Mike Cotty (Wheelbase/Cannondale) looked very impressive on his way to 10th place in round 3 of the National Trophy Cyclo-Cross series. Rownhams –based Cotty looked very strong on his “home” course at the Southampton Sports Centre and the technical circuit obviously suited him. Cotty is currently leading the Wessex league and on this form is one of the favourites to win round 6 this weekend at Thruxton.
Crispin Doyle (Swindon RC), who finished ahead of Cotty at Southampton, in 8th place will provide the competition. Luke Gray (Baboco) was out of sorts and complained of “sore legs” over the finish line. Despite this Gray still managed a creditable 11th place and leads the national U23 rankings.
Stu Bowers (Hargroves Cycles) struggled with the fast pace. As always, Bowers has the miles in his legs but is under raced. If he can get some racing under his belt expect to see him challenging Doyle & Cotty!
The Primera Sports supported, Bournemouth Cycle & Tri Expo was hailed a great success.
Most of the big names in the cycle industry were there, including Specialized,Garmin,Cannodale,Sportful and a host of others. Local profesional, Daniel Lloyd was on hand for most of the afternoon and was very happy to talk and answer questions.
Alex Croucher of Primera had this to say
"We would just like to say a huge thankyou to everyone who helped with the Bournemouth Cycle & Tri Expo last weekend, we had a truly great day with over 3000 people attending!, which for our first expo we are extremely pleased with.
Huge thanks to all the exhibitors who attended and also to everyone who helped promoted the event.
Planning for next years event has already started and we are looking to go bigger and better with more great products to see and also possible cycling celebrity appearances!!"
Monday night road race coaching sessions at the Mountbatten Centre 20:00-21:00
Starting on Monday 21st November, initially for 5 weeks.
For Junior and Senior road racers
£5 a rider
The sessions will have a technical & tactical flavour, and include coaching a range of the below examples.
If you have specific technical or tactical areas you'd like the sessions to help you improve?
Technical examples
Bunch etiquette
Sprint lead outs
Maintaining a position near the front of a group
Taking laps out for technical problem
Putting on and taking off a gillet / cape
Feeding at speed
Lunging the bike at the finish line
Taking a bottle / musette from a helper
distributing items between teammates
Sitting on/in
Clipping in at the start of a race
Group riding - Thru and off
Tactical related to:
Initiating attacks
Responding to attacks
Sprinting
Breakaway riding
Bunch riding
Blocking
Team strategies
The tactical elements will be delivered using a coaching technique called coach led racing.
Mountbatten Leisure Centre
Portsmouth, United Kingdom
"E D" recieved this email in the week, while it does not reflect "E Ds" views it does raise some interesting points. Have a read, discuss and feel free to leave your comments
Dear all,
There is a problem with road racing in the south!! Namely there is almost none! Shame on you clubs who do not promote - seriously you should be embarrassed!!
So far for the entire of next year there are a pitiful 4 senior races and 1 junior tour. (This does not include TLI events. E D)
Why is this??
History
Cycling used to have a strong club structure, well organised with a good team of volunteers who were prepared to do their part in organising as well as racing. Also the older members used to step down from racing to run events and take over the official appoinments. By and large this does not happen now.
Reasons
1) We live in a self obsessed era where self gratification is the name of the game, people only race and do not think of promoting events.
2) People do not know that races are organised by volunteers.
3) People are scared of organising events because it seems so hard, might land them in court.
Do these reasons chime with any of you? Turning red yet?
What can be done?
Hey, lets go back to the club structure
1) Organise a committee in your club, a chairman, secretary, racing secretary.
2) Look at a free weekend and offer to promote a race. Call the RCA Tim Knight and he will let you know what you need to do.
3) Think where you would like to do the race. Tim will let you know of approved circuits in your local area or possible further afield.
4) Send off the paperwork for the race, check the website, see the handbook and see your race! It will feel good.
Then
5) Get some marshalls, normally 8 will suffice on most circuits.
6) Have a couple of cars and a first aider.
7) Organise a village hall and book it, Sue, Tim and me recce'd about 6 circuits in 2009 all with HQ's and tel no's.
8) Tim will bring some race aids, signs, banners, CB radios etc etc.
9) Promote the race, BC officials will judge and commissaire.
10) Enjoy your promotion, organise a club pub dinner afterwards to pat yourselves on the back on a job well done!
12) Go to other clubs races safe in the knowledge that you have done your bit for the sport!
What could go wrong?
1) There could be an accident. Yes and Fisrt aid and the Ambulance service will pick up the pieces.
2) There could be a crash which will see you in court. Yes I was in court in June for a crash on a race between a casual rider and a racer. I had followed the risk assessment and no case to answer, BC fully suport organisers.
3) You get the result wrong, a BC official will judge the event so it will be correct.
What benefits are there?
1) More races on the calendar.
2) A sense of achievement.
3) Your club and your name on a national website.
4) The thanks of other riders.
Please have a think, look in the mirror to see if this is you, pass this email on to people who should know about it, use facebook and all the rest to spread the word. Organise your club and organise a race. If you are not in a club, stop being a chepskate and join a club which promotes events and suport that club!
I am off on an extended sandy holiday soon and will not be able to organise events over the summer, please lets get the racing on track or we could lose the entire sport and only have crappy Sportives to ride!!
Regards
Darren Clarke
Army Cycling Union (organiser of about 30 races this year and about 50 last year)
