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Plomesgate Cycling Club
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Pat Pepper RIP
The local cycling world has recently lost yet another link to a different era. Pat Pepper, of Wolsey RC, was involved in a tragic accident whilst taking part in the EDCA “25” near Wisbech on July 16th. Pat sustained horrific head injuries, never regained consciousness and eventually passed away on July 25th, she was 70 years old.
Many of you will have met Pat, raced against Pat, been served tea and cake by Pat, or even caught and passed her in local TTs, but underneath that quiet, modest exterior lay a history of success amongst the highest echelons of our loved sport.
Through the sixties when the bicycle was king, Pat was one of this country’s top racers. In her earlier years Pat raced for the Essex based Roamer CC, with whom she won National Team titles at 25 and 50 miles. Through the sixties she was one of the main rivals to none other than Beryl Burton. Beryl mentions Pat on several occasions in her autobiography. Pat also represented GB at the World Road Championships.
During that era that gave us such big names as Tom Simpson, Barry Hoban, Brian Robinson, Reg Harris, Hugh Porter, UK women’s cycling was strong also. Yorkshire had Beryl Burton, the Midlands, June Pitchford, and Eileen Sheridan, the North West had Joan Kershaw, in East Anglia we had Pat Pepper. So when you hear mention of Burton, Pitchford, Sheridan, Killingbeck, Goodfellow, Rushworth and Kershaw, remember Pat Papper.
If we consider the larger cycling family of East Anglia, then we have lost an aunt.
Trevor
Pat's Funeral will be held on Monday the 7th August at 2.30pm. The funeral will be at St,Michaels Church, Martlesham Heath, Ipswich.
St. Michaels is a modern church with all the usual facilities, just off the Square. Refreshments will be provided after the Service.
There will be family flowers only. However donations are welcome, made out to "The fund for Addenbrookes (NCCU)" these should be passed to East of England Co-operative Society Funeral Service, 64 New Street, Woodbridge, IP12 1DX.
There is no formal dress code - Cycling clothes would be welcome.
July Club run
A select 4 turned up for Trev’s back on his bike ride (Me, Becky, Mark H and Jim Ingram). We did a route north west through Occold and Thirndon and then into the strong wind where Mark sat on the front at 18mph, stopped for coffee at Stonham. It was a hard day but as there were only 4 of us the pace was quite high, subsequently we got back to Fram having done 43 miles in only 2:33!
Trev
August Club run
As this is the holiday season there is no club run planned for August.
September Club run
September Club ride - 3rd September, starting at 10am from Beccles Quay car park, and heading out for a gentle, scenic day ride around the Norfolk Broads. Plan is to ride to Reedham Ferry (toll), then to Acle, Ranworth, Wroxham, Horning, Potter Heigham, Acle, Reedham and back. There's not a lot of options for the return leg, as Reedham is the only sensible crossing point without going to Yarmouth or Norwich to cross the river. Expected distance is ~70 miles max. Stopping for refreshments at a few places; could even sample Woodfordes brewery, or pub lunch on the waters edge somewhere.
Pete W
Road Race Champs
This years Club RR Championship will be held as part of the Ciclos Uno Summer Series RR held at Eastway on Sunday 27 August 2006 starting at 11:30am.
Matt
Evening 10s
13th July
Matt chipped away 1 second from his best course time to win in 23:04 on a sunny but fresh and windy night. Visitor Mark Ramsey took second place, in front of Evert, third. Evert’s training week in the Dolomites brought good results: he improved his lead in the vets competition, and took the lead in the handicap.
Another improver on the night was Jim Hardwicke with 25:08. In spite of his new course PB, he lost the lead in the handicap competition to Evert. Only 6 seconds separate the two, and with 3 more events to go the competition is far too close to call.
27th July
Not even a puncture on the way to the start could stop Matt from winning again. More importantly he reached his 6th event of the season and with that he is now guaranteed to retain the Plomesgate points trophy. Visitor Mark Ramsey improved his time again to finish 2nd and go for the first time under 24min. Evert was 3rd with his best time this year (24:11).
The Hardwicke clan was out in force and with good results: Jim improved his PB again, first time under 25min, but with the help of a borrowed “go-faster-bike”. Young Jack pushed Uncle Mark to a very good 25:55 on the tandem. The rest of the family helped to get the biggest support crowd at the finish line I can remember.
For the first time of the series we had the 3 Plomesgate Rons at the starting line together. Ron Sutton gets his handicap time set with this performance (30:53), and looks like he has a chance to challenge Evert for the veteran competition. But he still needs to find more than a minute.
Valerio
Results
EDCA 10 mile championship B10/3 – 4 June
Still wasn’t feeling 100% but was on the way back up. Rode really hard on a cool morning with a little breeze and managed to finish 7th with a time of 21min 39 secs, only 2 seconds off my PB! Not bad when I wasn’t feeling great. Paul Ashby won the event in 20m 29s now that is something to aspire to, with Trevor’s help and another year of structured training who knows?
EDCA 100 mile championship – 18 June
As I have been feeling fit and trying new events this season I signed up for the 100! It seemed like a good idea at the time. Getting up at 3am didn’t the drive over to Shropham, near Thetford for my start time of 0550. I was a little worried about the food and drink required but Dean Chapman was acting as support for the Godric boys and the friendships made by going up to their club 10’s and 25’s over the last few years paid off as Dean kindly took my cool bag and was on hand each lap shouting encouragement and offering bottles and food, thanks Dean your help was greatly appreciated.
