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Can You Climb?

           

Entries are open for the club's John Bornhoft Memorial Hill Climb up Leith Hill on Saturday 3 October. You can enter online via the CTT website or send an entry form plus £6.50 cheque to Tim Lawn.

If you're unfamiliar with it, the race is a time trial held on the slopes of Leith Hill, South-East England's highest point. The climb takes the southern route up and the course record is 3.44, set by the 2008 winner Bill Bell (Gemini BC) ,you'll do well if you crack four and a half minutes.

John Bornhoft was a former President of the Kingston Wheelers and he'd be chuffed to see as many entrants as possible so think about riding this. If you can ride up the North Downs on the club run, you can take part!

Photo: Alpe d'Huez

Three Wheelers made the trip to Alpe d'Huez last the weekend to see how they would fare up the iconic climb. Martin O'Sullivan, David O'donovan and Simon Henderson stayed with the excellent 'King of the Mountains' resort and also managed to compete in the Marco Pantani Memorial Sportive over Le Deux Alpes. The Wheelers' times for Alpe d'Huez were an impressive 53.00, 79.50 and 57.00 respectively, all electronically timed.

Photo: Hogg Hill


Maryka Sennema and Leona Kadir on the podium last Saturday (Photo: Mark Wallis)

Maryka and Leona's Busy Weekend

Congratulations to Markyka Sennema for winning on Saturday. She took the women's race at Hog Hill over in East London, with fellow Wheeler Leona Kadir joining her on the podium with third place. Photos are on the LondonCycleSport.com website.

Sunday saw Maryka race at Goodwood in the women's race where she took second place. You can read here account here. Leona was also racing but this time with the men in the 4th category race which she finished and then helped to marshal the afternoon stage of the Revolutions race. Jim Ley took some pictures, you can see them online.

Surrey League Revolutions

The Surrey League Revolutions is a five day stage race held in the South-East. After the Tour of Britain, it's the second longest stage race in the country, with five road stages and a 2.4 mile time trial adding up to 454 miles in five days. The club's Steve Saunders and James Beaumont are riding this.

Stage 1 was on local roads for the Wheelers pair with circuits near Leigh, Rusper and Henfold. Overcast skies at times turned into a downpour for a while and in the final miles of the race things split up. With about a dozen riders up the road, Steve clipped off the front of the bunch to gain some precious seconds for the overall and managed to stay clear of the bunch, with James keeping jumping on any move to chase him.

Stage 2 was held on roads around Staplefield and Cowfold, hilly territory. An early attack went clear and it wasn't until the last 30 miles that a serious move went away from the bunch in search of the leaders although there had been plenty of earlier attempts, including several counter-attacks from Steve and he was with the move that made it across to the leaders. With the bell ringing for the last lap James tried to slip the bunch but was caught with a couple of miles to go and up front, Steve lead out the sprint and almost got the jump on his fellow escapees but in the end two riders came past him on the line, meaning he took a great third place, with James finishing in the bunch behind. Thanks to Stewie Martin for driving the lead car on the day and to Adam Page for marshalling.

Stage 3a was a time trial held around one lap of the Goodwood motor racing circuit. Flat and exposed, this normally a course suited for Steve but he excelled himself and took third place in the morning's stage, ahead of some notable TT riders. James trundled round to finish in the second half of the field although practically there weren't more than 40 seconds between the top riders and the slowest riders.

Stage 3b saw the riders lap Goodwood and then head off the circuit and onto the South Downs. The stage was a "short" 81 miles but made up for the lack of distance with some climbs, including the climb up Harting Down and the 15% Trundle. But things didn't go to plan, within miles of hitting the real roads, Steve punctured. Watch the Tour de France and when a rider punctures, they get a wheel change and then it's back to the bunch within five minutes, often with the help of several team mates and some lenient shelter behind the race vehicles.

But this is amateur racing and you're lucky if you get a service car. The Revolutions luckily has a following car but it took a minute to get the wheel swapped and then Steve was left to himself to chase. "I thought about waiting and helping", said James, "but it would have been a symbolic gesture of support and little practical use, I'm not the sort of rider capable of towing Steve back to the bunch and hoped he'd be back in five minutes". Alas, Steve had a long day behind the race, chasing hard for a 30 miles solo until he caught another race favourite Christopher McNamara (Team Corley Cervelo) who'd punctured earlier too.

