Club Run - 26/05/07

[Sylv]

Well since the thread is already there ...

I predict the weather will be dry and nice, though a bit nippy early on. There will be upwards of 50 people and the training group will include some of the fast racers who are taking a break this weekend. The sprint for that group will be won by Marek who has finally sorted his cassette and will put a big dig with a 1/2 mile to go, George will almost beat him to the line but then he will see a plane in the sky and smile at it and run into a pothole. The café will have a long queue for those that come in late and nowhere to sit, they will also run short on cross buns and bananas. The Box Hill return will start easy but then split in two groups. Sean will make it to the top without having to use the granny gear thanks to his Italian training. All will be back before 1.30pm without incident.

There you go - you don't even need to go now!

[Alan M]

Chaos theory will preclude all of this coming true, possibly even the weather, so be prepared to be surprised, and please don't let these predictions dent your anticipation.

At the very least the plane will be held up by a baggage handler failing to quickly unload the luggage of an Austrian octogenarian who has realised that he has taken the plane to mallorca rather than ibiza. Don't worry George - you'll win it!

[Andrew G]

I predict a DNS.
Plan of having a short gentle spin to keep my legs moving so will probably ride down to Coulsdon later for a coffee and expensive cake. Fingers crossed for sunny weather and I can wear my new Italian sunglasses.

May see a few of you on your return folks, have fun and keep an eye out for gravel on the apex of bends .

Oh and I predict Alan the Engine will go for a long one and have everyone swearing as they try to catch up and grab his wheel.

[Steve B]

I predict that I go with the training group, along with Pauls H&T, George, Stu, Sylv, Jon, Matt, Marek, Adam,Kevin, Tim, Toks and all the other racing boys. I predict that I pull the group all the way to the Reigate steps and then turn the gas on up the climb. I predict we thru & off all the way to the dual carriageway at an average speed of 27.5mph. I predict I lead the sprint out from the roundabout all the way to cafe. I predict the TV cameras are there to watch. I predict there are hundreds of people lining the roads shouting my name. I predict I collect the winners trophy from Victoria Pendleton.

Sorry, did I say predict? I meant Dream

See you tomorrow

Steve

[Stu Merckx Man]

my gosh that was the fastest club run i have ever done.

training group today was paul, me, george, richard and steve the shadow.

george led us up the duel carriage way at a pretty fast lick and we already had an average of 25 by the time we reached the bottom of the hills before reigate. i then took the lead up there. when we got to the top i was astounded to see steve still with us. about a month ago i remember him giving up at the bottom and going his own pace!

i made the decision today to do as much work as i could, so i did lots of turns at the front, along with george and paul...especially george. at one point before liegh village george tried to drop everyone, steve was the poor soul to try and stick to his wheel, and accurately described george as an animal...as well as a host of other colourful names

almost every bump became a sprint for george, and i tried it on a few times with him, winning 1 of 3.
as we approached the hills towards rusper i was certain that it was the end for steve, i was leading up and george put in an out the saddle effort, i slipped back thinking it was only paul left, but no, richard and steve came shooting passed me!

we decided to do the long duel carriage way and the through and off that followed was probably the tidiest and best one i have ever done. everyone came through all the time. no one was left sitting on the front, and i dont think anyone missed a single turn. it was almost beautiful to watch.

as we neared the sprint the through and off stopped as per usual. i was near the back and made the decision to go for a long one. so as we turned right onto the road with the plane spotters i made my move. i got on the drops and tried to push my pedals into the ground. it was painful at first but then i got into it. i looked back and i was hanging about 50-60m in front of the pack. 2nd to last corner and i was starting to breath heavy. last corner, i have about 30m on the pack. i put everything into it until i could no longer feel my legs. i looked back and saw steve and paul getting pretty close. i could see the signs... i was going to do it!!....erm no, steve came shooting passed with about 15m to go! but i still got second so not too bad.

good ride back via box hill. george paul and i stuck together going up, taunting each other and playing mind games, false and real attacks, it was great! the decisive mmoment came just by the woods on the last straight were george attacked. paul who was on georges wheel gave up!! so i came passed him and tried to catch george, but he took victory by about 20m or so, so another 2nd for me. the next man up was kieren, and when i last looked back going up, he was a long way back so made a huge amount of ground on paul!

nice fast run back into coulsdon, usual attacks flung in by george, and also paul who it seamed was trying to make a point
avs to charlswood 24.2 mph !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
avs when i got in 22.8 mph

cheers
stu

[Andrew G]

Good stuff Sean, no going back now. It gets easier each week, you'll soon be used to it and mixing it up.

Full Cicli Boghetta kit today?

