News Archive - 2009

2009 Annual Dinner.
The annual Dinner and prize presentation took place at the Belton Golf Club on November 28 and was attended by many members, friends and relations. Guest of Honour was Colin Clews, international commissaire (bike race referee) and organiser of one of the top one day international bike races in the UK the East Midlands CICLE classic. After the meal Colin gave an amusing talk on life as a commissaire covering cycle races in countries as diverse as France and Rwanda. Prizes were then presented to all the club Trophy winners over the 2009 season.

Front Row, left to right Eleanor Crawford, Ashley Money, Peter Cocker and Peter Barnes.
Back Row Left to Right Chris Crawford, Karen Crawford, Simon Cocker, Colin Clews, Neil Sentance, Dave Strickson and Mike Lewis.
Large photo» Full list of Prize Winners»

Cyclo-Cross Lincs League Results
15/11/09 VC Lincoln at Bardney Abbey
The weather gods smiled on this round of the Lincs League with the gales and torrential ran giving way to a bright sunny day. The course was literally around the historic site of Bardney Abbey on a  tricky field based course, still bumpy despite the recent heavy rain and use of an overnight roller.
Under 12 -  Eleanor again rode well to take 10th place behind winner Matt Ellis of Spalding.
Under 16 - Peter Cocker took a steady 4th place, after again experiencing some course and bike issues on the first lap, with George Thompson from Sleaford winning for the second week in sucession.
Seniors - Aother big field despite the national trophy event at Mallory Park, saw a reasonable start by the only club representative this week, Simon Cocker but he faded a bit over the second half to lose several places finishing 45th, despite strong vocal support from Alan, Janet and the 2 Daves (Stricko and Hurd) Photo Album»

8/11 Boston Wheelers at Ostlers Plantation - Woodhall Spa
The rain stayed clear of what was probably the most technical course so far this season, in the woods near Woodhall Spa.
Under 12 - Eleanor Crawford continued consistent riding this season with 9th place, despite not feeling too well, with Elliott Dudley from Sherwood Pines the winner
Under 16 - Peter Cocker lost ground on the first lap to the leading riders and never recovered, riding steadily for 7th overall. A close race for the lead saw Jordan Gell and Ben Green tangle on the last lap leaving the way for George Thompson of Sleaford to take a clear win
Senior Event - A big field of 75 riders took to the start line but it was race to forget for the clubs senior riders. Jacob Storeys race ended on the second lap after a few knocks through the tricky wooded section left him unable to continue. Simon Cocker made it to the penultimate lap when a rear tyre blew out, taking him out of the race. An earlier crash on the warm up lap had already cooled any initial enthusiasm. Chris Crawford made it to the finish line for 64th place. Winner again was Graham Briggs (Candi TV) after a race long tussle with Mark Cotton. Photo Album»

1/11 - Yello Velo - Louth
The promised torrential rain arrived to give the first real mud of the Cyclo-Cross season at Hubbards Hills. Continuous rain made conditions very wet for the U16s in the first race, this eased of for the Under 12s and stopped for the senior race but left conditions very tiring and slippery with traction at a premium on some of the short grassy climbs.
Under 12s - Matthew Ellis from Spalding won again with no club riders taking part.
Youth (U16) - Ben Green of Lincoln returned to winning ways in a close race from George Thompson with Peter Cocker in 5th and Ashley Money riding his first Cyclo-Cross in 9th place a good performance on a heavy mountain bike.
Senior - An exciting race with Graeme Briggs- Candi TV just overhauling Mark Cotton -Byka sport on the finish line after loosing time early on with a crash. Simon Cocker took 36th place.

25/10 - Hosted by Witham Wheelers at Stroxton
On the grass land based course at Stroxton, club members had done another good job laying out an interesting course under Gordons instruction. Saturdays rain cleared away to leave a dry day but the windy conditions still made the going hard for all.
Under 12 - Eleanor Crawford continued her consistent performances for the season with 7th place behind the winner Matthew Ellis of Spalding (6 laps in 10.43)
Youth (U16)- Peter Cocker took a fine 3rd place behind winner George Thompson (7 laps in 27.31) of Sleaford.
Senior - A clear win by professional rider Graeme Briggs (9 laps in 48.59) riding for Candi-TV with Chris Crawford the only club rider taking part in 44th place at 3 laps.
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11th Oct Hill Climb - Harby Hill
Using Harby Hill for the club championship Phil Etches took victory by the smallest of margins from Paul Coneely with Peter Barnes not far behind to take first Junior with an improved ride. Jim Coleman was fastest on the day although not eligible for the championship as he is now riding first claim for Cherry Valley racing team. Father and son Clive and Karl Baillie also produced very respectable times after taking up cycling only earlier this year.
Jim Coleman 2.47
Phil Etches 3.18
Paul Conneely 3.19
Peter Barnes 3.26
Chris Carter 3.32
Tony Mendham 4.05
Phil Atherton 4.08
Martin Hedley 4.13
Clive Baillie 4.28
Karl Baillie 4.33
Terry Crosby 5.06
Dave Beckett 5.19

11th Oct Spalding Cyclo- Cross - Bourne Woods
The latest round of the Lincolshire league took place on a fast course again in unseasonably dry conditions at Bourne Woods.
Under 12 Eleanor Crawford rode well for 13th place from a big field of 38 riders
Under 16 Peter Cocker took a good 4th with Ben Green from Lincoln winning again.
Senior Jacob Storey won the Witham Wheelers battle for 34th with Simon Cocker back in 40th, the winner Steve Halsall of VC Moulin.

18th Oct Alford Wheelers Cyclo-Cross - South Ormsby
A bumpy grassland course with a steep run up and tricky chicanes through trees gave an interesting course in the 4th round of the Lincs League.
Under 12 Eleanor Crawford 6th overall and first girl
Under 16 Ben Green from Lincoln won again in a sprint finish from Jordan Gell also Lincoln. Peter Cocker failed to finish after a crash bent his front wheel and wrist when riding well in contention for 4th place
Senior Mark Cotton from Lincoln was the runaway winner by over 2.30. Best Witham Wheeler Simon Cocker 34th with Chris Crawford 55th.
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More success for Witham Wheelers riders in the 2009 Velo 99 handicap Road Race series with Phil Etches winning the series for the 3rd time overall since 1998 and winning group 6 for the sixth time over the same period.
In his first year in the series Phil Atherton won Group 4 and took second overall with Ross Tomblin runner up in Group 4, also in his first year of racing.

The full results of the Velo 99 for 2009 are as follows;

Overall winner and group 6 winner Phil Etches with 453 points
Second overall and group 4 winner Phil Atherton with 437 points
Ross Tomblin 423 points
Tony Mendham 388 points
Ian Makevit 293 points
Dave Herd 288 points
Chris Samler 74 points ( 2 events )
Nigel Podam 18 points ( 1 event )
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26/9/09 Lincoln Junior Triathlon
Several young members were part of the 200 young competitors who took part in the first Lincoln Junior Triathlon based at the Yarborough centre as part of the East Midland series.
In the Tristar 3 category over 250m swim, 4km bike and 2 km run, Peter Cocker after holding a good lead at the end of the bike was overhauled on the run to finish in 2nd for the second consecutive event in the series, while Ashley Money taking part in his first Triathalon took a measured approach for a comfortable 8th position.
In the younger Tristar 1 age group Sam and Joe Letchworth also having a go at their first Triathlon and finished a creditable 15th and 22nd.

27/09 RAF CC Cyclo-Cross - Cranwell
The second round held of the Lincs league held again in fine dry conditions on an interesting course at RAF Cranwell.
Youth - Peter Cocker 6th behind Ben Green winning for the second week in a row.
U12 - Eleanor Crawford 8th overall an first girl.
Senior - Comfortable win by semi-professional rider Graham Briggs of Candi-TV. Further down the field Simon Cocker took the club honours in 40th one place in front of Jacob Storey who had an exciting first lap with 2 crashes removing quite a bit of skin and Chris Crawford in 55th. Thanks to Peter Storey for the video below.
Next event is at Bourne Woods 11th October

20/9/09 Sleaford Wheelers Cyclo-Cross Barkston
Several Wobblies took to the start line of a cyclo-cross for the first time in the opening round of the Lincolnshire league, in unseasonably warm conditions on a tricky grass land based course at Chandlers in Barkston.
Under 12 race over 10 minutes Eleanor Crawford rode well to finish 10th with Matt Ellis of Spalding the winner.
Under 16 race over 30 minutes Peter Cocker took 5th place with Ben Green of Sports City the winner.
Senior event over 60 minutes. saw Jimmy Coleman, Jacob Storey, Chris Crawford and Simon Cocker all taking up starting positions near the rear of the 63 starters. With the hard dry conditions the pace was fast from the start and all 3 rode steadily to finish Simon 39th, Jacob 48th and Chris in 55th and the winner Leigh Fearn of Matlock. Jim retired finding the hot and dusty conditions not to his liking.
Next round Sunday 27th Sept the RAF CC promote at Cranwell.
Photos can be seen at www.lincsracephotos.co.uk

Southwell Triathlon
In the last local event of the season Matt Pennifold took part in his first event of the season recording an excellent 51st place overall out of 468 finishers, with a time of 1:01:08 with the winner Andy Tarry in a very rapid 46:35 for the 400m swim, 19.3km bike and 5km run.

