East Surrey Hardriders

[Dominic]

After thoroughly enjoying my first outing of the season a couple of weeks ago, this was the exact opposite. Never felt comfortable either uphill or down but I did seem to be going fast for most of the time, which is the point. I was off 52 and had set myself 51 to catch first mainly because he was on a Colnago, flash git

After suffering along the road to Dorking, I always forget how hard and long the road is, I turned off onto the A24 and the climb up to Holmwood. Saw a rider ahead, No 50 John Woodburn, going well especially for his age, (in his 70s). Was tempted to take part in the tongue out competition with the photographer, but I refrained Caught him just before the top and then onto the dual carriageway and the 10 course. Caught 49 and 48 on there and felt quite good, hammering along in 53X 15/14 with little bit of 16 on the side

Then onto the single carriageway and caught 36(?). Found this section a real slog. Had completely forgotten about the lumps at the end of it and was down on 53x21 on some of them. Then the blessed relief of the A264 for a bit less than two miles and back up towards Rusper and that last big hill of the course. I had 51 in my sights on the hill and he was struggling churing a big gear so I put it into 39x21 and rode up the climb. I would like to say I spun smoothly up the climb but that would be a big fat lie, my legs were really feeling it now!

No 51 and I were about equal on the flat but he was churning up the small drags while I was riding in lower gears and catching him. This continued up through Rusper and Newdigate and I made the last push for home from about 5 miles out. 53x14 on these roads seemed surprising fast and I caught No 51 about 3 miles from home and in the same effort No 46. I think I had pushed too hard now as I was dying and 51 tried to come by me on last drag but not to be deterred I pushed on to the finish.

I was so relieved to be finished . Quick chat with Doug who seemed to have enjoyed his ride. He has set himself the time of 1.40 and had gone round in 1.35 well done Doug.

Saw Robert at the HQ and he had done his fastest ride on that course which I think was around a 1.22. I thought Robert had gone faster last year, but I have since checked and I was wrong, well done Robert.

Cup of coffee, my time was put up 1.13.46. That made it all worthwhile and was a beating of last year's time by just over 3 mins. So very happy. And very tired.

[tel]

Well done Dominic, to go past Woodburn is amazing, he must have been well pissed off. Did RichV ride? and do you know who won/

Also a good ride for Doug, looks like his training is going pretty good. Also a pretty good effort from Robert.

Terry

[Dominic]

When I left Stewart Jardine was winning with 1.07. RichV was a DNS. Jardine must have been in with a shout. Steve Dennis who was last man off was also a DNS.

[Snoop Doug]

The East Surrey Hardriders sure is hard.

Good points:

Almost no wind
Beat my target time of 1.40 with a 1.35
Being part of a team with two really good riders (well at least that's how it felt to me )
The section on the A264 - flat n fast (but waaaaay too short) and the bit after the Rusper hill (tho a lack of course knowledge hurt me all round)

Bad points:

Wrong bike, I went for the road bike and I should've given my TT modded road bike its first go (the wind and rain the day before put me orf)
Wet dirty roads - particularly the first section back towards Reigate, I didn't like that no sirree
Lumps, bumps and hills. Holy crap that hill @ Rusper was a ba5tard. The long rolling section down the A24 was rough - no real sense of rhythm for me
Unfamiliar route. Weird this cos the course covers some bits of the club run in reverse plus the out leg of our ten @ Holmwood. I should've had a test before the event tho as I never really knew what was coming next. Consequently altho I beat my target I could've tried a bit harder methinks (try telling that to my aching legs)

I think I will go back next year - I would defo recommend this as an early season test, albeit a painful one.

Well done to Dominic - a great PB plus some excellently chosen cursing as I chatted with him @ the HQ afterwards Great descriptive work $%@@ing hills.
Well done to Rob - a great PB, needs more work on the post race expression tho
A DNS for coach, I hope Richv is OK, assuming he is then I will look forward to much wuss related ribbing

Soresnoop

[richv]

I am fine. Working far too hard (and am at work at the moment for my sins!). Slept through the alarm this morning which may be related to the general lack of sleep for last few weeks or my subconscious acting on my concerns of trying to race having not been on my bike for two weeks

Well done everyone, some good times there, especially Dominic, do you know where you finished?

