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.

A last reminder; the next PTTL event is a 50 mile TT on 17th May. So far myself, Dave Pothecary, Fraser Nurse and Paul O'Donovan are confirmed as wanting to ride, is there anyone else?

If you want to ride, AND INTEND TO TURN UP(!), I need your name, DOB and age by Weds 6th May.

Alistair, you expressed an interest earlier on, do you want to ride?

Cheers, Mike.