LVRC Roadrace St Ives.
Phil Etches won his 4th LVRC race of the season at St Ives in a two man breakaway with John Elliott of Alford Wheelers. Phil even had enough time at the finish to straighten his jersey and do a two armed salute as per the Tour.
Phil Atherton rode his first LVRC event and managed to stick in the bunch until the last lap when the pace picked up with several attacks. Paul Conneely finished in the A and Bs bunch after the winning break went on the first lap and was never seen again.
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12/9/09 GHS 10 Final
Peter Cocker took part in the National Schoolboy 10 mile Time Trial championship at Alcester Warwickshire, competing against boys up to 2½ years older, having qualified as fastest 14 year old in the Lincolnshire heat.

On a rolling course in warm but breezy conditions Peter recorded 26.02 to finish in a creditable 71st overall out of 130 finishers and 14th in the 14 year age group. Fastest on the day was Ryan Mullen Rhos on Sea CC in 21.37.
Picture shows the starting effort.

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29/8/09 Lincs RRA 10 mile
Several Witham Wheelers took part in the Lincs Championship 10 mile championship with Bill Harrison the quickest in 25.31 for 38th place, Neil Sentance 45th in 26.17, Kim Paxton 63rd in 29.00 and Mike Lewis 75th in 30.59. The winner was Julian Ramsbottom in 20.33

5/9/09 Spalding Grass Track
Peter Barnes debuted on a borrowed fixed gear bike adapted for grass racing and went up against some tough competition on Saturday. The event consisted of many events and first up was the 800m sprint heats. First through went to the final and the rest went to the repechage. Peter was in a heat that included Max Pendleton (Mildenhall CC), who later leant him a set of toe straps. Peter came 4th of the 4 riders and had to go to the repechage, which put him against Adam Ellis (Spalding CC) and a man named Simon (Welwyn Garden City CC). Peter kept with the pace in the opening two laps but thought victory was inevitable so let the other two contest it. Due to losing in the repechage heat, Peter went into the unknown distance race with the five other riders who failed to make it through. He started poorly but finished well to record a 4th place.
As the day went on, Peter slowly got more used to the fixer gear and how to go fast on the unbanked grass track, the devil takes the hindmost race resulted in a poor showing as he was unable to get his feet in the pedals in time to be anywhere near the next worst placed rider and went out at the first elimination. This was a minor blip in the progress as the next round was the 800m handicap, due to previous failings Peter got a nice handicap and came through his heat in third. The final, however, did not go as well, a slow start saw Ken Rosenor (Kings Lynn CC) get away from him from the same handicap and Adam Ellis and Will Hare (Spalding CC) breezed past placing him in 4th with the top three getting prize money. If the race had have been 850m Peter would have got 3rd as Ken was tying up drastically in the final metres.
These races all built up to the finale, the 8km scratch. This was touted as the hardest race by many of the competitors as any semblance of a mass peloton is broken up into a few riders in small groups dotted around the 250m track. The slow start meant Peter could get into his rhythm and get to a decent speed in enough time to stay with the race, unfortunately three riders had managed to get a gap which he missed and he had to do a kilometre on his own to shut the gap down. He got a brief respite with this group, but the Welwyn rider decided to accelerate and unable to match it Peter had to resort to riding tempo to slowly draw the riders back in. This worked and another rider also bridged the gap and the lead group became 5. The lead five managed to lap all the other riders at least once so the winner would come out of this group. Sadly, a gap opened up with Peter behind two lapped riders and this proved to be one effort too many, so he just stuck to the back of the lapped riders who were 6th, 7th and 8th providing him with an easy way to secure a hard fought 5th place and had that mistake of sitting at the back even with lapped riders not been made, he could have maybe been up with the podium riders.

8km Scratch:
1st – Welwyn CC Rider (won every event bar the handicap)
2nd – Alex Avery (Spalding CC)
3rd – Max Pendleton (Mildenhall)
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5/9/09 Vitruvian Triathlon at Rutland Water
In one of the biggest events on the UK triathlon calendar, Stefan Lawrence put in an excellent performance for 28th overall in a time of 4:25:17 for the 1900m swim, 52 mile bike and half marathon.
Peter Pain took 4:57:55 for 184th overall and 4th in the over 50 age group, despite feeling the effects of a long season.
Race winner was Joel Jameson in 3:56:54 with a total of 785 finishers.
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4/10/09 - Viking Challenge
Yes its time for the annual mud fest, last years being the wettest yet, giving a certain masochistic sense of pleasure to all those who completed, report and pictures.
We usually get quite a few members taking part, with some racing around and others just going for the cakes, which are well worth it.
Full details can be found at this web site and practice runs will probably be organised by the serious ones, see forum for details. Also, http://www.vikingchallenge.org.uk/

6/9/09 Velo 99 - Thoroton With groups 5 and 6 being awarded stiff handicaps on a flat course, it was always likely that the large group 4 were going to prevail on the day and all seemed to be going to plan until the final sprint for home. Phil Etches, marshalling on the day, was looking for the other groups to stay away from group 6 to hand him the overall winners jersey for 2009 and, with this in mind, Tony Mendham, Ross Tomblin, Ian Makevit and Phil Atherton set about the task and figured prominently in keeping the group working hard, so much so that group 5 did not close any time on their handicap.

By lap 3 of the 6 lap race they had caught groups 2 and 3 and were bearing down on the race leaders, who were all caught by the bell. With half a lap to go a lone rider made a break into a headwind, but was gradually caught by the bunch. Round the final bend and into the long straight for the finish, group 4 were guilty of keeping too close an eye on each other that they missed an audacious kick by Pete Dunn from group 3 with 200 yards to go and they never looked like closing it. John Flear, 75 years old and still going strong, managed to grab 2nd and win group 4 in a tight finish with Ross Tomblin in 3rd place overall and Phil Atherton in 4th.

Tony Mendham and Maka both finished in high positions in the sprint to round off a good season for the Wobblies. Phil Etches won group 6 and finished in 1st place overall and Phil Atherton won group 4 and, not far behind, Ross Tomblin bagged himself 2nd place in group 4. Phil and Ross will now start the next season in group 5.
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23/8/09 Velo 99 - North Kelsey
News item to be restored soon.
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30/8/09 Sunday Clubrun to the Leicester Sky-Ride
News item to be restored soon.
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14/8/09 10 Mile Handicap TT series With 1 week to go, latest standings.
12/8 Lincs League & Prize Presentation
In the final round of the Lincolnshire Road Race League at Withern nr Alford Neil Sentence just missed out on the win by a tyres width in the big bunch sprint with Phil and Paul not far behind.
Neil Sentence 2nd overall
Phil Etches 5th overall
Paul Conneely 8th overall
Handicap Group prizes were also awarded down to 5th place.
Neil 2nd in group 4
Phil 2nd in group 3
Pete Barnes 3rd in group 2
Tony Mendham 4th in group 2

After the event prizes were presented for the overall 2009 League position with Neil Sentence presented with the Lincs League winners cup and Phil Etches the Nev Crane Memorial Cup by Nevs grandson Ben Foster for the best over 50 rider.

Overall standings for the year are attached

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9/8/09 Velo 99 Road Race - Widmerpool.
All of the Wobblies taking part rode with particular distinction, none more so than Nigel Podam who, in his first velo race, was thrust into the powerful group 6 and worked well in helping them overcome a 5 minute handicap to claw back the other groups well before the bell.

One lone breakaway rider from group 1 thwarted what would have been a good victory for Phil Etches, but Phil did win the mass sprint for the line to win group 6 and take second place overall.

Dave Herd rode strongly towing group 5 around and Ross Tomblin, Ian Makevit, Tony Mendham and Phil Atherton all did their bit in group 4 before being caught by the faster groups. Phil Atherton managed to win group 4 and took 7th place overall with Ross Tomblin taking 2nd in group 4 and 8th place overall. Nigel Podam took 9th place overall and Tony, Maka and Dave Herd were well up in the bunch.

