86 Miles with over 5000 feet of climbing. The route follows some of the roads and all the climbs which the 2016 Tour of Britain stage 3 will be following two days later.

Event Date: Sunday 4^th September 2016

Event HQ:  Congleton High School, Box Lane, Congleton CW12 4NS

Sign on: from 07:30. Group starts from 08:00 until 09:00

Enter today: HERE

Entry Fee £25 with all profits going to our two chosen charities:

1.   Children’s Adventure Farm Trust who provide a variety of programmes for terminally ill, disabled and disadvantaged children from all over the North West. www.caft.co.uk
2.   North West Air Ambulance provides the rapid pre-hospital care needed to make a life changing difference, and has been influential in helping save the lives of some cyclists in our area. https://nwaa.net/

 Rewards:

• Stunning views
• Route includes all the main features of TOB stage 3
• Some of the best cycling lanes in the country
• Famous Cheshire landmarks such as Jodrell Bank, Tatton Park and the Cheshire Peak District
• Fast sweeping descents
• Iconic Brickworks and Cat & Fiddle Climbs

Entry Includes:

• Event souvenir
• Chip timing
• Web results service
• Downloadable Certificate
• 2 Feed Stations
• Medical support
• Mobile Mechanic Support
• Fully way marked route.
• Downloadable GPX/TCX Files
• Refreshments after the ride
• Free parking

Event Sponsors: Cyclestore.co.uk

PLEASE NOTE – AND PASS ON IF YOU ARE IN CONTACT WITH ANY REGULAR RIDERS
Tonight’s club 10 has been switched from the Chelford based J2/1 to the Congleton based JC27 course on the Holmes Chapel Road.
This is because of an event clash at Chelford. All other details as before. Sign on near Blackfirs Lane from 18:30. First rider 19:16

The Sunday destinations have been shuffled about slightly for the following dates:
23/11 will now be Ice Cream Farm
30/11 will now be Lavender Farm, Dunham
14/12 will now be Beeston
(see the Club Run List on the right for the amended full list)

Twenty seven members and twelve guests rode the 10 mile TT on the Gawsworth course last night in cooler and cloudier weather than recent weeks. This did not stop the torrent of “personal bests” which included nine members lowering their handicaps.

Frequent guest Mark Lovatt continued his winning ways with the fastest time on the night at 21:14 ahead of Steve Hulme on 21:49 who kept scratch league leader Ben Norbury out of maximum points by a single second. Pete Smith (23:14) completed the podium of members in the scratch competition.

Tristan Roberts

In the hard-fought junior league, personal bests by both Tristan Roberts (25:20) and Joe Langford (25:25) could not stop Mark Allen (24:44) from taking maximum points and eating into Joe’s lead.

Meanwhile, the ladies league has already a clear winner in Sue Blake (27:51 for another maximum points on the night) as she can’t be caught by chasers Denise Hurst (28:29) or Claire Thompson (28:43) between whom second place will be settled over the remaining two events.

In the handicap competition, Angelo DeAngelis still leads but could be caught by Ben Norbury or Joe Langford. All of these three riders are having to discard points each week they ride, so the pressure is on to ride close to or better than their handicaps to close the gap. On the night, Tristan’s PB was sufficient to claim maximum points.

The veterans league is under Steve Hulme’s control, although there is a mathematical possibility that Wayne Powell could still win.

We are on the Gawsworth course again next week, followed by the final event on the Holmes Chapel course on the 12th August.

See Full Result Here.

Ben Norbury

Last Tuesday evening was a near perfect one to ride a time trial. Twelve riders got personal best times and several more seasons bests in warm calm conditions on the Chelford course.

The winner was Ben Norbury in 21 minutes and 52 seconds, with Steve Hulme 22:22 second and Mike Stretch (Macclesfield Wheelers) 22:33 third. Third spot for the club competition was taken by Pete Smith 23:12 who just beat Wayne Powell 23:15. Ben maintains his lead in the scratch league from Steve, with Wayne in 3^rd spot.

