Season 2006: Mostly good, a little bad but always agreeable

[Toks]

Ok here's your chance to tell everyone about your season. Cut and paste using my format or just tell us what it was like for you.

Goals: Make 2nd cat as Road Racer, try and go under the hour in a TT, start coaching other riders and get gold in the Etape…All achieved accept for not attempting a 25 TT and getting an Etape entry

Training Approach and Philosophy

Not too many ‘happy go lucky’ long endurances rides for me. They’re generally short moderately intensive rides (loads and loads of 2X20's threshold intervals).

My Best Race/Ride: Coming 2nd at Crystal Palace and surpisingly 'the falling leaves ride' until I got lost

My Worst Race/Ride: Crashing at Eastway (twice); Hillingdon, got in a breakaway on the 2nd lap then quit the race after four laps

Best ACC Road Racer: Tim Harris (4th Cat to 2nd Cat in one season shows pure class)

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Its Gotta be RichV’s stonking 19mins+ 10mile TT ride. And any of those record breaking rides by Tamar (I thought she wasn’t bothering this year )

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Remember this name, Erick Rowsell (15 at the time) I tried to mark him out of a race once at Palace and near the end he rode me completely off his wheel... Dave K in the 4up TT - smooth as butter baby!!. Paulo Bettini’s world Championship Win. Fantastic!!

Favourite Club Riders: Alan Marlarkey, not only a thoroughly agreeable chap but always willing to have a go no matter what the event. George - he's just got a great attidude

Seasons Low Point: The four cyclists who were killed in Wales. The drug scandals Ullrich and Basso not riding the tour, then Floyd Landis testing positive. Not getting an Etape entry and wishing I did more club runs

Most Improved Racers: Tim, Sylvain, Keiran, Matt, Jack, Jon, Rich and Tamar

Best Racing Debut: Steve The shadow - winning his first race ever at Hillingdon

Most improved Club Riders: Not sure I haven’t been around much on club runs but Stu the Bianchi boys sounds a bit useful

Favourite ACC event: The members only club road race of course

Best Forum Bits: The Hillingdon Thread, The adventures of the TT boys (Rich, Jon and Terry), The World Cup thread, Club Run Ride reports, and Huw Williams Scottish Etape report

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs: Not taking risks at the end of races and jumping away; missing crucial breakaways, and not doing the Dragon ride

Best seasons Quotes
Dave K in the 4up TT " everyone do a minute on the front"

Paul Tunnel in the ACC road race after being dropped 3 times: "Bloody Hell they're good"

Jon, London Cyclesport, when I was struggling at Palace in August "His lost his Zip"

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Tim, Yohan and Ian Munnery

King and Queens of Pain RichV, Jon Hemming, Rob and anyone else who did the 12 hour, RichV in Marmotte and Etape adventures, Maria's week long cyclosportiv Stage Race, Sylvain in Enduro madness, Huw in Scottish Etape Epic and I think Andy in the Iron Man

Who do we look out for next year? Andrew Green (that man looks hungry for success). Simon (3rd cat) looks very stong, Paul D, Ajay despite imminent fatherhood, he will finally make 3rd cat.

[Jon H]

Goals: PB’s at all TT distances, finish a 12 hour TT, improve on last year’s Spoco SE placing. All achieved.

Training Approach and Philosophy: Commuting to work most days, turbo work, shedloads of races, and occasional foray out into the Kent countryside to retain some sanity.

My Best Race/Ride: A tie between 20:51 for 10 miles having only gone under 22 minutes once before, and beating all those pesky Paragon folks in the inter-club TT which was my first ever win.

My Worst Race/Ride: Packing after the first lap of the national TT championship when I just couldn’t get going at all.

Best ACC Road Racer: Tim Harris.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Richard & Tamar.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Fabien Cancellara kicking ass in the world TT championship.

Favourite Club Riders: Haven’t been on a club run this year, so can’t really comment.

Seasons Low Point: Richard doing his 19 minute 10, just when I thought I’d got the 10 mile trophy sewn up.

Most Improved Racers: Dunno.

Best Racing Debut: The Shadow

Most improved Club Riders: Dunno.

Favourite ACC event: Our open 25 TT.

Best Forum Bits: Road race reports from Marek & Toks. How you guys remember all that detail lap by lap I just don’t know.

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs: Should have gone under 2 hours for a 50.

Best seasons Quotes: Some yank (allegedly) "This ginger goatee is really cool. If I just take some testosterone I should be able to grow the full beard"

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Dunno.

