Following a mostly lovely July, August has arrived warm, damp and windy, often all at the same time. The Tour de France is over for another year and what a cracker it was too. We have another Prime Minister, but we will steer clears of politics in this club. What will you do with that extra hour each evening with no tour highlights to catch up on? We hope this newsletter will inform you on what club members have been up to and what is coming next.
Social News
The club is planning a social treasure hunt ride and BBQ at the Sports Club on the August bank holiday. See Club BBQ and Treasure Hunt for more details and booking information. Look forward to seeing you there with the family.
National 24h time trial
Paul Winchcombe, Robbie Richardson and Jamie Richardson-Paige completed the national 24h time-trial over the weekend of 20th July. Not only did they set amazing personal distances of 413, 416 and 390 miles respectively, they achieved 3rd best placed team. Read their stories here: National RTTC 24 Hour Time Trial. Amazing effort guys.
Transcontinental 2019
Friend of the club, occasional chain ganger and Boxing Day Imber ride regular, Becky Waters is currently completing this years Transcontinental race which started in Burgas, Bulgaria and finishes in Brest in Brittany, France. That is over 4000km!!! As of the evening of Saturday 20th August, Becky is approaching Tour in France. Her progress can be followed here: Track Rebecca Waters The club wishes you a safe completion of this epic event.
This years winner was an amazing ride from 24 year old, Fiona Kolbinger who finished on Tuesday 6th of August 2019 taking 10 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes to complete the event. Read more about Fiona from our friends at road.cc Fiona Kolbinger winner.
Audax News
Sticking close to Brest, France, we have three club members undertaking the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris event which starts 18th August. Read more about the qualifying road to PBP at article here: Audax season update and PBP. Best of luck to Sheni Jiwa, Rob Duncumb and James Bradbury.
Challenge rides
The Fish ‘n’ Chips ride took place on 20th July. Very strong headwinds meant tired bodies arriving in Weston. The headwind turned into a tailwind home and at over 130 miles and over 7000 feet of climbing, this was a challenge. Well done to all those who completed it including a couple we know of who did it on the Sunday DIY.
Sheni’s report was slightly less colourful than Rachaels. Great turnout of 22 Wheelers. A challenging ride out to Weston-super-Mare in the morning. The dark skies and headwind on the coast made it less fun, but the sun came out to shine at Weston. Nice tailwind blew us home after that. Good riding with our little group including young Toby, aged 12 completing his first century+ ride!
Updated 11/08/2019. Yesterday was the next challenge ride “Round the Block” up to Tewkesbury and back via Forrest of Dean and Chepstow. Here is Sheni’s report. Just 4 of us today after others were probably put off by the weather forecast. Glad we went ahead though. Tailwinds and only light rain had us rolling into Tewkesbury in record time. The new lanesy route into Newent was excellent with a nice 20%er. The forest sheltered us from the worst of the wind. Excellent lunch stop at the Hopewell Colliery Café, which is now my new favourite café. Nice to see St Briavels castle on the route this year. Sketchy descent to Brockweir with added tree and rain washed debris to watch out for, but good controlled riding had everyone down safely. Traditional stop at the Filling Station Café for ice cream. Then tailwinds over the Severn Bridge and all the way home. That’s also my last PBP training ride, very happy with that
Upcoming challenge ride:
- Ups ‘n’ Downs. 200km – Saturday 7th September. Click here for more details
Time-trial racing
The open and club time-trial events continues with the Wednesday night time-trial series and the competition for the club trophies by participation in other open events. See https://www.chippenhamwheelers.org/racing/2019-time-trial-page/ for details of events and results. Thanks to both organisers, marshals and other helpers for all these events.
COACHING NEWS
Coaching sessions at Castle Combe continue to be working well, usually with enough riders to form 3 solid groups – great news for anyone wanting to group riding skills, and also for those looking to progress. Aim is to be controlled and steady and finish the hour on the tired side of life. Come and join us every Tuesday from 6.30-7.30pm.
Don’t forget the circuit opens at 5.30pm, a brilliant time to warm-up those legs before the session starts. Click here to see the Coaching plan.