The photo show's Phil Etches and Phil Atherton with their bottles of Old Pulteney Scotch Whisky which was presented to each of the group winners by group 5 rider Eddie Moran, the regional sales executive for the famous distiller.

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Second successive Overall Victory in 2009 Lincs League!
The Witham Wheelers have stunned the Lincolnshire cycling world by claiming overall victory in the Lincs League series for the second successive year.
Building on last years success of Jimmy Coleman this years top spot was claimed by Neil Sentance, whose consistent high scoring throughout the season enabled him to edge out Jimmy Coleman by just 2 points. To complete a clean sweep of the trophies, Phil Etches, who finished in 9th place overall, bagged 1st place in the over 50's competition.
Main results of interest as follows:-
1st Neil Sentance 65 points WWCC
2nd Jimmy Coleman 63 point (second claim WWCC)
3rd Joe Moore 60 points (Lindsey Roads CC)
9th Phil Etches 36 points WWCC (over 50s cup winner)
20th Paul Conneely 18 points WWCC
46th Ant Conneely 7 points WWCC
67th Tony Mendham 1 point WWCC
Phil Etches and Paul Conneely were both well in contention in the early part of the season but were eventually hampered by missing key races and Paul suffering a puncture in our own race when well placed.
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2/8/09 LVRC Velo Club Notts event at Flintham.
Iin the 60+ age group, having helped to make the break with John Elliott six riders made the decisive move with 3 laps to go. With six riders contesting the sprint on the home straight into a strong front to side wind, good positioning was vital. Phil Etches started the sprint early from two riders back and then hugged the left side of the road to make the other riders take the windward side which gave him the win by a wheel, his 3rd victory of the season.
In the 40+ age group 60 mile event Paul Conneely was active throughout joining Simon Day when he attacked on lap 2 and were quickly joined by three other group B riders. However with 2 laps to go a determined bunch caught this break and Paul was unable to go with further breaks and did well to finish with the bunch.
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20/9/09 Bourne Wheelers 3 Castles Sportive (well 2 and a very big house!!) 110k or 70k ride.
A 110k or 70k ride on Sunday 20th September start 9am. A 110k ride mainly through country lanes starting at Edenham taking in 3 castles and 5 categorised climbs With the option of a shortcut version of 70k- but you miss out the best bits and only get 2 castles and 2 climbs!!! We are running the event to raise funds to get another qualified British Cycling coach for our Go Ride youth scheme, so this year I’m afraid we would like some of your money.
What will you get for your cash?? A fully signed route with back up map and route details-sports drinks from Be Well - facilities at start and finish of Edenham village hall and refreshments available (for a small charge). You wont get a naff T-shirt and we ask you to put a mobile in your back pocket to “phone a friend” if you get into trouble. There aren’t any feed stations as most of you don’t stop!!, but there are plenty of shops on the 110k route if you want extra drinks/snacks and even places to get Sunday lunch!! For £7 we still think it’s a bargain The event is limited to the first 100 entries.
Go to www.bournewheelers.co.uk to download an entry form and check routes
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Heckington Show, 25 July 2009
An inter-club challenge between local Go-Ride clubs. Witham Wheelers, Sleaford Wheelers and Spalding CC took up the challenge of finding 6 under 16 riders ready to race on the day.

Report» Photos»

19/7/09 LVRC Tour of the Wolds at Great Limber
Phil Etches just managed to scrape 3rd place by winning the bunch sprint. Two riders went clear on the third lap and were never brought back, despite Phil trying to bridge across on the fourth lap, but being reeled in by the bunch. The very wet weather with a strong wind did not help the chase and that's my excuse.
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12/7/09 The Nev Crane Memorial Race at Sleaford Wheelers - 25m Time Trial
The Nev Crane Memorial Race was won by Wayne Randle in a rapid 52.41, beating the old course record by nearly one minute. Witham Wheelers times were:
D.Strickson 1.1.55
P.Pain 1.6.00
C.Crawford 1.10.58
K.Paxton 1.11.27
N.Sentance 1.5.19
M.Hedley 1.9.13
Jim Coleman recorded 56.20 leading Cherry Valley team mates I.Dalton and A.Tuplin to the team prize

• Velo 99
Whitham Wheelers were represented by Phil Etches and Rich Ellingworth in group 6 and Dave Herd in 5 and Tony Mendham in 4. With Phil Atherton, Ian Makevit and Ross Tomblin taking their turn to help with marshalling.
After struggling in previous races with a big handicaps at last group 6 had a decent handicap of 4min 30sec to group 5 which they caught after four very hard 5 mile laps of chasing in a 6 lap race. Having caught all groups with a lap to go the attacking started with Rob Blackburn kicking over the top of the hill only to be joined by Phil E and two other riders. Chris Whitlam attacked next which took the four riders clear of the chasing peloton with only the final positions to be sorted out on the hill finish.
Rob had the strongest sprint with Chris a bike length behind and Phil E a close 3rd for a very good result in the overall standings. Rich E hung on gallantly to group 6 until the fun and games started which is no mean feat considering his long lay off from competitive riding. Tony and Dave felt the heat of the race but hung on manfully to finish in the strung out peloton.
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Club Road Race - update
Quick update on the entries so far, the 3 /4 event is over 60 riders so with a maximum of 80 don't rely on entering on the line. The E /1 /2/ 3/ 4 is now over 40 again with maximum of 80, so more entries required. Contact Jeff ASAP if you want to get a ride

Katie Colclough
Congratulations to local rider Katie on her 2nd place in the European Under 23 road race chamionship, more details can be seen here http://new.britishcycling.org.uk

Heckington Show Saturday 25th July
The club is putting an U-16 team into the Heckington show Grass Track event in a head to head with with Sleaford and Spalding. Events will include Pursuit, Sprints, Team Sprint and Scratch Races There will also be Senior racing and many other events in this show. Should be a good day out and chance to support the younsters in the club. Details can be seen at: www.heckingtonshow.org.uk

Triathlon Update - Northampton, Bournemouth
Peter Pain Raced at Northampton Tri 28th June. At last I managed to win my age group and came 45th overall in a time of 2hrs 13min 45sec. Reasonable swim in a time of 26min 42sec and that was with a pause as I started to hyperventilate having gone off to fast!!
Paul Letchworth has just got back from the Bournemouth International Triathlon - which is 1500m sea swim, 40k cycle and 10.525k run. "The swim was great - really big waves just off Bournemouth pier! I did a great bike 1h10m and then the run was ok - finished with a time of 2h34m in 110th position. Blimey my legs hurt!"

Grantham Sprint Triathlon - rescheduled.
After being cancelled in June this event is now rescheduled for Sunday August 30th. The sprint is 400m Swim, 22K Bike and 5k Run and the Tri it Tri is half the Sprint distances. The venue, the Grantham Meres Leisure Complex has up to date facilities with free parking, registration, transition and finish all within 100 yards of each other. Use the web address below for entry form and details. www.granthamtri.co.uk

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7/7/09 Alford Wheelers 10 mile Schoolboy Time Trial - Peter Cocker 8th
Witham Wheelers entered a team into the Linclonshire heat of the 10 Mile Time Trial National Schoolboys Championship held in conjunction with the Alford Wheelers open 10. The young team did exceptionally well in the first event they have entered of this kind. Jake Storey came 3rd overall in a time of 24.24 with the rest of the team placing well enough to win the team title. Other team times: Peter Barnes 28.02, Toby Kiely 30.21 and Peter Cocker 31.08.
This has qualified the team for the National Schoolboy Championship to be held in Hertfordshire on 14th September.
In the Open event Simon Cocker recorded 26.30
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London to Paris cycle event 30th June to 4th July 2010 in aid of Kidney Research UK.
News from member Peter Storey that his charity (he is Director of Marketing) Kidney Research UK, has launched its own bespoke London to Paris cycle event taking place 30th June to 4th July 2010. Recruitment is now open and we have partnered up with Cycling Weekly to promote the event. The charity features on the home page and sponsors the live feed of the Tour coverage, in return for promotion of the London to Paris event and a click through direct to register on our site. Please see www.cyclingweekly.co.uk.
"I’m quite proud of this partnership, especially as I have combined my interest in cycling with a charity promotion of this size! Wobblies members might be interested in the event. I have also approached Alan to see if we can get permission to use a couple of his photographs of Wobblies in action. We are hoping to use them to freshen the imagery on the advertisements. If Alan agrees, then we may see the Witham Wheelers brand and members featured on the home page of Cycling Weekly."
Peter
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20/6/09 Melton Olympic 25
Promoted on the rapid A1 course to the North of Newark, Jim Coleman was just pipped for 1st place by Gary Beezer RAF CC recording a personal best 53:54 compared to the winners 53:54. Dave Strickson also just broke the hour in 59.50 for 34th place overall.
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23/8/09 Anna's Hope Cycle Challenge - Rutland Water
Second annual Anna's Hope Charity Cycle Challenge around Rutland Water.
"Since you took part in the event last year, the charity has started to make a real difference for children and young people diagnosed with a brain tumour. With the appointment of the first Anna's Hope Nurse. Many children diagnosed with this leading cancer killer of children and young people need additional specialist rehabilitation help so we still have more work to do. If you wish to help us again this year I have attached a leaflet which includes an application form. If you have any friends who you think may be interested in this event I would be grateful if you would forward this e-mail and attachment to them. As I did last year, I will donate £1000 to Anna's Hope if the cumulative miles cycled exceed 2500."
Rob Hughes (Anna's Dad) Anna's Hope Cycle Challenge.pdf

