann; 3. Brian Austin;
4. T. Cooper; 5. S. Davies; 6. N. Jones
C 1. Rob Barlow; 2. Mac Mc Gready; 3. Joey
Williams; 4. D. Cuming; 5. C. Davis; 6. S. Jolley
D 1. Tom Wilson; 2. Barrie Mitchell; 3. Joe Rowe;
4. R. Keeler5. D. Parry; 6. G. Smith
E 1. Roger Iddles; 2. Tony Woodcock; 3. Dave
Rutherford; 4. T. Taylor; 5. B. Rains; 6. G. Walters
F 1. Mick Ives; 2. Geoff Mindham; 3. Bob
Richards; 4. D. Birch; 5. K. Haddon; 6. D. Elliott
G 1. Roger Smith.
Halifx Imperial Whs - Peter Fryer Race 22 April
Race 1 A/B/C 1. Phil Axe (C); 2. Simon Keeton
(A); 3. Steve Marrows (B); 4. S. Smith (A); 5. R.
Blackburn (A);6. J. Hadfield (B); 7. P. Rose (C); 8.
S. Macklin (C);9. G. Fulstow (A); 10. D. Fulstow
(A).
A - 1. S. Keeton; 2. S. Smith; 3. R. Blackburn
B - 1. S. Marrows; 2. J. Hadfield; 3. P. Webster
C - 1. Phil Axe; 2. Philip Rose; 3. Steve Macklin
Race 2 D/E/F/G 1. Richard Booth (E); 2. Allan
Ramsay (D); 3. Kev Shand (D); 4. B. Sunter (E);
5. D. Hargreaves (E);6. S. Woodrup (E); 7. J.
Ginley (E); 8. A. Lawton (E);9. B. Bliss (G); 10.
M. Gomersall (F)
D - 1. A. Ramsay; 2. K. Shand; 3. D. Phillips.
E - 1. R. Booth; 2. B. Sunter; 3. D. Hargreaves.
F - 1. M. Gomersall; 2. D. Woodings; 3. P. Ryalls.
G - 1. B. Bliss
A1 Classic – Boroughbridge 29 April
Percy Stallard Series 4
A - 1. Giles Pidcock; 2. Sean Smith;3. Richard
Binks; 4. S. Keeton; 5. K. Byers; 6. R. Blackburn;
B - 1. Paul Stubbs; 2. Colin Griffiths; 3. John
Murray;4. B. Belcher; 5. S. Davies;6. Gareth
Williams
C - 1. Andrew Donaldson; 2. Gary Hill;3. Steve
Jolley; 4. R. Barlow; 5. J. Williams
D - 1. Tom Wilson; 2. Dave Maughan;3. Steve
Davies, Ferryhill Whs; 4. J. Rowe; 5. P.
Greenwood; 6. K. Shand
E - 1. Trevor Horton; 2. Bernard Garnett;3. Dave
Hargreaves; 4. D. Gretton
F - 1. John Downing; 2. Geoff Mindham;3. Ken
Haddon; 4. J. Wright; 5. P. Ryalls; 6. T. Smith
G - 1. Brian Ellis; 2. Jack Watson; 3. Geoff Sheard;
4. J. Dowell; 5. B. Bliss
Epsom Spring Classic - Green Jersey Series
29 April
A - 1. Matt Seaton; 2. Andrew Meilak; 3. Philip
Watkins;4. S. Kilroy; 5. Neil Archibald; 6. James
Conway
B - 1. Julian Cann; 2. Tony Upson; 3. Mark Gibbs;
4. Terry Morgan;5. Keith Jarett; 6. Jeff Lynch.
C - 1. Steve Heffernan; 2. Martin Hulbert; 3. Bob
Moore; 4. Dan Montgomerie; 5. Mick McManus;
6. Max McCalla
D - 1. Graham Owen; 2. Tony Woodcock (F); 3.
Ron Hewes; 4. Dave Woods; 5. Ray Robinson; 6.
Roger Jackaman
E - 1. Sid Lovatt; 2. Dick Naylor; 3. Shay Giles; 4.
John Leitch;5. Colin Mannakee; 6. Keith Brooks
F - 1. Brian Dacey; 2. Tony Burnham; 3. Terry
Anderson; 4. Mick Curtis
G - 1. Arnold Russell; 2. Norman Bright
Polhill Memorial Races, 6th May, Horsmonden,
Kent. Percy Stallard Series 3
A - 1. Matt Miles; 2. Neil Archibald;3. Malcolm
Smith; 4. C. Wilson;5. P. Burnett; 6. M. Osbourne
B - 1. Jeff Lynch; 2. Julian Cann; 3. Nick Marsh;
4. M. Warner; 5. Mark Gibbs; 6. John Murray
C - 1. Barry Ford; 2. Dave Scargill;3. John French;
4. C. Bateman; 5. Max McCalla; 6. M. McManus
D - 1. Graham Owen; 2. Pete Constable; 3. Ralph
Keeler; 4. D. Woods; 5. K. Corbett; 6. O.
McPherson
E - 1. Sid Lovatt; 2. Shay Giles; 3. Roger Friend;
4. D. Smith; 5. T. McCall; 6. C. Mannakee
F - 1. Mick Ives; 2. Geoff Mindham; 3. Ken
Haddon; 4. P. Ryalls; 5. Brian Dacey
G - 1. John Dowell; 2. Arnold Russell; 3. Roger
Smith; 4. M. Brushett; 5. N. Bright, SECA
A special award for the Most Meritorious
Performance in Race 3 goes to Roger Friend donated by Norman Bright
Wyre Forest CRC RRs, 12th May
Lower Broadheath, Worcestershire
Brian Austin (Wyre Forest CRC), in fantastic form,
dominated the A/B race, taking the mid-race
prime, then escaping the bunch in the latter stages
to take overall victory on home turf. 2nd went to
Mick Donnelly (Stourbridge CC) who led the group
home from Terry Cooper (Red Kite Cycles).
1. Brian Austin; 2. Michael Donnelly; 3. Terry
Cooper; 4. V. Page; 5. S. Hammond; 6. W. Barber
A - 1. Mick Donnelly; 2. Vince Page; 3. Shaun
Hammond.
B - 1. B. Austin, 2. T. Cooper, 3. G. Sayce.
Race 2 for C/D riders saw Joey Williams
(Omnipex Bioracer) escape the bunch and take
overall honours, 15 seconds up on Martin Bush
(Bush Healthcare), who led the bunch home from
Dennis Knabe (Lichfield CC). Mike Wilson (Newcastle 2001) took the mid-race prime.
Results continued on page 18 …
Page 13
Photo: Jim Sampson
Page 14
Photo: Heather Sims
Photo: Alan Whitworth
Photo: Heather Sims
Photo: Ray Minovi
Above: how to ride a team-time-trial: the Hull Thursday team of Dean Fulstow, Andy
Barnes and Steve Macklin only inches apart as they cover the 25 miles Beverley–Driffield–
Bainton and back in 59.12.
Left: C Cat winner
Mac McGready &
organiser Colin
Dooley, Claverdon
RR; below right,
LVRC training session at Manchester,
thanks to organisers Dave Watson &
Fred Little – see
also front cover;
bottom left, Terry
Cooper, former local BCF secretary,
in the Pinvin RR –
welcome to the real
world, Terry.
Photo: Ray Minovi
Photo: Ray Minovi
Photo: Ray Minovi
Photo: Ray Minovi
Photo: Heather Sims
Clockwise from above:
winner Martin Webster
and Dave Barnes coming
up Longdon hill in the
cold and rain-soaked VC
Sevale RR; Kev Shand
leads the C-G field down
the Teme Valley in the
Tour of the Abberleys;
the A bunch at Pinvin led
by Brian Austin, Colin
Griffiths & Carl Halpin;
marshal dressed for the
conditions at the Sevale
RR; Dave Elliott and Pete
Ryalls fighting hard for
8th place at the Staffs
Oatcake in April; Colin
Griffiths wins at Pinvin.
Page 15
Tenth Tour of the Abberleys
Axed!
T
HE WEATHER WAS satisfactory, the headquarters excellent, and the racing terrific.
The A/B race was close-fought throughout,
the result in doubt until the last lap of a hard circuit, where anything could have happened. But
Simon Keeton, who had seized his opportunity
on the first road-race stage, hung in there, controlled his rivals and won by 17 seconds from
Andy Tinsley. But the award for sheer dominance
has to go to Phil Axe, who devastated the C–G
field, winning all four stages, eight of the ten
primes, the hills prize, and the overall by the biggest margin in the history of the event.
