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Plomesgate Cycling Club
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Newsletter
- December 2005
November Club run
Hope you had a good ride on 13th November. The Broughtons were walking in the Lake District in brilliant sunshine with views across to the Isle of Man and Galloway.
December Club run
This
will be from Matt's house in Hollesley on Sunday 11th December 2005 at
10am, head towards the prison
until you get to the crossroads with the water tower then turn left towards
Boyton and Butley, No3 is the fifth house on the left (don't ask I don't
know) - postcode for multimap is IP12 3LD. The ride will be the usual easy
paced ride of about 40 miles with added spice of 2 or 3 intermediate
sprints and a king of the mountains climb at predetermined and marked points
on the route, participants can opt in or out of these as you choose. Tea
and cakes and maybe prizes for the Points and KoM winners will be awarded
back at Matt's house. All club members are welcome and the pace will be
determined by the slowest rider so no one gets shelled out. So please come
along and have some fun on the club run.
Matt D
AGM
The 2005 AGM was
held on 23rd November at The Horse and Groom, Melton. The club officers
remain the same and are:-
Chairman: Trevor
Figgitt, Treasurer: Steve Jones, Secretary: Valerio Malenchino.
The committee is
: Mark Broughton, Viv Broughton, Jim Hardwicke, Evert Wijnberg, Marshall
Crowe, Matt Donaldson.
There were two
proposals which will be taken away and discussed by the committee, they
were:
1) A change to
the BAR competition to compensate a rider should they not be able to finish
the longer distance event and hence lose the chance of qualifying.
2)
To consider introducing a competition over shorter distance open events,
suggestions
included 2x"10"s and 2 x "25"s or a "championship
run over pre-selected or identified events.
The next committee
meeting will be on Wednesday December 14th at 19:30 at The Horse and Groom,
Melton.
Trevor
Interland Track
Newport 12/13th November
On the preceding
Monday Becky got a phone call asking if she wanted to take part in a Women's
omnium being held to support a Junior Men's competition the following weekend.
The only catch was she had to ride for CC Cardiff.
As well as two
Welsh teams, two English teams, and CC Cardiff there was meant to be a
team from Holland and one from France. The team from Holland were not there
but a two woman team from France showed up, consisting of Clara Sanchez,
current Senior World Keirin Champion and Sandie Claire, a medalist at World
and European level. Saturday wasn't Becky's best day, finishing off the
pace in the sprint but she felt better in the distance events. On the Sunday
however she started to find her legs. She dipped inside 39s again for third
place in the 500m, only the French girls going faster. Then later in the
day in the Devil, she looked commanding as she rode a controlled race until
there were only 2 left and she easily won the sprint. In the final race
of the day, the scratch race, Sanchez resplendent in her rainbow jersey
attacked and suddenly a lone CC Cardiff rider sprinted after her, it was
Becky. Unfortunately this move was unsuccessful for both parties and they
finished exhausted and off the back, but it was good to see Becky was not
in awe of the rainbow jersey.
She
has been invited to travel to Holland with the CC Cardiff next February
where they will
be based at Alkmaar Velodrome for a training camp. They are also
invited to race against the local teams in three competitions during the
week. Since not getting reselected for the ODP this is a nice target to
motivate her during the gloomy winter months.
Trevor
Road Training
Don’t forget the Sunday winter training rides. We meet at Northgate Sports Centre, on the north side of Ipswich, at 10am, for a ride of about 3 hrs (45 miles). See last month’s newsletter for details of the normal route. These
are very ad-hoc rides, and there's no guarantee that anyone will be there
on any particular Sunday, so it might be worth contacting Steve or Valerio
beforehand.
MTB Rides
The Saturday winter
training rides have been well attended so far, with up to 6 riders looking
for UFOs on the trail.
For
the December rides we’ve decided to go in search of new single track, and are adding
a few different venues. See calendar dates below for times and venues.
Mark B testing his new jacket at Rendlesham
last Saturday.
(Click
picture above to see it larger)
Open Events 2006
The Plomesgate
Open events are on 18th March, 13th May and 17th June. Please
reserve these dates in your diaries.
East District CA
The
East District Cycling Association Prize presentation is on 22nd January
2006 at Roydon
Village Hall, on main Diss to Thetford road, A1066. It incorporates
the SPOCO East Prize presentation and the itinerary is
Results
Hopefully
there’ll be a write-up
of the hill climb in the next newsletter.
Elmy Wild West Showdown
Steve Grimwood invites all Plomesgate folk to
the "Elmy Wild West
Showdown"! It’s next Sunday
11 Dec 2005 at 7pm in Digby's bar in Suffolk College, Ipswich.
(http://easterncross.users.btopenworld.com/elmyinvite2005.pdf)
How to enter events
Introduction
As we come to the end of another
great racing season, its time to take stock and reflect but now is also
a good time to look forward to 2006.