[Sylv]

Well done all, what was the distance? Why do they have all those funny distance TTs by the way?

[Snoop Doug]

[quote="Sylv"]Well done all, what was the distance? Why do they have all those funny distance TTs by the way?

[Andrew G]

Well done fellas - new PBs, beating predictions a good day.

Sylv the sporting courses are often funny distances as they are based around country lanes and the distance is often dictated by safe start and finish points. For example I've got a 21 mile event next week, and then a 28.5 and 41.9 later in the year and they are probably due to a safe layby for the start or starting/finishing the right side of a set of lights.

I think part of the historic (not that they are that old) reason is also a deliberate decision to prevent comparisons. Part of the reason for the introduction of sporting courses was to have safer events as everyone was chasing times on the fastest courses, which were also some of the more dangerous (spear point junctions joining A roads and a few cyclists were sadly killed or badly injured in events at these). I believe it was hoped that with these events it was less about the time and more about your finishing position for the top men. To some degree it has worked and some people prefer or target them, there's also the SPOCO (local) and Rudy Project (National) series competitions which calculate a finishing table based on a set number of counting events and you getting points depending what position you were in those events. Of course everyone likes to ride a quick time, and a lot of TT-ers don't like hills, so fast courses and standard distance PBs are still most people's targets.

The South East SPOCO site is [url=http://uk.geocities.com/spoco@btinternet.com/]here[/url] and the "Events/Entry Form" explains what events you have to do to qualify etc.

[Sylv]

That's a perfectly concise explanation thanks

[Andrew G]

Well not that concise from Mr.Verbal .....

The SE SPOCO is one of the things I'm doing this year, needless to say I'm not looking forward to the 41.9 and 50 mile sporting TTs .

[Dominic]

Full results. I don't know where I got the fact the Stewart Jardine has posted a 1.07

