News

Our very own club legend, President Dick Poole, presented the trophies for 2018 at last weekend’s Club Night of the Year. A full list of winners is included below, along with photos of those that were able to collect their trophies on the night.

If you’d like to know what you need to do in order to win one of our prestigious trophies, then simply check out the club rules document via the Members section of the website.

Those who won trophies and weren’t able to attend – don’t worry, we’ll be in touch soon with details of how you can collect your award(s).

• BAR Championship – Vernon Schutte
• Veteran’s BAR Championship – Vernon Schutte
• The BSA 100 Challenge Trophy – Vernon Schutte
• The Farnborough Traders 12 Hour Trophy – Vernon Schutte
• The Senior Road Race Bowl – Nick Hale
• 10 Mile Championship – James Goward
• 25 Mile Championship – James Goward
• Veterans’ 10 Mile Championship – James Goward
• Veterans’ 25 Mike Championship – James Goward
• 50 Mile Championship – Tim Carman
• The League of Veterans Road Race Trophy – Tony Clack
• The Surrey League Road Race Trophy – Warren Vye
• The Surrey League Veteran Men’s Trophy – Warren Vye
• The Sportive Trophy – Keith Griffiths
• Hill Climb Trophy – Tom Vandersluis
• Veterans’ Hill Climb Trophy – Simon Hunt
• The Consolation Cup – Rob Matheson
• The Encouragement Cup – Rob Matheson
• The Club Championship Challenge Trophy – Mark Vandersluis
• The John Bull Tyre Challenge Trophy – C. Bartley, AS Test Team
• The John Pickers Memorial Trophy – Steve Hammatt

We’ve had lots of great feedback about the Club Night of the Year, and just one negative comment: where was the pudding?

Well, we mentioned this to the Heron on the Lake and they’ve kindly offered to supply – free of charge – a selection of cold desserts for the club AGM on 1 March.

So, if you missed the CNOTY, or just missed the cake, please do come along to the AGM, and tuck in!

Any other comments about the CNOTY, please email Scott at
[email protected]

At the Club Night of the Year last night (full report coming soon) several of those attending didn’t just have a great night out, but also ended up winning the fantastic prizes that we had on offer.

The full list of lucky winners is as follows:

Cycling holiday for two to Spain – Tony Garmston

Aero helmet – Gavin Watson

VeloChampion VCX Pro Carbon Road Shoes – Paul Hosemann

£50 voucher for Precise Performance and a pair of cycling socks – Tony Morancie

Bronze bike service at Silvester Brothers in Farnborough – Jamie Parkinson

Tour of Britain Sprint Leader’s Gilet – Chris Bagust

Tour of Britain Sprint Leader’s Skinsuit – Warren Vye

VeloChampion Sunglasses and Tour of Britain Cycling Cap – Terry Holmes

Congratulations to all of our winners, and a big thank you to our very generous sponsors for their donations of prizes:

• Spectacular Cycling for the Spanish cycling holiday
• Handsling Bikes for the aero helmet
• Precise Performance for the bike fit/coaching voucher
• SweetSpot, owners/promoters of the Tour of Britain, for the carbon road shoes, sunglasses, cap, sprint leader’s gilet and skinsuit
• Silvester Brothers in Farnborough for the bike service

Many thanks to Ian Stuart for the photos.

Don’t forget to print out your tickets, write your name on each one and bring it/them along on Saturday. We’ve got some fantastic prizes at this sell-out event.

Please be there for 7.30, as proceedings will start at 7.45 with the hot buffet at 8.00.

A report on the Women’s Cyclocross Nationals 2019, by Caroline “Cazza” Goward.

Having had a confident race at the South East Regional Champs a few weeks before at the Cyclopark, Gravesend, getting third and using the analogy “knowledge is power”, I headed to the National CX champs at the same venue, knowing roughly what the course was going to be like, so not having to waste nervous energy worrying about the course I could focus solely on my race.

Coming from a MTB background, this course was very much suited to a mountain biker, with technical off-camber bits and lots of single track. All I wanted now was some rain and mud and then I would have been in heaven (well kind of), much preferring to plod through the mud than be a crit rider.

Unfortunately there had been no rain for the whole week before the race so this meant it was going to be fast, and fast it was!

I was very surprised to be gridded on the front row, not that this helped much as the start loop was on the road circuit and I soon lost what I gained being on the front row, probably being 15th going into the first off-road section. My position soon changed once we hit the first off-camber section, where coming out of that I found I had moved up to 5th!