Fastest lady was Denise Hurst in 27:53 from Claire Thompson 28:19. The ladies league is led by Sue Blake, from Denise and Claire.

The best junior time was Mark Allen 24:28 from Will Booth 24:39 (PB) and Joe Langford 25:27 (PB) and Tristan Roberts 27:50 (PB). Joe is still league leader from Mark and Tristan.

The handicap competition was won on this occasion by Roy Hayhurst, in his first event this year,  with 25:35 giving a net 18:19, from Nick Wood 25:15 net 18:54 with Will Booth net 19:10. Nick’s ride was his first try on a TT bike, as opposed to a road bike, resulting in a PB by more than a minute.  Ben Norbury currently leads this league as well, but Angelo de Angelis is close behind in second with Joe third.

Since we have passed the limit of 15 counting rides, the league tables are beginning to discard the worst scores of the most frequent riders. See full result here.

Bill Boynton of Congleton Cycling Club was a member of the large GB team at the “Worlds” competing in the ITU Duathlon. He won the bronze medal with 3^rd place in the M70-74 Standard distance event in a time of 2 hours 38 minutes behind Tony Marshall (USA) and Carlos Leite (Portugal).

The initial 10k run comprised 4 laps of 2.5k on streets and pavements through the old town lined with hundreds of spectators.  The bike route from the stadium immediately crossed the river Lerez and followed a long ascent of nearly 200 metres over 10 km to a turning point on the Santiago road.  Fast sweeping descents at 40 mph brought competitors back to the river and the start of a second tiring lap.  The race was completed by a further two run laps of the town and a stadium finish.

“When not racing, I would reckon that the climb towards Santiago was fairly easy and never more than 10% but after running hard for 47 minutes, it was a very attritional time trial course, the hardest I’ve ever done.  It was all about slipping down a gear and maintaining speed while managing the cramp.  The two descents round a series of tight bends were exhilarating and much safer as the circuit was traffic-free.”

With so many age groups in action, finishing positions are never clear until results are posted.  Confusion reigned for five hours as the electronic timing system had failed and organisers resorted to backup methods before announcing results.  Soon afterwards Bill was on the podium to receive his medal and later celebrated with Newcastle Tri Club teammate Julia Matheson who was dominant in winning F50-54 and setting the fastest time of any woman at these World Championships.

Winning a medal was a great result after finishing 5^th in 2011 and injuries in the subsequent two years.  ‘It’s a mad event’ says Bill, ‘maybe I’ll think of doing Sprint (half the distances) in future’.

Bill brought his medal to the club social evening last week (26th June) to show everyone.

Watching the Tour de France is Total Anti-climax, but that is what cyclists do.
You sit by the roadside for three hours, and the bunch flashes by in 30 seconds, because it is in Yorkshire it will be cold, wet and miserable. (No one does miserable better than Yorkshire).

I suggest a motorised club run from Edale, taking a picnic lunch to eat while we are waiting for the Tour. Meet at Edale car park 11:00 hrs and ride out to see the Tour between Langsett and Bradfield on the run in to the finish.

Distances Edale to Bradfield – 18 miles (The Saturday riders could manage this)
Congleton to Edale via Buxton (for the hard riders) – 29 miles
Ordinary people can drive to Edale, hard riders can ride from Congleton.

Looking at the timings
The official web sites say the roads will be closed 10 – 12 hours beforehand
But … Cyclists will be allowed access until the roads are handed over to the tour organisers.

Schedule – working backwards
Tour de France 15:50
Publicity caravan 13:45
We need to be in place before 13:00
Leave Edale at 11:00 – this will give people time to pick up food in Hope

At the Beartown Tap club evening last Thursday, Rob Waghorn observed that a “standard time” for one of our riders had switched to the next age a bit early – days before the person’s actual birthday.