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Cyclo-Cross Lincs League Results

15/11 VC Lincoln at Bardney Abbey
The Weather gods smiled on this round of the Lincs League with the gales and torrential ran giving way to a bright sunny day. The course was literally around the historic site of Bardney Abbey on a  tricky field based course, still bumpy despite the recent heavy rain and use of an overnight roller.
Under 12 -  Eleanor again rode well to take 10th place behind winner Matt Ellis of Spalding.
Under 16 - Peter Cocker took a steady 4th place, after again experiencing some course and bike issues on the first lap, with George Thompson from Sleaford winning for the second week in sucession.
Seniors - Aother big field despite the national trophy event at Mallory Park, saw a reasonable start by the only club representative this week, Simon Cocker but he faded a bit over the second half to lose several places finishing 45th, despite strong vocal support from Alan, Janet and the 2 Daves (Stricko and Hurd) Photo Album»

8/11 Boston Wheelers at Ostlers Plantation - Woodhall Spa
The rain stayed clear of what was probably the most technical course so far this season, in the woods near Woodhall Spa.
Under 12 - Eleanor Crawford continued consistent riding this season with 9th place, despite not feeling too well, with Elliott Dudley from Sherwood Pines the winner
Under 16 - Peter Cocker lost ground on the first lap to the leading riders and never recovered, riding steadily for 7th overall. A close race for the lead saw Jordan Gell and Ben Green tangle on the last lap leaving the way for George Thompson of Sleaford to take a clear win
Senior Event - A big field of 75 riders took to the start line but it was race to forget for the clubs senior riders. Jacob Storeys race ended on the second lap after a few knocks through the tricky wooded section left him unable to continue. Simon Cocker made it to the penultimate lap when a rear tyre blew out, taking him out of the race. An earlier crash on the warm up lap had already cooled any initial enthusiasm. Chris Crawford made it to the finish line for 64th place. Winner again was Graham Briggs (Candi TV) after a race long tussle with Mark Cotton. Photo Album»

1/11 - Yello Velo - Louth
The promised torrential rain arrived to give the first real mud of the Cyclo-Cross season at Hubbards Hills. Continuous rain made conditions very wet for the U16s in the first race, this eased of for the Under 12s and stopped for the senior race but left conditions very tiring and slippery with traction at a premium on some of the short grassy climbs.
Under 12s - Matthew Ellis from Spalding won again with no club riders taking part.
Youth (U16) - Ben Green of Lincoln returned to winning ways in a close race from George Thompson with Peter Cocker in 5th and Ashley Money riding his first Cyclo-Cross in 9th place a good performance on a heavy mountain bike.
Senior - An exciting race with Graeme Briggs- Candi TV just overhauling Mark Cotton -Byka sport on the finish line after loosing time early on with a crash. Simon Cocker took 36th place.

25/10 - Hosted by Witham Wheelers at Stroxton
On the grass land based course at Stroxton, club members had done another good job laying out an interesting course under Gordons instruction. Saturdays rain cleared away to leave a dry day but the windy conditions still made the going hard for all.
Under 12 - Eleanor Crawford continued her consistent performances for the season with 7th place behind the winner Matthew Ellis of Spalding (6 laps in 10.43)
Youth (U16)- Peter Cocker took a fine 3rd place behind winner George Thompson (7 laps in 27.31) of Sleaford.
Senior - A clear win by professional rider Graeme Briggs (9 laps in 48.59) riding for Candi-TV with Chris Crawford the only club rider taking part in 44th place at 3 laps.
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11th Oct Hill Climb - Harby Hill
Using Harby Hill for the club championship Phil Etches took victory by the smallest of margins from Paul Coneely with Peter Barnes not far behind to take first Junior with an improved ride. Jim Coleman was fastest on the day although not eligible for the championship as he is now riding first claim for Cherry Valley racing team. Father and son Clive and Karl Baillie also produced very respectable times after taking up cycling only earlier this year.
Jim Coleman 2.47
Phil Etches 3.18
Paul Conneely 3.19
Peter Barnes 3.26
Chris Carter 3.32
Tony Mendham 4.05
Phil Atherton 4.08
Martin Hedley 4.13
Clive Baillie 4.28
Karl Baillie 4.33
Terry Crosby 5.06
Dave Beckett 5.19

11th Oct Spalding Cyclo- Cross - Bourne Woods
The latest round of the Lincolshire league took place on a fast course again in unseasonably dry conditions at Bourne Woods.
Under 12 Eleanor Crawford rode well for 13th place from a big field of 38 riders
Under 16 Peter Cocker took a good 4th with Ben Green from Lincoln winning again.
Senior Jacob Storey won the Witham Wheelers battle for 34th with Simon Cocker back in 40th, the winner Steve Halsall of VC Moulin.

18th Oct Alford Wheelers Cyclo-Cross - South Ormsby
A bumpy grassland course with a steep run up and tricky chicanes through trees gave an interesting course in the 4th round of the Lincs League.
Under 12 Eleanor Crawford 6th overall and first girl
Under 16 Ben Green from Lincoln won again in a sprint finish from Jordan Gell also Lincoln. Peter Cocker failed to finish after a crash bent his front wheel and wrist when riding well in contention for 4th place
Senior Mark Cotton from Lincoln was the runaway winner by over 2.30. Best Witham Wheeler Simon Cocker 34th with Chris Crawford 55th.
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More success for Witham Wheelers riders in the 2009 Velo 99 handicap Road Race series with Phil Etches winning the series for the 3rd time overall since 1998 and winning group 6 for the sixth time over the same period.
In his first year in the series Phil Atherton won Group 4 and took second overall with Ross Tomblin runner up in Group 4, also in his first year of racing.

The full results of the Velo 99 for 2009 are as follows;

Overall winner and group 6 winner Phil Etches with 453 points
Second overall and group 4 winner Phil Atherton with 437 points
Ross Tomblin 423 points
Tony Mendham 388 points
Ian Makevit 293 points
Dave Herd 288 points
Chris Samler 74 points ( 2 events )
Nigel Podam 18 points ( 1 event )
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26/09 Lincoln Junior Triathlon
Several young members were part of the 200 young competitors who took part in the first Lincoln Junior Triathlon based at the Yarborough centre as part of the East Midland series.
In the Tristar 3 category over 250m swim, 4km bike and 2 km run, Peter Cocker after holding a good lead at the end of the bike was overhauled on the run to finish in 2nd for the second consecutive event in the series, while Ashley Money taking part in his first Triathalon took a measured approach for a comfortable 8th position.
In the younger Tristar 1 age group Sam and Joe Letchworth also having a go at their first Triathlon and finished a creditable 15th and 22nd.