Saturday enjoyed the best weather of the year
so far. The 3.5-mile prologue TT looked all downhill on the map, but there were a couple of kicks
and a 400-metre finish hill which reduced some
riders to the little ring. But not Roger Iddles. Starting near the end of the field, on a standard road
bike, wearing a hard-shell (streamlined) helmet,
he was in the eleven sprocket almost from the
start and turned in a remarkable 6.32, 32.3 mph.
Next fastest was Axe in 6.49, and the highestplaced A/B rider was Barry Charley in 6.59: timetriallists get better with age and experience.
Result, 3.5-mile TT: 1. Roger Iddles, 6.32; 2.
Phil Axe, 6.49; 3. Steve Davies (D), 6.54; 4 eq. A.
Donaldson, D. Hargreaves, 6.55; 6 eq. R. Barlow
(C), J. Watchman, 6.56; 8. C. Davis (C), 6.57; 9
eq. M. McGready (C), B. Charley (A), 6.59; 11. P.
Greenwood (D), 7.01; 12. S. Jolley, 7.03.
The afternoon road race, three and two-thirds
laps round the 14-mile Astley circuit, saw the prin-
cipal contenders in both races staking their claims.
In Race 1 high speed prevented breaks until the
last lap when Simon Keeton got clear with Mel
Blackford. The bunch hesitated, fatally, and they
pulled away, Keeton dropping Blackford by seconds up the rise to the finish line. His 10-second
bonus wiped out his deficit on Tinsley, who won
the bunch sprint for third – but he was now 1.26
behind Keeton, with a string of others in between.
In Race 2 a promising break – Tom Wilson,
Joe Rowe and John Marshall – took a lead of a
minute by the end of the first lap. They were the
springboard for the key move: Axe and Peter
Greenwood got across and cracked the pace up
into the big rings, shedding first Wilson and then
Rowe. On the last lap Axe and Greenwood dropped
Marshall and continued to gain. By the finish,
where Axe took the sprint, they had five minutes
on Andrew Donaldson, Rob Barlow and Gaz Hill,
with the main bunch a further 15 seconds behind. It looked all over bar the shouting.
Race 1: 1. S. Keeton, 52 m in 2.12.56 (inc bonus); 2. M. Blackford, at 12 sec; 3. A. Tinsley at
1.28.
Race 2: 1. P. Axe, 52m in 2.13.57; 2. P. Greenwood at 3 sec; 3. R. Barlow at 5.02; 4. A. Donaldson,
G. Hill, both st; 6. A. Ramsay at 5.11.
Sunday started dull but soon the sun shone on
the Teme Valley and made everyone’s legs itch.
Keith Lilley did Darren Otter for the Walsgrove
prime (double points) and four riders had a 30second gap, but they were pulled back. At The
Noak Charley took the prime and soon afterwards
Strictly legal Roger Iddles, winner of the time-trial, the Over-60s, and the E Cats
Page 16
Overall winner of the CDEFG race Phil Axe
crossing the line in a wet finish to Stage 4
he was away with Carl Halpin and Tinsley. Over
Woodbury, with a lap to go, the three came through
smoothly, nearly a minute up, not bothering to
contest the prime which went to Charley. Behind,
the entire field was letting Keeton do all the work
at the front. Up front Charley and Tinsley dropped
Halpin and KOM Charley sat happily behind Tinsley
as he took the stage and the bonus. But their lead
was down to 16 seconds, and Keeton was still in
the white jersey.
Stage 2 result: 1. A. Tinsley, 54m in 2.22.58; 2.
B. Charley, st; 3. P. Mason; 4. D. Fawcett; 5. R.
Tilley; 6. I. Fagan, all st.
GC after two days:
1. Keeton; 2. Blackford at 17 sec; 3. Tinsley at
52 sec; 4. Charley at 1 min; 5. D. Barnes at 1.18;
6. E. Medellin at 1.19.
Race 2. After a quiet loop round Worcester, Axe
rocketed up Walsgrove with Phil Rose on his
wheel, took the prime 30 seconds up on the
bunch, and charged down the descent. When he
came through the finish area with 12 miles to go
he was alone. Steve Jolley, Mac McGready and
Andrew Donaldson were chasing, but Axe continued to gain. The bunch was cruising, the remainder were splintered and spread. Axe came in
two minutes ahead of McGready and the others,
and nearly four ahead of the bunch. His lead on
Greenwood was now 4.20, with Donaldson and
the rest at upwards of 7.20. Only third place looked
on offer now.
Stage 2 result: 1. Axe, 54m in 2.27.27; 2. M.
McGready at 1.54; 3. Donaldson; 4. S. Jolley, st;
5. C. Davis at 3.25; 6. Iddles at 3.34.
GC after two days: 1. Axe; 2. Greenwood at 4.20;
3. Donaldson at 7.20; McGready at 7.31; 5. Jolley
at 7.40; 6. Iddles at 8.55.
60+: Iddles; 2. D. Hargreaves at 30 sec; 3. A.
Woodcock at 48 sec.
On Monday the forecast rain finally came; but by
9.30 it had stopped and the roads began to dry.
The riders faced 45 miles round the small Clows
Top circuit, a compact horror with only half a mile
of flat and a ten percent finish hill. Even so the A/B riders stayed together.
With a lap to go, a little rain began to fall as the 29-man bunch turned into
the finish lane. Tinsley, who had started the day in fourth, eight seconds
behind Barry Charley, in a huge effort, opened a two-second gap on the line
which, with his 10-second bonus, took him into third spot. Simon Keeton
finished alongside Charley and Blackford in the bunch to win by 17 seconds. After three days of hard racing the first 20 were covered by 1.47.
Stage result: 1. Tinsley, 45m in 2.4.35; 2. P. Mason at 2 sec; 3. R. Tilley; 4.
D. Otter; 5. D. Compston; 6. M. Jacobi, all st.
Race 2 was a different matter altogether. Axe was in action at once, winning the first prime and then getting away with Greenwood and Gaz Hill,
while the bunch shed riders steadily, some of them opting for the three-mile
downhill return from Clows to the HQ rather than another lap of torture. On
the last climb Axe left his companions and stamped up the finish hill nearly
a minute clear to seal his triumph. Greenwood beat Hill by a length, and
McGready and Tom Wilson led in the bunch at another minute.
Stage result: 1. Axe, 45m in 2.6.37; 2. Greenwood at 47 sec; 3. Hill at 50
sec; 4. McGready at 2.07; 5. T. Wilson at 2.10; 6. J. Willams, st.
Overall Race 1: 1. Keeton, 155m in 6.47.41; 2. Blackford at 17 sec; 3.
Tinsley at 48 sec; 4. Charley at 52; 5 eq. R. Tilley, D. Barnes at 1.18; 7. E.
Medellin at 1.19; 8. T. Carter at 1.21; 9. I. Fagan at 1.23; 10. S. Alexander at
1.24.
A Cats: 1. Keeton; 2. Blackford; 3. Tinsley
B Cats: 1. Medellin; 2. Fagan; 3. G. Barker
King of the Hills: 1. Charley, 13 pts; 2. K. Lilley, 10; 3. D. Otter, 6
Overall Race 2: 1. Axe, 155m in 6.54.00; 2. Greenwood at 5.07; 3.
Donaldson at 9.30; 4. McGready at 9.38; 5. Jolley at 9.50; 6. Hill, 10.25; 7.
Iddles, 11.05; 8. C. Davis, 11.15; 9. D. Hargreaves, 11.35; 10. J. Watchman, 11.37
C Cats: 1. Axe; 2. McGready; 3. Jolley
D Cats: 1. Greenwood; 1. Donaldson; 1. Watchman
60+: 1. Iddles; 2. Hargreaves; 3. D. Rutherford
King of the Hills: 1. Axe, 31 pts; 2 eq. McGready, P. Rose, 8 pts
E Cats: 1. Iddles; 2. Hargreaves; 3. Rutherford
F Cats: 1. Tony Woodcock
G Cats: 1. Jack Watson
Grateful thanks of the organiser and all riders to Martin
Bush, Tom Wilson and Jack Parker for their handsome
sponsorship of the event.
Above: Greenwood leads Axe and Marshall up Yarhampton, Joe Rowe
chases in vain.
Right, from the top: 1. Keith Lilley takes the Walsgrove prime; 2. Watched
by race leader Keeton, Paul Stubbs leads the chase; 3. Race 2 field on
Yarhampton Hill, Brian Davison & Mac McGready lead; 4. KOM Barry
Charley leads Carl Halpin and Andy Tinsley over Woodbury with a lap to
go. Chief judge Colin Willetts observes. Photos: Ray Minovi
Page 17
1. Joey Williams; 2. Martin Bush; 3. Dennis
Knabe; 4. M.Wilson; 5. D. Woods; 6. I. Thomas
C - 1. J. Williams; 2. R. Pearson; 3. M. Sperry
D - 1. Martin Bush; 2. Dennis Knabe; 3. Mike
Wilson.
