News - July 2008

Tuesday 1st July - Latest Andover Advertiser article

The last 3 weeks have seen the Andover Wheelers Championship events dominated by Simon Healey. The 'Andover Advertiser' trophy is held over 25 miles and Healey demonstrated his excellent form by coming home 1st in a time of 55mins 47secs. 2nd place went to another rider in good form, Ian Knight, who finished in a time of 59mins 39secs with 3rd place going to Dave Dinsdale who, after a slow start to the season, recorded 60mins 02secs. The 25 Championship also incorporates a 'Handicap' 25 Championship event which was won by Simon Hall whos allowance of 6mins 58secs gave him a winning time of 55mins 23secs. Scratch ride Healey was 2nd with Knight in 3rd. 

The following weekend saw the clubs 30 mile Championship and, although Simon Healey took top spot again with a time of 1hr 8mins 36secs, there were some notable rides by the other competitors. Hefin Richards was racing at the distance for the first time and produced a good time of 1hr 21mins 25secs for 6th place. Stuart Thompson and Pete Dennett were having a ding dong battle for 4th place with Thompson just edging Dennett by 7secs in a time of 1hr 15mins 36secs. 3rd place went to Nick Adnitt who has been consistently improving throughout the season, finishing in a time of 1hr 13mins 35secs leaving Dave Dinsdale to collect 2nd spot with a 25mph average ride of 1hr 11mins 54secs. 

The Championship '10' was run off in near perfect conditions and the times reflected this. Hefin Richards rode a PB time of 24mins 39secs and was unfortunate to miss out on 3rd place in the Handicap event by just 1sec from ex. Pro rider Harry Lodge. 2nd place in the Handicap event with an amended time of 21mins 9secs was taken by another rider coming into form, Stuart Thompson. The main event saw two riders who are coming into form, Dave Dinsdale - 21mins 56secs, and Ian Knight - 22mins 27secs, taking 2nd and 3rd places respectively but the very in form Simon Healey took 1st place in the main event with a time of 21mins 3secs and, as the Scratch rider, took the  Handicap prize also.

Thursday 3rd July - Updated League tables

Monday 7th July - GHS Championship Southern Final

Three Andover Wheelers youngsters teamed up well recently in the southern final of the GHS Championship. The GHS is a national time trial competition for riders of school age and the south final is run over a distance of 10 miles on a tough course just outside Ringwood. Rob Ward and Tom Bolton were having their first attempts at the competition and both produced excellent personal best times. Rob rode round in 27mins 13secs with Tom just edging him in a time of 26mins 47secs. Max Webber rode this competition last year and has been in good form this season. Riding a specific time trial bike with a carbon fibre rear disc wheel, Max produced another PB time of 24mins 01secs, virtually a 25mph average ride. His ride was good enough for 2nd place overall, only 45secs behind British Talent Team rider Jonathan Dibben. All three Wheelers times were good enough to win the team prize and qualify for the National Final in September.

Sunday 27th July - Andover Advertiser article

Its been a busy period for the Andover Wheelers recently, which has seen a great deal of success! There have been plenty of Wheelers taking part in road racing this season and two riders have gained enough points to move up to the next category. Stuart Thompson started the year as a 3rd Cat rider and has been scoring points regularly in races at Portsmouth, Thruxton and Upavon to move him up to a 2nd Cat rider which also puts him in with the Elite riders. Ian Knight is having his first serious go at road racing this season and has acquitted himself very well. Starting as a 4th Cat rider, it can be the most difficult jump up to 3rd Cat but Ian has earned some good results in the first half of the season to move up to the next level. These results combined with others from the Wheelers riders have pushed the club into 9th position overall in the Southern region.

On the time trial front, the first leg of the annual 'Interclub' event between the Wheelers and the North Hampshire Road Club took place recently. The course was over a distance of 18.5 miles on the roads around Dummer, near Basingstoke, and the top six riders from each club would count towards the overall result. The Wheelers lost out last season and were looking for a good first leg against the strong NHRC team, and they didn't disappoint! Simon Healey, Dave Dinsdale, Harry Lodge, Ian Knight, Peter Dennett and Stuart Thompson all rode well to produce a combined time of 4hrs 33mins 55secs which was just 1min 05secs off of the NHRC combined time. This leaves the Wheelers with a good chance to overhaul the deficit on the local Red Rice circuit in a few weeks time. 

Dave Dinsdale and Peter Dennett have put in some good performances in longer distance time trials. Dinsdale braved some horrendous conditions to ride the East Sussex CA 100 mile time trial on the roads around Horsham. Without doing any distance training it was always going to be difficult but Dave put in an excellent performance to finish in a time of 4hrs 51mins 29secs for 10th place overall. The previous weekend Dave travelled to the West country to ride the Bristol South CC 50 mile time trial in much better conditions. Much suited to this distance, he finished in a great time of 2hrs 00mins 18secs and just missing out on a 25mph average speed but setting himself up nicely for the club's Best All Rounder competition. Local triathlete Peter Dennett is training hard for the Ironman event and has seen his cycling times improve greatly. He recently rode his first ever 50 mile time trial on roads near Poole and showed his improvement by clocking a time of 2hrs 13mins 39secs. A great first attempt at the distance and good enough for 19th place overall.

Thursday 31st July - Andover Advertiser article

The local Thruxton '10' course has produced some fast times over the last few weeks with good performances from the Wheelers. The first event again saw Simon Healey fastest Wheeler in 21mins 19secs but the next three riders battled it out for 2nd place and were only split by 12 seconds! Ian Knight came out on top with 22mins 18secs followed by Dave Dinsdale in 22mins 29secs who just pipped Harry Lodge by 1 second. Fastest rider on the night was Nick Bowdler of Farnborough & Camberley CC who pushed a massive gear to produce a 30mph ride in 19mins 55secs.

The following week saw the same course used again but this time there was the option to ride the 2 lap 25 mile variation of the course. Ian Knight produced his PB time for 25 miles finishing in 57mins 58secs and 1st Wheeler home. Comeback rider Harry Lodge is getting back to full fitness, also beating the hour with a time of 58mins 43secs and was followed by another PB time from Peter Dennett in 61mins 18secs and Nick Adnitt in 62mins 25secs. In the 10 mile event Simon Healey finished in 21mins 10secs with Dave Dinsdale in 2nd place with 22mins 15secs and Tim James producing a 25mph ride in 23mins 58secs. The fastest time of the night came from tandem pairing Mark Jones & Howard Waller from Oxford City RC who produced a stunning ride of 18mins 33secs for the 10 mile distance!

Another 'Come & Try It' event promoted by the Andover Wheelers saw a number of potential racing cyclists take part. The 8.5 mile circuit around the roads in Grateley and Monxton saw some fast, close times achieved. Tim Jude was the fastest on the day with 22mins 36secs but the next three riders, Giffin Lorimer, Terry Smith and Lee Hinchcliffe were split by just 9 seconds with times of 23.09, 23.17 and 23.18. A couple of youngsters put in some great rides also. 12 year old Paul Double rode his first ever event and finished in an excellent 27mins 41secs and 13 year old Mitchell Webber beat his previous best time by over 2 minutes by recording an impressive 24mins 26secs. Many thanks go out to Amport Cricket Club for the use of their facilities as race HQ and to everyone that helped to make this event a success.

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