King and Queens of Pain: Sportive Huw

Who do we look out for next year? Dominic Lowe, a man on a full TT season mission.

[kieran]

Goals: Try out racing and not crash, do the long version of the Gran Fondo Cymru thingy. Do better in the Dragon ride. Did three but not the dragon ride a DNS for that event.

Training Approach and Philosophy

None at first, then short intervals, then Tok’s 2X20. Commuting to work over the palace hills, ajay's Dulwich lap. Keep trying, don’t quit, unless you’re not enjoying it anymore.

My Best Race/Ride: The Gran Fondo Cymru ride, did the long one in good time and loved it (I like those welsh mountains) Racing in Palace – great fun - nice course. Doing one of Herne Hills evening races in the B cat and chasing after some guys who jumped away, later to see them riding the E/1/2 races at Palace.

My Worst Race/Ride: 2nd last ride of the season – puncturing at Dunsfold in first lap.

Best ACC Road Racer: I won’t put any name here but mention of Tim, Toks, Marek and Sylvian (best all-rounder – hill climb, road, SS, MTB, cyclo-cross – track next?)

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Same as Toks but RichV has stiff competition for the title (Jon & Rob).

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Marek always doing his thing at the front despite headwinds etc, The handbiker up the Bec hillclimb on Sunday! Herne Hill Good Friday. One of the cyclo-cross races at HH when lots of the ‘elite’ guys entered as another event was cancelled elsewhere – very impressive.

Favourite Club Riders: Emm, lots of good guys in the club, special mention to Toks for his help, encouragement and advice, Marco (aka Romeo on the C+ forum) dead nice and his postings got me to join in the first place but just met him in the flesh yesterday. The Irish crew, Paul H, Sylvian, Alan, etc too many to name! That’s what is good about the ACC!

Seasons Low Point: The four cyclists who were killed in Wales. The drug scandals.

Most Improved Racers: Don’t know as I don’t know the personal histories.

Best Racing Debut: Non-ACC my son at cyclo-cross in HH in January and beastway on Sunday!

Most improved Club Riders: Not sure I haven’t been around much on club runs, Aodhan? The man to beat up box hill. But then he was good at that last year as well.

Favourite ACC event: Agree with Toks, The members only club road race of course. Would have liked to mention the hill climb too but punctures prevented it and rain washed away the track championships.

Best Forum Bits: Reading Toks race reports and the sportives I missed

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs: Not taking risks at the end of races and jumping away; learn to sprint, go to the front more. Try an open road race. Try the hill climb. Do more track events. Do a 10mile TT. Try more MTB rides. Do a cyclo-cross (maybe the one at HH in December).

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Soon to be Alan and his new bike!

King and Queens of Pain RichV, Jon Hemming, Rob and anyone else who did the 12 hour, RichV in Marmotte and Etape adventures, Maria's week long cyclosportiv Stage Race, Sylvain in Enduro madness and the hill climbs. Alan and Huw for doing all those cyclosportives, including some in terrible weather.

Who do we look out for next year? On top of Toks post: Mareks 2nd cat, my 3rd cat (fingers crossed – get some points at least!). An ACC 1st cat rider?? Top 10 placing for ACC TT team in BBAR team ranks?? A cyclosportive win?

Thanks to: Monty, Joyce, Tamar, Jon, Toks, Richard V, Marco, Sean, Linda, Tim Coales, Paul T, Keith Knight, and anyone else for running the club, forum, website, blog and events without whom the ACC would not be.

[richv]

Goals: PBs at all TT distances (done), club record for 30 miles (failed but made up for it elsewhere), get 3rd cat road licence (failed).

Training Approach and Philosophy

Training should have a purpose. Commuting used for base general miles then some hard intervals when not racing too often.

My Best Race/Ride: Difficult to pick just one TT - experienced the buzz of being on a good ride more often than I could hope for this year. RR would be Dunsfold out on my own for 5 or 6 laps.

My Worst Race/Ride: SCCU 100. Two weeks off bike then ride 100 miles after travelling back from Greece and managing 6 hours sleep in the previous 2 days - most painful ride of the year.

Best ACC Road Racer: Too many good ones to name just one. If you got Tim, Toks, Marek, Kieran, Sylvain, Andy Carter, .... all riding in the same bunch it would be a force to be reckoned with.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Tamar is an obvious choice but Lisa Scarlett (albeit riding for the wrong team) qualified for the women's BAR. Rob Royle-Evatt's ride in the ECCA 12 hour was impressive. 246 miles would have been 256 miles on a good day and I killed myself trying to catch him.


Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Bradley Wiggins setting new 10-mile competition record. Only saw him for a few seconds but he looked so smooth.

Favourite Club Riders: Toks has done a great job this year encouraging everyone to do everything - the true agreeable spirit.

Seasons Low Point: The four cyclists who were killed in Wales.

Most Improved Racers: You've got to look at the 'slower' riders for this - if Sean knocks another 3 minutes off his 10 time (and there's no reason why not) he'll be at the sharp end of the club TTs next year.

Most improved Club Riders: I haven't been on a club run much this summer, will have to see who will be dropping me round the surrey lanes this winter.

Favourite ACC event: Purely selfishly was the Open 10. First club event I've been involved with when we haven't had to chase round looking for marshalls. Everyone volunteered, everyone turned up, great.

Best Forum Bits: Huw's "I'm not a racer" sportive write ups.

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs: jumping a lap too early at Dunsfold, always attacking too early at Hillingdon, not sitting in. I did try.

King and Queens of Pain Huw - any ride he's involved with is painful by definition

Who do we look out for next year? Dominic will be a TTer to look out for. Sylvain looks as if he is going to take the RRing lark seriously. If he does then his will be a wheel to follow (if you can hold it).

Thanks to: Joyce for handing me up bottles whenever I've needed them, and the club for getting me involved in a sport which continues to enthuse and inspire me.

[Dr Frigo]

Goals:
Win the final Beastway series in the Masters class, increase last year's annual mileage of 12,200km (up to 11,200 so far). Other: beat my Swedish boss at the xc ski race Vasaloppet (yay).

Training Approach and Philosophy: haven't had one really, except to ride as much as possible as fast as possible. Maybe next year I'll try favouring quality over quantity and have a go at intervals and such, in order for instance to improve my sprint (but I'll never go nowhere near a turbo!).

My Best Race/Ride: in terms of how I felt, the last ever Beastway round in August. I'd already won the series on points, but had yet to win a race which I wanted badly. Best I felt in a race this year, probably to do with leading from the go - there is such a special feeling that makes you forget the pain and dig deeper than usual to consolidate your lead.

In terms of quality of the terrain, a tie between: the Swedish Singlespeed champs - awesome rocky rooty twisty singletrack for miles and miles. If I ever go back to Stockholm in the summer I'll be taking a bike that's for sure - and the 2000m drop off-road ride from above l'Alpe d'Huez to Bourg d'Oisans.

I also enjoyed a lot all the road rices I did this year, something I never thought I would until last year. Going up l'Alpe d'Huez on a downhill MTB was weird but kinda cool.

My Worst Race/Ride: can't honestly think of one. There's been a few very wet commutes lately, but it still beats taking the train. Ah yes there's running out of water 1/3rd into the Singlespeed champs and getting worryingly dehydrated, not a nice feeling which prevented me from enjoying the rest of the race like I should have.

Best ACC Road Racer: Tim, Toks and Marek. And off-road Simon for beating strong singlespeed riders at Beastway overall.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Richard the "steam engine", Jon and Tamar.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: would have been Aodan or Matthew flying up Box Hill but now upstaged by John (MIB) flying up Box Hill! Also Dave K leading us on the 4-up, and the Yeti/Goldtec guys I've been doing the endurance races with - all stronger than me.

Favourite Club Riders: anytime I turn up at CSS and see the likes of Aodan, Kevin, Kieran, Matthew, Paul H, George, Jim, I know it's going to be a good hard ride. And also the ever-enthusiastics like Monty, Phil, Alex, Alan, Tamar, Grahame, Keith, Ajay, Paul, Ian, who make the café such a loud place.

Season's Low Point: being overtaken by Stuart McGhee on his singlespeed at the last ever (ever) Beastway last weekend, and thus not making the podium.

Best Racing Debut: Matthew, Steve Shadow, Kieran, Simon should be doing well next year too.

Favourite ACC event: Beastway promotion and road race at Eastway.

Best Forum Bits: those epic race and club run reports, and Huw's past-life-mountain-biker story with multiple DH world champ AC Chausson.

Racing/Riding Could have and Should have: in the position of MTB sec should probably done more MTB rides (most off-road miles I've done were racing). What I enjoy most is riding hard, and since the departures of some of the club's fast mountain bikers in recent years, I've found it easier to get the adrenalin rush on the club run (plus I'm getting allergic to mud). Need to get together with the likes of Simon, Aodan, Will, Kevin, Joel and whoever else wants to join and organise good rides next year!

