Thrilling cross season climax at Abingdon
It was another quality new Wessex course at Abingdon on Sunday, run by Take 3 Tri that definitely had its fair share of mishaps for riders. There were drier, warmer conditions than recent weeks foul weather but the Cross Gods were in no mood to take the day off.
The fast but bumpy ground normally used as a 4x4 driving range led to plenty of punctures. Much of the course had a stony base below a layer of grass and slippy clay-like mud that either pulled you back or spat you out sideways, then long tarmac runway straights into a head wind (an airfield is always going to be windy!) with barriers and a spiral at the end of the lap before the final tarmac straight to the finish. Power-hungry technical conditions meant you had to ride hard throughout whilst leaning all over the bike to balance and stay upright.
Top three for Tom Budden
Saving the best until last, the senior race served up a fantastic result for Sotonia with Tom Budden finally reaching the podium, taking second place after a season of great results that have been creeping ever higher.
Matteo Ichino and David Baxter also had a great races, finishing with PBs 15th and 19th. Special mention to Tobie Charlton, who punctured after just 150 metres and ran the next four laps before Niels Langhout (retired with a broken bike) lent him a wheel to finish the race.
Tom described the action:
[quote align="center" color="#999999"]"I was with Joe Hickerton (Eden Veranda) for most of the race, taking turns in front. Each lap there was a little gap getting bigger behind us - a couple of Pedal On guys (Jamie Norfolk and Chris Minter) and Graham Rogerson of Cotswold. Then with 2-3 laps to go, I got a bit of a gap and maybe finished 15 to 20 seconds ahead. The course really suited me! There were long bumpy sections with a slippery muddy top surface so it was all about getting a the power down smoothly. Lots of people with pinch punctures - maybe down to the bumpy and rocky stuff under the mud. Unfortunately they didn't do a podium as there was some problem with timing system... the one race I get in the top three!"[/quote]
Tobie Charlton was typically upbeat about his race:
[quote align="center" color="#999999"]"Tom had the added bonus of lapping me twice (I punctured in the first 150 metres) so with no pit bike, I did get to cheer him on a couple of times. I ran to 40 minutes then blagged a wheel off Niels Langhout, nearly rolled the tub, came back to the pits for more air and also punctured the front on the last lap... its all about those points!!!"[/quote]
In the other races, young Max Darnton took 20th in the U12s. In the v40s, Phil Connell and Jez Hart featured and after a fast first lap, things started to heat up. Phil slipped off first on a slick corner, dropping his chain and for the next three laps Jez led Phil by around 10 seconds. The cross Gods were back on lap four as they ensured Jez made a detailed inspection of a bramble bush on one of the muddy banks when his front wheel slid out. He was nicely scratched up after that and Phil's group caught him shortly after. On the next lap, a Beeline rider in the group got it all wrong and took both Sotonia riders down on another muddy banking. Phil untangled first and got a gap while Jez had course tape and another bike to free himself from first. Thankfully, that was it for excitement, Phil finishing 24th with Jez a pretty beat up 30th. John Phillips was the sole Sotonia v50 rider had another good race to finish 24th.
Next week we're off to Tidworth Army Barracks for the final race of the season - should be a cracker for spectators and riders alike!
Full results are here
Graham Robins' photo gallery is here
Wessex Cyclocross Round 13, Fareham, 17 Jan 2016
A second visit to Fairthorne Manor this season for Wessex Cyclocross brought a dip in temperature and a change of course, which was run in the opposite direction to previous visits. Grass meadows and two wooded sections were the order of the day - the hillside woods featuring plenty of deep, sloppy mud that forced riders off their bikes to run for much of it. It was a bitterly cold and wet day but that didn't deter a large field for the under 12s featuring three young Sotonia riders - Ben Darnton in 20th place followed by George Connell (43rd) and Louis Kirk (45th).
Vets races
In the v40 race, Phil Connell and Jez Hart resumed their weekly battle. Starting from the second row, both got good starts and were in the top 20 approaching the woods for the first time. They spent the race swapping places before Phil gained a small gap when Jez pitted with two laps to go. In the final sprint, Phil held on to finish 18th a couple of bike lengths ahead of Jez in 19th (we're pretty sure they weren't holding back judging by the pics!). In the v50s, John Phillips was also having a good race until a puncture with over a lap to go, forced him to run the remainder, finishing in 28th place.
