Club Run 14/7/07

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Club Run 14/7/07

Postby huw williams » Sat Jul 14, 2007 1:23 pm

Must've been close on 90 riders out today. Small trainng group, lots of 19 groups, a wodge of newbies and everything in between.

Lots of people racing on sunday so taking it 'easy' with the 19s which was always likey to cause confusion - the second 19 group caught the first 19 group as early as Merstham and had to slow up to let them get away again

Then Dave Kenett and Marcus Bruton of NP came past which was like a free ticket to first class with wine on the concord, and an offer I wasn't going to turn down. Smooth as silk they went through the groups with me hanging on the back at 30mph til we got to the drags up to Rusper.

The usual suspects from the training group sorted it out up the climb before the dual carriageway - Syv, Marek, Paul H and Graham O all in attendance. Split into 2 groups for the T and O which was very smooth and close to 30mph in the straight bits.

Even the 'steady' ride back was averaging well over 20mph, then the Shadow upped the pace over the golf course and the Merstham drag to keep things interesting

Cheers to everyone for the enjoyable group riding and some very useful intervals thrown in.
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Postby Andrew G » Sat Jul 14, 2007 3:47 pm

[quote="marco"]how many new people were out?

You'll need to get confirmation from Alex, but I thought he'd said 99 in total! If only you could've made it. 8)

A good run out today with slightly leaden legs. Not touched the bike all week so they felt a bit heavy at times. Overall a good run though.

As Huw said two became one when the first group (the one I was in) got caught at some roadworks lights in Reigate. I managed to get split off the back of the group I started in, getting caught at every set of lights through Reigate. Along by the golf course I put in a bit of a dig to try and TT over the gap.

Was nearly there when Dave K cruised past towing some others. If only I'd known I could have saved myself some hard work and got a free ride to bridge. :roll:

I flicked off with 3 others at Partridge to get a cup of tea early as the group was now quite big so could have been quite a wait. I thought this would be a nice gentle spin in to the cafe but Matt R and Simon (Euskatel) upped the pace to 25mph through the lanes.

I led down the hill and Mark (?surname) jumped on the bend before the sign. I tried to jump on his wheel but he had a bit of a gap. I closed up but couldn't quite get there in time so he grabbed the bonus seconds :wink: .

Redhill return which I haven't done for a while and really enjoyed it, particularly the usual thrash off the top of Merstham drag.

Slid in to GB to wave my new membership card and collect my discount on a pair of shorts before home for le Tour.

Fun morning. Quality, nice. :D
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Postby Kasper » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:15 pm

Good club run today its been a while since i was last out at the weekend but still managed to come round the club captain in the sprint to the cafe!!!!

With the steady 18's today and was a good group to go in for my first time out in a while. Managed to hold on and even do a stint at the front on the way through rusper.

On the way back along the main road into COulsdon I hit a gaping hole after having to swerve into the middle of the road for a car pulling over. Only saw it at the last minute and was unable to bunny hop or swerve in time.

CRUNCH

Thats my back wheel punctured then!!! GReat!!!!!

Really was like a square hole which had'nt been filled in.

Think it may have buckled the wheel slightyly, as well, as wheel not running true.

Is it worth reporting on FIx a hole site , or even sueing the council for damages????
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Postby Sylv » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:30 pm

I can confirm there was something wrong with my handlebars!

[url=http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=crack2ui3.jpg][img]http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/6804/crack2ui3.th.jpg[/img][/url]

Great ride nonetheless.
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Postby Stu Merckx Man » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:35 pm

not many people up for the training group this week. we started with 5, jim B, marek, hal, steve (shadow) and me.

reasonably fast along the carriage way. marek putting it big 32mph pushes at the front. when we got to the hill before reigate steve said not to wait for him, his legs wernt feeling up to speed today.

as we got through reigate marek decided to wait for the 19s behind.

so now it was just me, hal and jim B....
jim came up with the idea of doing it like a team time trial--->doing a turn on the front then peeling off to the right, and not attacking eachother on hills or anything like that.

