All Blog Posts (49)

Distance, Average Speed, Altitude Gained etc,

As an “Old Git” who’s been cycling for ever I have found myself tempted to participate in the usual “Old Git” writings. At a certain age one has an obligation to produce a catalogue of ones life long cycling achievements and to produce charts proving that when back in the days of steel frames, you held a club Time Trial record that was closer to the National Competition record (at the time) than any present day records. Also you can be…

Only 3 Avanti riders attended the Thursday evening TT at East Peckham, Fast times were available, we have slipped back to 3rd place, despite our excellent turnout and results the previous week at The Isle of Grain. 

I thought you maybe interested to hear a couple of my race reports from cyclopark and hillingdon. One old and one new.

My tuesday ritual of the Hillingdon E123 evening series continued on the 21st May. I have done all but one this year.

The race started fast with the Elites animating things on the first lap and we were full gas for 3 or 4 laps. Starting at the back of the field didnt help (broke racing rule 101 there for racing with higher categories in how to…

No club TT so rather than spend the evening in front of the TV watching the cycling, decided to try Cyclopark again. But this time with a goal of trying to be a bit more active and sitting up towards the front of the race.

Velo Medway were present in numbers and started attacking off the front on also every lap not wanting to miss out jump across to every attack, but for some reason every time I bridged, the other breakaway rider didn't want to work and the bunch soon caught…

The Old Lie

Bent double like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting lanes we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to ride.

Everyone rode asleep. Some had lost their way

But rode on , mud spattered . All went slow, all blind,

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of traffic that swept close by.

Hole! Hole! Quick, lads!- A blind…

Please add any Sportives your are notified of.

Daz

Veterans Sessions every Friday between 10am to Midday, running up to 27th Decemebr 2013

see there web site for details http://www.cyclopark.com/

The opening 2013 Interclub Time Trial on the  Subundrige course had an excellent  turnout. 30 riders faced the clock, and the bitterly cold weather, including light snow showers for the duration of the event. 

Avanti's Jonathan Harris ignored the conditions to post the winning time, thus securing another win to add to his tally for this season so far.

Full results will be published later, when released by the organising club, Sydenham Wheelers. Dave…

Reference source.

Pacos is the plural of Paco.

Cocaine paste

, also known as coca paste, paco, pasta base or basuco in South America, short for pasta de cocaína (cocaine paste) or pasta base de cocaína (PBC, cocaine base paste), is a…

Miguel Pacos dos Llama

Whilst reading through some Catford Club Gazettes that I had found whilst clearing out some old junk in our spare room, I became inspired to look for an Avanti hero to match the notorious Liph Sned.Who? 'you know the Sneb'.

“A Liph Sneb Story”

Not too many years ago a certain rider from around these parts was out walking with his wife in the village of Chislehurst - a little way in front of him people were crossing to the other side…

As some of you will know, I ran a survey of the 1,000 cyclists who entered the 2013 KK. I run surveys for others all the time in business, and I have NEVER had such a high rate of response, NOR such overwhelmingly positive ratings! This was a confidential survey, and these are notorious for endless small gripes, even if people are fairly happy overall. Not in this case.....the feedback is simply glowing.

I attach some graphical and statistical information from the…

Summary of History Time Line :

1100 - 1800: The land was marshy meadow land used as summer grazing by local farmers. Two water Mills on the branch of the Lea originally run by the Knight Temples hence the Temple Mills lane. The Mill passed out of the Temples control but mills remained until final closer in 1850.

1850 - 1900: Increased industrialisation in the area around the Eastway site after the London Board of Works band polluting…

When we came up with a name for the club it was thought that G.S. Avanti gave the club a continental sporty image, no one had thought that there might be any historic cycling connection in the name.But!  as a bit of a collector of irrelevant facts I am always looking for new bits of trivia, and low and behold whilst reading John Foot's "Pedalare Pedalare" a history of Italian Cycling, there its was Avanti.  

During the early days of cycling in Italy the cyclist became involved in the…

I'll keep this relatively brief, as I've submitted an article to a cycling website, which will hopefully be published in the next week or so.

Ironbike is the hardest thing I have ever done by an enormous margin. Trying to put in to words how hard it was is a challenge in itself, because even the raw stats don't do it justice...

Take the toughest day you've ever had on the bike. Add a bit more. Then get up and do it all again over the following six days. That…

As I was supposed to be working today I was on site for the vet champs I took an hour off to ride. Big mistake punctured warming up changed wheel in time to start. As per usual with these event the top guns, who one never sees at the bread and butter races,turn out and its a different ball game.They hit the front straight from the off and I found myself struggling at the rear, after a desperate few laps I was blown out of the lead pack only to find no bunch to drop back too only ones and…

 I have just heard thec sad news that Berni Fosker has lost his battle with cancer. Berni was a member of the Catford CC and his son Geoff was a member of GS Avanti.

Sunday I raced the UK Cross Country Marathon (XCM) Championships up in Selkirk in the Scottish borders.

The list of starters had come out a few days before and was a bit of an eye-opener. It was like a ‘who’s who’ of UK mountain biking with a list of elite XC and XCM racers (up to UCI World Cup level), 12 and 24 hour national champions, the last three winners of the Kielder 100 and a certain Dan Fleeman (ex-Cervélo Test Team).

The race was held in parallel…

Wednesday I managed to get a ride in the last of the Merchant Bankers Wednesday afternoon series at Hog Hill.I managed to get a ride in the first of the series then the weather returned to winter and remendial work on the circuit ment I had second thoughts about riding two of the events.Despite this I was placed second in the series I was so despondent about riding over the last month I didn't do my sums before starting and missed out on a win by one point. Bob Graves has joined me over the…

Went out for a quick ride today (couldn't spend my whole paternity leave changing nappies) and thought I should mention Kent have been busy resurfacing roads or, more accurately, dumping loose gravel on them. Parts of the road after you've gone through Plaxtol and the bit near Hadlow Hall are a bit of a death trap. Take care if you're out that way and it rains on Sunday.

As an aside, I was told that bikes aren't allowed inside Brookside garden centre although they'd let me off…

I came across this site while it was in beta a while back, and have been using it quite a bit since then. Overall, it's a great bit of kit, and it's really made turbo sessions far more bearable. There are a whole host of workouts you can choose from already plus I think the guys who…