WELLAND VALLEY CYCLING CLUB NEWSLETTER
MAY 2011
New members
We welcome Ross and May Naylor, Adam and Jamie Thompson, Stuart Alexander, Charley Gumley, Stephen Bunn, Nathan Turner, Jennifer Clegg and Jeremy Switzer, and welcome back Helen Talbot.
Performance
I think that as a club we should celebrate the record numbers of club members who are out there performing this year. We’re used to large numbers at club events but so many members have hidden their lights under bushels and not entered open events. We provided a quarter of the total entry for the NCRA Spring handicap road races and have had more riders than any other club in the first two N&DCA time trials.
Our mountain bikers are also there in numbers in the Friday Night series.
To have gained the team prize in the first N&DCA handicap is almost unheard of – and signs are that we’ll gain more before the season is out.
Handicapping didn’t suit our road racers so well this year in the NCRA Spring series but there were some notable performances. Sam Crabtree, a first year racer has looked good throughout and his 3rd place in the final event was just reward. Sam Brogan, a young but hardened road racer, has the capacity of the real sprinter to be seemingly invisible until the last 200metres of a race by which time he’s usually in place for a top ten finish. Ross Headley, Stuart Dawkins and Paul Rothe got top ten finishes for the first time.
On time trialling front, Sam Crabtree has shown himself once again to be a force to be reckoned with, so far this year beating Tom Harrison, which is no mean feat.
I’m sure that Jake Hubbard caused great pride/amusement/feeling of old age (delete as appropriate) when he comprehensively beat Mum in a recent ten mile time trial.
In club events it’s Michelle Wilkinson who has impressed me most – posting very competitive times in her first year of racing while riding a road bike with tribars – and a time trial bike makes a huge difference – just ask Ray Taylor!
Our veteran mountain bikers are in fine form with Scott Rose to the fore. John Chell is fast improving, Mike Winters continues to put in solid performances and it’s great to see Chris Begley, so long plagued with back trouble, racing well again.
Northampton & District Cycling Association
On Saturday 16th April 14 riders from Welland Valley CC completed the first of the season NDCA events. It was a challenging course, over 2 laps of the Middleton circuit.. Congratulations to all who took part. Welland Valley won the team event, through Tom Sexton in 3rd place, Phil Rayner in 4th place and Matt Plews in 17th place. Linda Hubbard was 2nd fastest lady and Phil Rayner was 1st Vet on standard in the 40-49 category. Well done to all who competed.
On Saturday 14th May 11 riders from Welland Valley rode the 2nd NDCA event, a 10miler at Lamport. Tom Sexton was our highest placed rider, taking 5th place. Dave Birch was first veteran on standard in the 60-69 category.
14 riders took part in the first event and 11 in the second. We must keep our numbers up and increase the number of ladies if we are to retain the ladies team and win the fastest team. The next 2 events are on Saturday 4th June 20.8mls, Saturday 18th June 15mls. Let’s try and have at least 20 riders competing. Dave Birch is making it easy for you by e mailing entry forms and addresses to you. Let’s do it and keep Welland Valley on the time trialling map.
Tony Hutton
Brits on Tour.
If you are looking forward to the prospect of Mark Cavendish once again crossing the line on the Champs Elysées with arms aloft, spare a thought for Charly Holland and Bill Burl. In June 1937, Burl and Holland boarded ‘The Golden Arrow’ boat train heading for Paris and the start of the Tour. Between them they had very little in the way of luggage, apart from two pairs of handlebars, no support team, no back up and no experience. They were the first Brits to take part in the Tour de France.
Burl was a successful track rider and Holland had finished fourth in the 1934 World Amateur Road Race – they were to form part of the three man Empire Aces team with Pierre Gachon of Canada. Charly Holland was also reporting the Tour for Cycling magazine and was expected to send regular bulletins back to London.
Bill Burl crashed on Stage 1, punctured on Stage 2 and finished outside the time limit. Charly Holland survived the Alps and reached the Pyrenees but on Stage 21 to Luchon, he suffered a series of punctures and was left stranded when his pump broke and nobody was prepared to help him out. He eventually reached the finish but was outside the time limit and eliminated.
The Tour was won by Roger Lapébie of France by a margin of 7 minutes 17 seconds over Mario Vicini of Italy. Lapébie claimed a place in the record books as the first man to win the Tour using derailleur gears.
Britain was not represented in the Tour again until 1955 when the organisers changed the format to run national teams rather than trade teams and Great Britain had a full team of ten riders. Two years after that – and exactly twenty years after Burl and Holland led the way - Brian Robinson became the first Brit to win a stage of the Tour.
Lanterne Rouge.
Twitter, Facebook and Forum
Why Gwynneth Paltrow should think her views on Accrington Stanley’s inability to score away goals, in fewer than 140 characters, is of interest to anyone but herself is beyond me – so that’s Twitter out of the way.
I don’t think that the world, or even a small part of it, would benefit from knowing my favourite food, film, colour or where I’m going this evening. Facebook is not for me, though strangely, one or two people have asked me to be their ‘facebook friend’.
The club forum infuriates me too. I hate smiley faces, and glum ones. I hate the way forumistas don’t use their real names so I don’t know who is proffering what opinion. I hate texting-style abbreviations and acronyms, bad grammar and misused apostrophes.
While I have no intention of using Twitter and Facebook and would list ‘looking at the forum’ somewhere below ‘having brain surgery’ in my list of good ways to spend a day, I’m well aware that they serve a very important purpose in forming and sharing opinions – much more important, I guess, than my newsletters, but I don’t want a part in them. I’m a relic from a bygone age
I believe, along with my fellow committee members that it is the responsibility of the committee to take account of the feelings of club members in the running of the club.
Am I really the sort of person you want to play a major role in running your cycling club?
This self indulgent rant doesn’t just come out of the blue. At recent committee meetings we have discussed and agreed that it is important that we look at succession planning. Several of us are past, at or nearing the time that we should be put out to grass. It’s not that we are incompetent but we’re creatures of our time. We need to be replaced in the not too distant future (at the latest!) and we need to find replacements who are more at ease with the 21st century and what goes with it!
To this end, job specifications for club officials will be posted on the website shortly, along with mug shots of all committee members so that you can recognize us, know what we do (or at least what we should do) and ask us about our committee jobs, not to mention telling us how we might do them better. It might also give you food for thought regarding becoming a committee member yourself – and that’s what we really want.
If you are not in the habit of reading the Whizz Kids attachment of the newsletter, please make a point of doing so this time around. Beside the fact that it makes you realize that there’s even more going on with the Whizz Kids than you thought there was, you will see that we’re also looking at succession planning for the Whizz Kids.
Please have a word with Dean if you are interested in helping with that venture.
Contributions to the next issue
I would like to thank Lanterne Rouge/Peter Riley and Tony Hutton for their pieces in this issue.
The next newsletter will be in August – all contributions very welcome.
Dave Birch 20.05.11