March club run

The weather was pretty kind to us for the first open race of the year the question was would it hold out for the club run the following day? The answer was yes, as I cycled down to the Elms car park in Framlingham with Harry on the rear of the tandem and Becky in our slipstream. I was pleasantly surprised as I rounded the bend into the car park, which has beautiful views across the mere with the castle as backdrop, to see so many familiar faces. Jim came racing in just as we were about to leave bringing the numbers up to 10. We set off through Saxtead Green past the windmill and out through Bedfield. Much to Harry's disgust we then took a slightly longer route out through Worlingworth, Southolt, Redingfield and Occold before turning south through Bedingfield and down into Debenham. We all piled into Clio's coffee shop, not cheap at the best of times and made worse by the manager's attempts to add an extra 10% service charge to our bill. Although the sun came out and the wind was light there was still a chill in the air so the warm coffee and hot chocolate was welcome. The return journey was mostly gentle apart from a couple of mad burn ups on the hills and when Becky got the better of the older generation by taking a village sign sprint. From Debenham the route took us mostly along the Heart of Suffolk Cycle Route as far as Kettleburgh where we joined the National Cycle Route 1 which brought us nicely into the back of Framlingham and into Surrey Close, where the Chalkers were waiting for us. Everyone was soon tucking in to a buffet lunch before heading off home. Thanks to everyone who turned up it was a pleasant 32 miles spent in good company.

Trevor Figgitt

Open 10

This was held in perfect Spring sunshine on March 23^rd, with a good turn out of 41 riders. The only Plomesgate prize winners this year were the John Chalker / Jim Ingram 2up team, who beat Steve and Richard to the club prize by 22 seconds.

Thursday Night TTs

These start again on Thursday 25^th April at 6:45, with the second one a week later on 2^nd May, then every fortnight after that. Same parking spot and start as last year.

4 Up Time Trial - CC Breckland open 50 mile 4 up TT

The 4up was good fun (largely in the sense of a challenge overcome, rather than bowling along the sun-filled country lanes!). I'd optimistically told myself that we'd be on the road 'between weather fronts' (i.e. wet roads, but not actually raining on us). This proved to be just about as wrong as can be!! As our 9:37 start time approached the drizzle turned to rain, and then it started getting dark. We set off in heavy rain, under black skies and went down the slip road on to the A47 with some trepidation (trucks thundering by, spray etc.). Jim had had the foresight to bring an LED back light - definitely a good plan. Wet and cold were pretty much the themes of the next hour and 23 minutes. The rain did ease off after about half an hour in fact, and the skies lightened considerably, but with puddles (bordering on flooding) all over the roads, the spray off teammates wheels was more than enough to keep everyone nicely saturated. Chalky was riding without gloves and was glad when he finally lost all sensation in his fingers, and Jim's feet were 'like lumps of ice'. We held it together pretty well as a team, only breaking the 4 with about 4 miles to go when Jim, who'd been doing some serious donkey work at the front, started feeling the pace and told us to push on without him (3rd team member across the line stops the clock). We'd caught our '3 minute men' but had also been caught by our chasers (juniors!) and in the long run in we could see them ahead, but not quite reel them back in. Steve was suffering in the final couple of miles, so Chalky and I had the chance to shout 'encouraging' things at him. He was still taking turns on the front, but definitely having to grit his teeth!

Richard Tateson

April Club Run

Date: 14th April
Start : 10:00am at the Chalker’s house in Knodishall.

May Club Run

Date: 12^th May keep this date free in your diaries venue to be announced in next newsletter.

Thetford Enduro

Mark and Viv took part in this event on March 30^th, which consisted of four laps of a 10 mile circuit in Thetford forest with a good mix of single track and fire roads.

Mark came 34^th of 65 and Viv 12^th of 14.

South Downs Way

Mark and Viv did the South Downs way on mountain bikes, starting at Petersfield, with an overnight stop in Steyning (after 40 miles) and finishing in Eastbourne, after another 40 miles. It was very muddy, wet and windy, character building and all that stuff, but good fun despite all that. Both days were virtually all off-road, with day 2 being the harder as there were more hills. We got the impression that the genteel folk of Eastbourne were rather shocked at the sight of extremely muddy cyclists arriving on the prom.

The nice dry bit of the South Downs way, before the weather and ground conditions deteriorated.

Dates For The Calendar

Sunday 14^th April, Club run.
Saturday 20^th April, Mildenhall Open 10.
Sunday 21^st April, Mildenhall Open 25.
Thursday 25^th April, evening TT.
Thursday 2^nd May, evening TT.
Sunday 5^th May, Stowmarket & District CC Open 25.
Monday 6^th May, Bungay criteriums.
Saturday 11^th May, Wolsey RC Open 10.
Saturday 18^th May, Plomesgate CC Open 25.
Sunday 19^th May, CC Breckland Open 50.
Sunday 19^th May, Beccles Rotary Club charity ride.
Sunday 9^th June, WSW charity bike ride of 75, 50, 25 or 15 road miles, or 8 off-road.
See www.burybikeride.co.uk for details.
22^nd-23^rd June Slick & Knobbly.

Newsletter contributions

Send us any news of events, results etc so that they can be included in the newsletter.

Our new e-mail address is broughton.m@btopenworld.com

April 2002