Saturday 5 March club race

On a day starting with plenty of rain 9 Riders signed up for two laps of good old Valley Rd circuit in A grade and 10 in B grade. Surprisingly no C and D graders (except for one) were interested in this challenging circuit or was it the weather. On the first lap round A grade was sort of still in one bunch. The second lap made the difference though. At the end Miguel Dib and Kent Croote battled it out for the line honours. Kent had to dig deep to beat Miguel and to make it two in row after winning last weeks Petite Grimpeur.

The weather forecast for Wednesday the 2nd of March was not to good. This must have been the reason that some people decided to stay home for round 6 of the ITT summer series. For the 29 riders who did came out the weather was not bad at all except for a strong breeze. This breeze made it hard to ride PB’s only 4 riders managed to do so Emily Shearman, Leyton Gapper, Tom Pirie and Alex Denholm. With his PB Alex is the sole leader with a maximum of 12 points. Except for Rebecca Denholm we had a new crew of Helpers Thanks Grant Shearman and Marie Richardson. Very much appreciated.

Results and points table

Tonight was the first event for the club champs, the flying 200m. There are 5 events for A and B grade riders held over the next few weeks:

Flying 200m

200m Scratch Race

1 Lap (400m) Scratch Race

2 Lap (800m) Scratch Race

2000m Scratch Race

There are 4 events for the C grade (same events minus the 2000m Race).

We had fine weather with a light westerly breeze which led to some fast times and close racing. We also welcomed two new riders, Libby Arbuckle and Emily Shearman. The rider of the night was Emily Shearman who won three B grade races and raced with the A grade riders for the final race finishing 5th out of 6.

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Chch to Nelson

Start: Midnight 12:00pm Friday 18th Feb. Cathederal Square, Christchurch. Teams start first and solo riders start 5 mins later.
Finish: Church Steps, Nelson
Duration: 24hr limit for only 430km
Route: Christchurch, Kiapoi, Culverden, Lewis Pass, Springs Jtn, Murchison, St Arnaud, Wakefield, Nelson.

 

It had been several years since I had last taken part in a Christchurch-Nelson cycle event. I had completed 3 solo rides, the last in 2005 and thought it was time to tackle the ride again. Time seems to dull the memory of the pain…

It is organised by Tim Vincent of Tineli bikewear. He is the son of Les Vincent who started the event years ago. Every alternate year, it changes direction so next year it will be Nelson-Christchurch.

“Le petite grimpeur” was the name for last Saturday’s club race. With start at Aokautere School A and B grade had to go over the Pahiatua track, do a loop at the other side come back over the track and finish up Polson Hill drive. The C grade did a bit shorter course. They went over the track turned at the bottom of it to hit for the finish at Polson Hill Drive. Not sure what was petite about this course it must have been the distance? C grade was won by Stuart Doidge in 56 min and 31 sec more than 2 minutes clear from number 2 Blair Webster. First woman was Elizabeth Stannard in 1 hour 2 min 06 sec.