The club run met at Snape Maltings, or the majority of us did. Unfortunately there was a disappointing turn out, although Merv did pop along to see us off and give his apologies and we would have been one more but Steve thought we were starting at Snape cross roads so he missed us.

Along for the first time was Eileen fresh over from the states while she working over here for U.S telecomms company MCI. The day was already hotting up as we left Snape to do a circuit out via Friday Street and back through Blaxhall. After Blaxhall the route took a "white" road across the railway and into Campsea Ashe. The weather was very hot as we travelled through the outskirts of Wickham Market using a small lane which loops back by the church, and one that was new to me anyway. The route then took us towards Rendlesham, and across to Butley. Although we were all gasping we decided to miss out the coffee stop and instead to plough on for another hour out of Butley and through Boyton looping back to The Oyster at Butley for a slightly earlier lunch stop. By this time the temperature must have been over 30 degrees C and a pint of Adnams has never tasted quite so good.

I left the group early to rush off to welcome visitors, leaving the remainder to find there way back via Tunstall and Snape.

A nice gentle ride which proved to be just right on a hot and sultry day.

The next club run will be on September 14th . The plan is to leave Framlingham Market Place at 09.15, then to meet at Gateways car park Saxmundham at 10.00. The route will then take us to Weavers at Peasenhall for elevenses, and on to the Cratfield Poacher. You are welcome to meet at either starting point or even en route. If you haven’t been to the Poacher at Cratfield before then it is a most entertaining experience that you should not miss !!

I can be contacted on 01728 723701.

Just let me know on 01728 723701.

September 13th Norwich CA 2-up 14 mile TTT.

September 27th Newmarket 25 mile TT.

October 4th East Anglian CC 10 mile TT

October 5th Godric CC Broome Heath Scramble - Cyclo Cross and Mountain Bike event.

October 11th Suffolk Coastal Byways Audax 104km. Entries to Derek Howard 01284

October 11th Norwich ABC 10 mile TT

October 12th Norwich ABC 25 mile TT

October 13th Wolsey RC Cycle parts auction / jumble sale. 19 Tower St., Ipswich (next to Superdrug) at 7.30pm. An opportunity to either buy some bargains or get rid of some of those bits that are cluttering your garage.

October 19th Club Run.

October 26th CC Breckland Thetford Forest Off Road Audax. 10, 25 or 50 miles. Details via SAE from David Baker, 32 Richardson Crescent, Hethersett, Norwich. NR9 3HS. A good day out or an epic challenge depending on the weather!

November 2nd Essex & Suffolk BC Hillclimb. Semer Hill.

November 9th CTC Off Road Ride. Bromeswell Rugby Club.

August is traditionally a quiet month for racing but our members were still out and about getting in the results.

We fielded a team in the Godric CC open "10". The oppressive heat was replaced by a welcome shower just as riders were lining up, which afforded slight relief. Trevor was fastest with 23.16, Rob did 25.00 and Hilary confirmed his recent form with 25.39 his fastest time for the Earsham course.

The following day Trevor was back at Earsham for the Godric "25", along with John Chalker. Although the event started at 8am the temperature was already in the mid 20s, the course which involved negotiating ten traffic islands proved slightly tougher than expected, but both our riders excelled Trevor finished 10th with 1.00.10 while John pushed him close to finish in 11th place with 1.00.40. Both riders were rewarded with seeing their names in print in "Cycling Weekly".

John was down at Stowmarket the following week for an early start in the Stowmarket "25". A rising wind put paid to any fast times but John still did well to finish in 1.2.14.

The next outing for our team was in the Ipswich "25" at Haughley. The torrential rain stopped just in time but the wind was strong which did not look promising. Hilary was first of the team to start and was on for a certain personal best when he punctured with less than 2 miles to go, he courageously finished in 1.6.02, his 3rd fastest ever "25", but lost over a minute due to the flat tyre. John found the headwind to the turn a little tough but still returned in 1.1.16. Trevor "buried" himself out to the turn flying back at speeds of up to 40mph to finish in 58.43. Almost last to start in his last event of the year Rob hit some form to record a personal best of 1.3.03. The wind proved so strong on the return leg that Rob ran out of gears and had to freewheel to the finish, perhaps costing him a few seconds. The final aggregate time of our three counting riders was 3.3.02 is this the best by a team of three Plomesgate riders ?

The penultimate evening race was once again a deceptive night with a really stiff wind but the times were only a few seconds slower than a fortnight before. John showed his current form after cracking 24 minutes on Tuesday at Earsham he did an excellent ride with 24.45 closing the gap on the Whelans (Pete and Andrew) who were fastest in 24.12. The only rider to go faster than before was Hilary in 27.02 still singing the praises of his new tri- spoke, but I hear he has been doing some serious training!. It was good to see Barry Nye out of temporary retirement and once again he delivered an excellent ride of 25.31 and left us all wondering what he would do if he rode on a lighter bike with decent wheels.

