SCCU 10

[Andrew G]

Loads of Addiscombe out for this one .

Great to see Richard back assuming the position , and Joyce out with her bike to support.

I, probably like a couple of others, were only doing this as it was a SCCU event as we've got a 100 tomorrow. A lovely warm morning with a bit of a head wind on the way out but a smashing fast return. It was also a nice surprise to see Tamar with her camera at the top to the little climb over the railway.

Thanks to Ant and Sylv for doing the pushing off duties this morning, much appreciated.

I ended up with legs that felt pretty good so although I held back a touch on the out leg I ended up only one second outside my best for this course . Without the 100 tomorrow I'd have gone full bore all the way and think I'd have dipped under 24 mins on this course for the first time.

Thank to Ruth and Paul for their post race hospitality,mmmmm bacon sarnies .

Results:
Mark McLaughlin 22.41
Rob Royle-Evatt 23.09
Paul Tunnell 24.12
Andrew Green 24.18
Ivor Hewitt 25.14
Richard Viney 25.16
Mark Leedham 26.50
Mark Turner 27.00
Snoop and George both DNF.

I think if my numbers are right then Rob scoops the Pip Heathfield trophy but it was close fought.

Another great ride by Mark McL, and congratulations to Mark's L and T on beating their PBs by 2 - 2.5 minutes, a big chunk off for both. Hope to see you both back at the TTs from time to time, I'd expect a few more chunks can come off as I found it took at least 4 races on that course to start to know it - i.e. which bits are where and how to ride them.

[Antloony]

Some good results there. Despite getting up at stupid o'clock I had a good laugh with Sylv pushing you guys off. He rode down where as I took the far more far more sensible option and drove down passing him en route. I then gave him a tow behind my car before I wound down my drivers window so he grabbed hold of my door pillar for a 40 mph blast to the start.

Great weather and so nice to see so much yellow.

[Sylv]

You got to love those old blokes doing TTs at 6.30am - one was coming up to 82. Not a hint of attitude from anyone of the 60-odd starters, a good atmosphere it has to be said.

Ant's lift was the highlight of an otherwise unenjoyable ride for me, the weather was superb even at 5am, but body and legs just aren't there at the moment. Compare my 3h at 18mph to Rob's 4.5h at 20.7 , and I was totally spent after that.

Sorry Snoop but one of our laughs was from seeing you freewheeling within 50m of the start. Guess it was a day without for you too, well I know how it feels.

What was George's mechanical ?

[Andrew G]

[quote="Sylv"]What was George's mechanical ?

[Snoop Doug]

What's to say...

After a series of unsuccessful TTs in 2009 I continued to batter my mortal soul and rocked up for the SCCU 10. I'd had a lousy night's sleep before hand plagued by all kinds of doubt demons. Felt much better in the morning and managed to convince myself I was looking forward to this...

Sign on - OK
Warm up - OK
Depart - OK luckily timed to coincide with MMs arrival so wished him the very best (and boy did he deliver a huge improvement on his time later)

Down the ramp onto the A264 and depsite my very best efforts I had a twinge and touched the brakes. Nothing too serious and yet...I ride on to the start at an unconvincing pace, telling myself yes, telling myself no. I arrived spot on time as the guy before me is pushed off. Good to see friendly ACC faces @ the start. Sylv asked me a q about how I was feeling and I offered a crap half arsed reply. I knew alright.

30 seconds......10....5, 4, 3, 2, 1

I'm off (me head). As I depart I feel like I'm riding my bike along an undulating glass surface, how easy it would be to fall. I roll pathetically down to the first roundabout and spot an ACC rider arriving. That kind of snapped me back and I push along and up the hill. Up hills is fine. There's Tamar, complete with red holiday hair - fabulous. Hit the top of the hill and oh dear.

Round the corner and now the glassy surface is replaced. I see the open sweeping dual carriageway as a narrow ridge. I'm riding the ridge and inches either side of my wheel is a drop off. How easy it would be to fall. I pull over completely underwhelmed and frazzled. I've barely managed a mile.

Sat with Tamar shouting on the rest of the riders then we toddled back to HQ. As I rode down the railway hill (call that a hill!) I'm barely inching along, brakes on, tensed, awful. I so nearly got off and walked but somehow and with reassurance from Tamar, I dawdled back on two wheels.

So there you have it, another DNF, another irrational rubbish day out on the bike. It's time to stop banging my head against the brick wall, I admit I can't take the pain no more.

It's r'n'r for me for now. Ahhhh, that's better already.

