Duathlon success

A great ride by Shaun Smart saw him finish third overall at the recent Goodwood Duathlon. Shaun was fastest in the cycling section by a minute and was on for second place until passed by a rival in the last running section.
New member Daniel Bailey (see below) finished 14th and Chris Burningham 56th. Congratulations to all of them.

Racing round up

Well done to Tom Spreckley who rode the 3rd category Surrey League Easter three day which was shortened to two days. I still can't work out why. Tom finished 5th on the first stage which finished up Milland Hill near Liphook and 9th on the second stage to finish 7th overall.
Young Jamie Ford rode his first race for us at Portsmouth track on Wednesday night. It was so cold my knees were knocking. There were only five competitors in the youth race with the usual spread of ages and sizes. Jamie was quickly distanced by the bigger lads, but he stuck tenaciously to his task and started to gain ground towards the end. Nice pedalling action too!
Alex Rice finished 11th, Richard Parker, Richard Bevan and Mark Warrington equal 12th in the 4th category race at Portsmouth on Saturday. Shaun Smart was an excellent 6th in the 3rd category race.

Toby tries the hard stuff

Toby Neave had a bad crash whilst racing in Ireland for the Surrey League. He crashed on a wet descent and hit his head against a rock. He has damaged a vertabra. The rock was undamaged. Toby has to wear a girdle for at least six weeks and will have to await further tests before he knows when he can ride again. We wish him a speedy recovery.

New member

Welcome to our latest member Daniel Bailey from Havant. Daniel is a junior and has in the past concentrated on triathlons and duathlons.

IOW Time Trial Festival

Mike Marchant, our time trial contact, has kindly sent me details of the Isle of Wight Time Trial Festival that takes place between the 3-5 May. The weather is usually great on the Island then, but there is still little traffic. A poster is now up on our events page and here.
Apparently Mike appeared in the backdrop to an interview on BBC with Queen Vicky Pendleton (excuse for picture). Sorry Mike, somehow I missed you.

Victoria Pendleton

Website changes

Those of you who have visited the website recently will have noticed some changes. As well as the modified look, if you go to the Members page you will see that there is now "members only pages". Currently this holds the contact details of those people who have agreed for it to be held on the website. The only people who can see this will be members of Southdown Velo who register to use the site. I will be moving more content and adding content to the members only area. To view it you will need to register with me. Go to the Members page and follow the instructions.
At the moment I have five people who have agreed to add their contact details to the website. Please let me know if I can add your details which can be as much or as little as you like.

Next club night

The next club night is Sunday, 6 April at 8pm in the Vestry, South Street, Chichester.
It is also the same day as the Goodwood Spring Challenge and the Tour of Flanders.

The final sip

I did promise not to make this a blog of my personal views, but in light of the nine gold medals won by the British track team I shall make an exception. The Daily Telegraph described Victoria Pendleton's relative failure to win another gold medal ... "Victoria Pendleton could not quite deliver the golden finish to a golden world championships yesterday, but nothing could detract from one of the most successful weeks in British sporting history". One word - fantastic! (excuse for one last picture)

All together boys - sigh

Goodwood Spring challenge

Geared Bikes and Wear are once again supporting the Goodwood Spring Challenge which this year is on Sunday, 6 April. Peter McGuiness writes " same format as last year 5.5 mile lap & you decide how many by what class you enter, fully timed with trophies for all classes, course takes you into the Goodwood estate on trails you would not normally get to use & all monies raised go to local charities !!! you can pickup an entry form from the shop or online."

What's on at the weekend

The Easter weekend is normally a busy one for racing cyclists and there is plenty to choose from this year. Saturday, Sunday and Monday sees the running of the Surrey League 1/2/3 category and 3rd category Easter Three Days. You can watch our boys in action on the Saturday stages at Rake near Liphook. 09:30 for the 3rd cats and 13:30 for the 1/2/3 cats.
On Sunday the race moves to the Dunsfold Park circuit with additional races for 4th cats and ladies. See the Surrey League website for full details.
Mike Marchant and Paul O'Donovan ride the a3crg Easter Ten on the A3 near Buriton. You cannot enter this now, but Paul informs me that "There is a 25 mile TT this Easter Monday 24/3/08 starting at 08:00. It's the P901/25 course. The HQ is on the west bound side of the A27, in the lay-by about ½-1 mile before Fontwell. It's a pay on the line event.".
Or you could just watch Milan San remo on Eurosport on Saturday and eat Easter eggs on Sunday!