Some
of you are familiar with riding club Time Trials (TTs) where you can
just turn up and ride, but
perhaps you are considering a bigger challenge and testing yourself against
wider opposition in open events, or even trying a different discipline
such as cyclo cross or road racing. I am well aware that making that
next step can be a bit bewildering so hopefully my ramblings over the next
few paragraphs might make it a little easier or at least arm with you with
the right information to ask the right questions. Over the next few
months I will cover the basics in separate issues of the newsletter, this
instalment covers cyclo cross and mountain biking, part two will cover
how to enter open time trials, part three will finish off with Road/Track
racing and a small introduction to audaxes/randonneurs.
If you want a copy of the whole
document then drop an e-mail to trevor.figgitt@btinternet.com
If you require any further
information there are a vast amount of experienced riders within the club
who can give you far more details. :-
In
2005 people who rode open TTs included Trevor Figgitt, Pete Whelan, Steve
Jones, Valerio Malenchino,
Matt Donaldson. Road racing - Steve Jones, Matt Donaldson, Trevor Figgitt.
Track racing - Trevor Figgitt, Pete Whelan and Becky Figgitt. Cyclo
cross – Jim Hardwicke and Pete Whelan. Mountain Biking – Viv
Broughton and Mark Broughton.
The first instalment covers
off roading with cyclo cross and mountain biking as you can partake in
many of these events throughout the winter months. There are also cyclo
cross training sessions every Saturday at Foxhall Stadium, and the club
have regular mountain bike rides at Tangham in Rendlesham on Saturdays
at 10:00 (check newsletter for locations), or night rides at Sizewell car
park at 19:30 on Tuesdays.
Cyclo Cross
Cyclo cross used to be governed
by its own body but is now under the umbrella of British Cycling. Below
I have pinched some information from the BC website on getting into cyclo
cross. As with road and track the events are all listed in the calendar
but apart from Championships and national trophy events there is a far
more relaxed attitude to entry and most events will accept entry on the
day.
A cyclo cross bike is useful
although not imperative as a mountain bike will often suffice at regional
level, you will need a helmet though and preferably a club jersey.
More can be found at :-
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/disciplines/cyclocross/cyclo-cross_intro.shtml
and specifically the East Anglian
Daily Times Eastern region cyclo-cross league at :-
http://easterncross.users.btopenworld.com/index.htm
or ask Pete Whelan, as he is
a qualified cyclo-cross commissaire and knows all the rules and regulations.
What do I need to ride cyclo-cross? If
you are in the Junior category or older, a "Provisional" licence
will cover the vast majority of domestic cyclo-cross events. A provisional
licence is automatically included with all three levels of British Cycling
membership, Bronze, Silver or Gold. The provisional licence is also
valid for a range of grass roots events in other disciplines. Like
membership, a provisional licence is valid for 12 months from the date
of issue.
What is the difference between
the three levels of membership? Bronze membership at £11.50 per year offers basic
registration and access to other services, but cyclo-cross riders may
wish to avail themselves of the additional benefits which come with higher
levels of membership. Silver membership at £32.00 includes legal advice
and public liability insurance, while the £58.00 Gold membership adds
to the package personal accident insurance while cycling anywhere in
the UK, plus a subscription to the quarterly Racing Calendar magazine. Reduced rates apply to Juniors and under
16s and a family membership is also available.
In what circumstances do
I need a full racing licence? Riders competing in BCF "Premier" cyclo-cross
events (e.g. Junior, Women's, Under-23 and Senior National Trophy and
National Championships), and in events abroad, require a full racing
licence: This is only available to Silver and Gold members. Full racing
licences expire on 31st December of every calendar year, but will be
recognised for the purposes of domestic cyclo-cross until the end of
January in the year following.
Can I obtain a day licence? Apart
from in Premier events and Regional Championships, non-members can also
compete by paying a day licence or "event surcharge" of £3.00.
This does not apply to under 16s (i.e. youth and under 12 riders), for
whom there is no membership requirement. At the vast majority of local
events entry is "on the line", so you can simply turn up and
ride, provided you have a serviceable bike and a helmet.
If you have any further questions
about cyclo cross I am sure Jim Hardwicke jim.hardwicke@bt.com or Pete Whelan pete.whelan@bt.com can answer them.
Mountain Biking
You
can enter virtually all local mountain bike events on the day and you
don’t need a racing licence,
even though they are governed again by British Cycling. Mountain bike competitions
take all forms from “normal” races, to endurance events, and orienteering
type events. If you start thinking about National level events or special
events such as the mountain Mayhem then these have to be entered in advance.
There are no standard entry forms but there is usually a link available
from the relevant event website. Mountain bike events are held quite regularly
in Thetford Forest, for dates check the calendar below.
All the events are listed in
the British Cycling Race calendar:-
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/calendar/2004/calendar_contents.shtml
Here is a link to some MTB
information on the BC website :-
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/disciplines/mtb/mtb_frontpage.shtml
If you have any further questions
on Mountain Biking I am sure Viv or Mark Broughton Broughton.M@btopenworld.com would
be able to answer them.
Trev
Calendar Dates