27/09 RAF CC Cyclo-Cross - Cranwell
The second round held of the Lincs league held again in fine dry conditions on an interesting course at RAF Cranwell.
Youth - Peter Cocker 6th behind Ben Green winning for the second week in a row.
U12 - Eleanor Crawford 8th overall an first girl.
Senior - Comfortable win by semi-professional rider Graham Briggs of Candi-TV. Further down the field Simon Cocker took the club honours in 40th one place in front of Jacob Storey who had an exciting first lap with 2 crashes removing quite a bit of skin and Chris Crawford in 55th. Thanks to Peter Storey for the video below.
Next event is at Bourne Woods 11th October

20/9 Sleaford Wheelers Cyclo-Cross Barkston
Several Wobblies took to the start line of a cyclo-cross for the first time in the opening round of the Lincolnshire league, in unseasonably warm conditions on a tricky grass land based course at Chandlers in Barkston.
Under 12 race over 10 minutes Eleanor Crawford rode well to finish 10th with Matt Ellis of Spalding the winner.
Under 16 race over 30 minutes Peter Cocker took 5th place with Ben Green of Sports City the winner.
Senior event over 60 minutes. saw Jimmy Coleman, Jacob Storey, Chris Crawford and Simon Cocker all taking up starting positions near the rear of the 63 starters. With the hard dry conditions the pace was fast from the start and all 3 rode steadily to finish Simon 39th, Jacob 48th and Chris in 55th and the winner Leigh Fearn of Matlock. Jim retired finding the hot and dusty conditions not to his liking.
Next round Sunday 27th Sept the RAF CC promote at Cranwell.
Photos can be seen at www.lincsracephotos.co.uk

Southwell Triathlon
In the last local event of the season Matt Pennifold took part in his first event of the season recording an excellent 51st place overall out of 468 finishers, with a time of 1:01:08 with the winner Andy Tarry in a very rapid 46:35 for the 400m swim, 19.3km bike and 5km run.

LVRC Roadrace St Ives.
Phil Etches won his 4th LVRC race of the season at St Ives in a two man breakaway with John Elliott of Alford Wheelers. Phil even had enough time at the finish to straighten his jersey and do a two armed salute as per the Tour.
Phil Atherton rode his first LVRC event and managed to stick in the bunch until the last lap when the pace picked up with several attacks. Paul Conneely finished in the A and Bs bunch after the winning break went on the first lap and was never seen again.
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12/9 GHS 10 Final
Peter Cocker took part in the National Schoolboy 10 mile Time Trial championship at Alcester Warwickshire, competing against boys up to 2½ years older, having qualified as fastest 14 year old in the Lincolnshire heat.

On a rolling course in warm but breezy conditions Peter recorded 26.02 to finish in a creditable 71st overall out of 130 finishers and 14th in the 14 year age group. Fastest on the day was Ryan Mullen Rhos on Sea CC in 21.37.
Picture shows the starting effort.

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29/8 Lincs RRA 10 mile
Several Witham Wheelers took part in the Lincs Championship 10 mile championship with Bill Harrison the quickest in 25.31 for 38th place, Neil Sentance 45th in 26.17, Kim Paxton 63rd in 29.00 and Mike Lewis 75th in 30.59. The winner was Julian Ramsbottom in 20.33

5/9/09 Spalding Grass Track
Peter Barnes debuted on a borrowed fixed gear bike adapted for grass racing and went up against some tough competition on Saturday. The event consisted of many events and first up was the 800m sprint heats. First through went to the final and the rest went to the repechage. Peter was in a heat that included Max Pendleton (Mildenhall CC), who later leant him a set of toe straps. Peter came 4th of the 4 riders and had to go to the repechage, which put him against Adam Ellis (Spalding CC) and a man named Simon (Welwyn Garden City CC). Peter kept with the pace in the opening two laps but thought victory was inevitable so let the other two contest it. Due to losing in the repechage heat, Peter went into the unknown distance race with the five other riders who failed to make it through. He started poorly but finished well to record a 4th place.
As the day went on, Peter slowly got more used to the fixer gear and how to go fast on the unbanked grass track, the devil takes the hindmost race resulted in a poor showing as he was unable to get his feet in the pedals in time to be anywhere near the next worst placed rider and went out at the first elimination. This was a minor blip in the progress as the next round was the 800m handicap, due to previous failings Peter got a nice handicap and came through his heat in third. The final, however, did not go as well, a slow start saw Ken Rosenor (Kings Lynn CC) get away from him from the same handicap and Adam Ellis and Will Hare (Spalding CC) breezed past placing him in 4th with the top three getting prize money. If the race had have been 850m Peter would have got 3rd as Ken was tying up drastically in the final metres.
These races all built up to the finale, the 8km scratch. This was touted as the hardest race by many of the competitors as any semblance of a mass peloton is broken up into a few riders in small groups dotted around the 250m track. The slow start meant Peter could get into his rhythm and get to a decent speed in enough time to stay with the race, unfortunately three riders had managed to get a gap which he missed and he had to do a kilometre on his own to shut the gap down. He got a brief respite with this group, but the Welwyn rider decided to accelerate and unable to match it Peter had to resort to riding tempo to slowly draw the riders back in. This worked and another rider also bridged the gap and the lead group became 5. The lead five managed to lap all the other riders at least once so the winner would come out of this group. Sadly, a gap opened up with Peter behind two lapped riders and this proved to be one effort too many, so he just stuck to the back of the lapped riders who were 6th, 7th and 8th providing him with an easy way to secure a hard fought 5th place and had that mistake of sitting at the back even with lapped riders not been made, he could have maybe been up with the podium riders.

8km Scratch:
1st – Welwyn CC Rider (won every event bar the handicap)
2nd – Alex Avery (Spalding CC)
3rd – Max Pendleton (Mildenhall)
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5/9 Vitruvian Triathlon at Rutland Water
In one of the biggest events on the UK triathlon calendar, Stefan Lawrence put in an excellent performance for 28th overall in a time of 4:25:17 for the 1900m swim, 52 mile bike and half marathon.
Peter Pain took 4:57:55 for 184th overall and 4th in the over 50 age group, despite feeling the effects of a long season.
Race winner was Joel Jameson in 3:56:54 with a total of 785 finishers.
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4th October - Viking Challenge
Yes its time for the annual mud fest, last years being the wettest yet, giving a certain masochistic sense of pleasure to all those who completed, report and pictures.
We usually get quite a few members taking part, with some racing around and others just going for the cakes, which are well worth it.
Full details can be found at this web site and practice runs will probably be organised by the serious ones, see forum for details. Also, http://www.vikingchallenge.org.uk/

6/9 Velo 99 - Thoroton With groups 5 and 6 being awarded stiff handicaps on a flat course, it was always likely that the large group 4 were going to prevail on the day and all seemed to be going to plan until the final sprint for home. Phil Etches, marshalling on the day, was looking for the other groups to stay away from group 6 to hand him the overall winners jersey for 2009 and, with this in mind, Tony Mendham, Ross Tomblin, Ian Makevit and Phil Atherton set about the task and figured prominently in keeping the group working hard, so much so that group 5 did not close any time on their handicap.

By lap 3 of the 6 lap race they had caught groups 2 and 3 and were bearing down on the race leaders, who were all caught by the bell. With half a lap to go a lone rider made a break into a headwind, but was gradually caught by the bunch. Round the final bend and into the long straight for the finish, group 4 were guilty of keeping too close an eye on each other that they missed an audacious kick by Pete Dunn from group 3 with 200 yards to go and they never looked like closing it. John Flear, 75 years old and still going strong, managed to grab 2nd and win group 4 in a tight finish with Ross Tomblin in 3rd place overall and Phil Atherton in 4th.

Tony Mendham and Maka both finished in high positions in the sprint to round off a good season for the Wobblies. Phil Etches won group 6 and finished in 1st place overall and Phil Atherton won group 4 and, not far behind, Ross Tomblin bagged himself 2nd place in group 4. Phil and Ross will now start the next season in group 5.
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23/8 Velo 99 - North Kelsey
News item to be restored soon.
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30/8 Sunday Clubrun to the Leicester Sky-Ride
News item to be restored soon.
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14/8 10 Mile Handicap TT series With 1 week to go, latest standings.
12/8 Lincs League & Prize Presentation
In the final round of the Lincolnshire Road Race League at Withern nr Alford Neil Sentence just missed out on the win by a tyres width in the big bunch sprint with Phil and Paul not far behind.
Neil Sentence 2nd overall
Phil Etches 5th overall
Paul Conneely 8th overall
Handicap Group prizes were also awarded down to 5th place.
Neil 2nd in group 4
Phil 2nd in group 3
Pete Barnes 3rd in group 2
Tony Mendham 4th in group 2

After the event prizes were presented for the overall 2009 League position with Neil Sentence presented with the Lincs League winners cup and Phil Etches the Nev Crane Memorial Cup by Nevs grandson Ben Foster for the best over 50 rider.

Overall standings for the year are attached

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9/8 Velo 99 Road Race - Widmerpool.
All of the Wobblies taking part rode with particular distinction, none more so than Nigel Podam who, in his first velo race, was thrust into the powerful group 6 and worked well in helping them overcome a 5 minute handicap to claw back the other groups well before the bell.

One lone breakaway rider from group 1 thwarted what would have been a good victory for Phil Etches, but Phil did win the mass sprint for the line to win group 6 and take second place overall.

