All Blog Posts (26)

Does anyone know of a good local mechanic.Bearings seem to be playing up on my chorus 10 speed.

Shaun McKeown got a bronze medal in the C1 Kilometre time trial at the Para track world champs in Los Angeles.

Well done Shaun. 

Thoughts on Riding in the Snow.

We thought we where going to get away with it this year a winter with out the interruption of snow, then it happened with vengeance on Saturday night. We knew it was coming, but still it left us with the problem what do you do when you had mentally prepared yourself for a Sunday ride. Being an Old Git I have weathered years of cold, icy, snowy conditions. I am old enough to have lived through the two coldest winter of the last century 1947/8 and 1962/3…

Apologies fior the silly title, but I could not resist !.   This weekend has seen some of the coldest weather seen for quite some time, but its been a deep cold, and frosty, without much Ice.  I had planned to do the Kentish Killer G2 ride some time back, but had been defeated by the weather, so this was an opportunity to try again.

I went out on a 45 mile ride into the country on Saturday, so was reasonably confident that today would be similar, with little ice on the backroads.  …

I found these acounts of the three L'etapes I rode.

’ETAPE DU TOUR 2000

Sunday 9th July and months of preparation were over, we were on our way to France to ride the Carpentras to Mont Ventoux etape du tour(stage of the tour). That is Ian Soper, Pat Hayes, Simon Lumsdon and myself. Ian and Pat had ridden last years L’…

Sunday November 6th and I turned up at the Green just in time to see the tail end of Group 1 going off up the road. I went back to the Crown to find Jenny mustering her troops ready for a ride to Biggin Hill. That left Brian Bulmer and one other ride ( I forget names sorry ), he was making the usual noises about not been out for so weeks not fit etc. Roger turned up thus four of us left the Green heading on what was billed a mystery tour of Brian’s Kent . Not long into the ride and there was…

                                                The Last of the Summer Wine.

With the season coming to an end, Ciclos Uno put on a end of season LVRC series of six races at Hog Hill (The Last of the Summer Wine) so that us “old gits” could have a last fling. These events had to compete with the usual end of season National events the quality of the field varied from week to week if there was no big event on we had a hard race, other with 13 and 5 riders in second place with 5 points I…

Hi everyone

This weekend I am cycling 24^th Sep-28^th Sep Paris to London with the Metropolitan Police in aid of charity. The charities that we are supporting include Cancer Research UK ( Registered Charity 1089464) and Falcon wood Children’s Respite Centre ( Registered Charity 25577R) on a 50/50 basis .

I would be very grateful to anyone who would like to sponsor…

The weather websites had been predicting heavy rain all week and as I got up at 4:30am to the sound…

Since I last reported the activities of us older LVRC riders (Roger Hornsby and myself) we have had more success following on from Rogers silver in the regional champs. We have both been active at the Redbridge Cycling Centre riding the East London Velo evening events. Roger has again been the most successful…

Roger takes silver in LVRC region 9 Criterium Championship held at Hog Hill. Saturday 16th July Roger and myself where riding region 9 champs for the EFGH cats. After a fast start the field split into two,with nine of us forming a brake that managed to lap rest of the field. With eight laps to go we had lost two, leaving seven of us to battle out the finish it was at this point I cracked and lost contact riding the last few laps on my own. With three E cats in the brake this left me out of…

How to win a Club Run.



Over the years I have been riding, winning the Sunday club run is little recognized skill. As it is the most important aspect of club riding this is a pity. Despite having twice trained as a cycling coach, during my long association with the sport, none of the national cycling organisation have deemed this important aspect of racing to be included in their training manuals. They include time trial training, specialist track training and road race training but…

Sunday 12th December and I turned up at the Green ready to lead the club on what was billed ‘Some Thing Different’. I did not think many people would turn out as it was still very cold, the car park being like a skating ring. But there was a small group of faithful member waiting. Mick Farlla had two group1 members and four group2 members waiting for some thing different. (Sorry if I can’t remember names after all I am an old git) One of Mick’s group declined to join Mick instead joined us…

Sunday 28th November and it was freezing cold the roads didn’t look to bad at home so I set out to meet the club. I arrive at the Green and Mick Farlla and two more of group one were debating if the road would be to icy for a safe ride Mick persuaded them that a ride down the main road to Tonbridge would be safe. Mick tried to persuade me to go with them but Ian had arrived to take group 2 . We waved good by Mick and Co and waited for the rest of the club to turn up. After a while it was…

I had a go at the Hever Castle triathlon yesterday(25/09), it was the sprint version ( 400m swim - 20km bike and 4km run) which seemed quite achieveable. They said the water was 16 degrees, so thats not too cold is it? well it did feel pretty cold and after gasping for air, I did a bit of backstroke then breast stroke for the first 200metres before warming up a bit and doing the last 200m crawl. unsurprisingly there was a lot fewer people behind than infront…