Felt Colbornes Team

Felt – Colbornes Cycling Team

This weekend saw the launch and start to a successful 2010 racing season for the Felt Colbornes Cycling Team. Colbornes Group hosted the event at their Camberley Audi HQ, an evening of drinks, cake and men in lycra.

Colbornes Group, with Audi, VW and Skoda dealerships in Guildford, Basingstoke, Camberley, Walton and Woking, have joined forces with Saddleback Ltd, importers of Felt Bicycles, SRAM, Zipp, Castelli, Vredestein and Accerlerade, Roadwheel.co.uk of Fleet and Tiger Communications (Tigercomms.com) to create and support a UK cycling team who will target the UK’s elite racing calendar.

The Racing team have been well tooled for the job, Colbornes Group have supplied and brand new Skoda Octavia Estate car for support in the Premier racing events. Saddleback Ltd has supplied the team, with Felt AR1 bicycles custom specified.

With this additional support the team has been able to add to the rider line up and bring in some real firepower to ensure the team is one of the most competitive on the UK circuit.

The Team Line up:

Justin Hoy – E    Richard Mardle – 1st    Tim Elverson – E    John Wager – E   Lee Smith – E   Duncan Jamieson – 1st   Pete Wager – 1st   Tom Smith – E   James Taylor – 1st   David Curtis’Whitfield – 2nd   Ian Legg – E   Gary Clark – 2nd

Justin Hoy (Rider and Manager) “We would all like to thank our sponsor for which this otherwise wouldn’t be possible, the team and the 2010 calendar is an exciting one, not just for the results we will achieve, but for Cycling as a whole. The profile cycling and racing in the UK has increased over the past couple of years and thanks to this, cycling has become a lot more media friendly. With out this, the level of support available today wouldn’t be about. For the Felt Colbornes Racing Team, 2010 will be a fast one!”

To follow or support the progress of the Felt Colbornes log onto Feltracing.co.uk or pop into any Colbornes Dealership.

Saturday the 15th saw the coming together of the Big Dog’s of Cycling. Magnus Backstead,  Yanto Barker and the Big Dog Himself….Me! For the Brighton Big Dog Mountain bike race.

Pairing up with the local Caravan expert of the Cycling world, Paul Hopkins of BMV Leisure….plug… We competed in the 6hr Pair. The course was excellent, great climbing, amazing single track and dry! With an MTB Jumble from Retro bike, cakes and propercoffee the event was a true mountain bike festival with a great atmosphere.

The Race! Paul started and came through in 2ndplace not far down off 1st. We pushed on with one lap on, one lap off for the duration, taking the lead on lap two and building on it. We finished 1st and just missed out on clocking up another lap come the finish….a great day out. We cleaned up, packed up and got some chicken from the Barbecue before the prize presentation. A great effort for the ceremony, podium girls, goodie bags and sparkly stuff, you had to make the most of it! Also over the course of the day, I picked up the prize for thr fastest lap and received a very nice model sterling engine which has kept the office amused this week and the kettle on permanent tea duty! 

So, rosette in hand, I am now the official “Big Dog” of Brighton….. Life’s complete.

Will deffinatly return next year: http://www.brightonbigdog.com/

With the speed in which times seems to tick of late, it feels like I’ve been racing and living at 100mph… Where do I start!

The 27th of June, a sunny Saturday morning, in a peaceful part of the new forest, bliss… Then the gun went! Round four of the national Mountain bike series was a go…. Seven laps of the fast, dry course entertained. With a total of 5 SIS smart gels my rocket fueled performance stunned even me! Pushing to the line and finishing 6th, a great result! UCI points and cash to boot!

It’s all about preparation…apparently! The Toucham House Grand Prix road race on the 2ndof August was on the back of an already long weekend of training….in vino consumption! Justin, John, Lee and myself traveled down to Canterbury looking to contend for the £1000 1st place prize. With a pot like that though, so had most of the other “Big Guns” of the UK scene. The Race was punchy from the start, with a great rolling course wand only two little climbs, the laps felt as if the course had more negative flat that up. Perfect! We had some guys in all the breaks, while I sat comfortable in the bunch trying to shake the hang over and eating most of my energy products, well, Haribo. Into the last 20 miles I started to feel fruity and made my way to the front of the pack, just in time to make it into a break, the break! working hard we opened some healthy time into the pack, with the help of the remain (Just Justin, the others felt tired and pulled out!) felt boys covering, the break held! Coming to the line my legs broken, cramp was due any moment, turning left into the finishing climb it struck me down. I pulled myself up over the climb to the finish holding 11th…out of an eleven man break….nice. Then off to Starbucks!