Womens race
Phil Wilks reports: "Around 20 started the women's race, with Gemma Wilks representing Sotonia gridded on the second row in 11th position. I was on pit duty. She soon began picking off those ahead of her, although dropping her Garmin while swapping bikes on the second lap cost her about 20 seconds and two places which she then had to make up again. On the final lap she managed to dig deep and pass Elise Sherwell from Blazing Saddles Cycles to finish in an excellent 7th place, a personal best and her first finish in the top 10.
Senior race
The seniors race saw Tom Budden, Tobie Charlton, Phil Godfrey, David Baxter and me line up next to take on the mud. Tom is having a great season and was gridded on the front row again in third place, with Tobie on the second row and me just behind. Tobie seemed to relish the long running section through the woods, and I could hear him up ahead having a pleasant chat with the riders around him on the first lap whilst they were all gasping for breath. After the woods I managed to get past Tobie and was surprised to see the front of the field and Tom not too far ahead (usually by the end of the first lap he would be a distant speck). I was able to move up the field by a place or two each lap, and it entered my mind that I could be on for a good placing. Despite falling off once and having an unplanned encounter with a tree, Tom had an excellent race and finished in 4th. I was ecstatic with 10th place which was a personal best. Tobie Charlton was 22nd, Phil Godfrey 27th, and David Baxter was forced to retire with a mechanical.
Tom Budden commented afterwards:
[quote align="center" color="#999999"]"I'm really bruised up after that - going over the handlebars, hitting a tree and all the running with the crank digging in your back... all good fun though! Two more races to go!"[/quote]
Tom is currently an amazing third place in Wessex league seniors and the Sotonia senior 'A Team' are also third in the team standings It was also great to see the hard work continued even when our riders weren't racing as they got stuck in to helping out in the pits for each other - brilliant team effort!
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Road season rolls out at Odd Down Circuit
This Saturday saw Sotonia riders head to Bath for a first taste of 2016 road racing - club racer, James Peckham reports on the early season action:
"It seemed strange to be rocking up to a race in mid January, particularly on such a cold winters day, but this was the 4th round of the Odd Down Winter series. There were 4th cat and women's races earlier in the afternoon, with the final race of the day a 2/3 crit. The course is a purpose built technical circuit on the top of Odd Down, while cold it was unusually calm. Talking to other riders the wind usually plays its part in making the race hard. There was a good field of about 35 with some strong 2nd cats and a large local contingent of Bath and Bristol riders. Sotonia was represented by Andy Mackay, Ben Scott-Munden and myself. Other local riders of note were Jamie Franklin (Venta), James Champken (St Raphael) and Jed Weber (Andover).
The race started hard, Bath Uni riders making themselves prominent near the front. After 10/15 mins things slowed down slightly as we assessed the damage, a lot of riders already pinged off the back of the group. After about 20 minutes I realised one of the dropped riders was actually the leader, he had 20 secs on us half way round. I found out later that Liam Bromiley (Bath Uni) had done this and won in the previous two races! I stayed alert during the race keeping position and watching riders I thought were dangerous (clearly didn't do this well enough!). Andy and Ben were comfortable in the group, with Andy moving to the front a couple of times to keep the hurt on. A fast course with no natural obstacles meant the race was quick with a 26mph average, but it felt quite comfortable to keep with the group. With 4 to go things picked up again and I put in a few digs to move up and follow surges. With a big effort on the penultimate lap I was quite well positioned in the top ten. Round the last two corners I was on the outside which as the longer way round wasn't ideal and in the final corner I was caught behind a slowing rider causing me to check my sprint. Opening up again I was too far back for top 5, but got up to speed and held 7th place in the bunch. This was 8th overall. Andy finished 12th, just behind and Ben finished with the group after a quite literally eyeballs out effort.
I'm pleased with how the race went, considering I was racing with 2nd cats and after a heavy block of training. Glad the winter training looks like its working! I've got a light week ahead of me before a return to Odd Down next weekend, then looking ahead to Perfs Pedal race and some sporting TTs at the end of February. I'd recommend getting to Odd Down to get early season racing in, it's a good circuit with proper changing facilities, showers and a café!"
Crabwood Cross weathers the storm at Southampton
Some would describe "classic cross" conditions conditions with talk of shoes lost in muddy fields, throwing bikes across rivers and scaling four bar fences. There wasn't so much of that last weekend at Southampton Sports Centre for the Geoff Shergold Memorial Wessex Cyclocross, but it was unanimously agreed that these were the worst conditions at Southampton for many years… still, I'm sure Geoff was looking down and smiling to himself!