Best seasons Quotes: Marek's typical conclusion of his unlucky, mechanical-prone or missed-break race reports "oh well, it was good training". Now he's finally won a race he should be on a roll.

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Huw's impeccable European/Canadian club kit and selection of carbon/ti bikes.

King and Queens of Pain: track and time-trial riders. From the little I've experienced of those disciplines, they are the hardest in cycling.

Who/what do we look out for next year? Finally some club tactics in a road race? There are so many strong riders so far, and we can look forward to more like John and Stu.
And ... Marco on a road bike?

[Toks]

Hey, great reading guys. There's been some serious 'biggin up' on this thread I hope some of the receipients will grace us with some words

[Matthew Ives]

Goals:
just to be able to take part in a road race and not get dropped.

Training Approach and Philosophy: errr….no real training approach for me. Just to try and stay with the training group on the club run. After that any race seems easy.


My Best Race/Ride: probably my one and only appearance at Crystal Palace where I nabbed 5th by following Toks around . But the one that lives in the memory is winning a 4th cat race @ Hillingdon. Ok, it’s only 4th cat and it’s only Hillingdon ,but nothing beats crossing the line 1st. Just wish I’d made more of it by raising my arms etc like they do on the telly. I felt too embarrassed to at the time . Also, the races at Hillingdon seem so disorganised that you’re never sure if a break is up the road. The humiliation of doing a big celebration over the line only to discover that some junior snuck away with 2 laps to go and won would be too much to live down.

My Worst Race/Ride: They were all good. Just a pity I got sick in the beginning of August. I was coming into some good form and then I was out for 4 weeks. After that I kinda lost motivation and the will to live and my season just petered out.

Best ACC Road Racer: Hard to say really….probably Tim cos he went from 4th to 2nd in a season. Although Marek winning from a break the other week is equally as impressive.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Dunno.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Got to be this John guy who is scarily strong. Just sits at the front on training group rides and rides everyone off his wheel. Makes it look effortless as well, which is galling. After that Sylvain attacking at the bottom of box hill and staying out of the saddle all the way to the top. No one could get near him.

Favourite Club Riders: Take your pick from Steve (the Shadow), the ever present Sylvain, George, Ajay, Marek, Toks, Paul, Simon.. ……the list goes on.

Season's Low Point: Probably ending my season far too early by getting sick and missing out on some good racing.

Best Racing Debut: Steve B…winning your 1st ever RR……amazing!!.

Favourite ACC event: probably the ACC RR. But I wasn’t there, so I don’t know

Best Forum Bits: Huw’s great turns of phrase in his accounts of his sportives and Tok’s florid, conversational style of race reporting. Great reads.

Racing/Riding Could have and Should have: wish I’d done more races. Probably only did about 6 or 7 RR this year. I didn’t really start riding till April/May when I started coming out on club runs on a fixed . I bought a proper bike (a Ribble) a month or 2 later and then started road racing. Should have started sooner I guess but I burn out pretty quick (mentally) so maybe it was ok.

Best seasons Quotes: dunno.

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Tim. Not only is he one of the best road racers in the club, but he also looks good on the bike, which is totally unfair, in my book. .Actually, come to think of it, he looks good off the bike as well. Can’t we just ban him?

King and Queens of Pain: Probably Huw. Pain that is intense but over quickly (like in road races), I can handle but pain that goes on for hours on end (i.e. sportives) ……well, that’s just for mentalists.

Who/what do we look out for next year? Look out for Simon who started racing this year. Turned up at Hillingdon for his 1st RR in a taxi and his bike in about 58 bits. Also brought along the majority of his extended family to support him in his 1st race. Since then he’s improved dramatically basically by cheating and doing something called ‘training ‘, which is obviously totally against the rules.
Look out for Sylvain next year too. If he starts interval training and sprint training like he’s promised, he’ll be a 2nd cat quicker than you can say French Toast.
Needless to say, also look out for John who will probably go from 4th to 1st cat in a season.

[Dominic]

Goals: My only goals at the start of the year was to become an Audax Super Randonneur (that is rides of 200k, 300k, 400k and 600k in the same season). Failed after giving up on 600k

Training Approach and Philosophy
Commuting to work and intervals, oh yes even for Audax I was doing intervals. I did a few more when I decided to try time trialling again.