this worked really well, and we soon got into a good rhythm. jim and hal were working really hard, doing long hard turns on the front. i wasnt feeling my best today so i tried to do fast turns, but a bit shorter.

we got to the through and off with a good average of 21.8 mph, which is pretty good conisdering it was just 3 of us, and into a pretty strong headwind.

the through and off that followed was certainly one of the harder ones i have done.

the pace was very high, around the 30mph mark constantly, and with just 3 of us it was hard to shelter. jim was the driving force behind this. he would come passed hal pretty hard and then it would feel like he had sped up as i tried to come through. after a while i divsed a tactic for this. as jim would come through to get infront of hal i would make sure i was already coming passed jim so that i would wast less energy.

we kept the through and off going right up until the plane watcher section, when i was left on the front. i didnt mind to much and i decided to lead out the sprint. i wound up the pace to 28 mph coming to the last to bends, and then started to sprint off the front, but hal and jim easily came passed, and jim clenched the win.

good ride back via box hill. alan correctly pointed out my sneeky plan. i did lots of big turns on the front for the first half of the leg towards box hill so that no one thought i was bieng lazy, then sheltered the second half to the bottom of box hill.

the pace was pretty high going up, and by the first hairpin it was just me, sylv and hal left. we took turns on the front working pretty well. after the second hair pin hal came to the front and did a big turn until we hit the trees when sylv attacked. i stuck to his wheel, and nearly dropped off as i sprinted over the speed bumps. then he started to slow so i came passed on the last left hand bend to take the box hill win.

good fast ride back and ended with an average speed of 21.7 mph.

stu
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Postby Andrew G » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:44 pm

Yikes Sylv :shock: . One of the reasons why I'll only ever use an alloy stem and bars.

I hit that vast chuck out the road too Kasper. it just suddenly appeared in front of me as I was moving out to go past Owen. This was the fortunate part of it as it meant that I was out the saddle so had very little weight over the rear wheel, so no impact puncture.

Initial check shows it's still true and doesn't look like any damage other than a couple of slightly turned spokes (easy to spot as they're bladed).

I'll report it as I think they do fill them when you do, not always very well but better than leaving it as is.
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Postby Andrew G » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:50 pm

Hole reported here, feel free to update if you think I got any of the details wrong.

[url]http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazard/7605[/url]
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Postby Alan M » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:15 pm

Yes a good ride today.

At last I nearly feel OK after Spanish trip but did almost zero work. On the way out this was OK because the group was so large and on the way back it was survival instinct.

I just managed to make the Stuart and Andrew led selections on the Box Hill return - I took the climb steadily and following the usual frantic Chipstead Valley return, enjoyed a coffee at Couldsdon and subsequent viewing of today's stage. A great day except for a suicide walker crossing the road near the golf course causing a little comment among the group!
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Postby Andrew G » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:21 pm

[quote]I couldn't hold onto whatever speed Ian's 19 were really doing

To be fair Sean I only had 20av on the clock at the cafe. only a little bit quicker than advertised but I think this was due to the 2 groups merging. Unless the 2nd group stops and waits for a couple of minutes (which is a pain) then the group stays a bit too big so by winding it up a bit at the front it helps form a natural split.

Today seemed a bit more "dig and cruise" which always makes it feel faster and harder work than a dead steady pace all the way.
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Postby Alex P » Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:58 pm

Marco, I think that we had six or seven new people out although some of these might have been v.old members that have returned after several years.

Should have asked them where they had heard about us, but wasn't that organised.

Great run nevertheless

One thing that we talked about today was to try to get a run going with over 100 turning up. We will publicise well in advance, avoiding holidays, weather and racing and see if we can truly make it a century ride....

Watch this space
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Postby Marek » Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:37 pm

I arrived at CSS this morning and a guy had just turned up and he was new. He did not know where to park so I got him to follow me down the road to show him where I park when I drive up.

I think his name was David and he was from over Biggin Hill way. Think he had seen groups out over that way, probably Westerham run. He was wearing a white shirt and had a black Specialized.