One of the best ways to warm-up for a cross race is to pre-ride the course, thereby getting a feel for the conditions and what lines to take in technical sections. But with enough mud to leave you caked head to foot before the race even started, not this time! Many used a nearby road or saved their energy for the onslaught ahead.
With very heavy rain and gale force winds, the youth and v50 races faced the brunt of the weather gods. Riders also had to contend with inches of thick, energy sapping, wet mud with streaming torrents of rainwater washing down the hillside creating the odd paddling pool here and there. The uphill start straight led to a mass wheel spin with mud thrown into many an eye as the riders sped towards the woods at the top of the course. Once there, most dismounted and pushed their way through the deep, sticky stuff before a brief descent then up again on a path through the waterlogged bmx pump track. Then it was up and down on the course that featured very little flat terrain and descents that still required effort if you didn't want to grind to a halt.
Sotonia's first brave riders were young George Connell and Louis Kirk in the U12s. In the V50s we had John Phillips (PB and 20th place) and in the women's race Gemma Wilks gave it her best (11th place woman).
In the v40s we had Phil Connell and Jez Hart with Phil in 19th place, faring better in the heavy conditions that suited a time-trialler.
The final seniors race saw the weather do a dramatic u-turn with sun, blue skies and little wind. The mud was still looking for more victims though and Sotonia had three - Tom Budden, Phil Wilks and Tobie Charlton. Tom again rode to a top ten in 7th place, followed by Phil with a PB for 12th and Tobie 16th.
[quote align="center" color="#999999"]Phil Wilks described his race: "I think that last lap was the hardest effort I've ever done. 8 minutes at 189bpm after 45 mins at threshold!"[/quote]
A big thanks to Crabwood for putting on the event in testing conditions and to all our riders, supporters and pit crew who got nearly as muddy as the racers!
There's a week's break now before the next round of the Wessex Cyclocross at Fairthorne Manor, Botley on January 17th - hopefully it won't take that long to get the bikes and kit clean!
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Sotonia Youth Coaching 2015 Review
2015 was an important year for Sotonia's Youth Group. After many years with few juniors in the Club, big leaps forward have been made in coaching and under-16 participation. Our coaches Phil Connell and Jez Hart achieved their Level 2 British Cycling coaching badges for the club in February. They have since coached around 25 youngsters aged between 5 and 16 to develop the core bike skills (on and off-road) for safe and fast bike riding, aimed at getting them to try racing. We are very proud to say that a dozen of our juniors have raced criteriums and cyclocross in their first year with us - thank you to all our juniors for their enthusiasm and support this year!
Family fun rides
The Family Fun Rides also continued in 2015 once a month throughout the spring and summer with good turnouts for all the rides held on trails in the New Forest. The Christmas fun ride last week in particular had a fantastic turnout - attracting over 50 riders! We look forward to more family rides in 2016 from Easter onwards.
2016 plans
In 2016 we'd like to grow our Youth Group further and hopefully get more potential coaches and family ride helpers involved, so if you think you can help and would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch! With the cyclocross season drawing to a close in February, we will be moving our coaching focus back to the road for the spring from March and hope to move our road sessions to a larger venue with a view to go-ride racing so watch this space! :)
Reindeer at 2015's last youth coaching session
Our last youth cyclocross coaching session of the year, held before Christmas in mid December was a LOT of fun! Focusing on group ride skills for our session, what better way than getting our juniors to dress as reindeer and practice for Santa's big sleigh pull on Christmas Eve?
We'd like to thank you all our juniors (and reindeer) for their enthusiasm and support this year - here's to a great 2016!
"53 Years of Cyclo-Climbing" - Clubroom Slide Show 19.1.2016
At the Clubroom on Tuesday, 19th January 2016, a slide show not to be missed! Bob Damper has toured in many parts of the world and recorded climbs both famous and not-so-famous on film and slide. Starts at 8.15pm - come and join us.
Wessex Cyclocross League Round 11, Fareham, 13 Dec 2015
It was another ridiculously warm day for December 2015 this Sunday for the first of two Fareham Wheeler’s events at Fairthorne Manor, Botley for a well-liked, technical but tough course. The ground was mostly well drained featuring grippy grass meadows with some extremely boggy exceptions and a hillside wooded section full of sloppy mud on the fairly long 1.4 mile course that meant a lot of action in the pits for bike changes.
