Crabwood CC Boxing Day Cross

Mike Cotty (Wheelbase/Cannondale) was in a league of his own as he stormed to victory in the “Crabwood Cross” at Southampton Sports Centre. The Wessex league champion elect oozed class as he rode away from a small but select field in this traditional Boxing Day race.

Stu Bowers (Hargroves Cycles) took second spot after a solid performance that saw him get stronger as the race went on. Bowers is finding form after a late start this year, but the season may end too soon for the Hargroves man. Team mate, Steve James took third the national U23 series leader never looked comfortable, Matt McDonald (Stevens UK) finished fourth.Earlier in the day, Joanne McRae (Look mum no hands) had won the women’s race after leading from the gun. Matt Hargroves (Hargroves Cycles) won the junior race and Sean Williams (Wight Mountain) came out on top in a very competitive vets race.

Mike Simpson (G S Henley), winner of the previous weeks race in Wareham Forest, gives “E D” his race perspective!
After the pre-Christmas glitch that saw Mike Cotty (Wheelbase/Cannondale) pipped to the post at the Wareham event, normal service was resumed at Southampton with an impressive solo display. Mike has dominated the Wessex League this season but failing to win last week would have been eating away at him all week. So what better way to reset the status quo than to obliterate the opposition at your local course? Mike only lives a few miles down the road and has raced here on many occasions. The course was pretty muddy and had some slight modifications to the one used at last month’s National Trophy. Immediately to the fore were Cotty and the recently crowned Southern champion Steven James. Then came Stu Bowers, Matt Macdonald, Jamie Norfolk, Nick Onslow, James Cotty and having his customary appalling start last week’s senior victor Mike Simpson was already playing catch up.
By the end of the first lap Cotty was now clear and James had dropped back to form a trio of riders who would contest second place.

Into the second lap and Simpson briefly joined this group before failing miserably to negotiate
the steep bank and lost touch as this group started working well together in pursuit of Cotty. In 6th place was James Cotty riding one of his best races this season. Up front Mike Cotty could relax and enjoy the praise, his analytical mind perfecting each slippery turn and riding his bike to the limit of adhesion. Onto the last lap and podium positions were all but secured as Bowers had clear daylight on James with Macdonald and Simpson having to concede and settle for 4th and 5th.
But the day belonged to Mike Cotty finishing in resplendent isolation. Many of these top riders will reunite and do battle in the National Championships in two weeks’ time and then finish the season off with the final Wessex league event at Thruxton.

Brief Result (provisional)
SENIORS
1 M COTTY (Wheelbase/Cannondale)
2 S BOWERS (Hargroves Cycles)
3 S JAMES (Hargroves Cycles)
4 M MACDONALD (Stevens UK)
5 M SIMPSON (GS Henley)

LADIES
1 J MACRAE (LOOK MUM NO HANDS)
2 C SMITH (SWINDON RC)
3 S WOODS (WIGHT MOUNTAIN)

JUNIORS
1 M HARGROVES

Vets
1 S WILLIAMS (wight mountain)
2 M GROVES (STEVENS UK)
3 D McMULLEN (GWR)

Local Cycling News

Despite losing to Mike Simpson (GS Henley) in last weekend’s round of the Wessex League, Mike Cotty (Wheelbase/Cannondale) will win the overall title. Simpson put in a great performance in the Poole Wheelers event, upsetting the odds to beat Cotty.

The Wheelbase/Cannondale rider had the technical edge but could never quite shake off the tenacious Simpson. And when it came to the finale, Cotty had no answer to the pure power of Simpson.

This weekend’s Boxing Day Cross at Southampton sports centre will see them go head to head again. After that, Cotty will spend a few days racing in Belgium in preparation for the National Championships in Ipswich on January 8th. Already in Belgium is Luke Gray (Baboco), Gray, too will be in Ipswich defending his National U23 title. At the recent Gazet van Antwerpen, the course was so muddy; Gray said “it was like riding in melted chocolate, up to the hubs”!