The remaining bunch split in three on the long climb up Harting Down and James was in the second group and his group was whittled down on the climb up the Trundle before the riders descended for five purgatorial laps of the Goodwood. "All the emotions: hope, rage, sadness, then final acceptance" said Steve but to lose third place overall because of a piece of flint, that'll be hard to accept. Knowing Steve, we'll see him in action and bagging a result on the following stages.

Stage 4 was the longest in the race at 104 miles but you wouldn't know it when the race started, the riders covered over 26 miles in the first hour and the roads weren't even flat, although without any major climbs. The second hour continued at a similar speed and the third hour was done at 25mph, during which time Steve joined a chase group in pursuit of the race leaders. It wasn't until the final hour that things slowed down a bit and the riders hit the Dunsfold loop, familiar to some of you as the circuit used for the club's road races each March. Steve sprinted up the final hill to finish in 11th place and, in a group behind, James came in in 28th place.

Stage 5 saw the riders tackle the hilliest stage of the race with a twisty course taking practically every slope available in the Ashdown Forest, including a vicious climb up to Crowborough from Friars Gate and Kidd's Hill, aka "The Wall". The stage started with a bang and Steve jumped off the front with a couple of others. "I was just behind and watched everyone run the mental calculations to see who was up the road - no immediate threat on GC, the right teams represented, some strong riders - the first attack had all the right ingredients to go clear and so off they went" said James. Steve effectively did a four-up TT all day, with a lead rarely over four minutes. As the lead group came into the finish, Chris McNamara (Team Corley - Cervélo) jumped clear and, protected by team mate Richard Cartland, this left Steve in a near-impossible situation and he took third place, meaning three third places on six stages, some excellent riding.

National 12 Hour Time Trial Championships

Kevin Thomas rode the National 12 Hour champs recently and took a fine 19th place and has his sights set on the RAAM. To read a full account of Kevin's great ride, click here.

Redmon CC Hill Climb

Luke Wallis won the Redmon CC's hill climb race on Ranmore. "There were about 20-25 riders and about five doing the top times" said Luke after the event.

Watts on TV

Production company Dragonfly TV is looking for 100 fit cyclists to take part in a human power experiment for BBC1. The new science documentary that will be aired in the Autumn is planning to put 100 cyclists on rollers and then see if they can produce enough electricity to power a number of common household appliances.

Those taking part will be asked to pedal in short bursts at range of speeds. Filming takes place on September fifth and sixth in Bedfordshire. If you're interested, contact Emma Hughes on 020 7033 3198 or pedalpower@dragonfly.tv for more details.

Surrey League, Leith Hill

It may be the South-East of England's highest point but Leith Hill wasn't high enough for Steve Saunders on Sunday. He took second place in the Surrey League's 1/2/3 category race around Ockley and Ewhurst and did this by counter-attacking with a few riders to chase a three man breakaway already up the road. As soon as he hit the slopes of Leith Hill, he found his companions had gone backwards and he flew past two of the breakaway riders up ahead but couldn't catch race winner Guy Powdrill (London Dynamo). If the hill was 200m longer things might have been different but this isn't to deny Powdrill's strong win.

As a dwindled bunch came up the hill, Luke Wallis took third, meaning ninth place on the day, a great result for him at this level. James Beaumont was also there in his first road race since May and finished in the back of the pack.

Surrey League, Dunsfold

Congratulations to Ian Russell on his second place in Sunday's Surrey League race at Dunsfold. Ian's result sees him bag enough points to move up to third category.

On the day the women's category was incorporated into the same race and Maryka Sennema and Leona Kadir took part. Maryka's back to road racing for a bit after her Lake Placid Ironman. There was a mix-up on the final lap and Maryka finished the third placed woman, with Leona in second place which gave her enough points to move up to second category. You can read Maryka's full race report here.

Surrey League Time Trial

Racing around two laps of the hilly Staplefield circuit, Steve Saunders took second place in the GS Stella's time trial run for the Surrey League. In sixth place was Phil Ember. Guy Powdrill (London Dynamo) won the event.