The final race for E/F/G categories saw a dominant
David Rutherford (Solihull CC) escape during the
first lap to stay away and take the honours. David
also took the mid-race prime. 2nd place went to
Ken Haddon (MI Racing), and 3rd to Dave Elliott,
Solihull.
1. Dave Rutherford; 2. Ken Haddon; 3. Dave
Elliott; 4. W. Rains; 5. K. Wilson; 6. G. Jones
E - 1. D. Rutherford; 2. W. Rains; 3. K. Wilson
F - 1. K. Haddon; 2. D. Elliott; 3. G. Jones
G - 1. A.Preece
1st Lady - Alex Zebedee
Alford Wh Races, 13th May
Percy Stallard Series 5
A - 1. Dave Compston; 2. Simon Keeton; 3. David
Pratt; 4. M. Smith; 5. A. Johnson; 6. A. Pearson
B - 1. Steve Marrows; 2. Paul Stubbs; 3. Colin
Parkinson; 4. S. Taylor;5. P. Webster; 6. F. Easton;
C - 1. Rob Barlow; 2. Andrew Donaldson; 3. Joey
Williams; 4. G. Hill; 5. S. McKellar; 6. B. Davison
D - 1. Tom Wilson; 2. Dave Maughan; 3. Peter
Greenwood; 4. A. Ramsay; 5. D. Phillips; 6. K.
Corbett
E - 1. Tony Woodcock; 2. Mike Allen; 3. Brian
Sunter; 4. J. Hardy; 5. D. Gretton; 6. J. Duckworth;
F - 1. Ron Pyne; 2. Geoff Mindham; 3. Bob
Richards; 4. M. Ives; 5. J. Wright; 6. P. Ryalls;
G 1. Brian Ellis; 2. Roger Smith; 3. John Dowell;
4. Bryan Bliss
Steve Gutteridge Memorial Road Race, 13th
May. Llandyrnog, North Wales
Race 1 A/B
1. Steve Jones (B); 2. Anthony Parkinson (B); 3.
Andy Mills (A); 4. M. Perry (A); 5. D. Fawcett (A);
6. G.Atkinson (A); 7. N. Giles (B); 8. A. Poulson
(A);9. A. Bowers (A); 10. Tim Dalton (A)
A - 1. Andy Mills; 2. Mike Perry; 3. Duff Fawcett.
B - 1. Steve Jones; 2. Anthony Parkinson; 3. Nick
Giles.
Race 2 C/D
1. Alan Kemp (D); 2. Phil Rose (C); 3. Steve
Horsey (C);4. Robert Whitfield (C); 5. Ray Pugh
(C); 6. Trevor Horton (D);7. Gordon Smith (D); 8.
David Newby (D); 9. Mick O’Connor (C);10. Robin
Burrows (C).
C - 1. Phil Rose; 2. Steve Horsey; 3. Robert
Whitfield.
D - 1. A. Kemp; 2. T. Horton; 3. G. Smith
Race 3 E/F/G
1. Les West (E); 2. Dave Hargreaves (E); 3. John
Leach (E); 4. J. Joynson (E); 5. R. Walker (F); 6.
C. Walmsley (F); 7. H. Canning (E); 8. J. Lyth (G).
E - 1. L. West; 2. D. Hargreaves; 3. J. Leach
F - 1. R. Walker; 2. C. Walmsley G - 1. J. Lyth
20/05/2007 - Ferryhill Whs Races Scotch Corner
A - 1. Simon Keating; 2. Dave Compton;3. Sean
Smith; 4. N. Clough; 5. D. Otter
B - 1. Phil Axe (rode two categories above his
age);2. Paul Stubbs; 3. Colin Bell;4. A.Dent; 5. J.
Hadfield
Page 18
C - 1. Rob Barlow; 2. Brian Davison; 3. Phil Rose;
4. John Marshall; 5. Michelle Bergstrand
D - 1. Geoff Standley; 2. Gordon Smith;3. Steve
Davies; 4. Paul Fisher; 5. David Holmes
E - 1. Dave Hargreaves; N.Lancs RC; 2. Brian
Sunter; 3. Richard Booth; 4. G. Hardy; 5. Roy
Metcalfe
F - 1. Jack Wright; 2. John Downing; 3. Peter
Ryalls; 4. Ron Pyne
G - 1. Jack Watson; 2. Brian Ellis; 3. Geoff Sheard;
4. Terry Smith
Velocity Exercise Deck RR 20th May.
Stallard Series Event 6, Meonstoke, Hants
A -1. Ben Luckwell; 2. Craig Wilson; 3. Simon
Alexander; 4. T. Costello; 5. B. Bingham;
Reading CC.
B - No Finishers.
C - 1. Andrew Donaldson; 2. Chris Davis; 3.
Mar tin Hulbert; 4. J. French; 5. M. Whitehead;
6. A. Asher
D - 1. Graham Owen; 2. Ralph Keeler; 3. David
Williams; 4. Oliver McPherson
E - 1. Tony Woodcock; 2. Mike Parker;3. Colin
Mannakee; 4. R. Jackaman; 5. A. Hicks; 6. D.
Worsfold
F - 1. Mick Ives; 2. Ken Haddon; 3. Brian Dacey
G - 1. Roger Smith; 2. Alan Preece; 3. Vic White
National C & D Road
Championships, Harworth, 27th
May
C - 1. Phil Axe; 2. Malcolm Whitehead; 3.
Steve Jolley.
D - 1. Tom Wilson; 2. Ralph Keeler; 3. Ed
Demery.
Supporting Races
A - 1. Dave Pratt; 2. Richard Hunt; 3. Russell
Hepton.
B - 1. Steve Marrows; Keith Middleton; 3.
Steve Davies.
Shaftesbury CC Races 27th May
Blackmore, Essex
Race 1 A/B
1. Edgar Medellin (B); 2. Eddie Adkins (B);3.
Costas Perides (B); 4. M. Meades (A); 5. M.
O’Grady (B); 6. A. Cullinane (A).
A - 1. M. Meades; 2. A. Cullinane; 3. B. Neal
B - 1. E. Medellin; 2. E. Adkins; 3. C. Perides
Race 2 C/D
1. Bill Butterworth (D); 2. Colin Bateman (C);3.
Barry Ford (C); 4. D. Griffiths (D); 5. S. Barnsley
(C); 6. M.Hulbert (C).
C - 1. C. Bateman; 2. B. Ford; 3. S. Barnsley
D - 1. B. Butterworth; 2. D. Griffiths; 3. D. Williams
Race 3 E/F/G
1. Mike Allen (E); 2. Richard Williamson (E);3.
Dave Smith (E); 4. P. Ryalls (F); 5. D. Woodings
(F); 6. R. Friend (E)
E - 1. M. Allen; 2. R. Williamson; 3. D. Smith
F - 1. P.Ryalls; 2. D.Woodings; 3. F. Little
G - 1. Mike Brushett; 2. Charles Wild
SE England Green Jersey Series
A - 1. Andrew Meilak; 2. Andrew Cullinane; 3.
Matt Seaton; 4. Craig Wilson; Ciclisti Vecchi;5.
Alan Parkinson; 6. Andrew Bates;
B - 1. Martin O’Grady; 2. Julian Cann; 3. Keith
Jarrett; 4. M. Docker;5. M. Quiney; 6. S. Wharton;
Finchley RT.
C - 1. Cliff Dent; 2. Mar tin Hulber t;3. Colin
Bateman; 4. D. Montgomerie; 5. M. McManus; 6.
Michael Lane
D - 1. Tony Woodcock (riding out of category); 2.
Ray Robinson; 3. Dave Griffiths; 4. D. Williams;
5. D. Woods; 6. R. Barrowclough
E - 1. Tony Coe; 2. Richard Friend;3. Tom McCall;
4. D. Smith; 5. R. Jackaman; 6. S. Lovatt
F - 1. Brian Dacey; 2. Mick Curtis;3. Roly Crayford
4. Tony Burnham
G - 1. Arnold Russell
NATIONAL CRITERIUM
CHAMPS, 2nd June, Darley
Moor
A Category1. Russ Bazeley; 2. Andy Tinsley
3. Chris Badell
B Category1. Tony Parkinson 2. Steve Davies;
3. Paul Stewart
C Category1. Steve Horsey; 2. Steve Jolley;
3. Rob Barlow
D Category1. John Watchman; 2. Steve
Davies; 3. Alan Kemp
E Category1. Mike Allen; 2. Terry Devine;
3. Dave Rutherford
F Category1. Ron Pyne; 2. Mick Ives; 3.