[Snoop Doug]

Hoorah! It was a good ride - even for a slow poke like me. I managed 47 miles at an average of 17.4mph. Happy with that as I did some work at the front of our group on the way out and went back from the caff on a solo break away .

The thing I'm starting to notice is that putting in three sessions of training every week is working. I was able to dig in and keep pushing much better than I've done before. The Merstham drag felt flat! (Well almost). It's a shame I can't make the evening 10 on Tuesday as I'm itching to put myself to the test.

Good to spend a few hours out with so many friendly faces.

Snoop

[Alex P]

Phew, what can I say as it must be catching but that was the fastest club run I have ever done with an ave speed of 18.1 CSS to Charlwood to CSS.

Psychologically as I was on my new steed I had my 'tail up' (reference to warthogs in Africa) and that probably had a lot to do with it but everybody else was going fast too.

What a great day, I think that I need to get some training in to keep this up.

[Steve B]

Well, I made a decision that if I want to be able to last the whole race at Crystal Palace and compete with the likes of George, Paul, Adam, Stu etc, without getting dropped after 4.5 seconds, then I need to force myself in to going with the training group and hang on as long as possible. Hopefully this might help in improving my speed endurance?

Luckily my legs and lungs felt good today, because they needed to be. 'Oh my ef'ing g@d', those boys are a bunch of animals, out for blood!
From the start to the finish it was attack after attack. I felt like I was in the trenches in WW1, it never stopped. George was the main culprit. He kept knocking it down in to 53 - 12 and hammering it for all his worth. He's a absolute nutcase but what a great bike rider!

I must have felt good today because I didn't get dropped up the Reigate steps and this gave me confidence for the rest of the ride to hang on, which I did, even though my legs were screaming at me to stop.

Thru & off was quick and very smooth. Paul and Stu made a break for it up the hill towards the traffic lights and got 50m on us. They got through the lights on green leaving us to surely get a red light, but no the traffic light fairy was looking down on us and the green light stayed on for ages.
We regrouped before the last roundabout on the d/c.

George made an early break and then changed his mind. I came to the front to keep the pace up, as it had slowed, but then the b**tards left me out there. Then Stu went for it on the first right hander, but still none of the others came round me. 50m gap - what do I do? Decided not to panic and slowly increased the pace , still no one else. Ok they were using me to get back to Stu and then they would overtake, but it didn't happen. Round the last right hander and Stu was still 40m ahead. Fearing George, Paul and Richard were going to come round me and block me in, I started my sprint early. Stu tried another burst but he had put too much effort in to getting away. I went past him, then felt someone on my outside. 100% effort now and the Charlwood sign was mine once more. Av speed to cafe 23.5 - by far my quickest ever.
I asked George who was on my outside but he said there wasn't anyone, it must have been my shadow!

The ride back was relatively sedate compared to the outward journey. Myself and Alan did good stint on the front of a very large group, but by the time we got to the Merstham drag it was only us two and Andrew left to hammer it home.

Great ride guys, once again.

Steve

[David Lombari]

Missed the clubrun but had a lovely 71 mile pootle over to Whitstable. Could be a nice alternative to Brighton sometime.

[Stu Merckx Man]

steve- if you had 23.5, did you re-set it at css? if not i need to get my speedo checked!

[Steve B]

Stu - I only went by what speed Paul gave me, and he said his was accurate. What speed did you have?

Steve

[Stu Merckx Man]

i had 24.2 to charlswood...but i do pause it at lights and things so thats most likely it.

[Alan M]

Not much left to be said.

I made just the right decision to stay with the 19 group - learning to read the intentions of the fast group is a fine art but worth studying.

Our ride down was pretty good but we lost a few along the way. We debated whether to do the through and off and all but 2 remaining did so but it wasn't a very disciplined affair and I probably said more than i should have! Myself and Brian were ably carried to the sprint line at a furious pace line by ???? but as usual I found myself unable to deliver the final effort, and Brian who has recovered his fitness of last year sailed through on an easy passage past the post.

The ride back was good fun, but a huge group which I did my best to fragment, but there was resistance, particularly from Monty with his Mallorca found form. Clearly it was a recovery phase for Steve but a good pace up the Merstham drag and with Andrew we kept it going to the end.

Unusually for me I joined the Coulsdon coffee club on my return and we met with the various sick and injured for tales of derring dos in Italy and Dartmoor.

I will miss the next 4 club runs with nearly 3 weeks riding off-road across the North of Spain on the Camino de Santiago, and then a day excursion to Calais. No doubt I'll be posting on these separately but look forward to seeing you all again in July for Le Tour!

[Toks]

[quote="Stu Bianchi Boy"] and the through and off that followed was probably the tidiest and best one i have ever done. everyone came through all the time. no one was left sitting on the front, and i dont think anyone missed a single turn. it was almost beautiful to watch.