Press Report – 30th March 2015
Congleton Cycling Club News March 2015
Megan in the World Champs
Club member Megan Giglia competed in the UCI Paracycling World Track Championships last week in Holland. In her first year she just missed out on bronze medals in the C3 500 metre time trial and in the C3 3000 metre pursuit race.
In the 500 m TT she qualified for the bronze medal ride off with a time of 44.736 seconds and just missed the medal by 0.002 seconds in the final.
In the 3000 metres, she qualified for the bronze medal ride off with a personal best time of 4 minutes 24.488 seconds but was disappointed in the final ride with 4:27.918, leaving her fourth again.
Well done Megan. The club congratulates you on a great debut in the Worlds.
The local time trial season is now underway, with several members competing in open events. Paul Dentith has ridden several events in the fixed wheel medium gear league. His 10 mile times of 28:40 (Yorkshire CF event) and 27:17 (Manchester and District event) and 25 mile time of 1:9:30 (Altrincham Ravens event) give him the league lead after 3 events. Paul also rode with gear in the RTTC Series classic TT at Uttoxeter, finishing in 1:4:09 for the challenging 23 mile course. In the Manchester and District 10’s, Wayne Powell clocked 24:47 in the March 21st event and in the March 28th event there were five club riders. Kelvin Milward was best in 25:48 with Duncan Poole 28:11, Sue Blake 30:03, Denise Hurst 30:19 and David Hurst 36:37, the other representatives. The clubs own evening time trial league starts with the hilly 9.5 miles around The Cloud on April 7th.
In road race events Junior Mark Allen has been busy riding closed circuit events in Shrewsbury, Rhyl and Darley Moor. The step up from juvenile last year means that Mark now has to ride over longer distances.
Charle in Sherwood Pines Event
Charlie Evans competed in a very wet British Mountain Bike Series Race 1 at Sherwood Pines .in Nottinghamshire. After starting from the back he rode his way up to finish 55th of 94 starters in the Expert category.
Coaching Group Riding
Pete Akers Smith delivered the first two of his Group Riding Skills coached sessions (March 21st and 28th) at Eaton Bank Academy. The participants started with braking and cornering techniques before going on to following wheels and riding side by side in close proximity. Each session was finished off with a short pursuit race, to put the skills to a competitive test. The final session will be at the Rob Holden closed road circuit Tameside, Manchester on Easter Sunday April 5th. Pete says that he hopes to repeat the sessions for other club members as required.
Two special events were hosted at the Rugby Club in March. On the 19th a Race Information Workshop attracted a lot of interest not only from Club members old and new, but potential members as well. A special guest was Les West, twice winner of the Tour of Britain, world championship silver medallist and multi national champion and record holder. Les gave an engaging talk on how he got into road racing. Club Coach Charlie Evans then set everyone off on a ‘getting into bike racing workshop’ by handing out some questionnaires to promote thinking about what motivates us to cycle/ride/compete. Experts were on hand at a series of stations to talk members through cyclocross, MTB, Road, Track and TT disciplines. The bar was open throughout the evening and was also a popular attraction, as were the refreshments prepared by Georgina Norton.
On the 28th of March the theme was First Aid for Cycling, where the club was treated to a presentation by paramedic Steve Evans who has developed a course specifically aimed at cyclists. Steve was very entertaining and his presentation was both informative and practical. The course is available as a free resource at this link. Thanks Steve!
http://issuu.com/carltonreid/docs/firstaidforcyclists
As always there was a lot of riding done in the month, starting with the annual hilly reliability trial, only 33 miles but with about 4500 feet of ascent. In good weather on March 15th – apparently the best we’ve had for the event in years, there was a good turnout of 23 riders, with a large group from the Leek Cyclists’ Club taking part. Thanks to all the volunteers, including Nick Decker for signing us all on, and Stephanie Cooke for the refreshments when we got back to the club house.
On the same day John Jervis took a group of members on a mountain bike trip to Cannock Chase, where they rode the red-graded ‘Follow the Dog’ trail, followed by the blue graded Sherbrook Valley Trail. There will be more such trips.
Jill Jervis has been leading Tuesday night spin sessions at the Leisure Centre. “They have been very popular” said club chairman Bob Norton but they will soon be replaced by the Tuesday evening time trial league.
Bob Banner and Bev Hambleton completed their first Audax ride of the year, riding the 71 km “Ramble through Heather” event from Lichfield on March 29th. Bob said “it was very wet and windy”
The club runs on Saturday (10:00 a.m. from the Unicorn at West Heath) and Sunday (9:30 from the Rugby Club) were well supported. The Saturday rides are to be expanded from two/month to every Saturday from April 1st. Details can be found on the clubs Website www.congletoncyclingclub.org.uk
The club meets socially on Thursday evenings at 8:30 p.m. in the Rugby Club, except for the first Thursday of each month when we meet in the Beartown Tap. All are welcome.
