Year: 2011

Report by Paul Butler, Sydenham Road Race Secretary.

The clocks have changed, the days are getting longer and so The Evening Crits have begun!

Jack Gregorie kicked off Sydenham’s evening in the Youth A race and is looking more and more comfortable with the speed of these races. Unfortunately for Jack he missed the decisive break for the third week in a row! Credit where it’s due though as Jack jumped off the front of his group and chased the front group for a good lap or so before accepting that it wasn’t to be, dropping back to the second group and finishing comfortably in the bunch a brilliant 6th place in his age group.

Rob Thatcher and Paul Butler were up next in the 3rds and 4ths race, although the drama had already started just signing on – the Organiser suggested to Paul that any 3rd Cat who was “serious” should be racing against the Elites in the E123 race! Despite these ‘motivational words’from the kind gentleman, instead of racing against a group of riders half their age and weight who are paid to do this for a living, Paul and Rob opted for a level playing field in the 3rds and 4ths race!

With 44 starters and not much daylight the race was full of attacks all the way through but with 3 laps to go it was still all together and Paul had Rob on his wheel. Coming around the final right hander Paul delivered Rob onto the finishing straight in the first 3 and although in hindsight it was a 100m or so too early, Rob finished a very credible 5th! We are on the map!!!!

A few days later on Saturday 16th April Paul and Rob raced another Hillingdon 3rds and 4ths race, this time in a field of 50. It was Rob’s birthday so Paul offered to play at being Mark Renshaw yet again and took the lessons learnt on Tuesday to deliver Rob to 200m from the line this time. Rob’s power meter showed just shy of 1400 watts as he jumped off of Paul’s wheel for the line, finishing in a photo finish and a fantastic third place. Happy Birthday Rob! All prize money shall be shared with his lead out man!!

So in one week, Sydenham placed 3rd, 5th and 6th…….That’s what I’m talking about!

Dave Twin was the sole club representative to ride this course based on the A22. The event had 68 riders on the start sheet 29 of whom were from Lewes Wanderers. With another weekend of bright conditions and a light breezes saw Dave finish this event in a time of 59.23. Pete Tadros InGear QuickVit was the overall winner in a time of 52.08.

We now have the official times from the Nomads event a couple of weeks ago:
P Maoney Sydenham Wh 33.23
S Hourigan 34 Nomads 35.32
R Beswick 34 Nomads 36.21
B Loader Sydenham Wh 48.40

For the second year running this event featured blue skies and sunshine, the one difference was it was a lot warmer this year. The winds were light which resulted in some rapid times again. There were only two members from the club; Dave Twin finished 4 seconds faster than last year with 22.26 and Steve Thurgood went over a minute faster to set a PB of 22.41. Second claim members Mark Newton finished with 21.44 and Matt Miles a 20.38. The overall winner again was Pete Tadros, In Gear Quickvit with 19.38.

Rob Royston was the only Sydenham representative at this sporting event. Rob was aiming to gain some points towards the SPOCO series he has entered. He came out of the ride very well finishing with 6th place overall in a time of 55.39, winning £15.00 on vet standard and gaining over a hundred points towards the SPOCO series. The event was won by Sebastian Ader of A3crg in 51.03.

The sun continues to shine this weekend but there was more of a breeze on this rolling course in Surrey. Both Rob Royston and Dave Twin still had slightly heavy legs at the beginning of the event due to their respective efforts the day before. Rob was of first off and finished in 1.00.30 (25th). As a result got a +13.41 on his age standard and picked up 3rd prize on standard. Dave finished with a 1.00.22 (22nd). The overall event was won by Chris Ball, BioBike RT in 51.53.

Only four people turned out to ride this event, two from the 34 Nomads and two from Sydenham (Bob and Pete). Dave and Steve stopped off on their way back from the Catford 10 on Q10/19 to give the lads a shout on Hubbards Hill and can confirm that Pete Mahoney won the event in 33:?? (they think) and whilst they know Bob finished there are no details available of his time as yet. When we get more info we will provide an update.

Some of you, having received emails from Paul Butler, will be aware that this year we plan to run a new Club Road Race Championship competition. It looks really good and culminates with a showdown at Hillingdon in September. Full details of the competition, qualifying events, points and current standings (yes some members of the club have already got a headstart on this) can be found HERE! This link is also available from the Events page of the site.

The first club event of the year was run on Sunday. The great weather surely had an influence on the tremendous turn out. Some good times recorded as well with Sydenham riders grabbing 4 of the top 6 positions. What can you say about young Ben Wimpory…..if any one see’s Brailsford coming give him some duff directions please! The full result is available from the link on the ‘Events’ page.

Report by Paul Butler, Sydenham Road Race Secretary.

In week 2 of the Sydenham Road Racers’ campaign we had 3 riders this time:

Jack Gregorie rode in the Youth A race (Under 16, 10 miles)and after putting in a good turn on the front was a little unlucky in missing the decisive break of the day. Still, Jack’s group battled on and he finished a very credible 8th in his age group, learning some big lessons about tactics along the way! Well done Jack.

In the 2nd/3rd/4ths race (35 miles), Paul Butler drew the short straw and was nominated to work for Rob Thatcher. In a huge field of 120 riders (possibly the largest in Hillingdon history) Paul and Rob worked hard to stay near the front all race, even then Rob was involved in a crash but the field was so big he was up and back on his bike before the last rider had come through! With 5 laps to go Paul did some huge turns into the wind, dragging Rob up to the front only to get swamped time and time again. They persevered though and their efforts were rewarded as Paul led Rob out for 15th, finishing 25th himself.