Sure enough, there was a mistake in the calculation of age from date-of-birth. I claim the blame for this error. Sorry! The testing must have been a bit thin on that area.

The error had presumably been there all season, but after exhausting searches I have been unable to find any cases where it made any difference to the “Standards” points allocated in the first 8 events. However on the 6th June the Chelford 25 had two riders out of their correct positions in the Standards result. They have dropped three points between them which have been re-allocated to three other riders (one point apiece). You could only lose points if your birthday is in the month of the event on a day numbered higher than the event day – June and 6 in this case.

I believe I have corrected the software bug, the event report for 6th June and the league tables.

Members’ recent orders have been sent through to Endura for manufacture and you will be informed when they arrive. We have some stock items for immediate availability which are now listed on the clothing page. A small amount of additional stock has been included with the members’ order to improve availability of popular autumn/winter items.

The motorised club run has been re-scheduled to 18th May in place of 11th May. Our club run list has been updated with this and extended through to 8th June pending further planning for the summer season over the next two weeks.

Happy riding!

With the new method of awarding points in the Tuesday evening TT series, the results for all the riders (including guests) have been published in the established way but not showing any points. As most of you will realise, the points awarded in the 5 TT leagues and for attending club events are more complicated than the old scheme.

The records for the points this year and an explanation of the scheme can be found via the Quick Link on the right (or via the Competition menu) on a page called “Bob Job Attendance and TT Points Competitions”. This replaces the single points table in the old scheme.

The photographs from the Prize Presentation are now available via the Photos tab.

Apologies for the delay in putting these on the web site.

Nick Decker

The last of the club’s TT promotions for 2013 took place on Sunday Sept 29th. It was the annual hill climb championship on Mow Lane (Ganney Bank), towards Mow Cop from the Congleton Side. It’s only a mile and a bit from start to finish, but very tough when racing up it. A club record turn out of 26 riders, 22 from our own club made the effort.

The winner was Nick Decker in a club record time of 5mins 39.7secs. Nick is undoubtedly the clubs top hill climber, and later in the day he was competing in the Withington Wheelers event on Peaslow Hill, near Chapel en le Frith. He was riding a special bike which he has built for the hill climb season. It weighs an astonishingly light 5.7 kgs. The other medal places were taken by Ben Norbury in 6:05.9 and Pete Tatton in 6:29.2. The Junior hill climb champion for the second year is Tristan Roberts in 6:52.4. and the Juvenile Champion is Sam French in 7:21.1. The best lady was Denise Hurst in 11:24.8 and best veteran was Peter Smith in 6:44.2, closely followed by Mike Jones in 6:46.0 and Stephen Jackson in 6:47.0. After the event many of the riders set off on a club run to Audlem.

Club members officiating at the event were Georgina Norton (signing on), David McVitie (start timekeeper), Jim Cook (pusher off) and Bob Norton (finish timekeeper). Full results can be found here.

Ken Norbury’s 181 photos can also be viewed via link under “Photos”

The Club Run List has been extended through to early November, see the Quick Link on the right.

The Hilly Reliability (much postponed in the early part of this year) has been scheduled for 20th October. It counts for Bob Job points (5 points for finishing within the time window option chosen by the rider and 2 for helpers).

The Club Clothing order form can now be printed for completion on paper (About Us / Clothing) and some copies have been left at the Rugby Club.

The Club Runs list has been rolled forward for the next few weeks, see the hot link on the right.

In order to spread the load of leading the rides and to better cover for unavailability of the most regular leaders, we are always looking for volunteers to take a turn at leading.
To discuss volunteering to lead Sunday rides, please contact Denise. To discuss volunteering to lead Saturday rides, please contact Georgina or Bob Banner.

The A and B ride system seems to be working quite well. So long as the numbers (and a fast group leader) permit we intend to continue this approach.

