Tagged: fixed gear

Everyone To The Lake!

This week the Bristol South Classic League heads to Chew Valley Lake. If Bird Watching and Time Trialling are your two favourite things then its not to be missed.

After a successful few weeks at Aust on the 5.2 mile course, where pb’s were flying around, there will hopefully be some more fast times around the lake.

Tim and myself both set new pb’s at Aust, with Tim not being slowed by using his road bike, maybe that helped with his recent circuit racing exploits!

I finally went under 12 minutes with an 11.46 on the final evening!

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Bristol South 25 TT

This weekend was the first Bristol South CC open event of the year. A 25 mile time trial held on the U17.

With sunshine and warm temperatures, this was a huge contrast from just over a month ago for the Severn RC 25, where it was snowing.

I was aiming for as close to an hour as I could get. I rode a 1.03.43 in Febuary, so had some work to do, but was aiming to at least better that time. With temperatures above zero I was in with a chance.

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After a painful ride with some adjustment needed to my saddle angle, I’d managed a 1.01.06 I was really pleased with this. With PJs super fast time and Dan Kempe a few seconds behind me, we had got the team prize for Bristol South! I was 11th of 54, nearly a top ten in an open! Dan B was riding his first ever TT and put in strong time on a spinny 90 gear inch.

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A #chipshopride video

Every Thursday at 7pm in Bristol is a little something called the Chip Shop Ride. People meet up, ride a few miles in the city, ending up at a chip shop where greasy food is consumed. I try & get along to these as often as possible, and last time the GoPro was out, so I put together a super short video.

Severn RC 25 TT

This Sunday at around 9am I arrived at a village hall in Falfield, it was snowing, moments later PJ arrived, he had ridden up!

We were here for the Severn RC 25 mile time trial.

I was struggling to decide what to wear, aero but vaguely warm. I went for base layer shorts and vest, arm warmers, jersey, thermal socks, shoe covers, leg warmers and winter gloves with a skin suit on top. It seemed to be about right apart from my feet and one of my fingers going numb.

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I’d not ridden the course before, comprising of the out and back U7B 10, with an added two loops of a circuit bringing it up to the 25.

It was hard, the cold meant it took me about 3 miles to realise there was a strong headwind, this only turned into a tailwind for the last 5 miles, a welcome relief but a little too late to make a massive difference to my average speed.

I came away with a 1.03.43 not too bad for my second 25 mile TT and something to aim to improve on.

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It was good to catch up with Ed Pitt and speak to Mike Clark, both riding well in the tough conditions.

After the ride we were rewarded with great cakes and a very warm village hall with an impressive collection of industrial looking heaters.

Frome And District Wheelers 10 TT

Today was the Frome and District Wheelers 10, and for many, the first TT of the year.

I headed down with Adam and Tim who were my support crew for the morning which was good!

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PJ and Rob were also racing for Bristol South CC

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There was a thick fog on the journey down, but this cleared for the race and the sun came out to play.

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It was hard riding hard, I haven’t ridden a TT since July or August last year. But it was good to get the first race done. I rode a 23.57 putting me 20th of 60 riders. PJ rode like a champ as usual and took 3rd place, read his review here. Rob went for cream teas and missed his start time, but still got a ride and posted a really impressive 25.09 which he will most probably smash at his next TT.

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Next weekend is the Severn Road Club 25.

Welcome to 2013

The Christmas break is over & in theory you should all be back on your bike making the most of the (drier) weather. We’ve got loads of exciting things planned for 2013 & can’t wait to share them all with you.

This Sunday we’ll be back on our bikes with the first Steady Sunday ride of the year, a gentle 30 mile spin setting off from Mud Dock Deli at 10am, bring a bike (most people ride fixed) & come for a chilled out ride with a great group of people without too many hills.

My first proper ride of 2013 was a fun one with a few teething/bottle loosing/puncture issues. Here’s a few photos from along the way:

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Cobble Wobble 2012

Yesterday we headed down to Frome for the world famous Cobble Wobble. There were a few rain showers throughout the day, but the crowds stuck around & lined the hill for the ‘King of the cobbles’ final showdown. The race was eventually won by 4X MTB rider Michael Prokop, who pipped last year’s winner Lewis Lacey to the line. We had the HWTV camera in full swing, so kick back & watch the new video & please share it with the world for us, thanks!

Dizzee Sprintz

Last night saw the first Dizzee Sprintz take place and what a night it was!

The format was simple, a head to head sprint up a multi story car park, luckily not the whole way.

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There was a great turnout with 16 racers and plenty more watching and marshalling the corners. The only rule was keep to the left on the tight corners, with one rider getting disqualified for taking a shortcut!

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Tim and me both made it through to the semi finals, where I was caught napping on the second to last corner and got overtaken and beaten by Alfie the youngest rider in the race, but don’t tell anyone that ok.

Tim had a close fought battle, crossing the line half a wheel behind Alfie’s older brother.

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Alfie went on to take the overall win, a great result! With Nancy taking first for the girls by beating Neil and getting through to the second round.

After the race had finished it was time for the skid comp. This was the most fun I’ve had on a bike in ages and the first time I’ve done a fixed gear skid longer than a few feet in about 2 years.

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We had a nice slope to skid down and some long skids were taking place, with me, Tim, Gabriel and Django trading places for the longest, with Django taking the honours with his high speed efforts, nice work!

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A massive thanks goes out to Lucy for organising Dizzee Sprintz and her team of helpers, it was no ordinary Sunday evening!

The trophies and stickers were so good!

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