Derrick Woodings
G Category1. Brian Ellis; 2. Jack Watson; 3.
John Dowell
H Category 1. Pete Sandy
National Handicap
Championship, 9th June,
Henley-in-Arden
1. Jack Watson (G); 2. Peter Georgi (A); 3.
Martin Docker (A);4. Richard Lewis (A); 5.
Adrian Gautier (A); 6. John Herring (D); 7.
Don Parry (D); 8. Tony Woodcock (F); 9.
Giles Pidcock (A);10. Ron Pyne (F).
Enville RR, 10th June, West Midlands
Race 1 A/B/C 1. Barry Charley; 2. Steve Davies
@ 4.54; 3. Mac McGready; 4. A. Gautier, st. 5. S.
Jolley; 6. M Donnelly; 7. M. Parry; @ 4.59; 8.
S.Hall; @ 5.02; 9. T. Wood; 10. M. Farrar; st.
Category Winners
A B. Charley; B S. Davies; C M.McGready
Race 2 D/E/F/G
1. Alan Kemp; 2.19.05; 2. Roger Iddles @ 4secs;
3. Les West; @ 8secs; 4. M. Allen @ 20 secs; 5.
J. Watson; 6. P. Bayton; 7. J. Rowe; all st; 8. J.
Hughes; @ 35 secs; 9. M. Adams; 10. D.
Woodings; st.
Category Winners
D - Alan Kemp; E - Roger Iddles; F/G - Jack Watson
Follicly Challenged Races, 2nd June,
It’s all very well getting in 400 miles a week in the sun, but what do you do after the return from Mallorca in order to
develop the kind of speed you need for serious road racing? John Bettinson suggests a few methods.
Base training – what next?
John Bettinson
S
ome years ago the VL carried an
excellent piece where leading riders described their base training at
the start of the season. I’d hoped to see a
follow-up when they reveal the specific
speed-endurance training they do, but it
never appeared. So here’s my version.
I’ll begin with how I prepare to reach
that point in a suitable condition. I finish
off my ‘Period One’ bulk miles with two
weeks in Majorca, early March. Our little party has a set runs list with two rest
days, making three groups of rides within
which intensity racks up. This way I can
get in 1000 miles without any trauma.
We leave the hotel at 10:00, loaded up
with a couple of buns, an energy bar, a
750ml bottle and re-load sachet of carbohydrate. Oh! And Cetavlex smeared
round the bum parts. The speed is steady,
a high cadence, change at the front every
five miles. I try to keep to a pre-determined heart rate and focus on using, and
thus training up, only the correct muscle
groups. There’s always a short stop at
about half way. This element of control
keeps everybody happy and hopefully
we get 100% turnout again the next day.
It’s general knowledge that riders
should increase their mileage by no more
than 10% at a time. But when I set off
my body doesn’t know far I’m going today so, when I get to the point where it
has already been trained up to, it expects
to be back home. But it still has another
10 miles yet to do. It’s the bit that your
body doesn’t want to do that is actually
inducing the training effect. Unfortunately you have to do the 100 miles or
so just to get to this point. These are the
10 miles that should be done in immaculate style and at the upper end of Level
3. No hanging over the bars stuffed, nor
attacking down the opposite gutter in an
almighty lash-up. Just 500m each on the
front in a tidy line. I don’t hang about in
the bike shed – a little stretching, and up
to the room where there’s the chocolate
bar and bottle of carbo drink I astutely
left on the bedside table before I went
out. A bath is better than a shower for
easing saddle sores, followed, of course,
by a carefully applied dose of surgical
spirits. After a long Bacardi and Coke I
don’t want to do anything more until
mealtime, not even wash my kit. At
mealtime I walk along the servers to see
what’s on, and then plan a balanced meal
– and never too much. Yes. No matter how
much I eat, it’s never too much. I think of
every forkful as a nugget of goodness.
So much for basic conditioning. On
returning to the UK I allow myself a couple of easy days before any structured
speed work. There are many ways to do
speed work: reps., intervals, hill sprints,
fartlek, turbo and chaingang. I don’t care
for the chaingangs: with quickly throughand-off, the heart rate scarcely has time
to rise and the whole session becomes
almost steady state. Besides, the unruly
appearance creates a bad impression and
incenses other road users. I much prefer a
line-out, as if in a team time trial. It could
start with six riders but four is best – with
three I never recover quickly enough.
We each ride out from home and
group up on a favoured 7-mile circuit on
the coast, flat and quiet. We set off steady,
each doing 20 revs on the front and
swinging off. After each lap we take half
a mile to recover before we start again.
Next lap the pace gets more serious. And
the third lap each rider holds the speed
for as long as they can. ‘Hold it. Hold it.
Don’t crack. To that road sign. No. Beyond. To that gateway.’ Then ‘bang’, you
peel off, legs screaming, lungs gasping for
air, to slide onto the back. This way I’m
constantly nudging up my threshold and,
to some extent, the other lads are forcing me to do so through some kind of
peer pressure. I couldn’t make myself do
it so intensely and it’s probably 5mph
faster than if I was on my own.
Remember: in a line-out the speed is
uniform. You keep in the same gear, same
cadence. However the rider on the front
is cutting through the air whereas the
others aren’t. When he swings off the
next rider, suddenly catching the wind,
finds he has to put a lot more weight on
the pedals to maintain the speed. This,
in turn, loads the cardiovascular system,
which is what we seek. He should hold
his effort on the front as long as he possibly can, then peel off. If the riders behind start to freewheel then the chap on
the front should be told, ‘Get off the
front’. Don’t make the mistake of shouting at the second rider to ‘Get through’
as this will cause a disruptive jolt in the
speed. It doesn’t matter how long you’re
on the front, provided you are on as long
as you can hold the speed. Get it all out!
A few points to bear in mind. The rider
on the front determines the line in order
to avoid the hazards, and which side to
change. Not only is he working flat out,
he’s also giving the riders behind maximum recovery. Avoid coming off the front
and dropping back on a short incline as
it’s difficult to accelerate on to the last
rider again. A corner can be a good place
to change. Three or four laps is usually
enough. I’m starting to hate it by then.
Thank god we only do it once a week. If
you have never done a 100km TTT, believe me, it’s by far the hardest form of
racing you’ll ever do.
Quality work over, for those who have
got the time, it’s now time to ride gently
out to the café.
Page 19
Failure to learn the lessons of history can be expensive. Hopefully, as Dave Orford shows, it’s an error which the LVRC
has avoided — unlike some other cycling organisations he could name, if only he weren’t such a nice guy …
At your age!
T
VETERANS’ TIME-TRIAL ASSOCIATION cheek letter to the BCF asking where it was?
(VTTA) was 27 years ahead of any other Len Unwin replied on behalf of the BCF: ‘The
veteran cycle-racing organisation in the BCF have no veterans, and in our view, vetworld. Their age-related standard system has erans should not be racing, they should be
proved without doubt a winner. But as the helping the young’.
I photocopied Unwin’s disgraceful letter
bicycle improved over the years the older
riders began to have an unfair advantage. I and sent copies to people I knew personally
wrote frequently to the VTTA newsletter urg- in the Federation, along with a strongly-critiing the introduction of categories within the cal letter, stating that in 1971 I would proage standard system and the VTTA have in mote a ‘fully-open’ Veteran National Champart accepted this with 40 – 49; 50 – 59, 60 pionship without recourse to the BCF.
By return of post I was asked to send £20
– 69, and 70+. It is unfortunate that the VTTA
operate within the rules of the CTT, as they as the tender fee, plus all relevant details of
pay at the time of writing £240 in levies for a this initial British Veteran Road Championfull field of 120 riders, so prizes are limited – ship, won, incidentally, by Ken Jowett, exunlike the LVRC or TLI who are both self- Viking Cycles independent, with myself in
second place. There were 50 starters, with
supporting and independent.
We have Peter Duker to thank for bringing ex-BSA rider Stan Jones winning the age
to light what happened next, in Belgium in points category jersey. It amazed me that the
1970: the Ligue Velocipède Belge
(LVB) decided that as the UCI did not
recognise the veteran category (and
didn’t do so officially until 1995),
then the LVB would not issue racing
licences to any amateur over the age
of 35. Within weeks the WAOD,
based in Sint Niklaas, was formed
with categories 18 – 34, 35 – 44, 45
– 52, 53 – 60, plus a category for
riders unable to race at their age cat
level. Like the LVRC, they could also
transfer to an older category where
possible.
