by Tim Costello.

Racing round up

Congratulations to Adam Cooke who won the 2-lap time trial for ABC youths at Angmering last Monday. He also had a 2nd in the Kieran. Declan Inglis and Joseph Marchant also finished in the top three. Overall result for the evening on points was Adam 2nd, Declan 4th, Joseph 9th, Conrad Dinwiddy 14th, James Gleeson 15th and George Phillips 17th. A fantastic turnout for the club. Well done to all of them.
Toby Neave entered and rode the national road race championships in Wales. Possibly the most star studded race ever for a national chmapionships. It's been a very long time since anyone from Southdown Velo rode the national road race. Unfortunately Toby's race was spoiled by a plastic bag and being stuck behind crashes. Chapeau to Toby for having a go.
Simon Pattinson was 33rd and Mark Warrington was 41st at Dunsfold.
Mark Warrington was 15th in the 3/4 race at Portsmouth with Chris Dobson 40th. In the elite race I was 4th and Toby Neave 6th for Toby to take the series lead.

Upcoming events

19th July is the Chichester March which includes mountain bike events starting from Lavant. Details.
7-9th August is the Woesten, Flanders 25th International Chmapionship. My highlight of the year. A great race. See me for more details.
20th September is the two-up time trial Duo Normand. See here for more details.

Mike Marchant

Mike Marchant has given notice that he intends, for personal reasons, to stand down from his various TT roles at the end of the year. If you would like to take these on please have a word with Mike. I'm sure I speak for all when I thank Mike for all his hard work which includes getting us, despite some strong opposition, accepted into the Portsdown TT League.

New British Cycling Plan

British Cycling have published details of their four year plan. Please take time to read this and come up with suggestions as to how we can support it. A cyclo-sportive starting and finishing in Chichester sounds like a good idea!

By Tim Costello

Road racing results

A bumper crop of results in the last week.
Toby Neave had another win. This time at Dunsfold. Well done Toby! This came after a 4th place at Dunsfold and was followed up by another 2nd place at Portsmouth. Toby is lying second overall in the Portsmouth series and was in the top three at Dunsfold.
We had a good representation at Goodwood. It was a great atmosphere. A shame the Goodwood staff are still as surly and unhelpful as ever.
We had four in the elite race at Goodwood which is the highest for some time. Toby and myself made the front group when the race split into two. Unfortunately we were outnumbered by Felt riders and everyone seemed to be marking Toby. Toby was 12th, me 14th, Shaun Smart 24th and Andy Page 28th.
Richard Bevan was 36th in the 3rd cat race. Eugene Bardwell and Geoff Farrell rode the 4th cat race. Geoff making his road racing debut, I believe. Well done Geoff.
I'm afraid I don't know the youth results as they have not been published but Alderney and Erin Baker made their debuts at Goodwood.
Mark Warrington was 6th at Hove Park in the 4th cat race.

Time trial results

We had five starters in the Bognor open 10 with Shaun Smart fastest of our contingent in 22:12 for 11th place. Pete McGuiness went round in 22:34, Mike Miles in 23:16 and Angus Peel in 24:24.
Shaun went about a minute faster in the latest Bognor club 10 to win in 21:37 with Mike Miles pipping Pete McGuiness this time. In all we had 12 competitors. A third of the field.

Angmering youth series

We are still making our presence felt in the Angmering youth series. In round 8 we had Declan Inglis 8th overall on points, Conrad Dinwiddy 13th and James Gleeson 15th.
In round 9 we had Declan 4th overall, Joseph Marchant 5th, Adam Cooke 7th and James Gleeson 17th.

New members

Welcome to new members Kieran Kinsella from Selsey, Simon McGee from Chichester, Adam Cooke from Chichester, Jo Gray from West Wittering, James and Tim Gleeson from Chichester and Graham Davies from Lavant.