My Best Race/Ride: Presidents 10 on Richard's bike just felt so good. Also my 400k ride to Wales and back in 20 hours (bloody long time on a bike)

My Worst Race/Ride: 600k that I gave up on, didn't feel my best, my HRM told me that, there was also a family function I should have been at. There were three different start times and when I turned up for the latest one everybody else had buggered off. The first two hours were along the coast into a howling headwind with me thinking, why, why, why. After 170k and 7 hours on my own I found a train station and came home. I had been beating myself up about until I joined Addiscombe in July.

Best ACC Road Racer: Not really in a position to tell but Tim Harris' feat is impressive. I always enjoy the race reports from you all

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Richards 19 minute 10 and Tamar's exploits.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Remember this name, Erick Rowsell (15 at the time) I tried to mark him out of a race once at Palace and near the end he rode me completely off his wheel... Dave K in the 4up TT - smooth as butter baby!!. Paulo Bettini’s world Championship Win. Fantastic!!

Favourite Club Riders: I haven't met too many but Ian Munnery (always makes me laugh) and I think his name is Jim (could be wrong) the 80 year old that we always pass going to Charlwood. I was chatting to him when I was marshalling one of the TT's. I hope I am still riding at his age.

Seasons Low Point: The four cyclists who were killed in Wales.

Favourite ACC event: President's 10

Best Forum Bits: Mudgaurds and the ride reports.

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs: done more racing

Best seasons Quotes
Ian Munnery who met me at the Feathers on my first ride with his missus(as he put it). His opening line "I had to bring the missus so she could see I wasn't meeting a woman"

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders: Ian Munnery turning up on the above first meeting on his DeRosa which cost about 5 times as much as my bike along with his flash HRM.

King and Queens of Pain: The guys that did the 12 hours.

Who do we look out for next year? Dunno

But as an aside, after failing to complete my 600k I had a radical rethink about my cycling goals. One of the things to come out of that was me joining Addiscombe. I can say that it was the best thing I did all year. I have only been out on two club runs, marshalled at a couple of TTs and raced three. Everytime though I have been made to feel very welcome by a thoroughly nice and agreeable bunch of people. What the club has is very special and long may it continue and I look forward to meeting/riding with you next year. (if I can sort our the pesky kids/wife/work/house)

[Andrew G]

Goals:
To have a go at a variety of cycling “things”, mainly get a few TT’s in as a competitive test bed (did about 10 inc. two 2-ups). Also managed the ACC RR & Hill Climb, Bec HC, and a track cession. Shame the ACC Track day was rained out. 1st Sportive next week unless the TOSH gets rained off again (mudguards group Huw).

Training Approach and Philosophy:
err, zero. I just ride my bike, try to put a bit of effort in as I’m not a big fan of just pootling about. Going to try and make it a bit more scientific for next year, with fixie CRs over winter.

My Best Race/Ride:
Can’t pick from…
ACC RR – caught the bug, need to improve my endurance a lot though.
Both 2-ups – Jack n’ Jill gave me “my” quickest time of the season, with Geraldine not letting me ease up at all. Also the Redmon GP with my Dad for his TT swansong, or maybe not…
My 1st Brighton and back.

My Worst Race/Ride:
None, no matter how bad it went I’m always glad to have been on the bike. Disappointed to stay pretty static in the TTs, just don’t think I’m suited to the solo road as my mind wanders too much.

Best ACC Road Racer:
Tim’s 4th to 2nd, Marek for doing it the hard way out on the open roads, and Toks (THE motivator) for his hard riding at Palace - sit in and let some of the others do some work next year .

Best ACC TT Man and Woman:
Tamar – re-writing the Club’s record books at so many distances.
Robert R-E’s 12 hour, and Rich’s record breaking 10.

Best ACC All-round Racer:
Sylvain, seems anything he tries his hand at he excels.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed:
The real racers storming past in the ACC RR, Paul T’s tandem piloting through busy traffic at 30mph allowing me to tuck in and get a fantastic draft.

Favourite Club Riders:
Yet to meet an unAgreeable! But special mention for Sean, Jon Avery, Paul Dewis, and Amy who I’ve enjoyed most CRs with, and also Rob R-E who I first met riding over to watch the 4up – great company on a very good day out.

Seasons Low Point:
The four cyclists who were killed in Wales.

Most Improved Racers:
Sean’s smashing of his 10 pb, but I think all the racers/testers have improved this year, can’t be that many disappointed riders.

Best Racing Debut:
Steve “Shadow” win at Hillingdon and Matt Ives Palace debut 5th.

Most improved Club Riders:
Sean with his TT, and Paul Dewis has been looking better and better of late.

