---

	Plomesgate Cycling Club
	www.plomesgate.co.uk

---

January Club run? February Club run?

Nothing has been decided at the time of going to press. It has been mentioned at a recent committee meeting about poorly attended club runs, the question was asked - what do club members want to do? No point continuing an old tradition just for traditions sake. If they are not going to be supported should we not run them? Do you only want them in the summer, not at all, winter only or every month? Watch this space as a committee member will be producing a questionnaire on this, but in the meantime ideas for club run routes and volunteers to lead would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

December Club run

As mentioned in last months letter the December Club Run was the trial of a format for a Club Hill Climb Championship

Eight riders turned up at Walpole on Sunday for the first running of our own hillclimb. The club has previously had a hillclimb as part of, or instead of, the December club run, but although I'd heard of the "Cransford Crippler" and the like, it finished just before I joined the club, so you'll have to ask Jon Smith or Trevor about it.

Anyway, enough history, back to the present. Because of a lack of paperwork, this wasn't a race, but a timed training event, officially. The road to be used was from the southern edge of Walpole village, heading towards Peasenhall, with the finish at the water tower. It's a gentle ascent for most of the way, then a brief descent around two sweeping bends, then another little kick up, before an almost flat run-in to the finish. Although it sounds quite easy, it's quite a "heavy" road surface, which makes it a bit harder than its modest gradient would suggest.

There was a distinct lack of spectators, or timekeepers, so Trevor agreed to ride up first and time himself, and at the end Pete would start himself and ride up last. We gave Trev a five minute head start, so that he had time to dismount and catch his breath after the finish, and to make sure that no-one caught him on the hill. There was a variety of machines on display, from steel winter training bikes, to aluminium road race bikes, and a brand-new full carbon time trial bike. Evert had only finished building up the bike on Friday evening, this was to be his first ride on it and he wasn't expecting to be competitive, he was just out for fun.

And now to the results:

Posn.	Name	Time	H/cap time
1.	Evert	5:15	4.48
2.	Steve	5:20	4.36
3.	Martin A	5:29	3.19
4.	Pete	5:37	4.53
5.	Valerio	5:45	4.51
6.	Trevor	5:53	5.02
7.	Ron Shoobridge	6:19	4.37
8.	Ron Sutton	7:05	5.18

Handicap based on 20% of the evening 10 handicap, and Martin's handicap based on his last "10" ride, in 1999!

All in all, it was a fun event, well rounded off by a ride over to Dunwich for coffee and cake at the garden centre.

Steve.

So unless I am more of an idiot than I thought, Evert is the ‘Actual Champion’ and Martin is the ‘Virtual Champion’ (ed)

V.T.T.A. Dinner

Jim Caplin (Godric CC) and I attended for the 4th time the VTTA lunch, held at the Holiday Inn, Ipswich. I commend the event to all - for £15 a head a very good deal. I should think that about 125 people were sitting down for a wide choice of 3 courses. Group trophies were presented. The main one, the group BAR Champion, went to C Bunnett of Kings Lynn CC. "The Talk", for that's how it was billed was given by Brenda Tate – 1985 British Women’s Road Race Champion. What a 15mins, we were rolling in our seats. Almost worth it just for that! Perhaps some of our over40 brigade should consider joining, if only to obtain the age standard medals.

Ron Shoobridge.

South East Regional Cyclo-X Champs.

This years Regional Cyclo-X Championships were held in Strood down in Kent. A 6am start in driving wind and rain didn't exactly fill us with enthusiasm for the day. Heading down the A12 the headwind was so strong the camper van wouldn't go above 50mph!

The course was around school grounds and didn't look too bad - but once we started riding the trouble began. There we a lot of adverse camber corners that were very slippery in the wet. But worst of all, the mud was very sticky and mix that with all the autumn leaves you soon found yourself trying ride a mud hut rather than a bike.

Jack's U10 race was first and included the national champion (he told everyone, and his parents were very 'focused' on this event. I don't think they'd spotted you can enjoy cycling and youngsters are allowed to do it for fun - he'll either be a driven champion, or cured of cycling for life!). Jack didn't get the best line at the start but worked his way up the field, getting to third place about half way through. The second place rider was tiring towards the end and Jack was catching, but didn't quite have enough time.

Jenny's race was next, these are fairly daunting races being the only 12 year old girl (in fact often the only girl) in a race of mainly under 16 boys. The only target for this year is to finish races, ideally smiling. It soon became apparent that the mud was going to be a problem. Those with spare bikes had a distinct advantage, many swapping every lap or even half-lap. Jenny had to settle for me clearing the worst by hand. She kept a steady pace and towards the end picked-up a couple places.

Oh dear, my race. I didn't get a good start and then it got worse! These were tricky conditions - a race where the really skilled riders come to the front - errr I'm not one of those, by the second lap I'd lost touch with the group I'd usually be riding with. The leaves and mud were packing really tight - I was losing a lot of time trying to clear enough so I could at least pedal. The end couldn't come soon enough!

We watched a little of the senior race, this looked a fast race, the rain had stopped and the wind was drying the mud fast. Most impressive site of the day was seeing some riders' bunny-hop the planks on an uphill section. How do they do that?

Jack received a nice glass plaque for his third place. Jenny got an impressively large trophy and prize money for becoming the 'South East Regional Youth Girls Champion'. I got my worst placing of the series so far, a long drive home and some very dirty bikes to clean.