Well we soon found out what Barry could do in the last event of the series. He came so close to John in an epic battle which saw John just get the edge with 24.39 to Barry’s 24.41, done on a bike borrowed from Hilary. A calm, muggy and wet night proved to be one of the fastest of the year. Trevor and Pete were in devastating form on the tandem, smashing their own fastest time for the course with 21.21! This is the fastest time ever recorded on our course by tandem or solo. Behind the Chalker / Nye duel was another battle between two improving riders Hilary and Gary. This time Hilary got the edge with 26.37 beating Gary by a mere 5seconds. Next was Rob in 27.05 followed by Steve in 27.20 back on his old bike. Malcolm dipped inside 30 minutes for the second time with 29.44 his fastest of the year on this course.

A visitor at the last event was Jim Ingram his season cut short by a broken wrist. We wish him a fast recovery and look forward to seeing him out on the bike again soon.

This year we had a presence at the rally for all three days of the Bank Holiday, and the club got some excellent publicity as well. The rally is three days packed with various cycle events which should cater for most tastes. There is grass track racing, cyclo cross, a duathlon, audax rides, touring rides to local places, trade stands, roller racing, children’s sports, film show etc....

This year my family and I were resident at the rally campsite. Both my children took part in the sports events coming away with medals for first places in most of the events, but it was 9 year old Rebecca Figgitt who excelled. In the under 12’s cyclo cross Becky got a good start and managed to hold her place in the front group to finish 9th overall and first girl. The following morning saw a soggy start for the duathlon. Starting in the under 10’s category, Becky covered the 450m run, 1500m bike and 250m run just behind the winner for 6th place and first girl again. She came away from Mildenhall laden with medals, a mug, drinking bottle and a trophy, and the Plomesgate CC name was bellowed over the loud speakers more than once.

Last month the Club ran an off road time trial. Jon Smith did an excellent job to organise the route and here he describes the event in his own words :-

The first ‘competitive’ off-road event that the Club has ever held took place on 15^th August. The event was a sort-of time trial on an approximately two and a half mile course in Tunstall Forest. The competitors first rode around the course finding that there were some quite scary and technical bits, and this ride round confirmed Gary & Lucy’s suspicion that they wouldn’t get round on their MTB tandem. Even the initial ride round was challenging for some – Steve Jones ended up walking half way, due to a chain jam, which had to be fixed by splitting the chain and reassembling it at the start area.

The event brought out a range of bikes including some really posh ones with suspension and alloy frames that really looked the business!

After the ride round everyone was sent off at one-minute intervals to try and get the best time they could. Since the light was fading fast, only one lap was attempted by all so that we didn’t get the added excitement of off-road riding in the dark! Everyone gave their absolute best and this resulted in a) some great times, b) some impressive crashes and c) some incorrect routes being taken.

On overall time Pete Whelan came in best, but he admitted that he’d been a bit confused about the route and it sounds like he’d taken an unintentional short cut by mistake. So the first place was taken on the night by Phil Jenkins of Runners Centre Tri Team with a time of 9 minutes 29 seconds. The full results are given at the end of the article.

The best crash award went to Steve Jones, who after his chain jam in the familiarisation then did a spot of flying and came back all battered and bruised and looking! Malcolm Pearce, doing his first ride on a bike that he’d just bought also visited the scenery a few times too!

Timekeeping was by Helen & Trevor, assisted (is this the right word?) by Trevor’s son Harry.

I think most people enjoyed the event, and I learnt some lessons in how we can improve future events (better signposting, bigger time gaps between riders and a longer course.) Hopefully I will try and arrange another event later in the year when the forest is good and muddy and try and make it part of a Plomesgate ‘Filth Fest’ along with an off-road Sunday run too. So keep an eye out for details and come along next time and get muddy!

The club has been invited to take part in the Godric CC roller racing league during the months October to December. We are required to field any team of three riders, they can differ for each round. The events start on October 16th when we will not actually compete ourselves but will go along as observers. Our first competition will be on October 30th when we will compete against one of the other clubs in the league. The format will be individual head to heads over 250 and 500m sprints, and a team relay which is timed. Points are awarded throughout and the two teams with the highest points at the end of the series will ride off in the final. The events will take place every other Thursday at the Godric club house in Bungay, starting at around 8pm and finishing at approx 9.30pm. I have yet to receive final details. It is intended as a social event to help while away the dark winter nights but of course there is bound to be some competitive needle as well.

If you want to have a go then let me or John Chalker (01728 832404) know. Even if you don’t want to ride we will need plenty of support to shout at the riders and to assist in holding our team members whilst they are competing.

The club has been invited to take part in a cycle road safety exhibition organised by Suffolk Police. It will take place on Saturday 22nd November in the Market Hall, Saxmundham.

Initial discussions at the last committee meeting were along the lines of having an exhibition stand with photographs and information about the club. The stand can be manned by club members, we could have bikes on display, members riding rollers, competition etc.... If you have any ideas or are willing to help on the day then please let me know.

I will post more details in the next newsletters.

Look out for a Plomesgate photo spectacular !!! Appearing in a newsletter near you.