Friends of Bournemouth Cycling Centre will hold a meeting to discuss the future use of the facilities. The Bournemouth Cycling Centre encourages all interested parties to attend and stress “This is not just about the Track but the future use of the whole area including the adjacent playing fields for activities such as Cyclocross plus the development of the facilities.” The meeting will take place at 19:30 on January 16th at the Collingwood Hotel in Bournemouth.

New Forest Cycling Club took the decision to cancel their traditional Boxing Day 10 mile Time Trial after receiving only thirteen entries. A regular fixture on the local calendar for many years, it would be shame if this event was lost. The New Forest CC will discuss whether to run the event next year at a committee meeting in January. One local Christmas event that has definately survived is the Bournemouth Arrow Boxing Day social. Over the years various public houses have been fortunate enough to host this traditional "toasting of the Season".The last few years "The Lamb Inn" at Holfleet,nr Winkton has had the priveledge. All are welcome and as the beer flows more races seem to have been won!

Parkstone based cycling clothing firm, Prendas Ciclismo, will continue to support the Horizon Fitness/Prendas Ciclismo team in 2012!
2011 has been an exciting building year for the staff and riders at the Horizon Fitness/Prendas Ciclismo
“It was always going to be very important for us to set a lot of foundations in place for the two important years that lie ahead” sats team manager Stefan Wyman. “2012 is the Olympic year and we are very pleased to have two potential Olympians in our team with Dani King and Joanna Rowsell. 2013 is then our target year to gain professional status with the UCI, and it’s with the riders that are on the team now that we hope to be entering the 2013 season.”

2011 also saw the team have a major return to UK competition with the introduction of a four round series in the Tour Series sponsored by Johnson Health Tech. These races are key to the continued growth of women’s cycling in the UK as they attract very important TV coverage. The team also held onto the title of Team Pursuit National Champions and retained the win at the Bedford 2 Day international stage race. We have managed to put together eight very talented riders for 2012 who have an average age of just 20.
They also get the benefit of knowledge from the team mentor, Helen Wyman, during the season. The team will be officially launched in the UK on 10 March 2012, and will then travel to the south of France for a two week training camp ahead of the UK season openers.
(Reprinted by kind permission of www.velouk.net)

Spare a thought for Paul Hughes (Poole Wheelers). Paul came down after a touch of wheels at Calshot track last weekend. A badly broken leg has left him in traction over Christmas. Several people also came down on the ice last weekend, if in doubt, get the turbo out!!!



BJW CLUB EVENTS 2012
We are running 22 club events plus a hill climb in October to which we add another three inter-club hill climbs.
SAT 03/03/2012 FURZEHILL 10 M P472A 15.00 MTB
SAT 10/03/2012 FURZEHILL Circuit 20 M P472A 15.00
TUE 10/04/2012 FURZEHILL 10 M P472A 19.00
TUE 17/04/2012 FURZEHILL 10 M P472A 19.00
TUE 24/04/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.00
TUE 01/05/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P303 19.30
TUE 08/05/2012 PAMPHILL 8.5 M P429C 19.30
TUE 15/05/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.30
TUE 22/05/2012 FURZEHILL Circuit 20 M P472A 19.30
TUE 29/05/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.30
TUE 05/06/2012 PAMPHILL 30K P426 19.30
TUE 12/06/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.30
TUE 19/06/2012 BULBURY 10 M P412/10 19.30
TUE 26/06/2012 MOORTOWN 25 M P304 19.30
TUE 03/07/2012 FURZEHILL 24 M P427 19.15
TUE 10/07/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.30
TUE 17/07/2012 FURZEHILL Circuit 30 M P472A 19.15
TUE 24/07/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P303 19.30
TUE 31/07/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.30
TUE 07/08/2012 PAMPHILL 8.5 M P429C 19.00
TUE 14/08/2012 MOORTOWN 10 M P311 19.00
TUE 21/08/2012 FURZEHILL 10 M P472A 19.00
SUN 14/10/2012 HILLCLIMB 3RD STAGE H/CLIMB OAKFORD 11.00
Furzehill circuits are also 10s
If you would like your clubs events listed here just send them to me.

"Mike Cotty talks Wessex League,National Champs and Mike Simpson"!