Welcome to the Club

We welcome many new members throughout the year but since mid-July, we've been getting many more new joiners. So a welcome to all the new members. As ever, you can take what you want from your membership. It's your club so get involved, you can just tag along for the odd ride but think about taking part in as much as you can, you might find new ways to enjoy your cycling. Maybe try a time trial or perhaps think about your first road race or your first long-distance sportive. Road cycling comes in more forms than you might imagine.

Off the bike there are weekly pub nights and much of the club is run via the forum these days. You can also follow the club's Twitter feed via Twitter or RSS for news updates and more.

As ever, if you're not a member but enjoying the club run, please think about joining if you've done a couple of rides and want to do more. We're not the sort of club to insist on "members-only" for Sunday mornings but don't abuse things. Remember, the Sunday rides require some organisation from more experienced members and there is some limited insurance relating to the ride from the club's affiliation to British Cycling.

Club Kit

The club's stock of club kit has almost sold out so if you want new clothing, note that an order will be going in to the suppliers in due course with a view to getting supplies this autumn. But we still have a small stock of jerseys and shorts in L and XL in the previous design which are available at a discount. For more on the kit, click here.

Time Trial Series

A reminder that there are more events coming up in the club's TT series. You're unlikely to topple Ben Elliott from the top of the leaderboard but think about riding some of the upcoming races. Click here for more details of the series.

Lake Placid Ironman

A quick bit of news from Lake Placid, New York, writes Maryka Sennema. Despite a slowish swim and feeling like I was having the quintessential jour sans on the bike, I didn't panic and hung in there, keeping my bike splits in reach and saving what I could for the run. Fortunately the two women in my age group who were in front of me at the end of the bike leg did exactly what I hoped they would do -- go out too hard on the run -- and I reeled both of them in during the second half of the marathon. Finished in 10:41:52, good enough for first place in my age group, 16th woman, and 153rd overall.

I claimed my slot this morning for the Ironman World Champs in Kona in October, and even though I'm hobbling around town today like my legs are broken, I'm looking forward to getting back to training. Having now experienced a physically excellent race on a bad luck day in Germany last year, and a physically terrible race on a good luck day yesterday, I now want to combine the best of both and put down a great time in Kona!

In Bradley Wiggin's Slipstream

Anthony Anderson won the National U10's Circuit Race championships from Thomas Mein (Hetton Hawks), writes Nicola Wadham. He won in a sprint for the line on Saturday after a break they established early in the race took them well clear of the rest of the field. Unfortunately the Kingston Wheelers' other interest in this national event, Henry Dawson in the U12's, was unable to start due to suspected swine 'flu which laid him low. The event was excellently promoted by Hillingdon Slipstreamers where Bradley Wiggins is Vice President and raced there a lot as a youngster.

Both the boys have won the London Triathlon Series in their respective Age Groups (Anthony for Thames Turbo) and Henry will go onto represent London in the Inter Regional Championships in Wales this September (there is no IRC U10's event).

Ventoux for Breakfast

The club's Iain Marshall works for BBC Breakfast and one item he's done this year is a piece with BBC sports presenter Mike Bushell about climbing Mont Ventoux three times, the cinglés ride.

Originally this was going to include the club's Glenn Chamberlin and James Beaumont but this didn't happen so Iain found some others keen to try the ride. The result will go out on Breakfast on BBC One on Saturday 25th July at 0640, 0740, 0840 and 0940. It should also be on the BBC website.

West London CA 50

It was a very blustery and consequently slow day at Sunday's West London CA 50 TT, run on the flat, but badly surfaced A4 course near Aldermaston, writes Andy Lack. Me, Ben Elliott and Martin O'Sullivan were the three club representatives, with last man off, Steve Golla of Sigma Sport, looking like the one to beat.

Martin rode this one in true 'roadman' style, opting for the road bike with none of the trimmings and, as it was his first 50 on a horribly windy day, was more than happy with his time of 2.19.29 - a nice end to the week after racking up a 21.13 for a 10 on Thursday night. Ben, meanwhile, was riding his first 50 of the year and got off to a poor start after his bottle leapt out of its cage as he hit one of the numerous potholes on the course. Nevertheless, he managed a PB of 1.59.07 and a very impressive sixth place overall. My quest for a sub-2 hour 50 goes on, as I carded 2.02.29 - some way off a PB, but was pleased with 11th overall, which just goes to show what a slow day it was. Winner was Steve Golla in 1.49.26 - presumably wind for him is something that happens to other people.