Happy Easter!

Members' pages

Don't forget to tell me what information you would like other members to see about you, e.g. e-mail, mobile, etc., as per my recent e-mail, on the hidden area on the Members page. When people contact me I will set them up with a user name and password.

Maintenance help

I have had a suggestion from a member that it would be helpful for those less mechanically minded or experienced at tinkering with bikes to attend some demonstrations on maintenance, e.g. adjusting gears, changing casettes. Let me know what you think about this idea.

New members

A very warm welcome to Southdown Velo to our newest members:
- Amanda Cayford, Shedfield
- Fay Cripps , Runcton
- Jamie Ford, Almodington
Fay has already been riding for the club in partnership with Richard Parker in the Hants RC 2-up TTT. Amanda plans to ride L'Etape and Jamie is our newest youth rider.

Cafe Velo?

You might have noticed that the new service has had a slight makeover and is now called Cafe Velo. This was the name of the printed newsletter that I used to create before we went all digified and interneted. I thought I would resurrect the name.

Racing round up

Mark Trevis, Shaun Smart and Tom Spreckley rode at Dunsfold on Sunday. Mark was our only finisher in 24th place. Most of the field failed to finish.
Toby Neave rode at Thruxton and finished 12th in the first South Circuit League.

Cyclocross from the saddle

Andrew Morrison, Swindon Road Club, rode the Wessex cyclocross events with a camera attached to his handlebars. He has made a compilation of the 2007 season here. It's mostly shots of people's bottoms on bikes, but that was good enough for Queen. Talking of which ...cue music.
Tom Spreckley features.

Richard Parker and fay Cripps fastest mixed pairing in the HRC 2-up TTT

Mike Marchant and Paul O'Donovan - wicked wheels Paul!

Road racing round up

Toby Neave finished fourth in the elite race at Thruxton motor racing circuit. Describing the wind blowing across the exposed course as "evil" and he was down to 53x21 into the wind. Toby confessed he should have finished higher, but had mistimed his final sprint.
Richard Parker and Richard Bevan also rode (the 4th cat race?), but I'm afraid I don't have any further details. I am always very pleased to receive e-mail reports!
Shaun Smart finished ninth in the 3rd category race at Kirdford. Mark Trevis finished 22nd in the 2nd/3rd cat race on the same day. Liam Terry was unlucky to puncture whilst in the break.
Toby, Liam and Mark all rode a very dodgy race at Chertsey? Why are there so many crashes at Chertsey. Mark was best placed finisher in 18th, Toby 37th and Liam 55th.

TT round up

Liam Terry and Mark Trevis finished just under a minute slower than the winners Mick St Leger and Aran Stanton in Hampshire RC's 2-up TT at Funtington. Mike Marchant and Paul O'Donovan were 8th and Richard Parker and Faye Cripps were the fastest mixed pair of riders.
Mike Marchant, our TT man of action, was in action again in Team Axiom Hardriders 30 at Wickham. Mike finished 11th and 4th fastest veteran, just ahead of former member Jerry Bromyard. Jerry now rides for Royal Navy & Royal Marines CA. It's good to see him riding again.
Mike also rode the first of the Portsmouth Time Trial League events At Soberton. Mike finished 14th and again 4th best veteran. These PTTL events are very popular and this one attracted 75 starters. See details below about riding them.

Portsmouth Time Trial League

Mike Marchant writes "Some of you were interested in riding the PTTL events next year when we will be members. You can ride this year's events if you want but not count towards the league.". Details of events are available here.

Youth racing

It will soon be the turn of our youth riders to start racing. There will be two "local" events this year - Angmering on a Monday night and Portsmouth on a Wednesday.
Portsmouth starts on Wednesday, 26 March at 18:30.
Angmering starts on Monday, 21 April at 18:30.

Skittles/bowling

In previous years we have had a youth presentation at Pizza Hut. I thought this year we would turn it into skittles or bowling and make all welcome. Please drop me a line if you are interested in joining in the mayhem. tim.costello @ huntersprings.com.