Enjoyable ride today, didn't fancy doing a 4 man TT with Stuart and co so decided to wait after showing Stuart how to climb the Reigate stairs and having a few fast downhill sections. Stuart is very good at riding behind people, like in his timetrial earlier this week where there are rumours he drafted most of the way around.

I was surprised today how many people in the 19s group would do well in the training group. It would be good if more people would make the jump up so that the groups are a bit more even in size.

We do wait for people at the tops of hills if they are struggling, it allows us to laugh at them, so if you want to try going with the slightly faster training group then come and try it out.

On the sprint today Steve B managed to hold me off to the line, if only I had a few more metres I would have got him. That was even after Paul H and I ganging up on him trying to make him chase us down with a little breakaway and then sitting him on the front for a good section of the ride. Unfortunately Rob brought him back to our breakaway and then sat in front of him 200m before the sprint which meant he had plenty left in the tank.

Next week Steve we are going to make you pay :lol:

Cheers

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Postby Ian A4size » Sat Jul 14, 2007 6:38 pm

In my defence ....

I only had 31.5kph at the cafe, it was fairly windy on the way out so we

had to work fairly hard to maintain a decent avg- so it may (must) have

seemed that we were pushing it.

Thanks to Sylv for towing me up the drag to Newdigate, i didnt get a lot of

cover behind him but that was the fastest i have been up there in a while.

Mr Gravity took his toll on me on the drag up to rusper and i slowly fell

away from the Kennet/Brueton- eurostar- first class -all you can eat-soft

paper express :roll:

I managed to hang onto Yohan and two others, nice one guys- they

decided on the shorter thru and off today and at the bottom of the hill

we met the others. Feck! I thought we were gonna beat them to the cafe.

Two groups as we had about 20 riders. Fairly well controlled by Alan M

and Huw- plus a good tailwind as well.

Yohan took the sprint.

Nice brisk ride home- Joanna was really going well.

Good ride even tho i felt a bit tired after 2 hard rides this week.
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Postby Sylv » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:04 pm

[quote="Andrew G"]Yikes Sylv :shock: . One of the reasons why I'll only ever use an alloy stem and bars.

I'm glad now I chose to ride Guildford on the hoods - I regretted it afterwards at the time (seeing all the Elites in the drops).
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Postby Yohan » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:21 pm

..my best ride out this year, and enjoyed todays ride very much.

Huge numbers going in the 19's group, I took the following group. As Andrew said it was a bit start and stop, and I agree that a consistent pace makes the ride easier.

I can feel my form returning, and felt good coming off the dual carrigeway, was looking forward to the sprint, and after Huw leading me out managed to pull around the 2 or 3 in front to snatch it.

Also done Box Hill for the first time this year....man I just don't miss this hill...always a pleasure to see the cafe at the top...means the pain is over.

Nice pace on way back...except for a man who decided that a peleton of riders wasn't worth getting out of the way for when crossing the road.....

back to watch those Pro's fly up the 'real' hills...altogether a great days riding

cheers
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Postby Nick » Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:29 pm

Went out in the 17's and we went Rusper into Lambs green.

I rode within the group most of the time caught up with a few people and spoke to a very polite Lad of 13........ :o 13 and POLITE not many of those about. He is a credit to his parents (sorry didn't catch your name) but I do wish you all the best within the ACC. The ride did seem quite fast/hard at times due to the wind I believe.

After the climb from the Partridge turn off going into RusperI took my turn on the front with big Mike, this being a part of the big plan to control the sprint from the front, me and Mike slowly wound the speed from about 18 upto around 25, when the sprint came i dropped to the last gear and came out the saddle in one fluid movement only for the chain to jump :shock: thought he we go over the top but managed to stay on rode very hard to towards the sign not looking over once until I crossed the line by about 2 inches, looked across took a double look for who was there but :?: :?: JO what a surprise as I was at full steam. Boy did she give me a run for my money WELL DONE. You managed to whip all those others into third and lower.

Watch out Mr Munnery Jo has a real burst of speed. Prehaps Jo should have gone out with you and helped out today :) .

The ride back was very quick indeed and eventually dropped away on the final Metisham drag.

80 miles in the saddle average speed of 18.9mph and not a single bit of cramp!

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