VSCC and VSTC Report January 2016
At the most recent V S Committee Meeting we thought it would be a good idea for VSAC to send a monthly report to all the cyclists and VSCC/VSTC to send a monthly report to all the runners. So here's your first cycling and triathlon report, and it starts with a new event that VSCC will be organising in July.
Valley Striders 25TT
On the 9th July VSCC will be holding our first club event, a 25 mile time trial to which we can host up to 150 riders from any cycling club in the country. Our event is one of about one hundred scheduled events in Yorkshire which always attract a good turnout. In addition to promoting the profile of the club, we are going to send all the proceeds to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. We also want to make sure that as many members of Valley Striders take part as possible and indeed the course has been specifically chosen to suit experienced time trial riders and also complete beginners. The URL for entry is http://cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/event/21394 and online entry will open soon. In addition to riders we will be seeking volunteers to help out in the headquarters and also marshalling on the course. We have also set up a Facebook page for you to "like" https://www.facebook.com/VSCC25MTT. Further information regarding the event will be posted there.
Valley Striders Cycling Club - Roundup January 2016
It's been rather a successful beginning to 2016 in many ways.
Race Team
During January our race team entered three events at the Velo 29 Croft Race Circuit up at Darlington on cold, wintery mornings. The work put in last season and over the winter certainly paid off with some excellent performances and points aplenty.
9th January - CAT4 only race - The team was represented by Alec Pearson, Kevin Bowen and David Morley along with, Jason Proctor who was denied the win by only half a wheel in a photo finish, followed by Chris Wilson in 6th (competing in his first ever race) and Danny Murray in 8th (earning his first points). Jason also competed in the E/1/2/3/4 race with Gavin Taylor racing for Prologue but both were denied a finish due to crashing out on the last bend.
Top 10
Results - 2nd - Jason Procter - 8 Points
6th - Chris Wilson - 4
Points
8th - Danny Murray - 2
Points
23rd January - Danny Murray, Kevin Bowen, Dan Price, Chris Wilson and Alec Pearson travelled up to Darlington for round 2. All did well with Chris our best placed rider finishing in 4th place for more points towards his Cat3. Chris and Danny then stepped up to the E/1/2/3/4 race and Danny finished in the main peloton and Chris going as far as the lap 5 prime sprint.
Top 10 Results - 4th - Chris Wilson - 6 Points
30th January - Week 3, our biggest turn out yet and more success despite the high winds! First races for Jim White and Tom Asher. Kevin Bowen riding for the third successive week but retiring with a knee injury. Alison Price becoming our first female racer of the year flying the chartreuse flag. Alec Pearson, Danny Murray, Dan Price and Chris Wilson all in attendance too.
Top 10
Results - 4th - Tom Asher - 6 Points
5th - Danny Murray - 5
Points
6th - Chris Wilson - 4
Points
9th - Dan Price -
1 Point
Weekly Rides
Our regular Wednesday evening, Saturday and Sunday rides have been well represented with several groups at different average speeds going out in all weathers. The various storms of Desmond, Eva, Frank and Gertrude have, unfortunately, led to some of the rides having to be cancelled on safety grounds but by and large the rides are well populated with numbers up on last year. In fact Storm Desmond swept away part of Tadcaster Bridge which was on our regular Wiggle route plus closed off Linton Bridge, but we've managed to work a way around this to keep going until they're reopened.
Looking Forward in 2016
All these winter miles, in gritty, cold, windy, Yorkshire weather are building us for when the nice weather returns in the Spring. As such, several of our motivational challenges have already begun.
Segment of the Fortnight - A hotly contested league with 3 divisions competing to get the fastest time, as judged by Strava, on 2 different segments in the locality, over 2 weeks. Simples! The Final season of 2015 was won by the following
Div1: 1st Jason Procter, 2nd Paul Holdsworth
and 3rd Mike Furby
Div2: 1st equal Matthew Babirecki and John Buchan, 3rd equal Martin Clark and
Paul Dixon
Div3: 1st Chris Wilson, 2nd Liz Ball and 3rd David O'Halloran
Ladies: 1st Liz Ball, 2nd Eleanor Stafford, 3rd Anna Hobbs
Warrior League - This is a competition to represent VSCC in various sportives, reliability rides, races, time trials, triathlons and charity rides. The 2016 list is about to be published so we wait with baited breath. With the Warrior League points are scored for taking part in events with Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes for those finishing within certain points brackets. The league started this weekend with the Seacroft Reliability Ride.
12 in 12 and 6 in 12 - The annual compilation of miles over the year to see who does the most, with the aim of riding 12,000 kilometres (or new for this year 6,000K) in 12 months. Last year 8 people managed but with several folk getting some serious winter miles in the bag, a few are well on their way to achieving it again with Alan Chalmers on 1,000 miles or 1,609 kilometres already for January alone! Wow!
VSCC Training Camp
The end of April sees the annual club trip to Mallorca. 20 members are booked on this year. Anyone interested in coming along should contact Neil Burdett - [email protected]
Membership
Anyone who fancies coming to join us for a ride, please check Facebook for ride details. We offer 2 rides free before we ask you to join and for all VSAC members it's only £6 a year with membership via the following portal: https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/club/profile/6673/valley-striders-cc.
We have loan bikes available for those who don't have a road bike but who fancy having a go. You need to be a member and there's a small weekly charge. Contact Steve Wilkins for more details [email protected].
Valley Striders Triathlon Club - Roundup January 2016
Now that we are into 2016 thoughts are turning towards the season ahead. The first dates in many of our members calendars are one or more of the three relatively local duathlons (Oulton Park, Clumber Park and Stockton) with Clumber Park featuring also in the VSCC warrior league.
In addition, the exciting news in the final week of January was the announcement of the Leeds WTS triathlon route from Roundhay Park and into the City Centre. We have a lot of VS members taking part in this event and the beginner and sprint races are still open for entry. There are Valley Striders teams setup and anyone from the club can join us.
In terms of results we can report that our VSTC GP winners from 2015 Ali and Dan Price have already kicked off their 2016 campaign with impressive results at the New Years Day triathlon in Edinburgh. Well done to them.
Finally, it is possible to order VSTC triathlon kit via the same system that is used to order VSCC kit and this is open right now (24 January to 7 February) so don't delay.