For detailed results visit: http://www.ipswichbicycleclub.co.uk/ (then go to Cross Results)

Jim, Jack & Jenny Hardwicke

Discovery kit ‘07.

I have recently got my hands on images of the 07 Team Discovery kit so here they are.

07 is promising to be an interesting year for Team Discovery, with Big George aiming for that oh so close Paris- Roubaix win or will Messer's Boonen and Cancellara spoil his party again? Basso vs. Leipheimer at the Tour. Will Basso do the double of Giro and Tour? Will Basso be welcomed back or barred?

British cycling legend and Team Discovery Director Sportif Sean Yates rides for In-GearQuickvit which is based in the same sleepy little East Sussex town that I lived in for a couple of years, so news gets there fast! In fact Sean recently returned from the training camp in Texas where the new styled kit was unveiled and I happened to pop in when on a visit down there so thought I would share with you.

(Click on the picture to see it larger, in a new window)

Team Discovery 2007

Coco Chanel would be proud! Looks like black is the new……. Errr black then!

Matt

Committee meeting.

The first meeting of the new committee will be held on Thursday 1st February 8pm at The Horse and Groom, Melton.

Trev

Club evening TT’s

The club events have been decided for 2007 and are as follows, we are planning to run our normal 10 evening "10"s, but in addition we will be running a "15" which is one lap of the new "30" course, and starts and finishes in the same place as the "10", plus we will be running an evening "25" in July. To avoid the possibility of too many starters the latter ("25") will not appear in the East District Handbook. There is also the option to run some evening "5"s on some of the free Thursdays, so watch this space.

* - note early start.

Club Subs for 2007

The club subscriptions for 2007 will stay the same as 2006, at £10 for Over18s, £5 for under 18s, free for under 12s, and 2nd claim members are 50% of the above. Please remember subs are due on the 1^st January, make cheques payable to Plomesgate Cycle Club and post to Steve Jones at 4 Leicester Close, IPSWICH.   IP2 9EX

MTB in Rendlesham

Any one up for a bit of off roading. Mark Broughton is resurrecting the Saturday morning rides in Rendlesham Forest. Meet at the visitor centre car park at 10am or give Mark a call for more information.

TdF Prologue 2007

Tour de France London Prologue 7th July 2007

A reminder :

As you are all aware the TdF next year kicks off with a prologue TT on the afternoon/evening of Saturday 7th July starting in Whitehall, finishing along the Mall. A few club members have expressed an interest in traveling down to watch it, we need to gauge interest to see if its worth going en bloc. It would probably involve a train journey from Ipswich.

If you are interested then please let Ron Shoobridge know at ronshoo@tesco.net or trevor.figgitt@btinternet.com

Calendar Dates

14^th January 2007, MTB Winter Series 2. see www.thetfordmtbracing.com for details.

11^th February 2007, MTB Winter Series 3. see www.thetfordmtbracing.com for details.

Tuesday evenings – MTB ride from Sizewell T, starting at 7:30 contact Mark or Viv for details, or to check whether anyone is riding.

Saturday mornings – MTB ride in Rendlesham Forest starting at 10am. Meet in the car park

Below are links to couple of spreadsheets of cycling events for the UK..

The first gives details of Track events in the UK for the 2007 season.

The second spreadsheet seems to contain, loads of reliability trials, audaxes, RRs, crits and some national TTs, but mostly covering the East and South East for 2007

Matt.

…. and finally!

Recent e-bay auction - the latest aero product?

This was a genuine e-bay auction that I spotted during December and thought you might like.

Here is the seller’s info from e-bay!

Time Trial/Triathlon haircut for road racing bike gods

(Click on the picture to see it larger, in a new window)

The ultimate in aerodynamic accessories. A completely aerodynamic haircut arranged to maximise the beneficial effects of your super aero lid. Will knock hours off your time.

It will also impress colleagues and business associates. Imagine walking into that meeting to be greeted by an awed whisper: “Wow, he must be one of those time trial things errr…… people, a modern day hard man".

As worn by all the top names on the pro-circuit.

Testimonials:

"Go away you strange person" - Jan Ullrich

“Do you want me to call security" Dave Zubriskie.

"I'll try anything man" Floyd Landis (allegedly -Ed)

"It's undoubtedly the best product ever thought of dear" My Nan.

The bit I particularly liked was the questions asked by perspective buyers so I have included a few with the answers below.

Q: Do you do a version for bald people? Errrm it’s for a friend, not me of course, he says, that’s my friend, that if you do a wig version is the glue pretty good?

A: You're in luck - we now do a version for bald people - available in a range of novelty shapes. please tell ‘your friend’ that the glue is great and doubles as tub glue if you run out.

Q: Is this haircut suitable for track racing? How does it works for those who haves dreadlocks? Thanks and good luck with the auction!

A: fine for track racing. dreadlocks need to be undone and rewoven into a fine point - this is best carried out by the carbon fairies who weave carbon into bike frames and forks.

Q: Hey - how many seconds would this save me over a 25mile TT? Do you do a triathlon version that will fit under a swim hat? Excellent work!

A: should save you about 5 minutes in a 25 - according to figures from the Edible Groundnut Research Institute of Mozambique - the world leaders in some stuff. Might have to work on a waterproof spring loaded tri version don't you think!

Q: do they come in blonde?

A: Sorry, if you're blonde you're probably too popular to engage in the sorry sport of time-trialing. we only offer it in: grey, greying and grecian2000

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and successful 2007.

J Matt