So why am I writing this? Honestly I dunno but it does feel better to get it off me chest. I guess it might (??) be useful to see another side of how the sport affects some people. I've had some lovely notes from club mates in recent weeks about my woes and that’s very kind.

I’m sticking fun back to the top of my list for a while.

Snoop

[Roy Green]

Snoop me hearty, sounds like its a course of hypnosis you need! Alternatively, you must find something to suit on this website:
http://www.chisuk.org.uk/

You could borrow stabilisers from Keira's bike of some years ago ...

[Marky Mark]

Lets start at the beginning, thanks for all the good wishes and support I got of everybody before during and after the TT. Cheers Andrew for the loan of the wheels, I'm sure they made a difference. Big thanks to Robh for all the help and advice. Basically all of you

The prep.
Had a good run up to this, except for the knee but that came good in the end.
No booze during the week, early night the night before and the bike was in good shape.

Headquarters.
Got there with loads of time to spare, warmed up on the turbo and saw some friendly agreeables full of good wishes.

The weather.
Beautiful day, bit of a strong breeze form the East.

To the start.
Nice easy run to the start line, gave Sylvan and Ant a bit of a scare as I was told that I had a massive 20 seconds to spare. Top pushing Sylvan, thank you.

The TT
Up the first drag past my groupies (Tamar & Super Snoop) giving me a much needed and surprising massive cheer as I went past them, managed to keep it over 17mph up the hill.
Heading into the wind still faster than last year as I had had times tapped on my top tube!. Then fu**ing disaster and the brain working a bit to hard... I got to the r'bout before the halfway turn and thought that was the one. Bugger no marshals on, it was that split second I knew I messed up so I kept going round it at 22mph to rejoin the route. THAT COST ME 27 SECONDS . Plotted it out off my Garmin, flipping gutted now.
So with the wind behind me now after the correct turn I was in a good place and felt very strong.
Managed to chuck in a P.B of 27m 00s.

08 TT times--09 (each distance is a r'bout marker or finish line)
Split times [color=#000080]08[/color]--------09
Dist
0.2.... [color=#000080]0.29[/color]-----0.31
0.9.... [color=#000080]3.03[/color]-----2.48
2.2.... [color=#000080]7.01[/color]-----6.46
3.8.... [color=#000080]11.51[/color]-----11.30
4.4.... [color=#000080]13.41[/color]----13.31 this is the the one that done me. [color=#FF0000]+27 on this r'bout seconds for nothing[/color]

4.8.... [color=#000080]14.53[/color]-----14.34

5.2.... [color=#000080]16.04[/color]-----15.46
5.9.... [color=#000080]18.03[/color]-----17.30
7.5.... [color=#000080]22.28[/color]-----21.20
8.8.... [color=#000080]26.07[/color]-----24.21
9.5.... [color=#000080]27.50[/color]-----25.54
10.... [color=#000080]29.11[/color]-----27.00

If I didn't make that school boy error it would of been around th 26m 30s mark. If only's hey!

Onwards and upwards. I will have to do that again soon and I would also like to do a 25TT without missing a turn and I need to get more Aero, so room for improvement all over the place.

Anyway I'm still pleased with knocking a big chunk of time off and thanks again for the ACC support.

Yours, Marky Mark

[Ivor]

Well that was an odd one.

I felt good at the start, all running like clockwork and organised. (both gloves, check. both shoes, check. funky chicken hat, check) Warmed up getting to the start.
Great to see so much yellow waiting for the off. Stirling push off from Sylv, and away.

But then, had a hell of a job getting up to speed on the climb to the first r'bout - felt much harder than it should have been.
Deafened by some mad girl with red hair yelling as I got to the turn.

Ok, no worries, head down and wind it up on the long drag towards the turn, slight head wind but not too strong.
Just felt faster and faster, and finally seemed to be doing ok after 10 minutes heading up to the turn, maintained a nice steady pace on the run back, put the hammer down to not lose any time on the rise back to the last turn and flat out on the descent to the line.

Was reasonably pleased with my time, 25:14 but checking the computer at home revealed my feelings were correct, can clearly see I'm struggling to get up to speed for almost 10 minutes although my heart rate is up ok and cadence steady throughout, guesstimate I've lost about a minute over the initial stages.

and now I've just checked my time from last year - "31/05/08, SCCU10, 24:34"
what the hell??? Given I've improved my 25 times significantly from last year (about 6 mins up across the board) I'm at a loss to work out what happened.
too little warm up perhaps?