I set off feeling excited and a bit worried about 100 miles on a TT bike, physically I new I could do it but mentally it was a voyage of discovery, the longest training ride I have done since February was 46 miles and only one 50 mile TT! Would y0ou want only me for company for over four hours? I wasn’t sure I did!
Anyway I set off and used the strategy I had employed for my only 50 of riding to a heart rate, I was a bit worried when I caught my 1 and 2 minute men in the first 10 minutes, but carried on and persevered with my plan, what can I say I rode tempo up and down the A11 as it got hotter and hotter, picking off riders and then getting passed by the favourites periodically. The support from spectators was nice and especially Mick Gambling of CC Breckland who was always positive and encouraging every time I passed him. I got to 50 miles and the data I have says my speed dropped although I felt ok and my HR didn’t drop by much but after Ian Cammish, who I chat to on-line, passed me with some words of wisdom I picked up and rode the final 25 miles at the pace I had covered the first 50 in. I can only assume my concentration had wavered, watching Ian come past and gradually pull away I was very impressed with his smoothness and constant power output, I can see why he is and has been at the top end of the sport for so long and is a thoroughly nice bloke with a very dry sense of humour. Anyway back to the race, the sun was hot now and traffic was building up for the British Super Bike meeting at Snetterton, this caused a few problems as queues formed at the slip road and on to the A11 although the police at the junction didn’t seem worried about a few near misses! Finally on the last leg I opened up and upped the HR to near 10 mile pace and crossed the line in 4.21.20 and 10th place! An added bonus was that it was a new club record by about 3 minutes at my first go, I was surprised and really pleased with my ride and will definitely be back next year for another go and will use the experience of this year to go faster next year.
CC Breckland Open 10 B10/3 – 20 June
I turned up for this one a bit sceptical about doing a 10 two days after a 100, I was still feeling tired but thought it is only 10 miles it won’t be that bad after doing a 100. Just to make things harder there was a strong wind blowing down the course, but at least the tailwind to the turn would give me a chance to free my legs up before grovelling back into the wind. I blasted out to the turn to make the most of the wind and barely came out of 54x11 before making the turn and feeling like someone had jammed my brakes on, I had as I suspected freed my legs up and just stuck my head down and worked hard back to the finish, I kept on top of my gears and tried to spin and was pleased to finish. Back at the club house I was even more pleased to find I had finished 6th in 21m 58s and only 30 seconds off Andy Hutchison in 1st place, far better than I had hoped for and the only rider in the top 10 with the 100 miler in my legs.
Colchester Rovers Open 10 E7/10d -27 June
After a week off the bike I was feeling fresh and hoped for a good ride as a warm up to the club 10 on Thursday and the Norwich ABC 10 on Saturday. I have never really like this course as the A120 to Harwich is not blessed with wide lanes and traffic passes pretty close which can be an advantage in terms of speed but can affect confidence and form. I hoped to use this as a warm up for coming events so was very relaxed and set off hard down the course, the conditions were mild and still so augured well for a good ride, I hit my rhythm well and felt good and was really on top of the big gears using 54x12 and 11 until the climb off the A120 and onto the A133 to the turn where I came up a couple of gears and was spinning well up the hill before getting back in the big gears to the turn. I had only lost about 20 seconds on Murat Ozdenya of PCA Ciclos Uno, who was a minute in front. The return leg felt quick and I was really pleased to spin my big gears all the way back to the finish. I had no idea how I had gone as I had forgotten my HRM so had ridden on feel. Well when the results went up back at the clubhouse I felt great, I’d ridden a PB of 21m 10s and finished 5th in a class field beating all the API riders and all but 4 of the seeds. Chuffed didn’t cover how I felt and surprised to. James Millard of Continental team Bouwelse Weilervriended won in 19m 53s and 1 second slower than the course record of Alex Dowsett set last year when he was 16! Oh as an a side, the club evening 10 on the Thursday was a disaster as I punctured after 3 minutes when I was flying, although it seemed to bother every one else as much as me as they kept waiting to hear the distinctive sound of my wheels when I approach from behind, quite flattering really.
Norwich ABC Open 10 B10/44 – 1 July
Very hot day, I ‘warmed’ up by standing under a tree in the shade. I had made sure I had drunk plenty and hoped for a good ride. I headed up the incline at the start and settled in to the ride, my throat was burning and dry from the 30 plus degree heat and soon felt empty and dehydrated. I dug in and after the turn I felt a bit rough and spent the next 5 miles trying to hold down my lunch and keep my pedals turning into a hot gusting wind. As I finished I was on the verge of being sick and headed back to the HQ feeling really rough. After a recovery drink and some sweet tea I felt a bit better and heard how a few other riders hadn’t managed to keep there stomach contents on the inside, I clearly wasn’t the only one who thought it was a tough day. I had ridden a 23m 03s and finished 5th, not bad but I was disappointed with my ride. I thought I liked it hot, might have to rethink that one.
All round a great month with two PB’s and two club records but best of all some consistent racing and some good form, I finally feel I am justifying the faith Trev and others have in me as a tester. Cheers to everyone for there kind words and support I still feel like the new boy and a bit out of my depth but am growing in confidence each week.
Matt
Team Ipswich
The inaugural AGM for Team Ipswich Cycling is being held on Thursday 21st September at Chantry Sports Centre. Trevor has further information if you would like more details.
Committee News
The next committee meeting will be at the Butley Oyster after the evening ‘10’ on Thursday 24th August. All club members are welcome to attend.
Calendar Dates