Dave Herd rode strongly towing group 5 around and Ross Tomblin, Ian Makevit, Tony Mendham and Phil Atherton all did their bit in group 4 before being caught by the faster groups. Phil Atherton managed to win group 4 and took 7th place overall with Ross Tomblin taking 2nd in group 4 and 8th place overall. Nigel Podam took 9th place overall and Tony, Maka and Dave Herd were well up in the bunch.

The photo show's Phil Etches and Phil Atherton with their bottles of Old Pulteney Scotch Whisky which was presented to each of the group winners by group 5 rider Eddie Moran, the regional sales executive for the famous distiller.

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Second successive Overall Victory in 2009 Lincs League!
The Witham Wheelers have stunned the Lincolnshire cycling world by claiming overall victory in the Lincs League series for the second successive year.
Building on last years success of Jimmy Coleman this years top spot was claimed by Neil Sentance, whose consistent high scoring throughout the season enabled him to edge out Jimmy Coleman by just 2 points. To complete a clean sweep of the trophies, Phil Etches, who finished in 9th place overall, bagged 1st place in the over 50's competition.
Main results of interest as follows:-
1st Neil Sentance 65 points WWCC
2nd Jimmy Coleman 63 point (second claim WWCC)
3rd Joe Moore 60 points (Lindsey Roads CC)
9th Phil Etches 36 points WWCC (over 50s cup winner)
20th Paul Conneely 18 points WWCC
46th Ant Conneely 7 points WWCC
67th Tony Mendham 1 point WWCC
Phil Etches and Paul Conneely were both well in contention in the early part of the season but were eventually hampered by missing key races and Paul suffering a puncture in our own race when well placed.
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2/8 LVRC Velo Club Notts event at Flintham.
Iin the 60+ age group, having helped to make the break with John Elliott six riders made the decisive move with 3 laps to go. With six riders contesting the sprint on the home straight into a strong front to side wind, good positioning was vital. Phil Etches started the sprint early from two riders back and then hugged the left side of the road to make the other riders take the windward side which gave him the win by a wheel, his 3rd victory of the season.
In the 40+ age group 60 mile event Paul Conneely was active throughout joining Simon Day when he attacked on lap 2 and were quickly joined by three other group B riders. However with 2 laps to go a determined bunch caught this break and Paul was unable to go with further breaks and did well to finish with the bunch.
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20/9 Bourne Wheelers 3 Castles Sportive (well 2 and a very big house!!) 110k or 70k ride.
A 110k or 70k ride on Sunday 20th September start 9am. A 110k ride mainly through country lanes starting at Edenham taking in 3 castles and 5 categorised climbs With the option of a shortcut version of 70k- but you miss out the best bits and only get 2 castles and 2 climbs!!! We are running the event to raise funds to get another qualified British Cycling coach for our Go Ride youth scheme, so this year I’m afraid we would like some of your money.
What will you get for your cash?? A fully signed route with back up map and route details-sports drinks from Be Well - facilities at start and finish of Edenham village hall and refreshments available (for a small charge). You wont get a naff T-shirt and we ask you to put a mobile in your back pocket to “phone a friend” if you get into trouble. There aren’t any feed stations as most of you don’t stop!!, but there are plenty of shops on the 110k route if you want extra drinks/snacks and even places to get Sunday lunch!! For £7 we still think it’s a bargain The event is limited to the first 100 entries.
Go to www.bournewheelers.co.uk to download an entry form and check routes
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19/7 LVRC Tour of the Wolds at Great Limber
Phil Etches just managed to scrape 3rd place by winning the bunch sprint. Two riders went clear on the third lap and were never brought back, despite Phil trying to bridge across on the fourth lap, but being reeled in by the bunch. The very wet weather with a strong wind did not help the chase and that's my excuse.
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12/7 • The Nev Crane Memorial Race at Sleaford Wheelers - 25m Time Trial
The Nev Crane Memorial Race was won by Wayne Randle in a rapid 52.41, beating the old course record by nearly one minute. Witham Wheelers times were:
D.Strickson 1.1.55
P.Pain 1.6.00
C.Crawford 1.10.58
K.Paxton 1.11.27
N.Sentance 1.5.19
M.Hedley 1.9.13
Jim Coleman recorded 56.20 leading Cherry Valley team mates I.Dalton and A.Tuplin to the team prize

• Velo 99
Whitham Wheelers were represented by Phil Etches and Rich Ellingworth in group 6 and Dave Herd in 5 and Tony Mendham in 4. With Phil Atherton, Ian Makevit and Ross Tomblin taking their turn to help with marshalling.
After struggling in previous races with a big handicaps at last group 6 had a decent handicap of 4min 30sec to group 5 which they caught after four very hard 5 mile laps of chasing in a 6 lap race. Having caught all groups with a lap to go the attacking started with Rob Blackburn kicking over the top of the hill only to be joined by Phil E and two other riders. Chris Whitlam attacked next which took the four riders clear of the chasing peloton with only the final positions to be sorted out on the hill finish.
Rob had the strongest sprint with Chris a bike length behind and Phil E a close 3rd for a very good result in the overall standings. Rich E hung on gallantly to group 6 until the fun and games started which is no mean feat considering his long lay off from competitive riding. Tony and Dave felt the heat of the race but hung on manfully to finish in the strung out peloton.
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Club Road Race - update
Quick update on the entries so far, the 3 /4 event is over 60 riders so with a maximum of 80 don't rely on entering on the line. The E /1 /2/ 3/ 4 is now over 40 again with maximum of 80, so more entries required. Contact Jeff ASAP if you want to get a ride

Katie Colclough
Congratulations to local rider Katie on her 2nd place in the European Under 23 road race chamionship, more details can be seen here http://new.britishcycling.org.uk

Heckington Show Saturday 25th July
The club is putting an U-16 team into the Heckington show Grass Track event in a head to head with with Sleaford and Spalding. Events will include Pursuit, Sprints, Team Sprint and Scratch Races There will also be Senior racing and many other events in this show. Should be a good day out and chance to support the younsters in the club. Details can be seen at: www.heckingtonshow.org.uk

Triathlon Update - Northampton, Bournemouth
Peter Pain Raced at Northampton Tri 28th June. At last I managed to win my age group and came 45th overall in a time of 2hrs 13min 45sec. Reasonable swim in a time of 26min 42sec and that was with a pause as I started to hyperventilate having gone off to fast!!
Paul Letchworth has just got back from the Bournemouth International Triathlon - which is 1500m sea swim, 40k cycle and 10.525k run. "The swim was great - really big waves just off Bournemouth pier! I did a great bike 1h10m and then the run was ok - finished with a time of 2h34m in 110th position. Blimey my legs hurt!"

Grantham Sprint Triathlon - rescheduled.
After being cancelled in June this event is now rescheduled for Sunday August 30th. The sprint is 400m Swim, 22K Bike and 5k Run and the Tri it Tri is half the Sprint distances. The venue, the Grantham Meres Leisure Complex has up to date facilities with free parking, registration, transition and finish all within 100 yards of each other. Use the web address below for entry form and details. www.granthamtri.co.uk

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7/7 Alford Wheelers 10 mile Schoolboy Time Trial - Peter Cocker 8th
Witham Wheelers entered a team into the Linclonshire heat of the 10 Mile Time Trial National Schoolboys Championship held in conjunction with the Alford Wheelers open 10. The young team did exceptionally well in the first event they have entered of this kind. Jake Storey came 3rd overall in a time of 24.24 with the rest of the team placing well enough to win the team title. Other team times: Peter Barnes 28.02, Toby Kiely 30.21 and Peter Cocker 31.08.
This has qualified the team for the National Schoolboy Championship to be held in Hertfordshire on 14th September.
In the Open event Simon Cocker recorded 26.30
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London to Paris cycle event 30th June to 4th July 2010 in aid of Kidney Research UK.
News from member Peter Storey that his charity (he is Director of Marketing) Kidney Research UK, has launched its own bespoke London to Paris cycle event taking place 30th June to 4th July 2010. Recruitment is now open and we have partnered up with Cycling Weekly to promote the event. The charity features on the home page and sponsors the live feed of the Tour coverage, in return for promotion of the London to Paris event and a click through direct to register on our site. Please see www.cyclingweekly.co.uk.
"I’m quite proud of this partnership, especially as I have combined my interest in cycling with a charity promotion of this size! Wobblies members might be interested in the event. I have also approached Alan to see if we can get permission to use a couple of his photographs of Wobblies in action. We are hoping to use them to freshen the imagery on the advertisements. If Alan agrees, then we may see the Witham Wheelers brand and members featured on the home page of Cycling Weekly."
Peter
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20/6 Melton Olympic 25
Promoted on the rapid A1 course to the North of Newark, Jim Coleman was just pipped for 1st place by Gary Beezer RAF CC recording a personal best 53:54 compared to the winners 53:54. Dave Strickson also just broke the hour in 59.50 for 34th place overall.
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23/8 Anna's Hope Cycle Challenge - Rutland Water
Second annual Anna's Hope Charity Cycle Challenge around Rutland Water.
"Since you took part in the event last year, the charity has started to make a real difference for children and young people diagnosed with a brain tumour. With the appointment of the first Anna's Hope Nurse. Many children diagnosed with this leading cancer killer of children and young people need additional specialist rehabilitation help so we still have more work to do. If you wish to help us again this year I have attached a leaflet which includes an application form. If you have any friends who you think may be interested in this event I would be grateful if you would forward this e-mail and attachment to them. As I did last year, I will donate £1000 to Anna's Hope if the cumulative miles cycled exceed 2500."
Rob Hughes (Anna's Dad) Anna's Hope Cycle Challenge.pdf