Forthcoming events

There are races for all categories at Guildford town centre on the 8th of July. A fantastic night out. As winner in 1984 of the first ever Guildford town centre race I speak with some authority!

By Tim Costello.

Angmering report

I popped along to Angmering on Monday night just in time to miss the start of the first race and tell Christine that the yellow jersey had to change hands. Oh yes, we have yellow jerseys too!
My main purpose was to try and match youths without kit to fitting kit. It doesn't help when some of the labels have faded. We had a good turn out of Declan Inglis, Joseph Marchant, Conrad Dinwiddy and new members Jamie Gleeson and Adam Cooke.
I was also able to distribute Montezumas chocolates to the poor and needy youth cyclists of Sussex (and beyond). That went down very well!
Both Declan and Joseph won races before the rain started. Only very lightly, but the worst possible conditions in terms of slippiness. First to fall was Joseph who fell quite hard before another lad joined him. Wisely the evening was called off which was a great shame because it was bone dry on the drive home.

For sale

I have re-opened the For Sale page of the website for business. There are a couple of complete bikes for sale at the moment. Contact me if you want to add any items.

Racing round up

Toby Neave was second at Portsmouth on Saturday and has regained his elite category. Well done Toby.
Mark Warrington was in action twice at Portsmouth finishing 10th in the 4th cat race and then riding the 3rd cat race.
Southdown Velo dominated the Bognor 10 on Thursday with Toby winning in 21.22 with Shaun Smart second in 22.14. We had 17 entrants out of 36 starters!!! Well done everyone.
Dave Pothecary was our fastest in the Hants RC 10 on Tuesday finishing 6th in 25:45.

Racing at Goodwood

There is racing for all categories including youths at Goodwood on Sunday, 21 June. Details here. There is a separate race for women. We have some talented females in the club who would surprise a few people.

More routes online

I took a party of about 10 on a guided tour of the Blackdowns on Sunday. By the end of the day I had completed 4,200 feet of climbing with both passes of the Blackdowns being traversed. I have loaded the map of my route here on BikeHike. If you log in as southdownvelo with the password of southdownvelo you can search for routes I have created, or create some more.

By Tim Costello ...

Divisional championships

Congratulations to Toby Neave on his storming ride in the divisional championships last Sunday. Whilst most of us were enjoying a pleasant jaunt in the countryside, at the beach or generally avoiding too much hard work, Toby was riding 80 miles on the hottest day of the year on the hilly Tenterden course in Kent. Toby finished in fifth place which is a truly excellent result. Judging by the 'photos (here) it looks like a lot of people dropped out. Results here.
Toby writes ... "The first climb of the race saw a group of riders go clear, me included. Out of the 12 of us this also included 3 sigma sport riders (they do the prems). We worked well together for 3 laps, then a group of 7 came across. 2 riders slipped away (1 from sigma), but with 4 laps to go i decided to save my energy and hide at the back of the group. With 2 to go myself and Steve Calland lit the fireworks and split the group up, then we got across to the 2 ahead. With 1 lap to go 3 more came across, including gary dodd, some irish fella, and jaco ehlers. These riders have been winning on the road fairly regularly so i knew i had my work cut out. On the penultimate climb i put a dig in but got no-where, then with 5 miles to go i attacked hard and quickly got a gap. Unfortunatly i got pulled back, then Calland counter attacked and they let him go. The final time up the main climb dodd and ?????? (name to be inserted when i see the results) attacked but my legs seized up. They rode off to contest silver and bronze, whilst i was pipped for 4th by Andy betts from sigma sport.

It was a super tough race, harder than anything else i've ridden this year bar the jock wadley (which was basically a premier calendar). The av speed was in excess of 26.5 mph, not bad considering the cross winds and climbs! I'm really happy with the way that i rode, although maybe if i followed Calland when he attacked i would have finished in the medals. Who knows, that's the good thing with road racing, it doesn't matter how strong you, are at the end of the day the most tactical person wins."

