KingstonWheelers.com

[SeanMoly]

Is any one racing tomorrow (sunday 23rd) at Goodwood the 4th Cat race. I am driving and have space for one bike and rider.
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Clothes on??????Clothes off???????

[leona]

yes me. dreading early start. staying all day to help with 5 day stage so doubt anyone will want to come with me!
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My marmalade's called Nigel And my toast is called Elaine
I bet my butter wishes it had a proper name.

[maryka]

Well, that was my last race as a 3rd cat. Was happy to give Goodwood a try but I won't be in a hurry to go back there -- no real corners, no hills, flat and windy and really far from Kingston! We had a good turn-out of nearly 20 riders in the ladies' race including quite a few I didn't know from A3CGR and various other southern clubs. First few laps were at a pedestrian pace (I was happy for the extra warm-up, frankly), then I decided to try a few attacks and see what happened. Got a 10-20m gap briefly twice: the first time an A3CRG girl got on my wheel but refused to come through, so I sat up. The second time was more promising, but after my efforts at Hog Hill yesterday my legs were not too interested in TTing into the wind for 5 more laps so I figured I'd get some more practise sprinting at the finish instead.

After my second attack, some of the other girls decided to keep driving the pace, which dropped about half the group. Then it was just a waiting game. What a boring circuit! Turns out that the two A3CGR girls left in our front group (including the one who'd refused to pull through) had agreed beforehand to help the Fareham girl and lead her out in the sprint, though I knew already that she was the wheel to be on so I was there sitting behind her. Since the finishing stretch was straight into the headwind, I stayed on her wheel as long as I could before trying to come around, but alas I didn't have the power to get by her (and I think I picked the wrong gear as I couldn't get on top of it in time), so she just pulled away easily. Picture Cavendish pulling away from Farrar... Must do some work on my sprinting technique as I felt like an elephant on a tricycle out there.

Anyway, she was definitely the stronger rider in the sprint, so I wasn't disappointed with 2nd. I wonder if it would have played out differently had the men's 4ths not had a heavy crash 200m before the line (the guy was still down a lap later when we came through to finish, medics all around him and they finally took him away in an ambulance -- hope he's ok!) I had sort of been thinking that the other ladies would err and start their sprints too early into the wind and I could come around as they blew up. But instead we had to wait to get by the ambulance at the chicane first, so everyone started their sprints at the right time.

Nice place to spend a sunny Sunday in any case, though Jim wasn't too happy with the handling in the 3rds race and Steve (after a great TT for the Revolutions 5-day) had a rough day puncturing early in the road race and had to ride alone to try and catch the bunch. Just goes to show how fickle bike racing can be. Jim's put some photos of the races up here.

Oh yeah, finished in 1st place at Hog Hill yesterday (basically was just the strongest climber in the race, and that course ends on a 9% hill). I received £15 and an indeterminate number of BC points, so I'm 99% sure I'm a 2nd cat now.
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[leona]

it was crap. the mens race was so boring!
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My marmalade's called Nigel And my toast is called Elaine
I bet my butter wishes it had a proper name.

[Will Horrocks]

I really should do a goodwood race sometime...

[leona]

25th of 79. come on! hahaha god how sad am i...
quite funny none of the top 3 were southdown velo coz there were about a million of them trying to lead out the sprint..

1Benjamin Marks Cycleworks.co.uk 4 01:14:40
2 Paul Holmes Crawley Tri Club 4V
3 Henry Burrows Bognor Regis 4
4 Phil Phillips Southdown Velo 4
5 J Woodward Southdown Velo 4
6 Jamie Jemkins London Dynamo 4
7 A Kearn Redhill CC 4
8 G Lowery Velocity Bikes CC 4
9 S Maliffe Redhill CC 4
10 Sebastian Webb Oxford University CC 4
11 Nick Gasson 34th Nomads 4
12 A Atkinson 34th Nomads 4
13 R Parated Southdown Velo 4
14 T Deloare Southdown Velo 4
15 M Beckingham CC Basingstoke 4
16 Stuart Grieg Redhill CC 4V
17 Gareth Welch Dulwich Paragon CC 4
18 Chris Rollason Forza 4
19 G Boyle Crawley Wheelers 4
20 James Metan Private Member 4
21 Dave Larkin Team Velo Sportiff 4
22 Ben Ware Dulwich Paragon CC 4
23 John Clark A3CRG 4V
24 Andy Davey Southdown Velo 4
25 Leona Kadir Kingston Wheelers 2W
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My marmalade's called Nigel And my toast is called Elaine
I bet my butter wishes it had a proper name.