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30/6 Interclub 25 Mile Time Trial Witham Wheelers vs. Newark Castle vs. Sleaford Wheelers vs. VC Lincoln
The Interclub 25 mile Time Trial was promoted on the Newark to Ollerton road with the rolling road making for a hard race in hot conditions. The race is contested annually between Witham Wheelers, Sleaford Wheelers, VC Lincoln and Newark Castle and has been held since the early 1960s with Witham Wheelers not having won since 1967!!

On the night Jim Coleman, now riding 2nd claim for Witham Wheelers after his big money transfer to the Cherry Valley Racing Team, won by a clear 3½ minutes in a time of 57.37 from 2nd J.Taylor (VC Lincoln) 1:1:07, 3rd Mark.Colclough (Sleaford Whs) 1:1:13 and 4th Felicity Hart (Sleaford Whs) 1:1:34.
Other club times: Chris Carter 1:7:38 for a very respectable time in his first ever 25 mile time trial, Anthony Conneely 1:7:50, Simon Cocker 1:8:15, Chris Crawford 1:13:07, Martin Lister 1:19:57 taking part in his first race since 1973.
Matt Pennifold retired before the finish feeling the effects of his ride out from Grantham to the start.
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26/6 Nottingham MTB Series 3rd round at Bingham
In the third and final round at Bingham Leisure centre the young group of riders taking part in the training sessions at Central school organised by British Cycling in conjunction in Witham Wheelers dominated the top positions in the under 12 event.
Under 12s:
Reece Egner – 1st
Daniel Gorzejewski – 2nd
Karl Ballie – 3rd
George Mitchell – 4th
Ben Musson – 7th
Adam Musson – 10th
The riders in the youth race also finished really well as they are only 12 and at the bottom of the age group. They were still in front of a number of seniors when they finished their 30mins.
Youth Race Ben Addlesee – 4th Carl Jennings – 5th
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19/6 VC Nottingham Mountain Bike Races
The second round took place at Cotgrave country park with another good turn out of riders from the Central School training sessions organised by British Cycling in conjunction with Witham Wheelers. These continue on Thursday evenings at 6.30, all U-16s welcome.
In the U12 event over 10 minutes plus a lap they dominated the results with Daniel Gorzejewski 2nd, Reece Edgar 3rd, Karl Baillie 3rd, George Mitchel 5th and Ben Musson 8th. Several of the riders who last week rode in the U12 moved up to the U16 event over 30 minutes plus a lap and rode well although finding the longer distance hard work. Peter Cocker was the best finisher moving up to 5th after a slow first lap with Carl Jennings 8th, Daniel Jennings, 9th, Ashley Money 10th and Ben Addlesee in 11th.
The final event takes place at Bingham on Friday night and full reports can be seen at www.vcnotts.com

20/6 Dambuster Triathlon
In a field of 560 competitors from all over the UK several local competitors took part in the Olympic distance Triathlon based on Rutland Reservoir starting at 7.00 Saturday morning.
Over a 1500m swim, 26.0 mile bike and 10km run positions were:
39th Stefan Lawrence in 2:14:57
84th Peter Pain in 2:21:40 for 2nd in the 50-59 age group
203rd Paul Letchworth in 2:33:39
210th Claire Armstrong in 2:34:17
345th Simon Cocker in 2:43:44
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14/6 LVRC Haworth
Starting to hit form, Phil Etches recorded his second LVRC win of the season and Paul C had a good race to finish in the top ten in the A/B event.

14/6 Velo 99 at Laughton Forest
Phil Atherton had a good win in group 4 from a lone break with Ross Tomblin and Ian Makevit policing the break.
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12/6 VC Nottingham MTB Race
The first of the Friday evening summer series of Mountain Bike races at Bingham Leisure Centre saw the first competitive outing of boys currently taking part in training session at Central Sport and Technology college organised by Witham Wheelers in conjunction with Britich Cycling Go-Ride coaches. The boys all gave a very good account of themselves, dominating the leading positions.
Photo: L to R: Karl Baillie (6th), Carl Jennings (2nd), Peter Pain (Witham Wheelers Coach), Daniel Gorzejewski (5th), George Mitchell (10th), Ben Addlesee (1st), Steve Crossland (British Cycling Coach) and Reece Egner (4th).
Karl Baillee was the lad that fell and got tangled up and still managed 6th place. In the U-16 event Ashley Money took 2nd place with Peter Cocker retiring with a broken chain.
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6/6 LVRC Road Race
Phil Etches won his first LVRC race of the season at Barton Upon Humber on Saturday. In a slow race where the peloton closed down every attack with ease, it came down to a sprint finish in the end. Phil positioned himself 4th in line on the run up to the finish and capitalised on the confusion caused by a blow out in front and took the sprint out early to win by a clear 25m.
Paul Conneely rode in the A and B event which had a quality field of riders and finished 4th in the B race which shows the good form he has at the moment.
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24/5 Woodhall Spa Sprint Triathlon
Final round of the East Mdlands sprint Triathlon series sponsored by Saucony with 458 competitors completing the 40m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Local competitors:
Peter Pain 23rd in 55:18 and 2nd in 50-54 age group
Claire Armstrong 85th in 1:00:19 and 1st in 30-34 age group
Simon Cocker 97th in 1:01:01 and 11th in 50-54 age group
Thanks to finishing 2nd in each event of the series Peter took first place overall for the 50-54 age group.
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1/5 Isle of Man Youth Tour
Club Junior Peter Barnes recently took a trip to the over the May Day Bank Holiday Weekend. With the top Juniors in the country competing the standard was very high and Peter can take a lot in terms of experience from the trip, it will be interesting to see how he progresses over the year with the benefit of coaching.
Full details can be found at the race website www.youthtour.co.uk
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3/5 New Forest Triathlon,
Paul Letchworth finished 118th in a time of 2 hrs 20.54 for the 1.1km swim, 36km bike and 10km run.

10/5 Woodhall Spa Sprint Triathlon 400m swim, 24km Bike, 5 km run
A good performance by Peter Pain at Woodhall puts him in first place of the 50-54 age group Saucony Sprint Triathlon series with one counting event at Southwell to go at the end of May. Simon finished a respectable 68th although still handicapped by the swim, with new club member Steve Squires a good 201st out of 413 finishers.
1st Richard Teare 1:02:06
17th Peter Pain 1:08:22
68th Simon Cocker 1:14:06
201st Steve Squires 1:23:30
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3/5/09 Velo 99 Norwell
Six Wobblies started the third velo 99 race of the season at Norwell on Sunday. Phil Etches went off in group 6, Dave Herd in group 5, Phil Atherton, Ross Tomblin and Tony Mendham in group 4 with Ian Makevit in group 3.

A strong wind made for tough going and it was no surprise when everything came together on the last lap. A group of 5 riders, including Phil Etches, managed to get away from the peloton with less than half a lap remaining and with a mile to go they caught two breakaway riders from group 3 that included Ian Makevit. Chris Whitelam again managed to kick away long before the final sprint for the line to record first place with Phil Etches managing third. Ian Makevit had a much better ride this week to win group 3 and claim 6th place overall. Phil Atherton won group 4 and recorded 10th place overall with Ross, Tony and Dave Herd figuring in the mass bunch sprint.

Special mention for Phil Atherton who, as group 4 winner, was presented with the Bruce Bailey Memorial Road Race Trophy, which will be on display in the trophy cabinet at the clubhouse to act as inspiration for all those riders not lucky enough to have won an award this season.