Normally my trend is to pick my way through the field using my MTB endurance meaning I get stronger as the race goes on, so this was alien territory for me but I thought, “just go with it”.

Loving the course and the crowds I was able to keep this position until about half way into the race. Tasting blood in my mouth is never a good sign and I started to realise I may have over cooked it a little bit … “damn it!”, I thought.

Racing with all vet women, some 40-44, some 45-49 (my age group), some ladies were beginning to overtake me and I really wasn’t sure who was in which age group race, but I have to say that the last two laps were very hard. However I kept going and on those last two laps no other riders overtook me – it was just that third lap in that did the damage.

Having set a goal of top 10 before the race and finishing in 9th place, I have to say I was chuffed, well chuffed in fact.

A few lessons learnt on the day, but more enthusiasm than ever for next season to come round quick!

Pankhurst Cycles in Pangbourne is co-run by club member Toby Davies. They are offering a 10% discount to FCCC members on all products (excluding bike servicing) bought there between 1 and 28 February.

To show that you’re a member, take along a printout of the page at Account -> My Account -> My Membership from the website, or simply show the shop staff that screen on your phone.

In addition to the discounts, Toby has arranged for Ceepo and Northwave to visit Pankhurst Cycles on Saturday 9 February to show off their products.

Ceepo specialise in making triathlon and time trial specific bikes, and have recently launched the amazingly aerodynamic Shadow R. The bikes they have in the range are:

• Venom 105 Team 35
• Viper Ultegra Di2 R400
• Katana Ultegra R400
• Shadow R

Northwave are particularly known for their cycling shoes, and they will be at Pankhurst Cycles to show you their great products. They have shoes to meet budgets at all levels.

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We’re pleased to announce that the calendar of club time trials for 2019 has been finalised, and is now available from this link.

The next club TT is on Saturday 9 February at 10am on the 10 mile H10/8 course at Bentley, and it’s free to enter for club members.

The club time trials are very informal affairs where you can just turn up and enter on the day (with your road bike if you want – no special equipment required). Initially monthly, the club TTs move to a weekly format from April onwards.

Also included in the calendar are the three CTT Open Events that the club organises, requiring advance entry via the CTT website. The Open events are as follows:

• 2 March – Open 10
• 13 April – Open 25
• 14 December – Xmas Open 10

See the articles in the Time Trials section of the website for more information about getting into time trialling, and/or email [email protected]

Club President Dick Poole was invited to present the second of two special awards at the CTT Champions Night on 26 January, the Joe Summerlin trophy, to Michael Broadwith who set a new LEJOG record of 43 hours 25 minutes and 13 seconds in June 2018 – more than half an hour faster than the previous record, which had stood for 17 years.

Dick himself was the first person to break the 48 hour mark for LEJOG almost 52 years ago, a truly remarkable record itself.  This is an extract from the CTT report of the evening:

“The second award was the Joe Summerlin trophy. We were honoured to welcome Dick Poole, the first man to complete the End to End in under two days, to present the award. Dick was a close friend of Bernard Thompson’s, and it was moving to see images taken by Bernard of the record ride unfold on the screen.

Dick spoke movingly of Joe’s contribution to the sport, saying that he would be ‘tickled pink’ by this year’s recipient. The award was presented to Michael Broadwith for his superlative End to End record in June. It was a moving moment for all, seeing the two record holders embrace.”

After an initially mild winter, colder temperatures seem to have now arrived in January. While it might not seem like the season for it yet, the FCCC Road Race team has already been in action.

Several new racers have recently joined the successful team run by road race secretary Warren Vye, and some of those have already been racing in the Full Gas Winter Series at Hillingdon.

Adam Basson hit the ground running with a superb 10th place in his first ever road race in 4th Cat on 12 January. Jamie Parkinson also finished in the top twenty in that same race, which was also his first entry into road racing.

On the following weekend, 19 January, Warren Vye came 6th in his first race of the year, in the Vets event. Luke Stratford also got into the points with a 10th in the 3/4 Cat race.

Last weekend, 26 January, we had four of the new racers competing together (see the main photo accompanying this article). The official results are yet to be confirmed, but provisionally it looks like Adam further increased his points tally with a very fine 6th, Jamie got his total going with 10th, Matt Fawcett finished in the top 20 and Joe Naylor unfortunately dropped his chain and couldn’t finish (though no doubt getting some good racing experience on the way).

A superb start by the FCCC Road Race team to 2019, and it’s only January! Well done to all, and thanks also to those who went down to cheer them on and offer advice.