Considering the quality and the size of the field, that was a fantastic result for the lads.

Driving to the event headquarters the car was registering -4 degrees. The good news was there was no wind and the Sun was trying to breakthrough the cloud. This was the event nominated for the club’s 2-up trophy and two teams were down to start. Andy Fruin and Paul Delicata were off first with Dave Twin and Rob Royston following 6 minutes later. The only problem being that riding to the start Dave’s bike made a large bang and then his seat post started to slide down. On investigation it was found that the seat post clamp had snapped. As a result Rob Royston had to ride on his own, still managing a 1.03.15 and catching Andy and Paul in the process. Andy and Paul finished with a 1.10.45 and as the only pairing left picked up the 2-up trophy. Second claim member Matt Miles riding for In-Gear Quickvit also had to ride alone after his partners forks snapped at the start. Matt finished with a 57.12, only just being beaten by the winning duo of Carl Chapman and Steve Castle, GS Invicta in 57.11.

Report by Paul Butler, Sydenham Road Race Secretary.

On a beautifully sunny March afternoon of racing, we had 4 riders racing this Saturday at the Hillingdon circuit and everybody put in a very respectable performance.

First off was 15 year old Jack Gregorie in the Youth A race (10 miles).
In his first few attempts last year, Jack wasn’t quite able to finish his races with the front group but thanks to some hard work on the bike (mainly in the snow!) this winter, he finished comfortably in the middle of the pack and he should be very proud of himself.

In the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cats race (33 miles), we were represented by Rob Thatcher, Pete Mahoney and Paul Butler. All 3 riders put in attacks during the race with Pete gaining the biggest gaps, going well with his obvious early season fitness. The pack kept coming quickly back together, as it often does at Hillingdon and Paul and Rob were well positioned with 3 laps to go. Ex-Tour rider Magnus Backstedt kindly brough his team to our race though, Team Uk Youth, who ramped it up to an impossibly high speed, splitting the bunch on the final lap. Paul and Rob had the speed to finish in the front half and Pete’s monster attacks early on meant he finished comfortably in the second bunch, a few seconds back.

A solid start for the team.

Ben Wimpory did his first time trial of 2011 as a private member in a Catford TT event on the Polhill Q10/18 course. Rain greeted the 10 starters on a damp surface which made cornering difficult. Being 7th off it came somewhat as a surprise to catch everyone in front of him to win in a time of 23.19 which was a PB on this course.

Although the roads were damp the riders in the event got away without having to actually face any rain. There was however a bit of a wind to contend with on the return leg. The one Sydenham trio riding of Robert Royston, Dave Twin and Pete Mahoney rode pretty well together finishing 9th out of the 33teams that started in a time of 59.37. The winners were Kevin Tye, Andy Meilak and Seth Kay of Data Team Allstars in a time of 53.44.

Six Sydenham riders were down to start the 47th edition of this event. For some it would be their first event of the year, with others already having one or two events under their belt. On the day both Ed Rieu and Neil Stanley did not start. The remaining four were greeted by freezing conditions with a brisk breeze. They also had to contend with an alteration to the course due to road works involving some rolling technical lanes. The times recorded were as follows; Richard Hallett 1.18.23 (28th), Pete Mahoney 1.19.22 (33rd), Dave Twin 1.20.02 (34th) and Robert Royston 1.20.04 (35th). The winning time was 1.06.01 by Wouter Sybrandy of Sigma Sport.

On the 27th February the good weather that had eluded last year’s event seemed to be with us with a brisk but bright day. Jamie Walker, Howard Wimpory and Ben Wimpory set off before 9 with 900 starters on the day. The Cudham ‘test hill’ certainly got everyone’s heart pumping within the first few miles before a brief respite before the descent of Houghstrough Hill and then up the easier side of Toys Hill. Luckily thanks to some good pacing on the flat by Howard Wimpory we managed to catch up to a fast group near Hever which took us to Dormansland before they tailed off on the hill. It was straight past the ‘tea stop’ with Jamie Walker on the front into the Ashdown Forest and up Kidds Hill and then the fast decent to Groombridge. A new Groombridge Hill met us and at this point we had been overtaking people all day without anyone overtaking us which pushed us on to Baileys Hill at quite a tempo where the group fragmented slightly. It was all together straight through the other ‘tea stop’ at Ide Hill where there were many potholes to negotiate on the way down. From Sundridge it seemed to be youth before experience with Ben Wimpory driving a group of around 10 riders along to the foot of Star hill before loosing them after the roundabout. Everyone was glad to see the end of Star Hill as it represented the last major climb of the day. It just left a ‘short’ stretch to Biggin Hill which seemed to last for ages before finally pulling into Jail Lane in 3 hours 48 mins for the 66 mile route which feature 6,000ft of climbing. We were all very pleased with our work on the day and finished 14-16th overall.

This Sunday see’s the running of one of the big season openers for those in the TT scene – The East Surrey Hardriders. We have surely the best representation from the club in living memory with 6 names down on the start sheet. The club members down to ride are – Ed Rieu, Dave Twin, Richard Hallett, Pete Mahoney, Rob Royston and Neil Stanley. They start in the order listed with Ed the first off at 08:13 and Neil the last club member to start at 09:02. So if you’re in the area around those times give the guys a shout of encouragement.