Angmering results

I'm indebted to Mike Marchant for supplying the results from Angmering on Monday night. Declan Inglis, Joseph Marchant and new members Erin and Alderney Baker all rode.
Mike writes ...
"4 lap scratch - Cat D&E - New members Erin 4th and Alderney 7th
6 lap scratch - Cat C - unfortunately Declan crashed when in a good position. Carried on with the evening's races once Jez had fixed a suspected rolled tyre!
8 lap scratch - Cat A&B - Joseph 3rd
4 lap H/cap - Cat D&E - Erin 5th and Alderney 6th
6 lap H/cap - Cat C - Declan 3rd
8 lap H/cap - Cat A&B - Joseph 3rd
6 lap scratch - Cat D&E - Erin 7th and Alderney 6th
8 lap scratch - Cat A&B&C - Declan 4th and Joseph missed this combined event (probably my fault for not paying attention!)
4 lap H/cap - Cat D&E - Erin 5th and Alderney 7th
6 lap H/cap - Cat C - Declan 2nd
6 lap H/cap - Cat A&B - Joseph 5th "

Kalas 2-day

Toby and I are seriously considering riding the Kalas 2-day in Somerset (West of Taunton) over the weekend 20-21 June. On the saturday there is a 1.6KM TT, 20KM TTT, 1hour circuit race all based on Ilton circuit which is a falt closed circuit. Sunday the road race is at Somerton and is 100KM. Anyone interested let me know. Closing date is 13 June. No entries on the line.

Retro - VC Noviomagus in 1971

New member

Welcome to our newest member Kieron O'Brien from Chichester. Kieron has already ridden one of the Bognor Thursday night 10s with a good ride.

Racing round up

Toby Neave and myself rode at Portsmouth on Wednesday in the elite race. For some unfathomable reason I managed to get off the front on my own twice and was left to sweat for about 10 minutes each time. Actually it could have been 1 minute, but it felt like a lifetime. Toby hopped across to the winning break to finish 3rd whilst I did my Mr Plod impression trying to disrupt the VC St Raphael chase.
Andy Page and Mark Warrington rode the 3/4 race. Andy was in the break which I'm sure lapped the field. Unfortunately the results still haven't been posted.
PS no racing at Portsmouth next week.
Pete McGuiness reports from the Bognor 10 on Thursday night "Good turnout by velo this week ! here are the times T.Neave 21.55 2nd
S.Smart 3rd 21.58, P.McGuiness 5th 22.38 , F.Nurse 8th 23.15, D.Bridle 15th 24.12, J.woodward 24.18 17th, A.Peel 20th 24.50, K O'Brien 25th 25.57,F.Cripps 27th 26.10 & D.Rang 38th dnf . There was a few pb's that night so well done all .... " Toby was beaten by 4 seconds by someone from Bognor Regis CC. What?!!! But aren't they all a 1000 years old?

BikeHike website

I chanced across this route mapping website that I rather like. It's called www.bikehike.co.uk. You can plot on and off road routes. You can use either the Google map or the Ordnance Survey one, or toggle between them. As well as telling you how far your route is it gives you a profile of the hills. I have created two maps:
Walderton to the Hawkley Triangle and back, and
Tim's Hambeldon mystery tour
It's free so give it a whirl ...

The men of the Giro

Lion of Lavant does it again

Toby Neave, the Lion of Lavant, won at Dunsfold. Toby got away with a couple of laps to go and just won the sprint. Great ride Toby!

The Lion on the prowl

Angmering results

Mike Marchant kindly provided our results from Angmering ... "We had 3 lads out on a windy night tonight (I remembered Declan this time - apologies to Jez for last week's omission).

Declan and Conrad got 2nd and 10th in the Cat C, D & E 5 lap Scratch; 4th and 10th in the 5 lap Handicap; 1st and 4th in the 6 lap Kieran.