Favourite ACC event:
Jack n’ Jill 10, and the RR.

Best Forum Bits:
Race / Sportive reports always a good read, but the best has to have been the build up to the 4up TTT. Gavin and Ajay’s back and forth about what they were going to do to each other. Then they both ended up with top drawer replacements for team mates and it went very quiet as they realized that they now had to actually ride the thing.

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs:
Should have moved up to the 19s rather than take it easier in the 17/18s and then only riding hard on the return.

Best seasons Quotes :
Many from the 4up thread, and Huw’s often comical turn of phrase in his sportive reports.

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders:
Not sure but seems to be becoming a harder fought contest with all the new bikes, Assos and Rapha gear tuning up at CSS.

Kings and Queens of Pain :
The 12hr testers, and the large number who seemed intent on riding up every hill in Great Britain, sometimes in horrendous weather. (Etape du Dales).

Who do we look out for next year?
Sylvain in anything he enters, Matt Ives and Steve ”Shadow” if they can steer clear of injury/illness during the racing season.

Special Mention
Particularly Tim Coales for all his hard work running the Evening 10s, but also the other Agreeables who have run/helped at the club events this year to allow me to dip my toes in the water.

Cheers,
Andrew.

[Alan M]

Goals:
My goals this year have been about sampling different types of rides, I wanted to do sportives, ride the track, race (but safely), get out on the mountain bike and enjoy (keep up with) the 19mph group. I did some of these – probably too many long rides and not enough track and race, mainly due to a fall (see below) – I think I still opt for my comfort zone.

Training Approach and Philosophy:
Probably somewhat flawed because I cannot hack solitary stuff – spend time on stationary cycles or do the stretches that I know I should – but I enjoy getting out with a group and as much as possible I build these opportunities into my training by giving it all whenever there is a dig and not being afraid to fall off the back.

My Best Race/Ride
4 stand out, the dragon ride which was on a grand scale and we had a good group, the Tour of the Cotswolds because it was fast but not too hard except one hill, the Wednesday evening hilly rides, particularly the ride back to Addington village and getting over the top of White hill and the Eastway event

My Worst Race/Ride:
Easy, my fall at Herne Hill and subsequent 4/5 weeks out of action and in pain – but thanks to me buddies for their kind assistance and support

Best ACC Road Racer:
I think Marek mainly because he doesn’t know how not to attack and still, when he is there on the club run, invokes in me a phobic fear of the training group. Also, I admire his endurance as well as speed.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman:
Amy is always determined and does a consistently fast time and of course Tamar has demonstrated stunning improvements. Jon has done very well to come back from injury and show some impressive times. Mike Ingram has the blood of a testers running through his veins and Mark for his under 3 minutes up a wet hill

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed:.
I am always impressed by Steve and his ability to get it right on the line – his winning debut at Hillingdon was telling and if he had time to train as much as some others he would be a deadly shadow.

Favourite Club Riders:
Too many to mention – I would mention Toks but you would just think it is us vets sticking together!

Season's Low Point:
Not riding for 4/5 weeks and then on my return falling off the back of some pretty sedentary groups. Last few miles of the ride of the falling leaves, on my own, wet, and on my way to back to Herne Hill where Huw was warm and dry

Best Racing Debut:
Chris Kay by whom I was towed to a 4th place at Eastway

Favourite ACC event:
Beer circus – no – club runs in general, they are the lifeblood and for many, each one is a memorable event in itself.

Best Forum Bits:
Race reports from Toks and Marek because while I can live it vicariously there is no need to experience the real pain of it.

Racing/Riding Could have and Should have:
Raced more, earlier in the season and then tried some vets races
Best seasons Quotes:
“I’m riding for two now” Ajay
“it’ll be fine” – Mark Leedham about his cracked frame on setting out for the Dragon ride

ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders
Not me – I go for retro chic. Possibly Robbie in his CSS

King and Queens of Pain
Connor on the Etape du Dales

Who/what do we look out for next year?
Stu (I’m 16 and your dropped) Bianchi boy
Chris Kay
If the improvement is a straight-line graph then Sean will be winning them all next year!

