News - April 2009
Thursday 16th April – Wheelers TT League Table 2009
Now we have completed two club time trials it's time for the first league tables of the season. Changes from last year are the winner of the B league, Peter Dennett, is promoted to the A league and the winner of the A league, me (Simon Healey), promoted to an 'Elite and second claim' league. This new league will give the second claim members something to race for and also provide me with some competition! This year your final league position will be calculated on your best 18 performances. Hopefully this will mitigate the effects of bad luck (punctures etc), work and family commitments, as well as not penalise rides for helping out if required.
Round up so
far:-
In both the
A and B leagues young riders have been leading the way. A win and a second
place has given Rob Ward the advantage in the A league. While in the B league
Tom Bolton is unbeaten. Also in the B league a mention should be made of
Andrew Frost who, in his first ever time trial, managed to comfortably beat the
20mph barrier. Jake Prior has been
leading the way in the Elite/2nd Claim league, however I'm going to use my TT
bike from now on to keep him on his toes! (No more showboating on a 40
year old
For the
current table, click here.
Friday 17th April –
Weather conditions
played a major part in the first two Andover Wheelers Tuesday evening time
trials on the 8.25 mile course based on the roads around Monxton and Grateley.
Cold and windy conditions greeted the riders at the first event which made for
a more difficult ride on the outward leg to Grateley Station but it was Club
Champion Simon Healey that carried on from where he left off last season. His
time of exactly 19 mins made him fastest Wheeler on the night followed by
Junior rider Rob Ward showing great improvement on his new time trial bike
with a PB time of 20 mins 23 secs with another youngster, Tom Bolton, recording
21 mins 51 secs and 3rd Wheeler on the night. Another notable ride was 12 year
old Cameron Thompson who was competing in his first ever time trial. He has
been racing for a few years in closed circuit road races and seems to have
transferred this experience over to racing against the clock and
recorded an excellent time of 28 mins 01 secs. Fastest rider on the night
was another local rider Rowan Horner (VC St Raphael) in a time of 18 mins 28
secs.
The
following Tuesday saw a complete turn around in the weather with near
perfect warm and still conditions that saw most riders improve on their
previous weeks time. Simon Healey rode a standard road bike without tri bars
and still managed to post the fastest Wheelers time but Roger Hartnell
pulled out an excellent ride to equal Healeys time of 19 mins 41 secs. Rob Ward
managed to dip under the 20 minute mark with 19 mins 59 secs and Tom
Bolton posted a PB time of 21 mins 21 secs. Fastest Lady was Lizzy Yates in 23
mins 53 secs and Andrew Frost was having his first attempt at a time trial and
did well to comfortably beat 20mph average speed in a time of 23 mins 59 secs.
There were also 3 'Come & Try' riders taking part in their first ever race
against the clock. Alan Spurden showed plenty of potential in recording a time
of 21 mins exactly and Junior riders, Jack Struthers and Sam Goacher, did
fantastically well in posting times of 24 mins 52 secs and 27 mins 6 secs
respectfully.
Words courtesy of Mike Webber.
For full
Results & Photos click here.
Friday 24th April – First Monday Night Youth/Novice Training Session Report
Well done to everyone who turned up to the youth & novice training on Monday. We had an excellent session getting used to following and sitting on wheels, cornering at speed, a couple of hard efforts around the big circuit and then a 1 Lap time trial with times as follows:-
Steffan Burgess 1min 12secs
Hamish Pike 1min 03secs
Mitchell Webber 1min 05secs
Andrew Bungay 1min 03secs
Jed Webber 1min 13secs
Daniel Hobson 1min 00secs
See you
again next Monday
Words courtesy of Mike Webber.
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Click on a thumbnail image to expand. Photos courtesy of Barrie Austen.
Click here for more photos from the first Youth/Novice Training Session, courtesy of Barrie Austen.
Thursday 30th April – Easter Weekend
The Easter
weekend saw plenty of local riders competing in events across the region. On
Good Friday Simon Hall paired up with Lizzy Yates to ride the tandem
event in the Bournemouth Arrow 10 mile time trial. The cold and wet conditions
made the Ringwood course tougher than usual but the Wheelers pair battled round
in a time of 26mins 35secs. Simon's wife Elaine rode her first 'Open' event for
10 years to record a respectable 32mins 26secs in the solo event.
Good Friday
also saw a number of youth riders compete in the popular Castle Combe circuit
races. Carla James was having only her second ever race but showed good
determination to finish 4th in the U10's Girls event. A large field of over 30
riders took part in the U12's race but Cameron Thompson showed that he has good
form to finish in 7th place while Jed Webber is improving all the time by
taking 15th place. In the U14's race Mitchell Webber was up against some strong
riders but his initial pre-race nerves disappeared as soon as flag dropped and
he rode a sensible race by following wheels and conserving energy. Coming into
the sprint for the line, Mitchell hung in well and was very happy to finish in
8th place.
Easter
Monday saw 6 local riders take part in the Alton CC Hilly 31 mile time trial.
Club Champion Simon Healey teamed up with Junior rider Max Webber (Behind the
Bike Shed) and Mike Webber teamed up with Ian Knight (KFS VC) in the 2-up
event. Healey and Webber junior combined well together to finish in a time
of 1hr 14mins 51secs for third place overall. It wasn't quite the same story
with the pairing of Webber senior and Knight. The KFS VC rider was by far
the strongest on the day and Webber spent the majority of the race hanging on
to Knight's back wheel! But both riders were pleased to finish in 1hr 21mins
09secs for 4th place team overall. In the solo event Roger Hartnell showed that
he is coming back to form by finishing in 1hr 26mins 31secs with Stuart
Thompson (Behind the Bike Shed) a further minute back in 1hr 27mins 32secs.
Words courtesy of Mike Webber.