By Robert on Monday, 31 March 2008
Category: Uncategorised

Icknield Road Club 30K 30/3/08


Usually, I ride this hilly time trial - it's a good early season event to get the cobwebs out. This was my second open event of 2008. By Saturday evening, I'd been getting more apprehensive, as the nasty weather of Saturday afternoon (when I had been marshalling the Northampton and District Cycing Association '10') worsened to gales overnight. By Sunday morning the wind had eased considerably.

The event HQ is in Cheddington village hall - I rode out on the time trial bike via the new Stoke Hammond bypass, a nice smooth road, that we used for the NBRC New Year club '10'. This was pretty uneventful, except I punctured near Mentmore. This was a front wheel puncture. As I have acquired a reputation as a frequent puncture victim over the last couple of seasons, so much so that I have reverted to clinchers, I will keep a log of these punctures separately. Anyway, I slung a new tube in and got the tyre up to a ridable pressure using my tiny micro-pump. Once at Cheddington, I borrowed a track pump (I think from the eventual winner), and got the front tyre up to a more reasonable pressure for racing.

The course, F12/30K, is a circuit that takes in several short but severe climbs. The start is just outside Ivinghoe, and as usual I found I lost a lot of the speed I rapidly acquired while getting through Ivinghoe, where there are numerous speed bumps. The first real climb takes you up the shoulder of Ivinghoe Beacon, but on this day, the wind gave a helpful push up. Down the other side, and along a nice fast undulating road to the severe climb at Billington. This is a steep one, with a final kick upwards which can catch the unwary out. As usual I muscled far too big a gear over the hill - this is something I have to cure myself of. The stiff breeze made the leg along the Leighton Buzzard bypass quite tough, especially the climb to Wing. I was slowed briefly by traffic in Wing itself, and was rather alarming overtaken by a ludicrously long and pink stretch limo! The final climb is at Mentmore (near the scene of my unfortunate puncture earlier), then a rapid scroch down to the finish.

I didn't note the results (too busy blethering) so I'll need to add them later, but I did a 49:11, which I was reasonably happy with. Overall, an OK performance, but I seemed to have difficulty getting the HR up.

No Rider Club Time Notes +/- 
1 ROSS CLARKE  VERULAM CC   00:34:00   
2 LUKE CLARKE  VERULAM CC   00:34:12   
3 LEIGH SMITH  ALPHA RCTEAM CORLEY CYCLES   00:34:33   
4 DAVID JOHNSON  HIGH WYCOMBE CC   00:35:06  49V  13.52 
5 MARK HEATH  ECHELON CYCLES   00:35:33   
6 STEVE CLARKE  VERULAM CC   00:35:48  52V  14.17 
7 IAN MARKHAM  TEAM SANJAN DESIGN   00:36:15   
7 JAMES FOX  TEAM MILTON KEYNES   00:36:15   
9 KEVIN HOLLOWAY  HIGH WYCOMBE CC   00:36:47  43V  9.55 
10 ROBERT SAUNDERS  NORTH BUCKS RC   00:36:48  47V  11.24 
11 BRIAN McCARTHY  TRENT PARK RC   00:36:58  44V  10.11 
12 PAUL ABRAHAM  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS   00:37:21  46V  10.31 
13 GRAEME ANDERSON  WELWYN WHEELERS   00:37:39  44V  8.06 
14 STEVEN OGLESBY  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC   00:37:50   
15 CHRIS GREIG  HIGH WYCOMBE CC   00:38:00   
16 PHIL LISHER  WELWYN WHEELERS   00:38:02   
17 BRUCE CALDWELL  AYLESBURY CC   00:38:07   
18 RICHARD MOULE  BOSSARD WHEELERS   00:38:24  50V  10.56 
19 ALAN CRANE  TEAM SANJAN DESIGN   00:38:54   
20 PHILLIP YOUNG  HERTS WHEELERS   00:38:55  57V  13.06 
21 RICHARD GRAY  MERSEYSIDE WHEELERS   00:38:58  53V  11.30 
22 TIM MEDWAY-SMITH (LS 1.05)  SOUTHGATE CC   00:39:05   
23 SIMON LAYFIELD  TEAM WELWYN   00:39:14  40V  6.31 
24 HELEN BOATMAN  FINSBURY PARK CC   00:39:19  LDY   
25 JOHN McDOWELL  NORTH ROAD CC   00:39:38  40V  6.07 
26 BRIAN FORAN  LAMPARD RC   00:39:39  47V  8.55 
27 ANDREW BURNETT  TEAM MILTON KEYNES   00:39:50  44V  5.55 
28 RALPH DADSWELL  ANTELOPE R.T : RS HOLDINGS   00:40:00  42V  6.27 
29 MARCO ANONE  TRENT PARK RC   00:40:01   
30 TOM GOSBEE  WELWYN WHEELERS   00:40:03   
31 DAVID RODGERS  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC   00:40:18  49V  8.40 
32 DAVID LEDGERTON  HITCHIN NOMADS CC   00:40:25  42V  6.02 
33 BARRY GILZEAN  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS   00:40:58  44V  6.11 
34 STEVE ROBINSON  HITCHIN NOMADS CC   00:41:05   
35 MARK KLEANTHOUS  TEAM MILTON KEYNES   00:41:28  46V  6.24 
36 RHODRI HUMPHREYS  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC   00:41:57   
37 CHRIS GLITHERO  NORTH ROAD CC   00:42:16  55V  8.58 
38 TOM SILVERLOCK  LONDON PHOENIX   00:43:15  42V  3.12 
39 COLIN HOLMES  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS   00:43:38  64V  11.12 
40 JOE HOLLOWAY  HIGH WYCOMBE CC   00:44:24   
41 ANDREW PORTER  WELWYN WHEELERS   00:44:27  44V  2.42 
42 ANDREW STREET  WELWYN WHEELERS   00:46:05   
43 PETER RODGERS  VERULAM CC   00:49:46  57V  2.15 
44 CLARE KLEANTHOUS  TEAM MILTON KEYNES   00:51:27  LDY   
45 DEBBIE KNOTT  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC   00:54:51  LDY   
  GILES HALEY  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC     DNF   
  HARRY BARRATT  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS     DNF   
  RICHARD WEBSTER  TEAM WELWYN     DNF   
  ALAN HARVEY  NORTH ROAD CC     DNS APOL   
  GARETH EVANS  ARMY CYCLING UNION     DNS APOL   
  JOHN LACEY  HEMEL HEMPSTEAD CC     DNS APOL   
  MICHAEL INDER  THAMES VELO     DNS APOL   
  RICHARD SOMERSET  NORTH ROAD CC     DNS APOL   
  ROBERT CROKE  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS     DNS APOL   
  STEVE HUNT  ICKNIELD RC COMPOMOTIVE WHEELS     DNS APOL   
  TONY BALL  TEAM SWIFT ALLSPORTS     DNS APOL   

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