[Marky Mark]

Pos Rider Club Time N1 N2 N3

1 B MOLLOY EPSOM CC 00:20:51 04:51
2 K COFFEY BEC CC 00:21:07 04:23
3 I BROGDEN EASTBOURNE ROVERS 00:21:18 04:12
4 D FOX CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:21:31 06:41
5 S KENNEDY BEC CC 00:21:33 05:47
6 A DRAPER 34 NOMADS 00:21:34
7 P THATCHER BRIGHTON MITRE 00:21:43 04:59
8 D PAINE GS STELLA 00:21:53
9 S NISBETT CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:22:08
10 M PATON SUSSEX NOMADS 00:22:18 04:49
11 R ROBINSON CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:22:27
12 B MCDERMOTT FESTIVAL RC 00:22:41 03:49
[color=#000080]12 M MCLAUGHLIN ADDISCOMBE CC 00:22:41 04:26 [/color]
14 S HOURIGAN 34 NOMADS 00:22:46
15 K BUTLER BEC CC 00:22:51 04:03
16 N LANGRIDGE CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:22:58 03:20
[color=#000080]17 R ROYLE EVATT ADDISCOMBE CC 00:23:09 02:33 [/color]
18 R TULLY ANERLEY BC 00:23:15
19 M PORTER 34 NOMADS 00:23:19 02:35
20 M BEXLEY FESTIVAL RC 00:23:26 03:04
21 G SMITH SUSSEX NOMADS 00:23:28 05:52
22 E KLOSE (J) WORTHING EXCELSIOR 00:23:32
23 D FRENCH WEYBRIDGE WHS 00:23:41
24 A TAYLOR CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:23:47
25 A FORD EASTBOURNE ROVERS 00:24:00
[color=#000080]26 P TUNNELL ADDISCOMBE CC 00:24:12 02:55 [/color]
27 S PAYNE CENTRAL SUSSEX CC 00:24:13 02:29
[color=#000080]28 A GREEN ADDISCOMBE CC 00:24:18 [/color]
29 S MALONEY (J) WORTHING EXCELSIOR 00:24:20
30 D HOMEWOOD HORSHAM CC 00:24:29
30 R HARFIELD CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:24:29 03:17
32 D HAGGART DE LAUNE CC 00:24:40 02:27
33 A RISDALE EPSOM CC (2ND CLAIM) 00:24:45 00:57
33 P CANNON EPSOM CC 00:24:45 05:03
35 K BURTON EASTBOURNE ROVERS 00:25:12 03:00
[color=#000080]36 I HEWITT ADDISCOMBE CC 00:25:14 [/color]
[color=#000080]37 R VINEY ADDISCOMBE CC 00:25:16 00:14 [/color]
38 H BULLIMORE (W) CRAWLEY WHEELERS 00:25:20
39 R DOWNHAM WORTHING EXCELSIOR 00:25:30 00:00
40 D COX EASTBOURNE ROVERS 00:25:37 04:39
41 T NASON (J) SOUTH WESTERN RC 00:25:54
42 B TULLY ANERLEY BC 00:25:57 04:48
43 K WILKINSON EAST SURREY RC 00:26:28 04:02
44 R GRIFFITHS REDMON CC 00:26:31 02:49
45 R FRENCH WEYBRIDGE WHS 00:26:50 05:10
[color=#000080]46 M LEEDHAM ADDISCOMBE CC 00:26:50 01:09 [/color]
[color=#000080]47 M TURNER ADDISCOMBE CC 00:27:00 -00.54.[/color] (what is all this minus about?)
48 C DERRICK SOUTH EASTERN RC 00:27:36 04:24
49 R OSBORNE CHARLOTTEVILLE CC 00:28:03 06:35
50 D WORSTER REDHILL CC 00:41:36 -07.46.

[color=#000080]1001 D SHAW ADDISCOMBE CC DNF[/color]
[color=#000080]1002 G BRENT ADDISCOMBE CC DNF [/color]
1003 P MOON EASTBOURNE ROVERS DNS
1004 J ARCHDEACON DE LAUNE CC DNS
1005 R WOODWARD EAST GRINSTEAD CC DNS
1006 P JEFFERIES VC ETOILE DNS
1007 I ANDERSON CRAWLEY WHEELERS DNS
1008 S ARCHDEACON (W) DE LAUNE CC DNS
1009 R GUY BEC CC DNS
[color=#000080]1010 C HERITAGE (W) ADDISCOMBE CC DNS[/color]

Well done to you all
Marky Mark