Joseph rode in the Cat A & B races getting 5th (8 lap Scratch), 2nd (8 lap H/cap), 4th (8 lap Kieran).

They each did a 1 lap TT - Declan 39.28 sec, Joseph 40.84 sec and Conrad 48.31 sec. "

Hants RC 10 results

Courtesy of Mike Marchant ...
Shaun 23.04 (1st)
Pete 23.42 (3rd)
Andy 24.10 (5th)
Mike 25.16 (7th)
Alistair 27.27 (11th)
Jonathon 29.27 (16th) (Does anyone know Jonathon Lacy?)

New members

Welcome to Alderney and Erin Baker. Two new youth members from Tangmere.

Now that we have got a very successful road racing promotion in our club palmares for this season, we need to start thinking about the next PTTL promotion, which is by us(!), on 28th June. I am the event sec. but I need some help.

My wife has kindly offered to knock up some cakes etc, and run the refreshments stall on the day (she'll be grateful for any help, anyone?), and Bognor Regis CC (in the form of Dave Prior) is helping me out with the timekeeping. Shaun has offered to do the pushing-off at the start and Killer C and Pastie have offered their help elsewhere. But I need more! If anyone wants to do their bit for the season, please let me know soonest.

Remember, you only get out of the sport what you put into it!

Many thanks in advance, Mike.

I'm still waiting for the final result, but here are the SDV scores as I see them. I have to say that everyone who rode can give themselves a big pat on the back for getting through an awful day on a tough course. All the SDV riders who entered, rode and finished which is an excellent turnout.

Alistair Mallet 2.46.52 27th
Dave Bridle 2.24.26 16th (rode the entire event without a drink!)
Paul O'Donovan 2.22.17 13th (inc. a stop to pick up his drink bottle!)
Fraser Nurse 2.24.33 17th (ridden on a road bike! Good effort)
Dave Pothecary 2.26.46 19th (another on a road bike! Well done Dave)
Yours truly 2.10.14 5th

All in all it was a true test of doggedness. My own account was a race that started OK but the heavens opened with about 20 miles to go, along with an awkward gusting cross wind which was blowing us lighter types all over the place. With about 15 miles to go I had to remove my specs; I had slightly better vision of the road ahead without corrected sight! Unfortunately, however, with about 5 miles to go and going into the wind-driven rain, I couldn't see a thing and rode from Barton's Cross to Funtington mostly on guesswork. Still, we all got there so well done to all the SDV riders.

Thorney Island

In conjunction with Ciclisti Vecchi and VC Meudon we put on the first road races at Thorney Island since the 1960s. A very big thank you to everyone who helped and thanks to Simon Pattinson who supplied Montezuma's Chocolates for the youths. I'm very grateful to Shane O'Neill who provided the introduction to the right people on the base and drove the lead car. Without him it would probably never happened.
It turned out to be a glorious day and most things went smoothly.
We ran youth races on a 0.7 mile course which we also used for the Islanders' Mum's and Dad's race. For the LVRC races we used a 2.4 mile course. Both courses were popular with the riders and I must say that belting round the junction at West Thorney, not clipping the kerb and swinging right out into the gutter was a great buzz.
The number of Islanders that took part was very low, but we did have the station's Commanding Officer, hiw wife and the Regt Sgt Major. The latter took home first prize of a bottle of Leffe, Montezuma's Chocolates and one of my hideous trophies (Mrs C's description) from Flanders. The CO also presented the prizes to the youths and expressed his desire that we return. VC St Raphael are considering an event there in September or October.
The Station Staff Officer, Chris Hallam, could not have been more helpful. SSAFA Forces Help charity provided refreshments.
In the AB LVRC race Shaun and myself enjoyed some time off the front together before I switched to domestique duties for Ciclisti Vecchi. Shaun finished 8th and Andy Page 9th in the sprint.
Eugene rode the EFGH race and hung for a while before continuing at his own pace. It's not that easy when you're 70+!
Conrad Dinwiddy notched up another win in the E category of the youths.
I hope to run the event again next year.

