Friday Navestock 10m TT - GTR Trials

STOP PRESS!
CCH Sec. Keir Apperley clocks CCH's first win in Navestock 11.04.08
STOP PRESS!
Grass track trials on Well Street Common Thursday 1st May - 6.30pm
STOP PRESS!
Haalim Bouderghouma, a former three time junior *Algerian national champion, has joined CCH's coaching staff.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

Last Friday 25th April Haalim & I guided young Freya and her friend Louis over to Navestock in Essex for the Beacontree/TEE evening 10m TT . Haalim elected not to compete but Freya, Louis & myself had a go with the youngsters doing an unofficial lap of five miles. They recorded respectable times and I was reasonably happy with my effort. The ride back to town added to the overall distance to make it a nifty fifty mile round trip. The conditions were not so great with a strong breeze and a cool temperature making it hard to focus and really push on.
Before my start I got my foot stuck, lost balance, toppled and got to know the tarmac on a level - it happens hehe.
Credit again to the yoots dem who made light of it and stored up some good mileage and experience for rides and competitions to come.
One lap: Freya = 16m04s Louis (riding a single speed) 18m34s
Two laps Keir 26m39s (sixth place)
All the Navestock 10mTT results can be found in this website: http://www.harragan.freeserve.co.uk/

Thanks Keir

*more later...

CCH Club run 20.04.08

No question now it's spring! Warm and bright vivid and light with all the hedge rows dressing up in the latest greenery and the wildest flowers.

Compared to the numbers riding last week a small group set out today, Chris and his daughter joined Dave and I for a trip to Blackmore. On the way we made an inspection of the time trial course at Navestock Heath ahead of our young riders 1st race there this coming Friday 25th April.
Freya was on a classic Eddy Merckx bike (similar to my own) circa 1989, kindly loaned to her by Therese Kilpatrick - nice one Trez!
I believe Eddy would've been impressed by Freya's ride today, casually covering fifty miles without any recent distance practice, surely a talent for the future.
Before reaching Blackmore we managed to get lost in the Kelvedon Hatch triangle, going in circles and asking for directions, a local cyclist put us on the right track but Dave sneaked off down Snake Hill for a solo ride.
After finishing our short tea & cake stop at Blackmore we started our return to London via Ongar, Toot Hill and Theydon Bois. Riding past Greenstead's ancient church, a flush hand of a fox, a sparrow hawk, and a pheasant was shown...thank you Essex.
I left Chris and Freya on the Epping road to continue home, and finished my time out by turning right and making a wider training loop around Matching Green and the Lavers.

Cheers

Keir

CCH 1st Ronde Chelmsford 13th April 2008

We did it. It took various amounts of time for all to return from the day out adventure around Chelmsford town, no trains were required.
A good turn-out set off from the Ice Rink in bright sunshine at 9.30am and made steady progress through Toot Hill, Moreton, Leaden Roding before making a cultural stop at the historic village of Pleshey. After a moment of reflecting on English medieval history It was here that CCH's chair, Trevor Parsons appeared by magic seated on a chair like Bike-e cycle.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleshey_Castle

From here we continued on in warm weather to Little Waltham and around to Terling where clouds darkened and the temperature dropped. By the time we reached the road to Little Badow it was throwing down wet stuff powered by blustery winds - not the best conditions to face the climb of North Hill in. Why did I leave my rain jacket on my bed this morning i pondered as cold trickles ran down the inside of my shirt. It became a matter of urgency to get to the Cafe at Danbury and into the warmth. North Hill was flowing with water and we were all glad to get inside, unfortunately there was not enough room for us so four of the group sat at the tables out side. It was OK because April broke out with more sunshine to warm our backs. We were greeted here by Elli from Essex County Council who is keen to encourage London's cyclists to visit Essex. We had a fine break before heading out, neck scarfs in place for the return leg of the journey. From here it was pretty much a case of two groups behaving like hares and tortoises joining and re catching each other all the way back.
Trevor and Michael got detached from our herdsman Stuart to make up a flagging pair looking for directions - I called Trev during one of our puncture stops to check if they were ok...they were ok!
Well done to all who made the trip especially those who are not so practiced at long rides.
There will be other organised rides in the summer but until then the club runs will continue from the Lea Valley Ice Centre on Sundays meeting at 10am.

Cheers

Keir

CCH Ride 1 - Postponed

Due to the severe weather the CCH 1st Round Chelmsford is postponed until
next week 13.04.08
Meeting 9.00am at the Lea Valley Ice Centre. Departing 9.30am


KA

CCH Club run 30.03.08

CCH's 1st Round Chelmsford ride is on next Sunday and the day's main mission was to check that the course was in good working order. We were pleased to find that all 95m were clear to pass; no landslides, fallen trees, boulders or avalanches blocking the route, however it must have rained heavily the night before as there were quite a lot of fords and road rivers to navigate on the way.
A figure hugging figure skater came out of the Ice Centre to see of us off, she wished us "buon fortuna mon braves allez!" before going back to the ice to presumably twirl some more.
What a difference a week makes, the day's weather was changeable but fine.
CCH had a new rider today by the name of Ed on his new racing bike. He hadn't put any miles into his legs since November so it was a really fine showing to get all the way to Ingatestone before testing 'bale-out option two' by taking the train. It worked, although Ed reported that he had to ride to the next stop at Shenfield because of maintenance work. Well done Ed. A credit to John 'the bike' also who was the oldest of the group finishing the 95m np.
The passage to Danbury's 'Tea on The Green' cafe stop was eventful; Dave & John made a wrong turning at Mont Monge Tout (Toot Hill) and required telephone guidance to rejoin with Stu, Ed & Keir. On the other side of Pleshey Ed suffered a double puncture, John & Keir waited to help the repair then the trio formed a working group to chase after Dave & Stu - we found them eating snacks in Little Waltham. Dave won the sprint for Bobbingworth, Keir won at High Easter & Pleshey so takes the green jersey from Dave.
They say you know it when you get to Little Baddow by bike. North Hill is not a cake to eat, and you feel like your body's in a drama half way up and in a trauma by the top.

At Danbury's T' On the Green we dropped off the special 'items of wonder' to be collected by the riders doing the 1^st CCH Round Chelmsford next week.

Please check CCH web site for more details.

See you there!

KA