Friday night saw the penultimate round (3) of the Leisure Lakes Bikes Circuit Series at the Cheltenham racecourse. As ever, a large and enthusiastic crowd had gathered for an evening of top class cycle racing at the prestigious venue. The racing was fast, at speeds over 30mph and the cash sprints (primes) throughout the event quickly split the race apart. 

David, Richard and Duncan turned up in force to assist Duncan for the series win as points thus far meant series standings where tight to say the least! Duncan locked in with rising star Perry Bowater. 

Richard proved invaluable right from the start. After only five minutes of racing, he put in a strong attack on the ascent to the finish area. The remaining peloton, which numbered 40 riders in total, watched each other nervously as Richard quickly established a good lead but the gap produced was closed once Richard sat up when he lost one of his glasses lenses. This strong move off the front forced Bowater to chase, Jamieson, of course, marked this move!

Duncan then attacked taking Perry with him, the two worked together to open a large gap while the remain riders moves where marked by Richard and David. Three quarters into the racing and Richard attacked off the front to make the break to Perry and Duncan, picking up a last minute prime for his efforts. Now there where three!

Behind, the remaining peloton started to fragment as the chasers attempted to bridge the gap. Oliver Graham (Arctic Premier), Simon Burgess (Severn RC) and Adrian Bird (Team Echelon-Spiuk) were all aggressive attackers on the tough hill to the finish. David Curtis-Whitfield played a great marshalling role on the front of the peloton in order to make sure that his teammates, who were now leading, were not caught. Incidentally, the hill had been nicknamed by the commentator as ‘Landry Hill’ after Phil Landry, manager of Leisure Lakes, who’s shop sponsor’s the race series.

With only one lap remaining, Richard started to pushing the pace to lead the Duncan to the line, moving into the finish line hill, Richard swung out to give Duncan the clear path. At this point Perry took a cleaner line gaining a few meters which Duncan pushed hard to close. All the way to the line it was open, Perry taking the win by a few inches! Teammate Richard took third.

Race 3 – Cheltenham Racecourse
1 Perry Bowater (CC Giro)
2 Duncan Jamieson (Felt Racing)
3 Richard Mardle (Felt Racing)
4 Oliver Graham (Arctic Premier)
5 Simon Burgess (Severn RC)
6 David Curtis-Whitfield (Felt Racing)
7 Adrian Bird (Team Echelon-Spiuk)
8 Ewan McDonald (Epic Cycles-Viner RT)
9 Daniel Bill (Team Echelon-Spiuk)
10 Mark Williams (Python Racing)

Senior Result:

After a long day Saturday racing and dying many times over in the round three of the National Cross Country series, Sunday held the event I had my eyes set on. The National Marathon Championships!

With the best weekends weather we’ve seen all year, the sun shin soaked course at the legendary South Wales Margam Park was dry, fast and HOT!

The gun went at 10am and lap one went quickly with a group of 15 riders pushing on completing the first lap in 59 minutes. This course was all about climbing! We had four laps to cover and I knew that the race would come down to who paced well and drank well. Lap two and three went quickly lapping again at 59mins and 1hr 01min, everything happened on lap four. Oli pushing the pace hard at the end of lap three and squeezed out the remaining guys holding on including myself, cramp and burn had become the new battle. Holding onto my pace I swept in to take 6th place.

100KM Champs Male
1 Oli Beckingsale Giant – 4 laps in 03:48:05
2 Paul Oldham Hope Factory Racing – 4 laps in 03:53:16
3 Ian Bibby Team Halfords – 4 laps in 03:58:17
4 Jonathan Pugh Clee Cycles Kcnc High 5 – 4 laps in 04:01:40
5 Ross Creber – 4 laps in 04:02:20
6 Richard Mardle Felt Racing – 4 laps in 04:11:42

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/mtb/EventReports2009/20090531_british_marathon_champs.asp

Round Two of the  British Mountain Bike Series took place at Dalby Forest in the Yorkshire Moors, supported by Felt Bicycles and Saddleback Ltd. A 5hr road trip to the venue meant many Service station stops to take in the local Coffee Brew… Ok, so Costa Services only for anyone that knows me…..