Press Report 26th November 2015
Late September saw the club’s final competitive race event of the year, The Ganny Bank Hill climb, the much revered climb up Mow Lane is certainly a difficult climb, 1.3 miles long with varied gradient changes making it difficult to establish any rhythm. Benefiting form mild and sunny conditions perhaps in part explaining the large turnout, saw Congleton cycling Clubs very own Ben Norbury take the honours, incredibly by 1 second.
The top 3 finishers were Ben Norbury in 5m 45.7s, Rob Howson (Leek CC) 5:46.9 and Andrew Doorbar (Unattached) 5:54.6. Best Veteran was Rob Dale in 6:33. Best Lady was Hannah Rhodes Patterson (Durham University CC) 6:47.2 from Sue Blake 8:52.3 and Lesley Norbury 10:57.3. Top Junior was Jake Niblett 6:48.4 and best juvenile Joe France 9:36.0 beating younger brother Tom 10:40.0.
Ben Norbury in the National Champs.
Ben had qualified from competing in a variety of other Hill Climb events for the prestigious National Hill Climb event, which was held in late October at Jackson Bridge in West Yorkshire. His time of 5mins 20.7 seconds, was only just over a min down on the winner . This was a great result on a very tough climb which started up an 18-20% pitch, levelled off and it then was consistently 10 – 15% all the way to the top, averaging 11%.
2015 saw the introduction of weekly Saturday Social rides where previously they had been fortnightly, these alternating 30mile & 40mile rides have been very well supported all year, different lead riders taking cyclists along a variety of beautiful quiet scenic routes heading to high quality Cafe stops, inclusive fun and banter all part and parcel.
Club Members Rob Waghorn and Denise Hurst organised Audax events, these well designed rides, included differing terrain and distances. They were supported by many none club riders many of which commented they were high quality events.
The 5th of November saw the club’ AGM, the committee member officers each gave a report, which described another good year for the club, in which the membership growth slowed with 129 members reported (126 in 2014). These include 11 juniors and 31 ladies. The Club is in a good position with a broad range of activities, where there is something for all, from Social to Endurance events.
The club have been lobbying to bring a major cycle sport event to Congleton. Led by Pete Smith, an initial agreement with the town council to bring a Pearl Izumi Tour Series criterium to the town has morphed into a potential stage finish of the Tour of Britain. This week it has been announced that Cheshire East Council have approved a budget of £250,000 to bring a stage of the Tour of Britain, the countries biggest cycle race, to the county. We believe that Congleton is favoured to host a stage finish.
Upcoming events include a roller racing evening vs the Leek C.C. on Nov 19th in the Rugby Club starting at 19:30 hrs, and the club’s annual dinner and prize presentation on December 5th at Astbury Golf club. There are still tickets available for the latter.
Press Report 24th December 2015
Congleton and Leek cycling clubs recently held an inter club, roller racing competition, the first round was at Leek the return at Congleton Rugby Club.
Rich Coates and Mark Allen
Competitors rode their bikes on rollers which was connected to a large ‘clock face’ display which measured distance there were several different events all of which looked frantic with riders spinning at up to 200rpm!, Congleton’s secret weapon was Mike Jones who won everything he entered.
Both nights were superb fun and well organised with many non riding members turning up to support their club mates, donations were received for the charity chosen by Barney Swinnerton who kindly provided and managed the equipment.
Mark Allen
Mark Allen rode in the Junior race at the North West Cyclocross Championships today in Heaton Park in Manchester. After a very good start Mark finished 12th. It was very soggy underfoot which made for a lot of running in the muddy bits, which were already churned up by the earlier races. Well done Mark. The club is proud of you.
The annual dinner and prize giving ceremony took place at Astbury Golf Course
The Awards were preceded by speeches. Sue Blake welcomed the visitors, before the guest speaker ‘Mega’ Megan Giglia resident of Congleton and Rider for Team GB Para Cycling, gave a superb spontaneous speech which had us all entertained, captivated, and inspired.
L to R Wayne Powell, Megan Giglia, Les Lancaster
Megan went on to hand out the club’s trophies, assisted by Racing Secretary Wayne Powell. Winners were announced by Bob Norton. After which flowers were presented to Megan and to Georgina Norton, who organised the event.
Amongst a few toungue on cheek awards for none racing members the Club Person of the Year, as voted for by members was announced as Les Lancaster, for his relentless support of saturday social rides and tuesday night marshalling for the Time Trials, well done Les.
Santa (AP) with club run riders.
The weekend rides including the saturday social, training rides and sunday club rides continue with great success, these well supported and social events, take in some beautiful lanes of cheshire and expect the training ride always stop at a Cafe. Recently much welcomed new Cafe stops have found their way onto routes. The weather of late has been rather wet, mild but often windy, one exception was the icy snap a few weeks back which meant it was a close call on safety grounds to run the saturday rides. The most recent club ride included a visit form Santa, members were given some hints how to ride safely and efficiently as of course Santa has a lot on this time of year!
New Years day walk to clear the head and lungs will be taking place again, this one will be in and around the beautiful scenic area of Tittesworth. Meet in the visitor Centre 10:30, all welcome hope to many of you there.
Merry Christmas to all.