The WAOD president Alfons
Verbraecken was a friend of Duker’s
and he became a good friend of
mine, as we were both railway men. Dave, right, 70th birthday party
He came to my first promotion of the World BCF did not seem to know that the VTTA at
Cup TT Championship in 1991, and looking that time had around 4000 members. Obviround the village of Parwich he said, ‘Ah, you ously an organisation like the LVRC could
have a little bit of Belgium here’ – a great have come into being at that time, but we
were not ready for another upset like 1942,
compliment.
Verbraecken saw veteran racing really tak- when the BLRC brought UK cycling into the
ing off in East and West Flanders, with French, Twentieth Century, causing the mixture of
Dutch, German, and British all taking advan- love and hate which still rumbles on today.
Eleven years later, in 1982, Duker and Roy
tage of the non-UCI racing. Clearly a link-up
with other non-UCI bodies meant an inter- Cottingham got together, with the idea of
national body was called for. Originally the forming a new British cycling body similar to
Free Amateur Cycle Racing Association, it the WAOD. But it was September 1983 belater became the ICF which we have today. fore a meeting was held at which The League
When I asked what was meant by ‘free’, International (TLI) was formed, and another
Alfons said, ‘Why, free of the UCI, of course!’ year (October 1984) before I organised the
It’s amazing that England did not become first age-related TLI National Road Champiinvolved in 1970. But I only became a vet- onship for five veteran categories, on the
eran on 31st May of that year, and as there Longcliffe circuit in North Derbyshire.
was no veteran road race championship in
Meanwhile the BCF, having seen the writthe BCF Handbook, I wrote a tongue-in- ing on the wall, had formed their own vetHE
Page 20
Dave Orford
eran organisation, the VCRA; but they failed
to take notice of the age-related system; and
when I contacted the BCF about age categories some time before either the VCRA or TLI
had been formed, the BCF National Secretary, Brian Wotton, replied that ‘Veterans are
40+ and that’s it’. So it was Wotton’s arrogant attitude which prompted me to support
TLI right from the start.
Percy Stallard later joined TLI in 1985, and
promoted four age-related veteran meetings,
starting with Albrighton in April of 1985.
However Percy decided that as TLI were catering for all racing cyclists, not just veterans,
then the BCF and TLI would forever be at
war, with threats being regularly issued by
the Federation in the pages of Cycling Weekly.
So in 1986, along with Eddie Cook, Percy
formed the LVRC, and for many years there
were four races at all LVRC meetings,
meaning that all road racing veterans
at all ages were catered for.
Sadly, twenty-one years on, at many
LVRC meetings there are only two
events, meaning that four categories
are lumped together, which in the
older riders’ event, the 70+ riders are
virtually non-existent. Even three races
at meetings do not do the job correctly.
By now the VCRA, acting as instructed
by the BCF had become a failure, and
it was ironic that BC decided to ignore their own veteran VCRA group
and make a bid to take over the very
success of LVRC. At the LVRC AGM
this was of course rejected by the
members after a disgusted Secretary
of the VCRA complained in writing about the
way the VCRA had been treated by the parent body.
The BCF went to great lengths to add the
LVRC to their ranks. A BCF Gold Badge holder
joined the LVRC and became the editor of
the Veteran Leaguer. Without telling anyone
in the LVRC that his plan was to use the journal gradually to create a situation whereby it
would be in the members’ interests for the
LVRC to become part of the BCF. As someone who had taken a lot of stick from the
BCF, and had been suspended by the RTTC
for belonging to bodies like TLI and LVRC in
the 1980s, I was very angry at this guy’s nerve.
I realised what was going on when he refused to print my articles in the magazine.
Later he admitted his infiltration on behalf of
the BCF to Nev Ashman, the LVRC Secretary
at that time.
When the Editor came across tinned cod’s roe as a cure for ‘cycling-induced impotence’ he thought it might be just
codswallop, but it turned out to be a whole different can of worms …
Trust me – I’m a Doctor
D
R THOMAS STUTTAFORD writes socalled ‘medical’ advice for The
Times. In January a reader sent me
one piece. A Londoner who rides to work
every day, out of the saddle for the whole
40 minutes, has a painful shoulder. Is it
the cycling that’s causing it and will it be
permanent?
The doctor replies:
British people who bicycle to work look
upon the time spent commuting in the
same way as Americans think of their
workout or visit from their personal trainer.
For the London cyclist the road doubles
up as their gym and, regardless of other
road users, the bicycle becomes part of
his gymnasium apparatus. As daily, or
near-daily, exercise, even when it has a
competitive edge and is moderately violent, it is beneficial to the cardiovascular
system, metabolism and weight control,
and it seems mean-spirited to discourage
cycling. There is an alternative that would
be equally helpful to cardio-respiratory
systems and metabolic health but would
have the advantage that it wouldn’t damage joints from excessive wear and tear.
It might even reduce the appalling casualty rate of cyclists – nine times that of
motorists.
The alternative is for UK cyclists to emulate those who bicycle to work in northern European cities. In Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm and any northern
German town during the rush hour you can
see bicycling at its clinical best The commuters are dressed in office clothes as
they bicycle along at 10 to 12 miles an
hour on machines that haven’t altered in
50 years. The exercise they provide meets
the medical aims of being regular, steady
and vigorous, without being violent and
competitive. As a result their joints benefit rather than suffer, hearts and lungs are
kept youthful, waists are svelte and, since
the bicycle seats are comfortable, bottoms
and crotches are not damaged.
Our correspondent probably has a bicycle with a seat as thin and narrow as its
tyres. A narrow, racing-bicycle seat is not
only very uncomfortable, but can cause
pressure on the skin and on the nerves of
the perineum that run in the subcutaneous tissue beneath the skin. Unfortunately
this pressure can cause serious damage
in both sexes. Regular riding of a nearracing bicycle may cause impotence in a
man from the pressure a narrow seat exerts on the perineal nerves.
Four years ago the BMJ reported on a
series of cases which illustrated that
women may also suffer chronic damage
and ulceration to their perineums and vulvas from racing cycles. The skin and subcutaneous tissue becomes chronically inflamed, recurrently infected and eventually scarred and permanently swollen.
Not very deeply buried under this inaccurate, ignorant, prejudiced and just
plain wrong drivel is a closet anti-cyclist:
we’re accused of disregarding other road
users, and we, not careless motorists, are
responsible for our own deaths on the
road. His complete ignorance of cycling
doesn’t prevent him holding the most
forthright opinions – after all, he’s a doctor. I wrote to the paper and the doctor
pointing out that in 55 years of cycling
I’d never met anyone who suffered from
any complaint caused by the saddle other
than furuncles and boils, usually the result of inadequate hygiene. I pointed out
that racing saddles could hardly be uncomfortable if tens of thousands of racing cyclists covered distances up to 250
miles in a day on them; that the sit-upand-beg position he advocates puts the
spine and back muscles in a bad position; and that wide saddles may cause
chafing. The Times didn’t print my comment. I e-mailed the doctor. An automated reply told me he doesn’t reply.
Within a week came another piece by
the good doctor, this time via Dave
Orford who’d found it in a magazine
called The Oldie (no, really). A 76-yearold found that ‘his sexual prowess was
eroded by excessive bicycling’. But he’s
now eating hard cod’s roe (tinned) and
is ‘now again having nocturnal and morning erections’. Not only that, he’s also
Ray Minovi
noticed that his local supermarket is selling out of the roe – I tell you, you couldn’t
make this up. Cod’s roe? Codswallop.
The doctor takes it as a given that cycling really did make his correspondent
impotent, and once again the saddle is
to blame:
The injury from bicycling is interesting as
it only occurs when the saddle is narrow,
as it is in a racing cycle. Racing saddles
are so shaped that their edges press upon
the nerve and blood supply of the penis.
As a result there have been many anecdotal reports of racing bicyclists becoming impotent. Fortunately, the trouble is
reversible once the racing cyclist swaps
the saddle on his bike for an old-fashioned
broader design. The standard textbook of
erectile dysfunction warns that although
impotence following many activities have
been scientifically researched, the problems caused by too narrow a saddle have
never been subjected to analysis in a peer
reviewed journal.
You’ll notice that Dr S avoids serious
enquiry by admitting that there’s no reliable scientifically-obtained evidence.
