Thursday 31 May 2012

Hillingdon GP 27th May 2012


Crashingdon




11 riders from CCh went to the Hillingdon GP last Sunday.
It was an extremely hot day and the racing proved to be fast and furious.
We were well represented in all the categories . The 11 riders were Artie, Louis B, Frank, isaac, Bede , Mostyn, Ned , Justin , Andy , Tao and Keir across 4 different levels.

In the U12's race were Bede Isaac Frank Louis B and Artie. The race started at a fast pace and the main bunch stayed together for the first 15 mins then as the pace and the heat got to the riders 2 groups formed. In the front group were Bede and Isaac. The second group had louis and frank in and Artie was just a bit behind. The race finished in a bunch sprint and Bede finished 4th and Isaac 7th.... although the official results haven’t been posted yet.

In the Youth A-B race we had Mostyn and Ned. This race was very fast from the gun and our 2 riders jostled for position and kept their place in the main bunch for the whole race . Ned was lucky to avoid a crash on the downhill section on one of the last laps., Mostyn suffered a mechanical and had a lap out.. see photo's.

In the Cat 3-4 race were Justin and Andy. Again due to the fairly flat course the pace was very high averaging 43 kph . After lots of attempted break aways , 5 riders did manage to get a break going and they held it until the end . The following bunch which included Justin , Andy and Louis Modell (ELV) were heading for a sprint finish... with the large number of riders flying up the home straight resulted in a huge crash. Justin and Andy managed to avoid it by riding Cyclocross style on the grass verge.. unfortunately Louis wasn’t as lucky and got caught up in the crash... He escaped with minor road rash and torn skin suit...

We were all a bit shaken by the crash but still enjoyed a good days racing . Well done to all who took part... Andy

Tuesday 29 May 2012

Bike Around the Borough 2012

The massed ranks of young Hackney Cyclists - plus Trevor
Last Thursday over 300 young cyclists rode all round Hackney as part of the council organised Bike around the Borough. Now in its second year the event is growing bigger and was supported by CCH in the guise of Patrick - Mechanic, Harry M, Neil, Harry L, Oliver - all marshalls and Trevor - good looks. The following report is by CCH youth rider Frank Ramsay who rode with 22 other pupils from Gayhurst Community School.

Bike around the Borough was organised by the Learning Trust and Hackney Council to encourage people to get on their bikes and get out on the road. We set off at 10:00am to London Fields to start our ten mile cycle ride; Neil and Harry were there too. Everyone met up in London Fields - seventeen schools took part with around three hundred and twenty cyclists over all. We kicked off at London Fields, pedalled through Shoreditch Park and on to Stoke Newington, Clissold Park, Clapton, Millfields Park, picking up more schools at each stop, then on to  Hackney Marshes, Homerton, the Town Hall and finished up back at London Fields, a distance of around ten miles. Along the whole route we were accompanied by police out-riders, who were stopping the traffic and keeping us safe. I managed to get two punctures along the way but the combined efforts of the crack team of Harry and Neil soon had me back on the road, cycling furiously to catch up with the rest of the group. 



Tyler - head of sustainable travel from Hackney council attempting to muster the riders in Clissold Park
After lunch in London Fields we watched a performance of a world BMX champion perform his amazing stunts - he was even crazy enough to do a three sixty off the top of a van, 12 feet off the ground. WOW!! All in all it was a great day, but everyone was pretty tired by the end.

 – by Frank Ramsay
Frank - centre - with school mates about to set off on part three of the ride from Clissold Park
Great stuff Frank - although as Trevor pointed out on the day - "We are the traffic" - (cyclists) - can we nick that slogan if Hackney LCC don't use it?

Friday 25 May 2012

Rapha support CC Hackney

CC Hackney is pleased to announce that Rapha have put their casquette into the mix and are on the ride with CCH. Talking to club member and Rapha honcho; James Fairbank, he is really keen to help our existing and future riders develop into fully fledged cyclists, equipped to do well, on and off the bike. This includes outreaching into the community in search of new, hidden talent and opening up cycle sport for all...

...can you feel it? :)




Tuesday 22 May 2012

Racing Roundup

Isaac chases down the early break-away leader Theo whilst Bede and Logan look on in last Saturday's U12 race at Hoghill.



I've been a bit remiss with the race reports recently - mainly because there is so much racing going on. So here goes - on the international scene Tao has been busy in the UCI Junior Nations Cup in Croatia and the Czech republic where he finished 7th on stage 4. This was the same placing he achieved in the Mens Juniors National Road Race over in Wales - a very good result in his first year as a junior. More info on these and what Tao is up to can be found on his blog here.

Under 12s action at Herne Hill.

The Wednesday night Track league at Herne Hill Velodrome is finally up and running after many cancelations due to rain. CCH have been well represented in the Youth and senior races with Andy picking up a couple of wins last week, whilst Bede and Logan got a win each.

The view from the bridge over the Cyclopark circuit- note the BMX track top left.

Friday nights have been brightened up with a new addition to the race calendar. The new Cyclopark at Gravesend in Kent has been hosting the Spring at Cyclopark youth crit' series. This new venue officially opens next week and boasts a large road circuit with lots of loops and a long drag of a hill, a very gnarly looking BMX track, lots of MTB trails, a skatepark and a playpark- so something for all the family there. CCH youth riders have attended each of the 4 events so far with last friday producing a a 2nd and 3rd place for Logan and Isaac.

Molly leading the charge off the line in the U12s at Hoghill.

Last saturday saw the third round of the LVYCC summer series take place at Hoghill. CCH youth turned up in strength with 19 riders turning up ready to race.