Goodwood Spring Challenge

Pete McGuiness was involved in the organisation of the Goodwood Spring Challenge. Fay Cripps won the Master/Veteran - Female category by three minutes. Well done Fay. Mark Holland was 6th in the Master - Male category. Pete McGuiness was 16th in the Open - Male category.

Conrad races to his win at Thorney

This picture was taken by former VC Noviomagus member Ann Owens who met her husband Richard whilst he was based at RAF Thorney Island. Ann travelled up for the weekend from Devon for the event. There are more pictures from Ann on Flickr here and here.

Copyright 2009 Richard Owens

Tim and Shaun go off the front for a bit of a laugh

This picture was taken by Chris Wallis who lives in Chichester. The complete set is available here. I note the Chris has been taking 'photos of the Bognor TTs.

Copyright 2009 Chris Wallis.

Racing round up

Toby Neave finished a very creditable 4th on Sunday in the elite BEC CC road race on the tough Edenbridge course and 2nd at Portsmouth on Wednesday. Toby has 198 points so far this year.
Andy Page was 4th in the 3/4 race at Portsmouth and then finished 10th in the elite race.
In the Hants Rc 2-up TT Toby rode with Pete McGuiness and won beating an A3cRG pair. Pete did tell me who was third pairing (more SDV), but I'm afraid I can't recall.

Racing at Goodwood on Sunday

There are Surrey League races at Goodwood on Sunday. Details here.

Ray Martin series

I am slowly coming out of the purduh of organising the races at Thorney. More about those another time. I shall try and catch up over the coming week.
Firstly, congratulations to Toby Neave, "Lavant's fastest cyclist" (the Lavant Leopard?) who won the Ray Martin series at Portsmouth for the first time. Toby won two out of the five race series. He faced stiff opposition from Phil Sykes (VC St Raphael) and Steve "altitude tent" Walkling (sorry he changes club so often I've forgotten).
In the last race I turned up to try and help Toby and found out how fast the racing was. Toby has been on sparkling form and deserved the win on gutsy riding alone.
We have had a number of riders riding at Portsmouth, particularly in the 3rd and 4th cat races where comeback man Andy Page finished third overall.
Rob Fields has impressed me with his ability to finish up the sharp end with very little road racing experience. Shave off that beard and he might be a force to be reckoned with.
It's tremendous to see so many riders riding for the club.

Racing round up

Toby Neave was 4th in the first Dunsfold evening race and picked up 15 prime points. Simon Pattinson made his racing debut and he and Fraser Nurse were punted off the road by another rider. Mark Warrington punctured.
Simon Pattinson had a more successful ride in the second Dunsfold and finished 26th. Mark Warrington was 48th and Shaun Smart a DNF.
Rob Fields finished 42nd in the 4th cat race at Dunsfold. That doesn't sound that impressive, but in the first sprint he was 6th, but then they were told the photo finish wasn't ready so they'd have to go round for another lap!
Andy Page was 16th in the 3rds at Dunsfold with Richard Bevan 29th. Andy was 35th at Barcombe in the 2/3 race.
Richard Bevan was 16th in the 3/4 race at Portsmouth last Wednesday (6th May) with Chris Dobson 31st. Toby Neave was 2nd in the E/1/2 race with Andy Page 14th and Mark Trevis 27th.
Mike Marchant reports on the latest youth race at Angmering "Joseph and Conrad were riding for SDV. A very windy evening and the 2 lads did very well in those conditions. In the 3 Cat E&D races Conrad got 4th, 4th and 5th. Joseph got 6th, 5th and 5th in the 3 Cat A&B races." New youth rider Declan Inglis won two of his three races at the same event. Well done Declan!!!

New member

A belated welcome to Laurence Bird from Felpham.