Now I know men aren’t going to rush
around telling people they’re impotent,
whatever the reason, but it’s odd that in
all my years as a cyclist (and a coach)
I’ve never heard of a single instance; and
a lot of the male cyclists I’ve known have
been fathers, so something must be working all right. However, I Googled the
Internet with some of the above key
words (not including cod’s roe) and was
amazed to find screeds of stuff, nearly all
from Americans, detailing the horrific
effects of bicycle saddles on your tender
bits, with pictures, and listing hundreds
of men whose sex lives had been destroyed by the evils of cycling.
So if anyone out there can offer reliable testimony that they or anyone
close to them has suffered in any of the
ways detailed by Dr S, please, please
let me hear from you. You can write
anonymously: I have no wish to name
names. V
Page 21
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Editor at 45 Augusta Road, Moseley, Birmingham B13 8AE, or email to [email protected] by
Please submit your entry in writing
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For its qualified coaches the ABCC provides
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Photo: Steve Haines
Results of Competition 1/2007
jersey design began to seem less attractive.
Jeff Matthews
Jamaica enjoys the publicity of its first
Rastafarian Professional in a fine solo
breakaway.
I really must do something about my hair
before the season starts. Paul Trueman
I see Mick’s found another way of taking a
short cut. Anon
A record number of entries (27) for this
one
And that, children, is how one of the heroes
of the Tour de France achieved a great moral
victory!
What? It’s rich in carbohydrate isn’t it?
Some people are happy to find a needle in a
haystack – I’ve got a whole bicycle!
What’s odd about it? I always let my hair and
beard grow in winter.
Undesirable side-effects of overdosing on
human growth hormone.
Eric Dyer
And now, this week’s celebrity cyclist: Roy
Wood of Wizard!
Stuart McKellar
‘There’s no doubt about it, that hair restorer
really works!’
Martin Hackley
As Floyd approached the bottom of the
Galibier the new sponsor’s stipulation on
Page 22
Won’t someone tell him about Energy Bars?
He’ll find time for the barbers once he starts
tapering. John Bettinson
‘What idiot put hair restorer in my bottle?’
An extreme measure taken by a rider to
conceal advertising in a BCF road race
Always observe the direction a marshal is
indicating.
Brian Bulmer
Been so busy training I haven’t had time to
visit the barber’s lately
This HGH don’t half make yer air grow quick!
Hay up!
That chap from the Wibbly Wheelers is a bit of
a grass
Chris Higgs
I hope the ‘B....y’ hairdresser is open this time!
Dave Fleming
And the winner is Joe Rowe, Wyre Forest
CRC, for: ‘This cycling around the world is
OK, but after two years I think I need a
hair cut.’
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BIKELINE
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Page 23
From John Leitch
If the biggest headache for organisers
on the day of a road race is judging the
finish… then we should remove it.
So come on, how about we all show
more vision over the range of possibilities when it comes to looking at ways
of collecting race results? At the
moment we riders dump the task
squarely on to the shoulders of the race
organiser. Not just that, but we expect
perfection. To make things worse, we
also clamour for speed, for a quick
announcement.
But this is a total nonsense: we
should be grateful for anyone who
steps forward and organises a race. We
should be giving them chocolates and
bunches of flowers….not unnecessary
hassle.
The unruly bickering over whocame-where in a 30-man bunch sprint
that was stuffed to the gunnels with
wheel-suckers, is the one task that
many an organiser would most like to
do without. He’d jump at the chance
to pass on if he only could.
And why shouldn’t he? Why not
make the riders themselves responsible
for result gathering?
Here’s how it would go:
Step 1.
The organiser prepares a large
sheet of blank paper beforehand,
or possibly one with a row of large
numbers down the left, and it’s
posted up somewhere - in the
changing room, perhaps, or even
out on the roadside, in a safe, stopand-gather area some 300m-400m
beyond the finish line, with an
official next to it handing out pens.
Step 2
Each rider rolls up and notes down
the number of the guy finishing
one ahead of him. It’s a shared
responsibility.
It’s all so easy. Well, to me it is….
apart from the mangy dogs who
like to cause problems, who get to
arguing, probably over some minor
place like 25th.
I can just see them. ‘I beat you,’’
says the one angrily. ‘No you
didn’t, you lying pig, I just got a bit
of speed and inched you out!’
Louder words follow, then a bit of
pushing.
Step 3
The official gives them 30 seconds
to settle their dispute, and then
blows a whistle. Loud. So we all
Page 24
hear it and start to gather up, as a
whistle means fun. It means a rerun for the snapping dogs, Alf and
Pete. They are escorted 500m back
down the circuit and let loose by
officialdom. We shout encouragement or abuse, whatever. It’s a free
world. They’re a couple of clowns
providing entertainment.
Three refinements come to mind:
Officials retain the task of
officially placing the first three
riders home – after all there’s
wine and petty cash at stake.
Any rider involved in two rideoffs in a season gets a slap on
the head, made to wear a fancy
pointed hat with a bell on the
top and is told to start the next
race 5min behind the bunch.
When there’s a ride-off to run,
then the pair of riders who
finished the race in the two
places behind the warring
couple having the little dingdong get the chance to join in
the extra-time contest, thereby
presenting the possibility, at the
end of the whole process, that
they get a bonus… while the
two in dispute end up with less
than they bargained for.
From Joe Rowe
Unlike the road, BC tend to cater quite
well for Cyclo Cross, once again the
vets outnumbering all other categories.
I know that Terry Wilkins has promoted an LVRC CX champs race in
early January with limited response.
Could we get some discussion going re
an LVRC CX Champs in September in
the Midlands? The advantage of this is
that people are still racing, courses
tend to be dry and people contemplating could even ride on a winter bike/
training bike. It would be good to try
and expand the LVRC from purely road
racing.
Such a discussion would inevitably
involve people who are already doing
all they can for cycle sport, of course.
If you can find some new promoters
and helpers, Joe, everyone would be
in your debt. Ed.
From Norman Bright (LVRC member
for 14 years, having promoted over
100 races)
I’ve sent emails and letters to Mike
Humphreys asking for an interview for
Af ter the Event, but have never
received a reply. Now that docklands
is a failure, owing principally to the
crass stupidity of BC’s executive with
the help of Newham council, Mike is
asking me to assist his attempt to sue
the mighty London Development
Agency (LDA) – not a task to be
undertaken lightly. I wish Mike the best
of British but he will have to do it
without my money. What happens if
he fails in his bid to restore Eastway to
its former glory? Is it no win no fee? All
in all I do blame not only BC but LDA,
Lee Valley Parks and Newham Council.
If there were a prize for gross mis–
management the competition amongst
these heavily-funded public bodies
would be tight!
South of England Cycling Association
(which has only two members, myself
and Andy Lyons) has quietly pursued a
licence to promote at North Weald. I
sent an e-mail to LDA and discussed
the matter with Trevor Mills who
promotes BC at local level. My idea was
to offer Epping Forest DC (a local
authority which takes sport and leisure
seriously) an opportunity to have
repairs paid for by LDA . Of course the
idea was too simple, made too much
sense, so was turned down. Wages,
expenses and time was lost in London,
while Essex, only a few miles away from
the LDA, was a circuit too far, even
though Epping Forest is managed by the
city of London 20 miles away. I would
not be surprised if at least £5000 has
been written off following the failure
to bring the docklands into play. Has
the money been spent on wages?
Why did Eastway crash? A simple
answer is that no one made any money
out of Eastway, neither Lee Valley nor
many clubs. I lost £200 last year! The
most sensible remark I heard was that
of a Sport England official who sincerely
tried to help me but had neither the
clout nor the funds: ‘Local people will
fight tooth and nail for their local
facilities. Sports men and women
merely shrug their shoulders and move
on somewhere else.’
I would add to that: ‘Most bike riders
want every thing organised for them,
paying the absolute minimum’. An
LVRC race costs the rider as little as £6.
Try to get into a so-called charity ride
for that – some events cost a minimum
of £2000 sponsorship.
I recently asked riders to write to
Epping . Riders could express any
sentiments from disappointment that in
2006 we had no events, to a hope that
in 2007 we would return. I doubt if
anyone wrote. Last year’s Region 9
AGM attracted twenty riders out of 500
members. Is this support? Peter Wilson,
chairing the meeting , wanted to
pressure riders. I supported him, but
he was voted down.
What kind of a movement is it that
ensures they get everything they want
at minimum cost and no effort?
The ultimate road
movie
miles of cable, making the technological
circus possible; the vast logistics, the giant caravan on the move from dawn to
dusk and through the night; the no-nonsense-don’t-mess-with-me-gendarmes.
Most fascinating for many will be the
riders and their helpers off the bike:
Klöden’s wretchedness as he tries to continue after his early crash, and his ultimate retirement; Alldag and Zabel in
their room, worn but optimistic; the exhausted riders sleeping fitfully as the huge
team bus makes an overnight transfer;
Dieter Ruthenberg demonstrating the
masseur’s art and his other vital role as
confidant, the one guy to whom you can
tell everything.
