PHIL JACOBS IS TO GIVE UP CYCLING

By Ian Knight

The weekend of the 6th and 7th March will go down as historic for Phil Jacobs, time has caught up will Phyllis as he likes to be known, he was beaten by a one legged fat lazy sloth of a bike rider READ the following race reports for conformation of Phil's demise, be warned it could happen to you!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVENT 1

The Antelope 10 mile early season race is always a bit hard, the course on the Swallowfield bypass not too friendly but reasonable, our riders were Ian Knight, Phil Jacobs, Roger Hartnell and super vet Jake Priors.

The conditions were dry and windy, the course for those who have never ridden it goes out and back with a minor loop to finish, not quick but it is only March.

First to start was Phil he finished in a creditable time of 24.13, next was Ian 24.22, then Roger 23.31 a good ride with those conditions then Jake 21.47 to win the event, I think he may be peaking to early as Ray Hughes and Ian Neville on the Tandem only managed 21.15.

The talk of the headquarters was not of Jake superb winning time but Ian only 9 seconds behind Phil must be a mistake!!! The consolation for Phil was he was part of the winning team and he earned a staggering £2.50 for his ride.

EVENT 2

For those who rode our hilly 10.2 and saw the 24mile Chippenham event flyers and didn't enter good call it was hard.

The event was a district counter for the Rudy Project competition; our only entries were Ian Knight and Phil Jacobs with Neil Coleman representing Alcan Bianchi.

Ian was first to start, he caught his minute man after 6 miles, dropped him by 15 seconds then started to climb the first hill, by the top he had been caught back and dropped by nearly a minute, you have all seen him ride those big hills it breathtaking just how slow he is. It took another 6 miles to catch up the rider again, which was at the bottom of another big climb, dropped again this time by about 30 seconds. It took about 2 miles to catch the rider back, by the end Ian had recorded a time of 1.04.37 and his minute man 1.07.03, about 2 minutes were lost against this rider on the 2 hills alone. If Ian could get up those hills a top ten finish would have been his as it turns out 27th place in a hilly event is a good result.

Phil was next to start he had what he describes as a good ride, no dramas except for the end, he thought the finish was by some cones, you have to remember he is used to seeing the back of Ian's aero lid probably forgotten what a finish board looks like, cost him a handful of seconds, but he finished with a time of 1.05.18, this was good enough for 28th place.

Neil just went fast but was second with 56.18 beaten by Paul Pickup 55.30, talk of the tea room now was what is wrong with Phil, he needs time to consider his future, perhaps back to gardening or even sunbathing, one thing you can be sure of is Phil will be trying harder than ever to beat Knighty.