[huw williams]

Goals: 1) Try and enjoy riding for the sake of it by not treating everything like a) work b) a race c) a training ride. Failed on all counts!
2) Go another year without doing a time trial (failed at this as well with predictable results – a puncture in the Redmon GP de G

Training Approach and Philosophy
You can’t always be the fastest in the ride/race, just make damn sure you’re not the slowest

My Best Race/Ride: Gran Fondo Pinarello in Italy – 137 miles in the hills and still riding at 26mph av for the last 25 mnutes.
Falling Leaves – three-up race for three hours, fifty-nine minutes and 75 hilly miles. Two of us got back first together but that was nothing compared to finishing before the deluge and watching the ensuing carnage. Amazing

My Worst Race/Ride: Redmon GP de Gentlemen TT. My only puncture after dozens of endurance rides and races

Best ACC Road Racer: Tim Harris – awesome season. I liked to think I played a part in this as I made him ride on Christmas morning 2005. Gave him that edge I reckon.
Toks – because I remember him starting on a ropey mountain bike a few years ago and he was all gooey-eyed when the rest of us used to go off racing. 2nd cat is well deserved and there’s more to come.
Hillingdon debutants – for years we’ve been telling anyone with a decent sprint at the Charlwood sign that they could do well at Hillingdon if they’d only bother to give it a go – this season loads did.. and won.
Marek – he just wants it so bad – and this year he got it a lot of the time.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman:
Rich V and Jon H. Went from enthusiastic club TTers to the real deal in 2006. I live and work with a pair of TT enthusiasts and the look on their faces when the ACC results were coming in was priceless.
Tamar of course for picking herself up after a completely de-motivated start to the year and setting all those records

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed:
Conor at the Etape Du Dales – When the weather is this bad in the Yorkshire Dales in May most people don’t even bother gettingout of bed, Conor went out in it for about 8 hours.
Sylvain – you all see his results posted here and know how hard he goes on club runs. What you don’t see is him riding back from work the next day after a marathon road/mtb weekend. Then the next day after that, and the next day after that and… Does he ever stop?

Favourite Club Riders: My computer doesn’t have enough memory to list you all…

Seasons Low Point:
Crashes - Loads of riders seemed to be going down early in the year.
Drugs - So many riders getting caught but worse, so many who didn’t.

Most Improved Racers: Tim H

Favourite ACC event: The members only race. The ACC open 25. ACCs version of ToSH and the Brass Monkey.
The social nights – more people turn up than many clubs get on their club runs, which goes to show that drinking beer is easier than riding a bike I guess.

Best Forum Bits: The general standard of event/ride reportage which has gone up so much. Unlike a lot of other clubs whose forums’ read like a cycling handbook from the 50’s, our members seem to have magnificently grasped the notion that a forum needn’t be completely anal. So aside from practical discussions on headset diameters we get stories about real people having real life experiences, mud-slinging (in good humour), monumental ride reports, glorious failure, heroic achievement and loads of off-the-wall humour. Keep it up I say

Racing/Riding Could of's and Should ofs:
I should never have gone to Yorkshire.
I should never have gone to Scotland.
I should never have looked at Julian Wynn and his team on the start line of BikeWales and said “I’m ‘avin’ a piece of you.”
I should never have suggested the Wednesday night hilly ride – I hate every inch of that ride, so why did I think that riding it in the company of Sylvain, Marek, Jim etc was going to make it any easier?

Places I’m never going back to:
Scotland, Yorkshire and the Wednesday night hilly ride.

Best seasons Quotes
“I’m slow but it’s only March – I’ll see you in July” - AJ
A quote I’ve heard every March since 2001

“Oh f**k me” – The normally torpid-in-winter Steve Cave on turning up for the Redmon Reliability trial and discovering Dave Kennett, Richard Hallett, Guy Pearson and myself in the car park ready to set off for 60 miles in the hills in pursuit of the main group. In February!

“Come on, if we share it the two of us can get away here”
Guy Pearson to me on the same ride, going up Coombe Lane
with about 25 miles to go! I pretended I didn’t hear him.

ACC's unsung workhorses: Ian Munnery, Paul Brown. Chris Scarlett. If there’s a small group in the lanes of Surrey, they’re usually on the front of it

Sultans of Smooth: Dave Kennett – always a pleasure to ride behind, impossible to ride in front of.
The training group express – Due to other commitments a pleausre I experienced all to rarely this summer but if you have a train comprised of Marek, Paul H, Simon H, Sylvain and Aoiden to sit in with, life doesn’t get much better.

[Ian A4size]

Alan- "ACC's 'Blingiest' Riders
Not me – I go for retro chic."

Well that'll be the CARBON colnago and the very retro FORCE gruppo.
Shurley shome mishtake!