But the film also follows Ullrich in the
only year when he seriously looked like
threatening Armstrong. He’s riding for
Bianchi now, but he’s still Telekom’s boy,
and his struggle with the American absorbs their interest as much as the
achievement of their own rider,
Vinokourov, in his best-ever season.
There’s no commentary or voice-over,
just the sound of the Tour and the people in it. Most of the dialogue – Klöden,
Ruthenberg, Zabel, Alldag – is in German, plus French cycling historian Serge
Laget in his native language, all with excellent, clear and legible sub-titles. Particularly interesting , especially for
coaches, is the long section in which the
team manager talks the riders through the
whole of the team-time-trial route like a
rally navigator.
Additional features include more clips
of behind-the-scenes stuff, and a very
nice collection of still photos. Direction,
photography, and editing are all masterly.
It’s the ultimate road movie.
RM
Hell on Wheels: video. Directed by Pepe
Danquart. Bromley Video 2007. 120
minutes, plus 30 minutes extras, £23.99.
From Bromley Video Entertainment, Ten
Acre Farm, Stonehill Road, Ottershaw,
Surrey KT16 0AQ. Phone: 01932879940.
Email: [email protected]
I FIRST READ about Danquart’s film in
2004 in the German magazine Stern and
Bromley have again performed a valuable service for British cyclists by making
this superb DVD available to British audiences. This is one of the few really great
films about sport. The only cycling films
that stand comparison are A Sunday in
Hell and Louis Malle’s Pour un Maillot
Jaune. You want the Tour de France – its
failures, its triumphs, its ambience, its flavour? – this is it.
Danquart chose the 2003 Tour to follow the T-Mobile team, in particular Erik
Zabel, the team’s great sprinter, expected
to challenge once again for the Green
Jersey, and Rolf Alldag, the team’s great
workhorse. To this extent it’s a buddy
movie: Erik and Rolf have been roommates on the Tour (and, presumably,
other Tours) for eleven years. ‘It’s a kind
of marriage,’ Zabel says. He’s the comedian to Alldag’s straight man; Morecambe
and Wise, not Thelma and Louise.
But their partnership is only a part of
the film. All Tour life is there. Danquart
has intercut the film of the 2003 Tour –
shot in a faded colour, reminiscent of
hand-tinted photos – with scenes in black
and white from Tours as far back as the
early Twenties, so creating that delicate
sense of time lost and then recaptured.
Proust on wheels. Then there’s the behind-the-scenes Tour, the army of workers re-shaping the furniture of the Tour
route, building the Tour village – now
almost a city – daily, making sense of the
Battle of the Bikes and On Yer Bike: videos. Bromley Video 2007. Double DVD
set, 230 minutes total. £22.99. From
Bromley Video Entertainment.
WE HAVE HERE two quite different disks.
The first shows two professionally-made
films made to the highest production
values, one on the mid-90s rivalry between Boardman and Obree, the second
a portrait of the Scotsman. For a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles it’s the odd
moments that strike – Obree welding in
his workshop, Boardman at the Eureka
Café, the off-the-bike stuff in the track
centre. The great head-to-head at
Newtonards, combined with the ‘50’
Champs on the other disk, emphasise the
strange and unique quality of British
time-trialling, especially when set against
the GP des Nations, in which both competed. It’s tempting to see the hand of
the media in setting up an artificial rivalry – the great calculating machine versus the force of nature – but there’s little
doubt that the two men really do come
from different planets. It’s our good fortune that we were around to see their
close encounters, and that we can buy
this record of the event.
The second disk is more variable. The
tape of his British Hour Record at Herne
Hill and the pursuit final are good stuff,
the RTTC ‘50’ title gets going when
Graeme gets off the bike, and Doug
Dailey is worth listening to; Obree talking
about a film is less gripping, and I’d prefer
to hear Phil O’Connor talking about
photography. But because of his
personality – open, completely lacking
in vanity, and his astounding achievements – anything with Obree in it is likely
to be interesting and intriguing. As usual
with Bromley, everything is produced to
the highest standards. Enjoy.
RM
Twelve Champions: Peter Whitfield.
Wychwood 2007. 260 pages paperback,
£11.99. No ISBN.
PETER WHITFIELD’S FIRST book, The Condor Years, was greeted by those lucky
enough to read it as a unique, well-written and lavishly-illustrated record of Britain’s domestic racing scene from the end
of the war until the Millennium. His new
book expands the lives and careers of a
dozen of those who, despite their great
achievements, could be spared only limited space in the earlier history. Given
the limit of twelve, few of us will want to
quarrel with the selection: Eileen
Sheridan, Crimes and Arnold, Booty,
Colden, West, Roach, Griffiths, Engers,
Cammish and Beryl Burton. What do
they have in common? All of them are
or were extraordinary people and extraordinary athletes and for me one of
the great pleasures of the book is the
emphasis on their uniqueness, in marked
Page 25
contrast to the current tabloid obsession
with ordinariness. Yes, Eileen was possibly the second ‘Housewife Superstar’
(after Fanny Blankers-Koen), but there
was absolutely nothing ordinary about
her physical and mental abilities, and she
must count as one of the most remarkable of all endurance athletes. Her
achievements were wonderful, but what
could she have done today, a full-time
athlete with proper support and backing?
Because even though she turned professional for Hercules to attack road
records, she shares with all the others in
this book (and despite their being ‘home’
professionals) an approach to cycling that
is fundamentally amateur, a love of the
sport. Who could have been greater
amateurs than John Arnold or Ray Booty?
Sheridan, Arnold, Booty, West, Barras
are easy-going, laid back, taking their
successes apparently in their stride. But
some of the others are further along the
continuum towards the quest for ultimate
perfection, obsession even. Frank
Colden, afflicted by multiple food allergies, showed what single-minded dedication could do, and having achieved his
goal left the sport for good. Alf Engers’
obsessive pursuit of the 25-mile record
is as well-known as his fights with the
RTTC officials whose attempts to get him
off the road were equally obsessive. Indeed, British race officials come pretty
badly out of most of the stories: the
shameful non-selection of Les West for
Tokyo, a Sheridan record disallowed because there had been advance publicity
(for a professionally-sponsored event!),
the difficulties experienced by anyone at
all out of the ordinary run (Engers, Roach,
Griffiths). Officials in both governing bodies were concerned more about their
own bit of power than the needs of cyclists, selection was based on nepotism,
and Britain lost many of its potential internationals to the RTTC.
Most remarkable of all is the tragic figure of Beryl Burton, arguably the finest
athlete the world has ever seen, whose
determination became obsessive to the
point of destruction. It’s difficult to quarrel with Whitfield’s chapter title: ‘A Life
Sacrificed’.
Everyone could add more champions:
Holmes, Bradley, Metcalfe, Longland, the
amazing Peter Hill. But for the time being you’ll have to make do with this outstanding work.
Ray Minovi
Dancing Uphill: Frances Holland. M
& N Publishing 2007. 176 pages paperPage 26
back, £12.99. ISBN978-0-9555676-0-5
EVERYONE KNOWS THAT Charlie Holland
was the first Briton to ride, completely
unsupported, in the Tour de France, performed heroically, and was only prevented from finishing by a lack of spare
tyres – and that’s all most people know.
Fortunately for us his daughter has written this account of Charlie, a natural athlete and one of four cycling brothers. His
career centred on time-trialling grasstrack racing, and NCU circuit events, and
on the back of this he rode in the 1932
and 1936 Olympics, won the 1936
BBAR, turned pro and got invited to the
Tour. Much of the material is his own account, assembled from diaries and letters. Like so many of his contemporaries, of course, his best years were lost to
the war. But the tough Midlander was a
genuine cyclist: when he was finally allowed to race again as an amateur (in
1968!) he returned to time-trials and won
the 1974 Vets BAR.
This is not a great literary work, but it
is an enjoyable read, and, more important, an invaluable record of an outstanding rider of the highest class whose
achievements, through no fault of his
own, fell short of his great potential. Excellent production, profusely illustrated,
useful index, and an essential addition
to any cycling library.
RM
It wasn’t that Easy: Tom Godwin. John
Pinkerton Memorial Publishing Fund,
2007. 200 pages paperback. ISBN978-09552115-5-3 All funds to the John Pinkerton
Memorial Fund. £16.50 inc p & p, cheques
to V-CC from [email protected] or direct
from Tom on 01564-739650.
