March 2001

February Club Run - Off Road

Unfortunately the ride was called off as a precautionary measure following the Foot and Mouth episode.

Hopefully we will be able at re-arrange it for a later date.

Foot and Mouth Disease Advice

This is a bulletin sent out by the CTC:-

Foot and mouth disease: Cyclists urged not to ride

February 23 2001:
CTC, the national cyclists' organisation, has urged cyclists to stay away from countryside trails this weekend to help curb the spread of foot and mouth disease.

In line with advice from the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, CTC says mountain bikers should drop their offroad plans while road riders should think carefully when planning their routes.

Campaigns Director Stuart Reid said: "There is some fantastic offroad cycling to be had in this country but for a short time cyclists should be finding alternatives.

"It is essential we support the efforts of farmers and health agencies in helping to minimise any further spread of the disease. Cyclists, like walkers and horse riders, have the right to access the countryside but with that right comes responsibility. This responsibility must be taken seriously."

Ends

For more information contact CTC Media Officer Cath Harris on 01483 418284 / 07909 685600 or email cath.harris@ctc.org.uk

Further information on restrictions can be found at:-

http://www.gofar-mtb.com/News/284.html

Please note that the CTC website has been updated with the latest on Foot and Mouth www.ctc.org.uk. 

Sustrans are urging people not to use their routes in the very rural areas for more details please see

www.sustrans.org.uk/f_press.htm.

In addition all Forestry Commission land is closed.

March Club Run

Trevor will be running the March ride on March 25^th (day after the open TTs). The plan is to start from Evert's house in Hacheston at 10:00am. Coffee will be at Stonham Barns and the lunch venue is yet to be decided.

If the weather is OK Trevor will have the kids in tow so expect a leisurely pace, we just need to get Becky to slow down!

2001 Membership Renewal

Many thanks to all of you who have renewed your subscriptions.

Open Time Trial March 24^th

Yes it's that time of year again. Saturday March 24^th sees the first Plomesgate CC open promotion of the 2001 season. The event consists of a solo event a two up team time trial and a tandem event all over 10 miles on our Sudbourne, Tunstall, Bentwaters course.

The HQ will be Orford Pavilion.

Organiser is Hilary Graham who would like your help if you can marshal, push off, pour cups of tea...

Call Hilary on 01728 602563 or mail him hilbike@aol.com.

Dates For The Calendar

Here are a few forthcoming events at which there may be a Plomesgate CC presence :-

10^th March. RT East Hardriders "25". Stoke By Nayland
10^th March. Criteriums, Lee Valley, Eastway, East London.
11^th March. Diss & District Medium Gear "25". Scole.
17^th March. West Suffolk Wheelers "25". Bury St Edmunds.
18^th March. Ed Taylor Memorial RR. Thurlow.
24^th March. Plomesgate CC 10 mile TTs.
25^th March. Club Run.
1^st April. Gt Yarmouth "25". Somerleyton.
8^th April - Stowmarket & Dist "25.5"
14^th - 16^th April-Slick & Nobbly 2 Day. (TT,RR, MTB)

For Sale

Michelin Wildgripper Hot S MTB tyre,
26 x 2.1 RED,
Brand new, unused, and in original packaging.
RRP: £25.99,
Yours for only £15!
Contact Jon on 01206 243 313 or jon.smith@totalise.co.uk

Prize Presentation

The dinner and prize presentation went well. The food at The Lighthouse in Aldeburgh lived up to expectations. Trevor said a few words before Becky presented the majority of trophies. Pete Bott gave a moving speech and Kay presented the David Bott Trophy to the first recipient Jim Ingram.

Painful !!

North Wales in February

By Steve Jones

My excuse is that I had to go there anyway - an annual dinner for my old Mountaineering club. In the past, Sunday meant wading through knee-deep snow to the summit of Snowdon, usually in freezing conditions and limited visibility, often suffering from the excesses of Saturday night.

But this year, the weather had been fine - no snow - and the forecast for the weekend was also quite good (but cold). Snowdon with no snow, and being able to see where you're going? Boring! Cycling in the mountains? Worth a try... So as well as walking gear (just in case), I also packed a bike for the long drive to Llanberis, in the heart of Snowdonia.

Saturday night's meal was quite good, and the alcohol fairly free-flowing. Getting up on Sunday was a slow process, but helped by a wonderful fry-up. I then sat around chatting in the cafe "to avoid the worst of the frost", but I was only fooling myself. Eventually, I felt it was time to do something.

I'd looked at the map and had a couple of ideas on routes. All of them started with the climb from the village up the Snowdon Pass to the high point of Pen-y-pass. Where I went from there would depend on when (and if) I got there, and how I felt.