[Snoop Doug]

Goals: Try Time Trialling (I'd only ever done one ten before this year) pass. Do some club runs - fail, think I've made it out twice in 2006

Training Approach and Philosophy

Yeeeeesss. Well what can I say, I need one (an approach that is). Did a fair bit of gym work early in the year but really, I need to schedule in some club runs and add in some interval training a la Toks/Jon

My Best Race/Ride: Finishing my 2nd 25 mile TT in 1.14.06, thereby knocking 3 mins 40 sec off my previous snail-like attempt (yeah I know they're all snail-like!).

My Worst Race/Ride: The ACC road race (sorry Toks!). I will return for another go but I got this all wrong and completely underestimated what it takes even just to hold on. Nuf Spec to the road racers.

Best ACC Road Racer: Tim Harris, Toks, Marek.

Best ACC TT Man and Woman: Rich's report of him and Bradley Wiggmeister was the toppermost (and he's given me some good encouragement this year - thanks). For me Maria gets the vote cos she convinced me to take part in the ACC Open 25, broke my duck.

Most Impressive Riding I witnessed: Watching Dave Kennett TT, zipperty doo dah!

Favourite Club Riders: All those marshals & riders who've shouted support as I've crawled past (or been overtaken by them!) on a TT. Ian, Jo, Huw, Mark, Andrew, Lisa to name but a few.

Seasons Low Point: The four cyclists who were killed in Wales and the legal system that allowed such a tragedy to be marked with such feeble retribution.

Most Improved Racers: Tim, Sylvain, Jon & Rich

Favourite ACC event: Marshalled at the ACC Open 10. There was a good atmosphere that day (again)

Best Forum Bits: The World Cup (Sorry Ian!) and any post that reflected effort on behalf of the rider/writer - the bar keeps goin' up.

Ohhh Doctor, looking forward to 2007.

Cheers - Snoop

[Mike I]

Goals
To do a half-decent first 100 mile TT. Cunningly, I never defined ‘half decent’, but think I got there.

Training approach / philosophy
Nothing fancy, just ride a bike. Got some rollers to break up the tedium of turbo training though. It’s so much more interesting when there’s a risk of ending up in a heap on the garage floor.

My best ride
The numbers suggest the Ride of the Falling Leaves, but I remember feeling pretty pleased with my first 50 as I crossed the line too.

My worst ride
I stayed vertical throughout the season and didn’t get ill. What’s not to like?

Best road racer
Can’t comment. Road racing offends against my lawyer’s sense of logic. It seems you win by going as slow as you can get away with.

Best TTer
How do you compare RichV’s record-breaking effort to keep ahead of Wiggins with Rob R-E’s 246 miles? Both remarkable. And the women? Let’s just say I used to be quicker than Tamar.

Most impressive riding
The QuickStep boys delivering Boonen in front of the Big House to win the London ToB stage.

Favourite Club Riders
I’m impressed by Alan M’s willingness to have a go at anything on a bike; and by the way he finds time to do it.

Season’s low point
Personally, none to speak of, but I think the Rhyll CC incident shocked us all.

Most improved racers
Sean’s demolition of his 10 time. A few more next year and he should hit his goal. If all else fails, there are other courses than the G42 Ride of Satan – I hate it!

Best Racing debut
I thought I’d done ok in the President’s 10, until I saw that nearly half the entries were first-timers. Good times all, on a nasty course on a nasty day.

Most improved club riders
Tamar’s TT times have been impressive at all distances.

Favourite ACC event
I didn’t ride it, but there was a buzz at HQ after the Open 10 which I don’t think I’ve ever experienced after a TT before.

Best Forum bits
Huw’s sportive write-ups are always good. He should do it for a living. What? Oh!

Could have / should have …
… stayed on course on the Tour of Wessex, instead of missing a turn 5 miles from the end and finding myself 10 miles from the start and about to go round again.

Best Quote
Can't think of anything at the moment, but there’ll be something after the Club Dinner

Most ‘Bling’ Rider
This is fashion, isn’t it? Like Alan, I prefer retro-chic (but I’m better at it!)

King of Pain
I was very sore after the 100, but not sore enough to get any votes here, it seems. Quite right too! Rich, Rob and John deserve this one for the 12 hour. (It would have been Dan’s iron-man, but he spent too much time off the bike!)

Next Year
Look out for Dominic in the TTs. I intend to win the ‘Most Retro-chic’ award on the equivalent thread next October.

[quote]Toks – because I remember him starting on a ropey mountain bike a few years ago and he was all gooey-eyed when the rest of us used to go off racing. 2nd cat is well deserved and there’s more to come.