IN HIS 87TH YEAR it’s good to have this
personal account of Tom Godwin’s life
in and around the sport in which he has
spent his entire life, as rider (two Olympic bronze medals), bike shop owner,
manager, coach, and ambassador for cycling. A biography by another hand might
have been bland, but Tom’s own voice
comes through strongly, speaking of a
world very different from that which we
now inhabit, offering us an insider’s view
of times and mores both better and
worse, than our own.
The core is Godwin’s own childhood
and subsequent career in cycling. The
sheer hardship of an ordinary life then
will be incomprehensible to most Britons under forty. Born in the US in comfort and relative prosperity, then dragged
back to a wretched suburban existence
in 1930s England which he describes as
‘degrading’, it’s not surprising that Tom
developed into a self-reliant youth.
He holds little back. He loved his father, but presents the old man warts and
all – a chancer, gambler and fixer, innately
dishonest, whose insistent mismanagement of Tom’s career probably deprived
his son of world championships.
Being himself, like Hamlet, ‘free of all
contriving’, Tom seems to have been
identified as a victim by those less scrupulous: manoeuvred out of a job promotion, imposed upon by a business
partner, cheated of prizes by his own father, rejected for international selection
when national champion, cheated out of
victories by NCU officials who raised
chicanery to an art. He beat most of his
contemporaries, including, on occasions,
Reg Harris, the consummate non-amateur, whom he despised as a man while
respecting his athletic abilities. Reg would
do pretty well anything to win, buying
races, faking injuries and mechanical
problems. Reg’s soigneur Louis Guer–
lache, offered Tom ‘a little help’ at a
World Championships and stormed out
when Tom said ‘no’, presumably unable
to remain in a room with a man who
tested negative for cheating.
Tom could be obstinate, never suffered
fools gladly, yet he is also a man of great
charm. Cosseted as a young rider, he
was branded as ‘difficult’ when officials
found he could think for himself, a pattern repeated when he became a manager and coach. He would be in, then
out, then in again. Poorly-funded teams
tottered from triumph to disaster. Team
managers had no say in selection, and a
climate of ‘anything goes’ was inimical
to a serious man for whom self-discipline
was almost a fetish.
But Tom ran the first British training
camp in Mallorca and the first Track
Course at Lilleshall, founded the Birmingham RCC, and trained and mentored a
generation of British track riders, many
of whom won national and international
titles and medals, and still thank him for
what he did for them.
Godwin remains, in defiance of the
proverb, a prophet honoured in his own
city. Harris sold all his trophies for cash
and ended broke and cashless. Godwin,
essentially an amateur, considered sport
its own reward and never sold the trophies which evoke so many memories.
He was, it seems, in those days that rarity, now quite extinct, a man of honour.
Fine production, illustrated with numerous photos, useful index. RM
Come to the beautiful département of the Aude
Minervois Maisons
Proprietors: Chris & Helen Remnant (ex. VC Meudon & LVRC)
Self-catering holidays in village houses and gîtes. Quiet
roads with varied terrain, suitable for all abilities, ideal
for training or just pottering.
Accommodation: each house sleeps up to 6 and has all the
usual facilities. Linens included.
We offer:
Itineried routes
Guided rides
Rides with local Clubs
Racing
Epreuves cyclo-sportives
La Tuilerie, Route de St Pons, Travers de Belveze,
11120 Bize-Minervois, France
Telephone:
or
00 33 (0)4 68 46 56 41
00 33 (0)6 89 61 06 88
E-mail: [email protected]
And when you’ve finished
cycling for the day, why not
sample the local wines from
the producers. Wine-tasting
trips can also be arranged.
‘Thank you for showing me the quiet roads of this
hilly area. Pity the roads in Surrey aren’t like
that!’ Alex Atkins, Evans Cycles RT
Cycling in
Provence
(South of France)
We are an English couple living in a large, Provençal style country house with walled garden and large swimming pool.
The house has been renovated to include 4 large, self-catering apartments in the village of ORGON, set in the Durance
valley 25 km south of Avignon.
We can offer superb cycling routes for training, touring and VTT, covering the Luberon National Park and The Alpilles.
Secure parking and cycle storage is available. Individuals and groups are welcome. Open from March to end of
October. Special price of £85 per person per week is offered to cyclists during October and from March to
third week in May.
For further information and brochure contact:
Mike Grayson, Mas de Bazarde,
6 Route de Bazardes, 13660 Orgon, France.
Telephone & Fax: 00.33.4.90.73.09.73
Website: www.masdebazarde.com
e-mail: [email protected]
Page 27
The Coaching Page
The cost of exercise
L
IKE LUNCH, EXERCISE
is never free –
there’s a cost, and we pay it in en–
ergy. How long and hard we can
exercise depends on our level of fitness
and the duration and intensity of the exercise. The fitter we are, the more efficiently our physiology functions; and the
kind of exercise determines which of our
three different energy systems we employ. They are:
1. The ATP-Pcr system, which provides enough for a 15-second burst.
2. The glycolitic system which uses
glucose and keeps us going for
about two minutes. Both of these
systems are anaerobic – that is, they
occur without oxygen being
present, which is why, after a couple of minutes, you run into oxygen debt. The only way to recover
is to slow down or stop.
3. The aerobic system, in which we
use oxygen to burn fuel and generate energy; this is the system we use
for continuous endurance exercise.
By-products of energy production are
lactic acid and its salt, lactate. At rest
the level of lactic acid in our muscles may
be as low as 1 unit. In aerobic exercise
lactic acid accumulates slowly but in very
intense exercise it can quickly rise as high
as 25 units, accumulating in the muscle,
causing pain which we usually experience as a burning sensation in the muscle, and eventually forcing us to reduce
or stop exercising. Training raises the level
at which we can continue to exercise.
Exercise physiologists talk about the ‘lactate threshold’, the point above which
lactate begins to accumulate in the blood
above the resting level. The higher this
threshold is in any athlete, the better will
be his or her endurance performance.
The most effective known method of raising this threshold is interval training.
Following exercise, during the recovery period, our muscles get rid of the
excess lactic acid. Contrary to popular
belief this takes only a short time, about
half an hour. Several techniques are
widely supposed to help in the dispersal
of lactic acid. One of them is massage.
However, research has repeatedly shown
that, whatever the benefits of massage
Page 28
may be, removing lactic acid is not one
of them. Even lying down with your feet
up is more effective; but active recovery
is better than passive, because it promotes blood flow in the muscles, bringing oxygen and nutrients. For cyclists the
best thing is to ride slowly and easily, pedalling gently but not too fast – say twenty
minutes at 12 mph on a 42 x 17.
Riders will often complain about muscle soreness a day or even two days after
intense exercise, and describe it as ‘lactic acid’. It isn’t. Sports scientists call it
‘delayed-onset muscle soreness’
(DOMS), and it’s most probably caused
by structural damage and inflammatory
reactions in the muscle fibres. A period
of active recovery is needed for the body
to repair the damage and restore normal
muscle function. This is why, following a
hard race or training session, you may
need one or two days recovery. Again,
active is better than passive, but should
be easy: an hour’s riding at village policeman pace, pedalling a fairly low gear
at around 75 rpm, for instance. Walking
is good recovery exercise, too.
If you continue to exercise at high volume, or high intensity, or both, without
adequate recovery, then you’ll become
chronically fatigued, and that fatigue will
be reflected in poorer performances. In
these circumstances athletes often imagine that training even longer and harder
will pay off, but they find that it only
makes things worse. When your performance falls below what you could do when
virtually untrained, then you’re severely
overtrained and may need a long spell
out of competition in order to recover
properly.
Training uses up all your glycogen, depletes all your systems, causes muscle
damage, tires your nervous system, and
so on. Figure 1 shows this as a dip below
the base line. During recovery your body
overcompensates for the harm you’ve
done: repairing muscle damage, making
good all the losses, such as glycogen, and
taking you above your original baseline.
Next time you train, you’re a bit fitter, so
during recovery, you don’t dip so far; and
so on (figure 2). Insufficient recovery, on
the other hand (figure 3), results in a cy-
cle of fatigue. The other extreme is too
much recovery: too long a period between training sessions means your body
overcompensates, then lets down to
where you were before (figure 4). This is
why training has to be both progressive
and individual. Training schedules produced for all and sundry can be misleading: the right level of training and the
length of the recovery period for you is
very much a matter of trial and error.
Figure 1: General training cycle
Training
stimulus
Supercompensation
Involution
Recovery
Fatigue
Figure 2: Adaptation to repeated training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Performance
improvement
Figure 3: Overtraining – fitness decreases
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Decline in
performance
Figure 4: Too much time between training
sessions
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Training
stimulus
Involution

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