A Ride With A Difference

There's a great tale over on the Addiscombe CC's website forum of one of their riders who hooks up with the Caisse d'Epargne squad and takes the likes of Valverde and Pereiro for a spin across the North Downs, including a run up Box Hill. Well today it was my turn, writes James Beaumont.

I'm half-French and have a place 30km outside the city of Limoges. Today the Tour de France was in Limoges for the rest day, ahead of Stage 10 from Limoges to Issoudun. I planned on riding into Limoges to see what was going on and halfway there I spotted some of the Rabobank riders coming the other way. I turned around and asked if they didn't mind if I rode with them, something that's not always obvious since they last thing they want is to be felled by some amateur.

I got the chance to ride with the Rabobank guys for a good hour. They were all very friendly and chatty. If you saw the Pyrenean stage of the Tour you might have seen Laurens Ten Dam's big crash on the Tourmalet, he lost a lot of skin but he's apparently slept well and was riding to ease the stiffness.

The pace was fine, they were after an easy ride. It was intimidating in some ways to be on Flecha's wheel when he was winding up the pace and getting into a low crouch, sticking his arms onto imaginary tri-bars as he wound up the pace, this guy can be there in the final moments of a Flanders classic or hunting for a breakaway in the Tour. But today it was easier for us all, his accelerations were just designed to get the heart rate going a bit. Flecha's got an odd style on the bike, he won't change gear much, preferring to stand on the pedals a lot, but what can you really tell from one ride? Still, when he stands on pedals he makes the bike move backwards a lot. At one point his rear wheel brushed my front wheel and I had a brief panic, visions of making Ten Dam crash again, but Ten Dam just laughed, "ja, he's always doing that" he said in his best Steve Mclaren accent.

The conversation was amusing, they all wanted to know about tomorrow's stage and I warned them that if the finish is for sprinters, the first hour will be hard work as it's up and down and twists and turns a lot, the recognised climbs aren't the only hills on the route. On a longer climb I was comfortably riding with them, Grischa Niermann asked "you are a climber?", but the pace really wasn't fast. Ten Dam was keen to talk about La Marmotte, he won it in his last year as an amateur. On the way back into town they all stopped at a café to buy things like magazines, phone cards and postcards.

Just as they we riding back, the Silence-Lotto squad was returning to the same hotel. I got a short ride with them, chatting a bit to Aussie Matt Lloyd (who agreed to an introducing interview, watch this space). Despite the relative disappointment of the team time trial they seem genuinely pleased with the race so far, happy to see Astana forced to work with AG2R-La Mondiale. Their view was that the racing so far has only been a warm up and that it's better to be at 90% in the first week so you can finish at 100% rather than vice-versa.

As I was heading home I came across the Katusha team's Pozzato, Karpets and a rider I thought was Ignatieff. They looked lost and I offered to ride with them back to their hotel. There was a weird moment when one of the riders and me both did a double-take. It was Alex Botcharov, not Ignatieff and "Botcha" is an old team mate of mine but a decade ago he didn't speak much French so it was nice to see him but bizarre since we could actually communicate this time. It was interesting with Pozzato, even on a recovery ride he was in full playboy mode with the wet gel hair look, sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, full of expressive hand gestures in response to my simple Italian and generally looking like a tart. Karpets was the polar opposite, he's one of those silent types with a hairstyle worthy of a 1980s heavy metal fan, his bike was filthy too, covered in oil, dirt and streaks of dried energy drink.

I'd heard that Armstrong's ride had been swamped by the media. Apparently Carlos Sastre punctured during his ride and like the rest of us he had to stand by the road to change tubes, working an impotent minipump. I saw the Cofidis riders going the other way when I was with the Katusha trio, it was nudging a humid 30°C but they were in regulation long sleeve tops, with matching red legwarmers and caps. It's an old-school idea in France that you might catch a chill and it's also supposed to stop water retention, to stop your legs swelling up. But still, in such heat these guys must have been suffering for their work.

Anyway the region here is a bit quiet. That's part of the rural charm of course but having the bright colours of several pro teams flashing around is a bit of a change. One of the great things about pro cycling is the accessibility of the riders, there are no stadiums to charge you entry money and you can ride with world champions like Freire or Giro winners like Menchov, it's a lot harder to kick a ball with Ronaldo or hit a tennis ball back to Federer. Click on the photo for more images.