In the senior race, Tom Budden started on the front row of the grid but was beset by problems with a slow clip-in before powering back to 7th place when disaster struck on lap two and a broken mech put him out of the race. This left Tobie Charlton as top Sotonia senior (in a season’s PB of 18th place) who relished the extended technical running sections. Phil Godfrey was 27th, Ben Scott-Munden 31st and Niels Langhout 33rd. In the V40 race, Jez Hart finished 22nd in his best result of the season so far after a tangle with the course tape denied a top 20 place. The V50 race featured John Phillips (26th and another season’s PB) and Simon Fitzjohn (35th).
For the womens race, Gemma Wilks returned to action with 12th place overall and 7th senior woman, and our most successful rider of the day - well done Gemma!
We fielded two of our juniors in the U12 race - George Connell and Loius Kirk who were closely matched throughout, George eventually coming out the better of the two.
Thanks to everyone who came to support and help in the pits to keep riders going. Next race is Crabwood CC’s Geoff Shergold Memorial Cross at Southampton Sports Centre on January 3rd, so Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year!
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Tom riding high at Sparsholt (Wessex CX League Round 7, VC Venta, 1.11.2015)
Tom Budden continued his fine run of form with a brilliant top five performance for Sotonia in the senior race at Sparsholt for round 7 of the Wessex Cyclocross league last Sunday. Foggy weather at Sparsholt College threw up some challenging conditions and first real mud of the season, using the grass fields, bankings and tricky off camber turns on an excellent cross course that made racing difficult for some.
The senior race saw a great turnout of six Sotonia riders take the line - Tom Budden, Phil Wilks, Phil Godfrey, Tobie Charlton, Vytas Jakimavicius and Niels Langhout. Niels and Phil Wilks both had great starts but a tangle with the course tape left Niels at the back of the field, he recovered well to finish 37 of 50 riders. By the end of lap one, Tom was right at home in the sloppy conditions and sitting in second place behind Jody Crawforth (Hargroves Cycles). Tom held his top 3 position for most of the race until a dropped chain allowed Matt Macdonald (EVR) to pass, with Tom finishing in fourth place! Phil Wilks battled on with Tobie to 19th and 22nd then Phil Godfrey in (36th) and Vytas (37th).
First race of the day was the under 12s with George Connell showing some real determination. In the field of 67 v50 racers, we had Mike Mclachlan (59th) and new member Simon Fitzjohn (43rd). The Vets 40 race saw Jez Hart and Phil Connell team up again. Phil was unfortunate to suffer a mechanical that meant he had to run the last lap to finish the race. Jez also shipped his chain in the latter stages and despite losing a couple of places, finished 23rd of 79 starters.
We're really looking forward to our own race event, sponsored by Hansford Cycles at Southampton Sports Centre on Sunday November 15th. Hope to see you all there! You can enter online here.
Sotonia Autumn Hill Climb results - 11 October 2015
Well done to Jonathan Hall, top club finisher in the Sotonia CC Autumn Hill Climb at Dean Hill.
| Position | Name | Club | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Double | VC Venta | 2.04 |
| 2 | Thom Hayward | VC Venta | 2.09 |
| 3 | Andrew Pickett | Eden Veranda | 2.16 |
| 4 | Jonathan Hall | Sotonia CC | 2.16 |
| 5 | Sam Malcolm | VC Venta | 2.17 |
| 6 | Lewis Martin | Eden Veranda | 2.20 |
| 7 | Paul Ransom | Sotonia CC | 2.32 |
| 8 | Brendan Drewett | Fareham Wheelers | 2.32 |
| 9 | Tom Budden | Sotonia CC | 2.35 |
| 10 | Ben Scott Munden | Sotonia CC | 2.39 |
| 11 | Rich Stephens | Sotonia CC | 2.41 |
| 12 | Jez Hart | Sotonia CC | 2.42 |
| 13 | David Baxter | Sotonia CC | 2.45 |
| 14 | Red Walters | Sotonia CC | 2.51 |
| 15 | Oliver Bratchell | VC Venta | 2.52 |
| 16 | Sam Kushner | Sotonia CC | 2.57 |
| 17 | Joffrey Carlier | Sotonia CC | 3.01 |
| 18 | Derek Jennings | Sotonia CC | 3.25 |
| 19 | Andrew Deverill | Sotonia CC | 3.29 |
| 20 | Mary Corbett | Sotonia CC | 4.50 |
Many thanks to the volunteers:
Timekeepers: Dave Crocker, Martin Napier
Pusher off: Dave Davenport
Organiser: Martin Ward
Marshalls: Jon Chapman, Colin Crocker
Result taker/recorder: Ian Stewart.