Tuesday Night Time Trial

Round four of the NFCC Road Bikes Only time Trial series on the second visit of the month to P164 was bless with a still, sunny evening on the longest day on the year with some excellent times recorded. Find a full report by CLICKING HERE
 
As always with Club TTs, the events simply couldn’t happen without the help and support of the Members that volunteer their time to help with the organisation and running on the night – contact press@newforestcc.co.uk if you have an hour or two to spare on a Tuesday evening and would like to get involved.

FWCC Summer CX: Rd.3

The final round of the FWCC summer cyclocross series was held on Tuesday evening. Emma Shepherd and Catherine Pascoe were once again representing NFCC in the women’s race with Joe Shepherd and Matt Knight competing in the men’s.
This week saw a larger women’s field with some Wessex League high flyers challenging Emma’s dominance. A strong start for both ladies saw Emma riding in the leading group of 5 with Catherine not far behind. Over the first three laps, the leading group was soon whittled down to 3 riders including Emma. With the other two riders pushing the pace, gaps started appearing and Emma lost contact, she regrouped and fought hard closing the gap to around 30s and holding off those behind to finish 3rd. Catherine spent the race chasing the other women who had been dropped by the early leaders. She pushed hard and her 6th place earned her 1st in her category.
The NFCC men put in a strong performance despite Joe nearly missing the start. Full of adrenaline from his rolling start, Joe quickly started making up places. He over took team mate Matt before battling his way through the field to finish in 10th place (matching his wife’s performance with a 3rd in his category). Meanwhile Matt finished in a respectable 37th/50 starters. All three races were great fun and a brilliant training opportunity ready for the Wessex league races which start in September.

Thursday Night Chain Gang

Five riders rode the chain gang this week on the Roundhill / Hatchet Pond course including one making his first chain gang, welcome James. For once there was little wind to contend with so no constraints on which way the chain gang rotated so we practiced both clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations. After four of the six legs one rider was cooked and out of thin air came another strong club rider who was on a training ride to replace him, so we kept the group to five. For the last two legs we rode it as a five up time trial rather than a chain gang which worked well with tired riders as the stronger riders took longer turns at the front.
As usual the pace increased towards the end and the group finished in two parts and regrouped at the finish for a cool down ride home.
Another enjoyable evening and we may keep the format of changing to a team time trial format for the last legs on this course as it works well
 
Although the sessions records a high average pace, don’t let that put you off… it’s an excellent way to grow your skills in riding within a bunch and your confidence around other riders. We look forward to seeing you this week, meet at the road to Roundhills Campsite at 1900.

Bournemouth Cycleworks Moreton Race Series: Rd. 4

Phill Brown skipped the club chaingang session once again for a different style chaingang at round four of the Moreton Race Series. Fortunately, the predicted evening showers held off until the race was finished and made way an action packed evening of riding around in circles. The “Aussie Pursuit” type handicap race was a little unbalanced this week, with a small scratch group having to chase two much larger groups up the road ahead of them – add to that a timekeeping issue leading to the racing being 8 mins short, the final bunch sprint for the line could only be described as hectic… despite being reasonably well positioned for the finish, Phill’s early attack didn’t stick and he ended sat up, rolling over the line in 18th position. Overall was pleased with his efforts and looks forward tot h next round.

Saturday Club Ride

Nineteen riders joined for the trip north to the Wallops and a mid-ride stop at the Army Museum of Flying. Two groups were formed at the start and headed up Rhinefield. A hilly 115Km route was planned and as usual some riders rounded this up to 160Km and beyond. Some of the riders seemed intent on gaining their wings at the Army Museum and were seen training on the wooden helicopter in the playground.

Yorkshire Beast Sportive

The latest in a string of poor bike-related decisions led Racing Secretary Joe to Thirsk Racecourse at 04:30 AM on Saturday, taking on what is described by organisers velo29 as ‘the hardest day on a bike there is’ The Yorkshire Beast. A ‘challenge sportive’ the parcours reads as follows: 326km 5,380m elevation, 16hrs to complete the ride before the ‘Beast’ (man in a clown mask driving a van at 20kph) catches you.
160km in the North York Moors with some disgusting climbs including the infamous Rosedale Chimney, followed by 160km in the Yorkshire Dales with some equally awful hills, including but not limited to Park Rash with 220km in the legs. Anyone familiar with the terrain will be suitably horrified at the prospect.
The biggest challenge was keeping abreast of the massive calorie intake required for such a ride, around 10,000 by most accounts.

Joe Completed the challenge in 15hrs 39mins and has no plans to ride any further than the shops for the next few weeks.

Sunday Club Ride

Good to see the return of many riders on this weeks Sunday club ride. 14 starters graced us with their presence and so we split into two groups.
Phil H carefully planned the route to work with the forecasted strong southerly wind and so naturally we headed out and finished into a brutal force 10 westerly headwind. Thanks to the Met Office for that.
Route S4 is basically a tour of the worst roads that the New Forest has to offer, Phil G and Rob. N came sensibly equipped with off-rd bikes accordingly. Weather remained pleasant and many of the gang finished the ride with a leisurely cafe stop at the occasionally competent ‘Terrace’.

Get Involved:

If you find yourself out and about representing NFCC, don’t forget to jot down a few words, snap a few photos and send them over to press@newforestcc.co.uk.