The new course at Dalby, put together to show the UCI that the venue was more than worthy of hoisting a World Cup Cross Country event in the near future. Practicing on the Saturday, the long drive up had soon been forgotten about as i man handle my Felt RXC through the technical challenges that had been laid on. The Course was brilliant!

After finding our way down to Whitby for sea side rest and dinner, sleep was bliss and I passed out. Early morning wake up! Breakfast call for 8:30 was just rude, but it meant getting enough time in to watch the film “Step brothers” before making our way back to the venue…. Reccomended to anyone that hasn’t seen it!

12:30 start, lining up in 23rd place on the grid, I felt comfortably relaxed. Knowing that the last Mountain bike race I competed in was almost a year previous, the plan was to start steady and build speed. The technical side of the course was really entertaining and it split even the Elite guys as mixed abilities shined through. 5 laps of the course seem civilised, but once into the second lap I was happy that we only had 5. With 192 meters of climbing in such a short course I found myself permanently at threshold. At the start of the last lap, with the help of coke and SIS Smart gels I went for broke, attacking every part of the course and enjoying that feel of speed. Slowly closing gaps between riders spread out over the course I road into 22 place.

I would like to say a big thank you to Martyn Salt for the hard work he put in for such a great event. Joolze Diamond for the great banter and amazing images (Images within report).

http://www.joolzedymond.com/

http://www.britishxc.co.uk/

Thursday the 7th looked dull, with clouds drowning out the sun and light showers keeping to ground damp. Castle Combe motor racing circuit, renowned for its skid pan qualities in the wet, was an entertaining thought. David and Myself made the venture across, suckers for any type of racing. 7:30pm kick off, grey clouds threatening to soak the event, it kicked off.

An impressively large turn out of over 80 riders meant that from the gun attacks and breaks where forced and chased. With a high quality field, pushing for a bunch sprint was going to be hard. David was racing with the 4th cat field and pushing the pace, he made hard work for all on his tail. I on the other hand was having to raise my pain threshold to new highs, hanging on to every break i could, which finally paid off in the last few laps. Six riders including myself pushed hard to create a gap. Four laps from the flag the pace went ballistic! That elastic was sure to break and with two laps to go, snap! With the time gap I had to push myself in a solo mission to keep the bunch off my tail, finally finishing just behind the lead bunch after some cat and mousing.

1st  James Stewart  Kinesis  
2nd  Ben Luckwell  Sports Beans/Wilier 
3rd  Jon Pain  VC Montpelier 
4th  Rhys Lloyd  Rapha-Condor 
5th  Freddy Johanssen Magnus Maximus 
6th  Richard Mardle Felt Racing  
7th  Darren Lapthorne Rapha-Condor  
8th   Grant Bayton  Sports Beans/Wilier 
9th  Carl Wallace  Newport Olympic 
10th  Andrew Magnier Planet X  

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/roa/EventReports2009/20090507_castle_combe_summer_series.asp

Ready to go!

AR2….Speed Machine!

Bank Holiday Weekend and in true tradition, rain! Though, fortunately just on Good Friday.

Wet, Cold and a large field lined up for Good Friday event. 72km around the Classic Motor racing circuit in the wet, seemed fairly easy, but from the gun it was an ice rink adventure, every corner should have been sidelined by Judges ready to score style and execution.

Into the race it was soon obvious that no one was going to ride away in the weather conditions, it didn’t mean we couldn’t try, well, it was better than riding someones power shower wheel.

Once the Cold had really set in you could see Justin and John where looking really happy and wishing for this short race to be over so they could tuck into some mini Eggs…. Sprinting for the line, Justin came in 5th with a pro style lead out from John.

British Cycling Report – http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/roa/EventReports2009/20090411_castle_combe_easter.asp

Full support and cheers from the office guys at Saddleback was much appreciated.