SCCU Sporting 10 20/3

[Andrew G]

First of the SCCU Sporting Weekend today and 5 Addiscombe testers out to play.

Looking at the forsecast, and the morning's weather I didn't want to take my TT bike out and get it covered in crap and then have to clean it all up for the 25 tomorrow morning. So I got the fixed out, one gear, a bit too small (48x17), full mudguards and no tri bars. What had I let myself in for ?

The weather as everyone knows was terrible lots of showers and heavy rain and a strong gusty wind. I was quite near the front of the starters and we got some terrible weather, Keith Coffey was not far behind me and confirmed I wasn't imagining it. I'd only got a few hundred yards from the start when the light drizzle turned in to a heavy shower . Careful round the first few corners and honk it over the little climb on the first little loop and back past the HQ for the downhill to the A29. This was a bit dodgy on the fixed as with the soaking road and a few potholes I couldn't let it run as much as I'd have liked and had to scrub speed with the brake a couple of times.

The run up the A29 to Ockley had a tail wind and the rain had eased off . Left in Ockley and on to the back section which has a few little climbs. The rain started falling heavily again and the head wind was a nightmare in places. On the fixed I really had to honk up the hills out the saddle so putting up a nice wall for the wind with my body .

I kept pushing and had only been caught by a couple of people, in these conditions on this course, and on fixed, I was just going to be happy to beat evens. At the finish I knew I'd beaten evens by a little bit so that would do.

I can confirm that this course is not really suitable for fixed, never in the right gear at any point. On the plus side I finished with a dry bum and didn't have to clean bike mechanics afterwards .

Paul Tunnell 28.47
Andrew Green 29.41
Robert Royle-Evatt 27.51
George Brent 24.25
Jon Hemming 26.06

I think the later riders got a bit better weather, I don't know what the wind was like but the rain certainly eased off and even stopped at one point. Pete Tadros won the event with an amazing ride of 22.10 which is only a smidge off the course record set by Ben Instone last year on a calm warm day. Ben was out today but missed his start time so had a late start penalty and clocked 24.09 including this so would have run Pete close

[George]

I really enjoyed the time trial today and as the weather had warmed up a bit didn't even notice the rain during my ride. Done a few little bike tweeks during the week after the sporting 21 the weekend before and really felt the benefits.
Picked up Joyce from the cafe on the way down and had the privilege of spending a nice afternoon with the boss.

I had studied out the Oakwoodhill fast downhill section on my extensive warm up and new exactly where to ride to avoid those massive potholes at 45+mph on the aerobars.
Although I did have to shout at a rider warming up by the HQ to get out of my way in slightly less words. :wink

Felt very happy and comfortable in the aero position with my new bars and could really power the cranks round strongly, with all these positive benefits I only really thought about how I was riding and easily slipped into the zone so everything seemed to come together from there

The leg up to Ockley was a big gear affair and the run back into the wind was very sheltered so was nice to keep the gear turning round fast.

[Jon H]

Paul Wright's soggy photos [url=http://www.pjwphotos.co.uk/WebSite/200310/index.html]here[/url]