From memory, the route from 'Beris to the bottom of the Pass was fairly flat, then it's a steady rise to Pen-y-Pass. What a cruel goddess Mnemosyne is! The first quarter mile was flat - alongside the lake - and then the road became what is best described as "rolling". Except that it means something different in North Wales than in Suffolk! Hmm, this could be a problem. I was already in 39x17 - and the climb proper hadn't started yet!

After about 15 minutes, I reached the Cromlech bridge, from where, as the 80's song goes, "the only way is up". By now, the sun was beating down, the mountains on either side were acting as a pretty good suntrap, and I was getting very warm! Jacket undone, sleeves rolled up, gloves soon to be consigned to a pocket, I plodded on. This was hard and I quickly ran out of gears - 39x23 - and was soon forced out of the saddle to try and keep some sort of rhythm going. The bike is almost at a standstill, but there's no way I'm giving up. Plod, plod, round the last corner and the Pen-y-pass buildings are in sight.

Round the parked car and the gradient suddenly disappears - I've reached the top of the pass! I got off the bike and sat in the sun, gulping ice-cold water from my bottle. Man, never has water tasted so good. My speedo said that it had only taken 28 minutes from the village - funny, the bit from the bridge alone seemed to have taken about a week!

Where to now? Plan A was to go straight on down to Capel Curig, have a cuppa there, then return. But from what I remembered, the Capel side of the Pass was steeper than the road I'd just come up. Plan B then - back down to Beris. Jacket zipped up, sleeves down, gloves back on (soggy - ugh!), off we go.

I took the descent back down to the bridge carefully, wary of ice on the corners. A tactic which paid off when on the last corner before the bridge, an oncoming coach decided it needed to use most of the road... Past the bridge now and I have to work again along the flat and through the "rolling" terrain - I'm sure this hill wasn't here earlier. Still far too early to pack up, so I decided to go straight through Llanberis and ride around some of the other villages towards Bangor.

On the other side of the village, the lakeside road decided to show that it could do "rolling" as well as the road to the Pass, ho-hum, but I was soon heading towards Bangor and the villages. Unfortunately, most of the villages in Snowdonia are built on the side of one mountain or other. Circling round, I got back to Deinolien and, for old times sake, headed for Dinorwic, which has the start of the path into the slate quarries and some great views. It overlooks Llanberis and the lake, is nearly as high as Pen-y-Pass, but the road there is a lot shorter...

Another stretch of out the saddle effort and then along the flat to Bus Stop - the first of the quarries and where the road ends. A pause to soak up the view, then it's time to head back to 'Beris. Fortunately I know a shortcut. Unfortunately, it's a narrow singletrack road, just wide enough for a car, rocky hillside on one side, stone walls on the other and it rises over 200m in just under a mile and a half. Fortunately, I'm going down.

First impression - it's steep! And narrow and... corner! Brake hard, in case anything's coming the other way, tiptoe round at 10mph, it's clear, release the brakes. Instantly, Mr. Gravity pushes the bike downhill and the next blind corner is approaching at 25mph, brake hard again. This sequence is repeated until the last right/left corner and the flat rollout to rejoin the lakeside road back to 'Beris.

But the sun's still shining, I don't get to ride roads like this everyday, the legs feel reasonably OK, so I decide to head up the Pass again. I tell myself that I won't necessarily go to the top again, just see how it goes. I reach my first objective - Cromlech Bridge stop for a breather and to prepare for the next bit. It's colder here now, the sun has dipped below the hills, so I don't hang around long, but carry on up.

Fairly soon, I'm back in 39x23 but still moving. Slower and slower, I grind my way up, climbing back into the sunshine. I'm seriously thinking of turning back when I round a corner and see the buildings at P-y-P for the second time today - I can't give up now. Another corner, the buildings disappear, the pedals are barely getting round, the computer says 5mph, the HRM says 190! The last corner, the buildings appear again. I get a fresh lease of life and change up a gear for a big sprint finish. Three pedal strokes later and I'm crawling again (Cipo, watch out!), but I eventually get there. Another sit-down in the sun, then back down.

There's less traffic this time, and I know where the ice is, so caution goes out the window. The wind-blast builds up on the straights, then a dab of brakes and I'm swooping round the corners with confidence. Bit more brakes to negotiate the Cromlech bridge - no coach this time - and then a mad sprint down the flatter road to Nant Peris where, legs burning, I settle down for a more sensible wind-down back to Llanberis and the long drive home.

Ride time: 3hrs 5mins Distance: 39 miles.

"Local" Road Races 2001

Steve Jones has very kindly constructed a list of local (EA = East Anglia and EX = Essex) events taken from the 2001 BCF handbook. See pages 4 and 5 of this newsletter for the information. For entry details see BCF handbook.