The main club committee decided on Thursday that the published rules for this year’s Audax events run by Rob and Denise cannot be changed. So we will be giving 5 points to those first claim members who completed (or complete the October events) these and 2 points to helpers at these events.

The Hilly Reliability may yet be run. It would be at 09:30 on a Sunday in the second half of September or early October. We’ll let you know as soon as possible if we schedule this event. It is unlikely that we will run an A ride in parallel with this.

The Audax status for BJ points may be changed for next year (in good time to declare the rules before any points are awarded – so before the end of January 2014).

Nick Decker

The last club evening TT on the JC26 circuit course was run in bright but windy conditions. The 10 miles was covered in 23:47 by Nick Decker, for his first win of the season. He was ahead of Pete Tatton 24:32 and Ben Norbury 24:34. Best Junior was once again Tristan Roberts with 28:32 whilst Amanda Turner in her first ever time trial was best lady in 32:23. There were 25 club members and 10 visitors competing.

With only the hill climb on Sept 29th and this Saturdays Open 50, left as counting events in the Bob Job Points competition, Pete Tatton now has a 10 point lead over Pete Smith, with long time leader Wayne Powell in third place. Best Junior is Mark Allen and best lady is Sue Blake.

For full result, see here.

Next Tuesday there is a get together at the Rising Sun, Congleton Rd, Macclesfield, to round out the season. Contact Georgina for details by Sunday at the latest.

Fine weather and the approaching end of TT season brought a club record entry of 50 riders in this week’s 10 on the JC5 course on the Macclesfield/Congleton Road. There was also a record entry of 34 from of our own club members. Times were fast with many season bests and personal bests recorded on a near perfect still and warm evening. The fastest rider was Jack Green of VC St Raphael with 20:48. The top three Congleton riders were Pete Smith (22:39) Ben Norbury (22:44) and Pete Tatton (22:57).

Colin Lynch

One of the visitors was Colin Lynch (Macclesfield Wheelers) who recorded 22:59. Colin is a Paralympian and a reigning World Paracycling Champion in the Time Trial. He used our event as final training before heading to Canada, where he defends his title in later this month.

Fastest of six juniors was Tristan Roberts in 27:16. Fastest lady was Christine Higgs (Macclesfield Wheelers) in 25:14, beating our own Sue Blake 29:25.

For full result see here.

The “podium” in this weeks 10 was filled by our own club riders with Pete Smith 22:19 first, Pete Tatton 23:01 second and Ben Norbury 23:26 third. Pete Tatton maintained his lead in the seasons Bob Job points competition, which has settled into a 3 way fight between himself, Pete Smith and long time leader Wayne Powell.  On a warm, humid evening with a headwind finish, the event attracted 35 riders 23 Congleton and 12 visitors. The junior battle was won by Mark Allen 28:04 and best lady was Helen Evans 28:17.

The evening TT program has now had participation from 45 club members this season, and if visitors are counted, the number is over a hundred individuals. Feedback from visitors is always welcome. Last night a visiting rider from Coalville Whs (Leicestershire) simply said “Thanks, nice club”

For full result see here.

Pete Tatton

This week’s club 25 on Tuesday took place on the J8/15 course starting near the Chain & Gate pub. Twenty members and six guests started in warm weather with light winds. The outright winner was Philip Knupfer of Manchester Wheelers (58:59). For the club points competition Jamie Willets (1:01:55) took the maximum 10 points, but Pete Tatton (1:02:28) on 9 points moved into the competition lead. Nick Dekker (1:02:38) took the 8 points. Mark Allen (1:16:08) was fastest junior, and fastest lady was Helen Evans (1:16:25). See full result here .

Hi everyone. Due to a clash on the Chelford course for next week (18th June), we have had to swap the course with the Gawsworth event which was on 2nd July.

18/06/13  now GAWSWORTH 10

02/07/13 now CHELFORD 10

Please pass this information on to other TT riders you may see.