Mike Cotty (Wheelbase/Cannondale) has enjoyed a great winter Cyclo- Cross season so far. Five victories in the Wessex League look to have given him an unassailable lead in the series. Dominant on the local scene, Cotty has also proved himself on the bigger stage, his 10th place at the Southampton round of the National Trophy Series was, perhaps, a promise of more to come. Mike spoke to “E D” at the Poole Wheelers Christmas Cracker Cross event in Wareham Forest. Unfortunately for Cotty, Mike Simpkins had not read the script and had just powered himself to a well-deserved victory. Gracious in defeat, Cotty, never the less, was obviously disappointed: “Mike is really, really strong, I looked back and saw him in third place and thought crikey, I am going to have a bit of a fight on my hands, because he is practically made for this course. I did not make any mistakes, Mike just had the legs today” A pause and Cotty adds with more than a nod of respect, “the bugger”. He goes on: "I am disappointed because I always want to win.”

Mike had come off on ice while out training the day before the Poole race, had that affected him?
"When you are racing you cannot really feel stuff, so you don’t know, it’s been pretty painful last night but I was racing good and I would not say it had any bearing on today’s result”
Cotty made a conscious decision to focus on the Wessex League this year
“The national events are so far away, last year I was only just getting into the top twenty, I also had some work commitments so I decided to try to build on the Wessex and aim for the National Champs as well”

Was he pleased with his race at Southampton?
“Yes really pleased, 10th place got me 1 UCI point and I started on the back row. I felt good and that 1 point will put me on the top 2 or 3 rows for the Nationals instead of row 6 or 7” What would be a good result at the Championships? “Top Ten, yeah, I like to try and get top ten but again its horses for courses when you get to the nationals, all the best riders will come through. I have raced at Ipswich before and I quite like the circuit. I will be racing in Belgium between Christmas and New Year for two races, it will be bullet hard it will be a nice little training camp, just a sharpener really, no real expectations just go and have some fun and hopefully it will be good for the National Champs”
Is he training much at this time of the year?
“Just a bit of turbo really it’s too dark after work and too cold for any quality. I normally do 4 to 5 hours on a Saturday so I never come to these races fresh, there’s no point, when I raced at the southern champs I felt so much stronger because I did it right, rest in the week, sleep well, stuff like that. Cotty is already thinking about next season “Its long way to South Shields to get 25th, but the results have been a lot better than I thought this year, so next year I will do the National Trophy. Getting that top ten at Southampton was a bit of an eye opener, I thought, hang on a minute, this is quite good now”

The Wareham Forest course suited Simpson well, what is a good course for Cotty?
“I like it pretty technical, a little bit more like the mountain bike thing, if you are not a roadie you are going to struggle, I have raced mountain bikes all year so I have got my technical hand in, on the technical bits you can put 15 seconds into someone just like that. I don’t mind some nice flat bits but it’s difficult for a guy like me to get away”
Cotty will race Cyclo cross till the end of the season then go straight into base training for a summer season of elite mountain biking
“maybe a couple of local road races after work”.
What does he mean by base training? “Steady miles on the road, a nice threshold session every week, I don’t need a massive base for mountain biking but I like it so I if it’s a nice weekend I will probably end up doing too much” Preparation for the Nationals will include some 10 second sprints in a 90 minute ride, good rest and good diet.

“It makes a big difference, you get to a race and think oh hello, this feels good” What is his favourite discipline Cross or MTB? “I am really enjoying the cross, I like really like the position on the cross bike, it’s a bit more sketchy. If you go into something really fast it’s the guy with the best technique who is going to come out of it. With all the suspension your bike can get you through a lot, where as on a cross bike you are so rigid, like today I was flowing down the descents but Mike nearly came off, he pulled me back on the flat though”.

Work is as a marketing manager for Cyclesports group and Mike regularly rides, and reports on the big sportives for Cycling Weekly. Mike Simpson thoroughly deserved his win, as Cotty say’s “He is a good solid rider “. The two will meet again this weekend at the Crabwood CC, Boxing Day Cross, despite the season, it promises to be a cracking race. Last word must go to Mike Simpson, “I expect Mike Cotty will be out for blood now!”