King Of The Downs - 27 may

An absolute scorcher of a day for our top sportive the Evans 'King Of The Down's '.

This is a really hard route of 53 miles with 5 major climbs. We stayed together for a little way but it wasn't long before myself and Chris were dropped by the others. I thought I would be able to drop Chris and ride on my own in no mans land but as it happened Chris was riding strongly and even without clip ons Chris and I were an even match and stayed together throughout the whole ride. Malcolm was the strongest rider and had talked about doing the 110 mile route before the start (although at the end he was glad just to do the 56 miler). John was riding really well and got the end ahead of Paul K who was suffering a little with the heat. For every up there is a down and some of the descents were a bit hairy with narrow gravelly roads. We heard later that one rider had lost it on a decent and hit the ground face first (ouch!), ending up being taken to hospital in an ambulance. I was dreading the hill called Combe Bottom but in the end it was Ranmore Common hill that proved to be the hardest. Although it was almost as expensive to enter as last weeks Eastbourne sportive we all thought it was better value for money with porridge and hot drinks at the start and pasta and hot drinks at the end. The goody bad was also pretty good with a cap, 5 energy powders/gels and a very useful wide necked water bottle. We will definitely be back next year.

S.C

53 miles 14.9 Av

25 May- last Friday chaingang

A beautiful way to end the friday chaingang season with superb warm weather and an excellent turnout. As well as the Friday regulars we had John M and Simon N riding with us. John hasn't had the best experiances with red lights and strangely we got caught by the red lights at the train crossing in rye as well as on the roadworks up towards Broadoak. To celebrate the end of the seaon we went down to Bar Bla (meeting up with Chris P and Colin) for a few drinks and a kebab but never made it to the kebab house, tumbling out of the bar at about midnight. Thanks to all who came to any of the Friday chaingangs this season, making it our best attended ever. The season starts up again on the first Friday of september when it will be renamed the 'Friday Fitness Ride', as it is not really a chaingang in the purest sense. Now the Friday chaingang has finished we shall start the Bewl water off road season, meeting at Bewl bridge at 6;30 on fridays for two circuits of Bewl.

S.C

Ninfield TT, Joe rides The Nationals And John C Wins At Eastbourne Festival

A great turn out or 20 riders last night for the Ninfield circuit and it would have been 21 had Malcolm not punctured on his way riding out.

Fresh from equal tenth place in Sunday's RTTC National 10 mile Championships Pete Tadros did not quite sprint hard enough (!) for the line and did the 14.1 miles in 30.00. I am pretty sure his ride of 29.50 last year was the only time he has broken 30 minutes, from memory no one else has got near apart from the French "semi-pro" who was deflated when Pete took 29 seconds out of him last year.

Joe Jenner rode the National Junior Championships in the morning before Pete's ride and took 33rd place in cold drizzly miserable conditions. Last night he took almost two minutes off his PB for Ninfield.

Marc Townsend (33.24) won the club event ahead of Ivan Johnson (34.16) finally back on gears and Simon Newell (36.27 PB).

Second fastest time of the night was Rover John Cordner (32.54) fresh from winning the Eastbourne Cycling Festival 4th Cat Criterium on Sunday. A closed road 750m L shaped circuit just below the Grand Hotel was an excellent improvement on last year's circuit which went up South Cliff. At the second prime John's race almost came to an end after the first across the line had cut in and almost forced him into the barriers, he was rightly relegated to give John the prime. John kept in the first 4 or 5 riders for the race and had the legs to take the sprint. John credits the Hastings chain gang with giving him some tough winter training suited for the turn of speed needed road racing and now goes up to third Cat.

Please see attached table of times. Of the 11 riders who rode last week 9 were quicker this week, it was a good sunny dry and warm evening with light winds.

Ninfield			2010	2011	16/5	23/5	2012
Pete	Tadros	InGr		29.50	30.25	30.00	30.00
John	Cordner	E/R			35.48	32.54	32.54
Marc	Towns’d				34.46	33.24	33.24
Ivan	Johnson		35.04	33.19	36.30	34.16	34.16
Slavomir	Giecvic?	E/R			35.54		35.54
Malcolm	Daly		39.30	37.04	36.05		36.05
Simon	Newell		37.43	36.32	37.34	36.27	36.27
Dan	Henchy	PBS				36.41	36.41
Barny	Willard	InGr				36.42	36.42
Chris	Watson		35.06	38.15		37.28	37.28
Kevin	Burton	E/R	37.58	37.18		37.32	37.32
Joe	Jenner	J16		39.35		37.49	37.49
Dave	Connor					39.52	39.52
Simon	Grogan		39.25	38.27		40.11	40.11
Jay	Miles		39.00	40.20	40.57	40.14	40.14
Greg	Blackwell		39.54	39.16	42.03	40.33	40.33
Bob	Coleman	Eps	39.55	39.26	42.10	40.44	40.44
Tim	Miles		40.54	40.23		40.48	40.48
Jon	Stainsby					41.05	41.05
Dan	Hanlon		39.09	44.27	41.14		41.14
Steve	Curtis		43.03	41.40	44.45	42.46	42.46
Steve	Denny				45.07		45.07
Chris	Parker		44.08	44.20	45.15	45.53	45.15
Derek	Millgate			43.30	45.56	46.16	45.56
Nic	Baldo	PBS		30.19
Max	Norrell	Giant	38.22	34.22
Mark	Brittle		35.53	35.21
Adam	Ford	E/R		36.17
Jon	Molton		36.51	36.21
Chris	Chapman		35.22	37.32
Nick	Neale			38.16
Simon	Tyler			38.19
Adrian	Marshall			40.05
Duncan	Feathers			41.35
Wil	Francis	J15		45.08
Simon	Jamroz			45.11
Joshua	Varney	TT	37.09
Ian	Hendry		37.15
Dave	Dixon		39.34
Trevor	Jones		40.58