Rider Club Time Notes +/-
1 Matthew BOTTRILL De Rosa RT 01:07:25 M
2 Richard SIMMONDS London Dynamo 01:07:54 M
3 Tim STEVENS 34 Nomads CC 01:09:55 V +13:32
4 Mark NEWTON Sydenham Wheelers 01:10:16 V +9:32
5 Ray HUGHES Clarence Wheelers 01:11:05 V +14:15
6 Paul ALDERSON South Western RC 01:11:37 M
7 Tony STOTT Wheelspin Cycles.com 01:12:06 V +21:54
8 Ian O'HARA Citihub/Cycles Dauphin 01:12:43 M
9 Stewart JARDINE Citihub/Cycles Dauphin 01:12:54 M
10 Niall DIGBY Sigma Sport 01:13:07 M
11 Dominic LOWE Addiscombe CC 01:13:46 M
12 Paul CALLINAN London Dynamo 01:13:48 M
13 Ali CIGARI Kingston Wheelers 01:14:30 M
14 Paul READ Redhill CC 01:14:32 M
15 Nick VARLEY Sydenham Wheelers 01:14:48 M
16 Peter DICKASON RT 316 01:14:49 V +8:01
17 Richard NEWEY agiscoviner.com 01:14:57 V +5:27
18 James BEAUMONT Kingston Wheelers 01:15:25 M
19 Alan DAWSON Northovers Vets Team 01:15:36 V +13:38
20 Richard HALLETT Sydenham Wheelers 01:16:18 V +7:09
21 Ben ELLIOTT Kingston Wheelers 01:16:34 M
22 Lawrence SMITH Kingston Wheelers 01:16:41 V +2:31
23 Richard GUY Iron-Head Racing 01:16:47 M
24 Andy SELTZER East Grinstead CC 01:16:49 V +3:35
24 Mark HAYLETT Team Specialized 01:16:49 M
26 Lee CHAPLIN RT 316 01:17:13 M
27 Greg HUNT RT 316 01:17:16 V +3:08
28 Daniel RUDD Citihub/Cycles Dauphin 01:17:31 M
29 Stephen EMMERSON Epsom CC 01:17:33 M
30 Marc FREULLET Team Quest 01:17:36 V +4:00
31 Geoff SMITH VC Etoile 01:17:38 V +12:16
32 Peter DOHERTY South Western RC 01:17:45 V +2:03
33 Stuart LEMANSKI API-Metrow 01:17:49 M
34 David TWIN Sydenham Wheelers 01:17:59 V +3:37
35 Richard TULLY Anerley BC 01:19:16 M
36 Steve HOPKINS Ashford Wheelers 01:19:19 V +1:05
37 Duncan MURDOCH Redhill CC 01:19:26 V +2:10
38 Nick McCORMICK Epsom CC 01:19:31 V +2:05
39 Trudi SAMMONS Reading CC 01:19:58 WV +6:00
40 John WOODBURN VC Meudon 01:20:02 V +19:42
41 Philip EMBER Kingston Wheelers 01:20:17 M
42 Dan BARTLEY Redhill CC 01:20:18 M
43 Joe BERTORELLI Kingston Phoenix RC 01:21:28 V +1:22
44 Richard TURNER Pearsons Cycles 01:21:44 V +6:50
45 Mark COLE Trisportnews.com 01:21:49 M
46 Ed RIEU Sydenham Wheelers 01:21:58 V +0:52
47 Simon NEAVE South Western RC 01:22:06 V +0:44
48 Rupert BOLE Kingston Wheelers 01:22:10 V +2:32
49 Peter LAVINE Coalville Wheelers 01:22:14 V +5:02
50 Robert ROYLE-EVATT Addiscombe CC 01:22:17 V -3:05
51 Nathan CHAMBERLAIN Redhill CC 01:22:27 V -3:15
51 Charlotte BLACKMAN London Dynamo 01:22:27 W
53 Jonathan THOMAS South Western RC 01:22:29 V +0:58
53 Bob STAPLEY Epsom CC 01:22:29 V +15:03
55 Peter ANDERSON Kingston Wheelers 01:22:33 V +7:21
56 Leigh SMITHERS Redhill CC 01:23:08 M
57 Jack HASWELL Kingston Wheelers 01:23:13 V +6:41
58 Geoff CLIFTON Redhill CC 01:23:31 V +0:33
59 Toby BLACKMAN London Dynamo 01:24:46 M
59 Neil HUGHES-HUTCHINGS Morden CRC 01:24:26 M
61 Andrew GREEN Old Portlians CC 01:25:45 V -5:57
62 David HAGGART De Laune CC 01:26:17 V -2:50
63 David ECCLES Redmon CC 01:26:50 V +5:07
64 Stuart PAYNE Central Sussex CC 01:27:36 V -5:23
65 Edward BOORMAN East Grinstead CC 01:28:09 V +7:57
66 Jon FROST Redmon CC 01:28:21 V -9:09
67 Bryn TULLY Anerley BC 01:28:30 V +5:30
68 Andy ROBINSON Epsom CC 01:29:27 V -5:23
69 Svilen MARINOV Kingston Wheelers 01:31:18 M
70 Tim WILDENBERG Epsom CC 01:33:13 V -12:49
71 Stephen BURROWS i-team.co.uk 01:34:58 V -10:16
72 Douglas SHAW Addiscombe CC 01:35:13 V -14:49
73 Les PHILLIPS City RC (Hull) 01:35:32 V -13:56
74 John FOX Epsom CC 01:36:32 V -3:55
75 Bob LOADER Sydenham Wheelers 01:37:20 V +4:40
76 Ruhina MILLER Kingston Wheelers 01:38:18 WJ
77 Andrew PENNY Hull Thursday RC 01:44:49 V -21:59

[Stu Merckx Man]

hey dom thats a brilliant time, well done.

these wednesday chaingangs are really nocking you into shape! you get stronger and stronger each time you come out!

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

That was some ride Dom, Niall Digby is (or was) a 1st cat road rider. danni Rudd and Stewart lemanski with 1.17's, Richard Tully 1.19 and Mark Cole on 1.21 puts it into perspective.

Should see your times tumble this year.

[Snoop Doug]

[url]http://www.londoncyclesport.com/news/article/mps/UAN/3974/v/1/sp/[/url]

Dominic Lowe - Super Star

[Dominic]

Well to complete a good weekend I have received a cheque for £35 for being the fastest rider from a club that was in the CDCA. As well as that there is a write up in the Croydon Advertiser complete with a picture of Snoop with his tongue out