19/4/09 Velo 99 Alford
Five Wobblies started the second velo 99 race of the season at Alford on Sunday. Phil Etches went off in group 6, Dave Herd in group 5 and Phil Atherton, Ross Tomblin and Tony Mendham in group 4.

One again group 4 failed to organise itself although Tony, Ross and Phil were always prominent in ensuring the pace was competitive but too many riders were looking for an easy ride into a testing north easterly wind. Group 6 finally had a handicap they could work with and everybody had come together as the bell was sounded for the last lap of the three lap race. Group 6 attacked immediately and a decisive kick took away Phil Etches and two Cottingham riders who staged a well rehearsed 1-2 on an unsuspecting bunch, a lead they were not to relinquish. Phil A and Ross managed to get themselves into the chasing group but they missed a second break of three riders so were riding for 7th place with a group of 8 other riders . Tony and Dave who had unfortunately got themselves tangled up with some slower riders when the action took place and missed the breaks.

Phil Etches managed to get some recovery during the last lap as they only gradually increased their lead over the chasing groups and in the final sprint for the line it looked as though Phil had it but he just failed to overhaul Chris Whitelam from Cottingham who had been riding strongly all day.

Ross and Phil worked well with the chasing group of riders, who seemed to have given up the chase on the two breakaway groups, and did attempt to get away themselves with 3 miles to go, although this was quickly closed down. In the sprint for the line Ross went 300 metres from home and looked to have blown it but dug deep to win the bunch sprint and win group 4 and record 7th overall on the day. Phil A was not far behind and got 2nd in group 4 and 9th place overall, both riders pleased that they had performed well against group 5 riders. Dave Herd and Tony M both finished highly in the next group home to record respectable positions on the day.

26/4/09 Lincoln Triathlon
Due to the unavailability of the pool at the David LLoyd centre the sprint Triathlon turned into a Duathlon consisting of 2.5km run, 22km bike, 5km run.
Fastest local rider on the day was Stefan Lawrence in a total time of 1hr 4.58 for 11th overall and 4th in the 25-29 age group.
Peter Pain 32nd in 1 hr 10.10 and 2nd in the 50-54 age group
Simon Cocker 57th in 1 hr 12.49 and 4th in the 50-54 age group
Winner in 59min 10 seconds Richard Teare of Equus with 283 competitors completing the event.

Victoria Park
Club Juniors Jacob Storey and Peter Barnes have been flying the flag at the Victoria park series, report and photo, can be seen at thislink.www.britishcycling.org.uk»

East Midlands Cicle Classic - 26th April
A list of riders for this great race is now published at the link below. Its a great race to go and watch, the pub at Borough-on-the-Hill giving the chance to see the race several times. You can also cheer on number 103 riding for the Eastern Select team
www.britishcycling.org.uk Full race details from www.cicleclassic.co.uk/

John Edwards
We have to report that John Edwards sadly died Wednesday 15th April. John had been involved with the club for many years and will be greatly missed.
The club would like to send its condolences to his wife Chris and sons Richard and Ewan.
John's funeral is on Tuesday 28th April at 12.30 at the Crematorium and afterwards at Belton Woods.

Rutland CiCLE classic
If you have nothing planned on 26th April and would like to get up close to one of the top British Road races, now is the chance; the organiser is looking for volunteers on the day, see the attached link for details

www.britishcycling.org.uk

Raid Pyrennees
For those of you who have observed over the last 6 months Tony Mendham become half the man (physically speaking) he once was, it is all for a good cause. Later in the year he is tackling the Raid Pyrenees, a 460 mile 5 day mountain climbing fest of all the famous Pyrenean climbs.
This is in aid of Lives Lincolnshire Integrated Volunteer Emergency Services, details can be found at the link below. Tony is looking for spnsorship now, so please give generously, you never know when you might need it.
http://lives-responders.co.uk/cprmain.htm

Stolen Bike: Dave Ostler is asking everyone to keep a look out for a 19" Trek 6700 mountain bike in Gunmetal Gray.
It was taken while Dave was staying at Centre-Parcs in Sherwood Forest last weekend.
So if you are offered one or see one advertised for sale please let Dave (01476 861190) know.

5/4/09 Velo 99 Car Colston
Perfect sunny and still conditions greeted the five Wobblies that took part in the first Velo 99 of the season at Car Colston on Sunday 5th April. Riding in group 6 was Phil Etches, Dave Herd was in group 5 and Phil Atherton was in group 4 with velo virgins Ross Tomblin and Ian Makevit.

Group 6 was handicapped out of the race again and Phil Etches managed to bag third place in his group as two riders broke clear on the last lap, one of the riders getting a tow off the front behind a fast moving tractor!

Group 4 failed to work effectively as some riders chose to tap through and wait for group 5 to come through, which they did on the second lap of the 4 lap race. The pace picked up and Dave Herd did some stints on the front as they tried to stay away from the fast moving group 6. At the start of the last lap Maka dropped off pace a little and let a gap go from which he did not recover. Phil Atherton and Ross Tomblin hid in the bunch to conserve energy and waited for what was always going to be a sprint finish. In the sprint for the line Phil Atherton bagged himself third place overall and won his group and Ross Tomblin finished in about 7th place with Dave Herd not far behind in the bunch.

The Witham Wheelers Website wants to congratulate Mark Cavendish on his latest and greatest victory so far in the Milan San Remo.

Being too young to remember Tommy Simpson (just) this really was a race to remember among so many great performances by British Cyclists in recent years.
However what we must also reveal is the key part Wobblies played in this win, as these pictures show.Left, Mark can be seen thanking Phil for his tips in getting every bit of speed out in that final sprint. Right, shows Peter giving see key pointers in how to get over the Poggio in the lead group. Rob Hayles looks suitably impressed.

Reminder: The Sleaford Wheelers Charity 10 mile Time Trial is on Easter Saturday 11th April. at 2.00pm.
It is on the normal A15 course (C10/10), with signing on at Quarrington Village Hall as before.

All money raised is going to support Cancer Research UK and our aim is to better the £600 we raised last year.
Closing date is the 31st March, so get them entries in now!!
Mark Colclough, Event Organiser Tel 07970 121089 /01400 272910

Leics RC Events 2009
Saturday 25th April The Discover Rutland CiCLE Tour - Note entries are filling fast
Online entry form» 100 mile route» 50 mile route»
Sunday 26th April Rudy Project TT Series.
Leicestershire Road Club. Course AS/6 Willoughby on the Wolds, Notts. As per CTT handbook or email me for details.
Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June Leicestershire Road Club/Pedal Power Loughborough 2-Day Stage race -
Roadman's prologue, Mallory Crit and road race. Details on BC website/handbook or email me.

Thanks. Ian Penrose, Leics RC 01664 850493

21 Dec - Mince Pie Run
An excellent turnout for this years event, with a great improvement in the weather from last years freezing fog.
After meeting at the Market Place the easy run, including 2 Tandems, was led by Bill Harrison who had planned an interesting route out past Belvoir Castle. However after a variety of minor incidents slowed progress this had to be shortened to eventually arrive at the cafe around 11.30.
The faster group were already well into the bacon sandwiches and mince pies but there was plenty for all.
Looking round there were about 35 members present, which coupled with other cyclists from Nottingham and Newark made for a very social occasion.

Return route via Long Bennington for the easy run made a total of 45 miles, which for some was more than they were expecting, well done to the ladies for getting round.

Thanks to the Kingfisher Cafe at Sibthorpe for being so hospitable and efficient for a large group, well worth adding to the cafe run list.

Sun. 14 Dec Rutland Water Cyclo-Cross
A chance to see the countries top Cross riders in action just down the road at Rutland Water in the 5th round of the national series, see link for more details.
Cross is one of the more interesting forms of cycling to spectate, with a lot of action taking place in a small area.

Go-Ride Saturday Morning Training Sessions
Saturday training sessions at Yarborough, Lincoln starting in January 2009

We are running a series of 10 sessions combining skills coaching with sprint and endurance training and race tactics.
As the sessions will be a mix of senior riders as well as experienced youth riders the sessions will not be open to the U12 riders.
We have places available for youth riders to join these sessions if they wish – please complete the attached forms and return as soon as possible to secure a place.
Please indicate which dates you would like to attend. (This will help with planning and ensure I have enough qualified help!)
To cover the cost of hiring the cycle track we are charging all riders £1.00 per session.
Any coaches who wish to help out either on or off the bike will be most welcome – please let me know which session(s) you would like to help with.

Any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. Cathy
Details and booking form» (pdf file)