Robbie, Stan and Alessandro line up for the U8s.
First up were the U8's with Stan, Robbie and first time racer Alessandro riding for CCH. Sensibly the youth races are now starting on the bottom circuit instead of following the commissaires car down the Hogberg. Stan placed 4th again - seems to be his favourite number - whilst Robbie was 11th. Unfortunately Alessandro had a crash but here's hoping he doesn't let it deter him from trying again as he was doing well.


Ewan and Kai in the U10s.
Next up were the 10's with Kai and Ewan finishing 5th and 6th and Harry 12th in a close fought race.

Frank leading round a group with Sam and Artie.
 The u12's race had nine CCH riders with the superiority of numbers showing in a one two finish for Logan and Isaac following their 2-3 finish from the night before. All the riders did very well with Molly getting 3rd place for the girls.


Ned and Mostyn were made to dig in and work hard in the U14 race whilst Alex had a great race in the U16s coming second - full results from Hoghill here. It was a great showing by the Youth team however I know with the numbers we have turning up for training on a saturday we could have nine riders in every race. So if you've not tried it yet get down there for the next race in the series.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

Support from Poster Local .com

CC Hackney are proud to say that Poster Local.com have recently become a supporter and will be helping us with our publicity needs. Poster Local.com are a part of Service Point who are a very reputable reprographic company with branches in London, Europe and America. The unit where our Poster Local.com is based is on City Road; Service Point City. We're looking forward to a happy and productive partnership going forward and would like to say thank you to Manager Roy Carthew for offering CC Hackney this service.  


Members of CC Hackney can claim a discount for work done by showing their membership card at Service Point City.

Friday 11 May 2012

The Herne Hill Revival event this Sunday 13th May.




Vintage racing and stuff is taking place at  the Herne Hill Revival event this Sunday 13th May.

As well as racing there will be a cycle jumble, beer tent and displays
of classic marques of bicycle.
The circuit will be open from 9.00am but other clubs will be using the
track in the morning. Please don't arrive too early as it annoys the
locals! There will be a lot of off-track happenings during the day
including a cycle jumble, displays by some of our marque enthusiasts,
trade stands and a beer tent.

Race programme:
Track opens at 12.00 noon for warm up sessions.

Please note that you MUST wear a hard-shell safety helmet if you are
riding on the track.

Racing will start at 12.30 with the following events:

Grand Old Ordinary One Mile Challenge (for original ordinaries only
– no replicas).

Tandems – Sprint and longer race

Roadster race - steel mudguards, upright handlebars, no derailleur
gears, 26 or 28 inch wheels etc. To be ridden in jacket & tie. Time
bonuses to be awarded for appropriate dress and imaginative
interpretation of dress code.]

Early pneumatic/Pre WW1 race

Devil take the hindmost (heats & final)

Sprint race for classic bicycles.

Open Frame race – for drop top-tube cycles (i.e. ladies cycles).
Race open to ladies and gents on this type of cycle.

Slow Bicycle race - A non speed event that any ability can participate
in. No fixies or trikes. Longer race for classic race bikes - 20 or 30
laps – steel frames only. (Definitely no carbon or other fancy
new-fangled materials!)

Solid tyre all comers race - high bicycles of any age, solid-tyred
safeties, etc

Children's race if enough present

All comers race – anything goes

Grand Parade at end of races.

We will need to be off the track at 4.00pm.

Entrance to the venue is free but there will be a one-off race entry fee
of £4 to cover the cost of insurance levies (at cost).
This will allow you to enter as many races as you wish. The races are
organised by the VHC&RC.

Please note parking within Herne Hill is limited to those who are
competing in the races, displaying machines or who have a jumble stall.
We hope to have additional parking available at a nearby school and also
that some people will be able to cycle or use public transport.

More information on the event can be found at:
http://hernehillrevival.com/ <http://hernehillrevival.com/> which will
be updated as more details become available

Tuesday 8 May 2012

5th Round Chelmsford - a grand day out

The starters of the 5th Round Chelmsford

 Some CCH Youth riders line up eager to get on with the ride behind Neil, Harry and Keir.
Well done to the 40 plus riders who brave the chilly wet weather to take part on Sunday in CCH's 5th Round Chelmsford ride . This years ride was a  memorial to CCH member Claire Tansley who died earlier this year after a long battle with cancer  - her husband Harry led the 40+ peloton out from the Lea Valley ice rink up to High Beech where the size of the group drew admiring responses from other clubs riders.


Is that left or right onto the Lea Bridge Road?


 At that point we split into three groups a fast group that whizzed off quickly to Chelmsford, a medium paced group following them up and a larger group including many CCH youth riders that did a shorter loop - around 65 miles up to the Hatfield area and back. This was due to the usual bank holiday train engineering works meaning the bailout at Bicknacre was not on. Harry was persuaded  to ride the whole thing despite having not done much riding recently and only really seemed to be suffering when the rain got heavier whilst he digested the large lunch we had at the White Swan. We had hoped to meet up with the faster group there but a misleading R instead of the correct L on the route sheet added an extra ten miles - and after much scratching of the head wondering where it had all gone wrong - this meant we just missed them. Well done to Patrick for beating us up North Hill - perhaps it was all part of a cunning plan... We were joined there by Gary who without his usual alarm call started off at ten and came the direct route to catch us. 




Harry- left -   looking cheerful to be back on the Lea Bridge road.


The rain came on a bit heavier after lunch - no doubt us riders were a bit heavier too - but after a stop for some Eccles cakes - good call Gary - we sped on in back to London enjoying the ever so tasteful Manor Road at Chigwell Row.

Well done to all for turning out and supporting this - remember this year and we would like all  particpants and club members/ friends to donate to the charity fighting Hodgkins Lymphona on the just giving page set up in Claire's memory at www.justgiving.com/Claire-Tansley-Memorial-Page any amount would be appreciated. 


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