Womens' Team Series

Another round of the Women's Team Series and my longest race to date at 52miles, writes Leona Kadir. The course was six laps of a 8.5mile circuit which was riddled with pot holes. We got there extra early to do a recce circuit in the van and were quite worried about the surface as it was wet and oily too.

The first lap was fairly sedate then the attacks started. No one really got away but I did almost get dropped in the second lap having been stuck behind a car coming round a 90 degree bend. Lesson learned and I made sure I was up near the front each time round the same corner. My team mate punctured with two laps to go but I carried on, planning to give the sprint a go despite there being a huge number of really good riders (two from Candi TV/Marshalls Pasta). Just after the same problem corner, something hit me in the shin and bounced off another girl. We assumed it was a bottle but it turned out someone's saddle had come off! She carried on trying to stay up at the front which was really irresponsible I think.

With one mile to go I'd moved right up and was optimistic of top 20 if nothing else when there was a pile up. I was on the right heading at a pile of bikes and there was nothing I could do. I hit it straight on and sort of somersaulted. I got up, checked my bike and got going again. I didn't realise how many people had been taken out but seems quite a few including two who had to go to hospital. One was right behind me so I was pretty lucky. Mainly I'm just really really annoyed as I was going well. No real damage to me or the bike, just some scratches and bruises so I live to ride another day. As usual there were a few people who really shouldn't have been there. Its nice that the races are open to all abilities but some people really are dangerous. The race was won by Hannah Rich (Candi TV/Marshalls pasta).

London Dynamo Road Race

Steve Saunders finished in fourth place in the London Dynamo's Summer Road Race on the hilly Staplefield circuit. In the race too were Stewie Martin and Luke Wallis, trying out his new second category licence. After a move was away for much of the race when it came back Steve joined in a counter-attack with Dan Kogan (BMC) and Andy Betts (Sigma Sport) and escaped, before Rob Hurd (DHC Cyclesport) bridged across and these four went on to dispute the finish with Rob Hurd getting the better of them.

"I followed wheels until halfway up the climb when I made my effort- I must have jumped about a whopping five metres clear until the legs went BANG and before I knew it Hurd whizzed by at top speed, with neither Betts nor Kogan able to hold his wheel. They came around me, and Kogan looked like he was struggling, leaving me false hope for a podium, but just as I went to pass him he put a real spurt on getting a gap on me and overtaking Betts for second. I rolled in for fourth place, safe from the chasers by ten seconds" says Steve. You can read the full account on Steve's blog.

Stewie and Luke finished in the bunch. A special shout out to Mark Wallis, Luke's dad, for his help in passing up water to the team. Well done to Steve and also to our Richmond Park neighbours London Dynamo for putting on a proper race on a tough circuit.

La Marmotte

Several club members rode La Marmotte in the French Alps last Saturday. It's the original sportif ride, it was started in 1982 and the route is 174 km long with more than 5000 metres of climbing. The course includes the Glandon, Télégraphe, Galibier and Lautaret passes before the summit finish at Alpe d'Huez.

Dominic Baker, Dominic Luck, Dominic Trevett, Glenn Chamberlin, Glen Gilbert, James Beaumont, Lawrence Smith, Neil Weatherburn, Phil Ember, Richard Allen, Richard Evans, Rupert Bole all took part, plus former Wheeler Ben Cousins, now with Stockholm's CK Valhall. If all survived to tell the tale, Dominic Trevett crashed on the descent of the Glandon, luckily no serious injuries but his ride was over and Ben Cousins had a broken chain on the descent of the Lautaret close to Bourg d'Oisans.

Conditions on the day were very good, although the variation in altitude means that it can never be perfect, either the summits are literally freezing or the final climb up to Alpe d'Huez resembles an oven. This time the top of the Galibier was relatively mild but it meant that the valleys were hot, even the start was warm for a change. It was a long day, with times ranging from 7.15 to over 11 hours in the saddle. Amongst the 7,200 riders were many Brits, it seems the growing popularity of sportives at home is tempting many to seek bigger challenges abroad, indeed the event probably has more foreign riders than French. Dutchman Bert Dekker won for the fourth time, keeping the Dutch tradition alive on Alpe d'Huez.