Felt Colbornes Team

Friday, more racing, this time in Wales…..which was nice!

With an best of the crop for all of the Pro Continental Teams, this was set to be a speed freaks dream. Justin, Tim, Lee and Myself made the trip to battle it out with the best. 8pm kick off, all warmed up the first couple of laps where very civilised, then the big guns rolled through……BANG!

With a tight fast course that had a deadly little hairpin turn that felt like a stop start it was hard! We all hung in, one by one dropping the wheels like many others. I hung in until 40 mins until the front group just edged away 4 or 5 bikes lengths and for all I could give I could only hold that gap and not bring it back for the next 6 laps…..then BANG!

For what it is worth, it was bloody good fun! we all finished off with Fish and Chips and a long drive home……which was nice.

British Cycling Report

Racing in a late summers evening in any UK town centre is a great feeling, Guildford though, has a great edge about it. The Crowds and the riders have an epic event to encourage an atmosphere of a Belgium classic!

Justin, Lee, Tim and Myself Ricardo el mince alot made our way down for the 8pm Elite race, with Pete playing Team managed, suited and booted and Gary chief arse kicker and wheel man, the team presence was intense!

As the race kicked off up the cobbled high street into a long sweeping left down into a tight left up a narrow back street with pave then a tight left on to the cobbles and climbing for your life, all in 1.4km! ouch! I rolled through on the front pushing the first few laps before wanting to settle in for a rest….nope, no resting in this one. Hanging on for dear life as the pace went up. Wouter (Sigma sport) pushed in hard about 20 mins in and I went out the back, thankfully, so did most people, Wouter then went on to lap the field, legend and machine! Lee was our only man that stayed within fight distance of the main pack, I came off the rear and with the last 15 mins puncture the from tub, a quick wheel swap saw me back in the race with Lee and I tried to help and push on to get him back in contention. By the end of the race my legs felt great…..to late!

Zipp 303’s are an amazing wheelset! Justin and Myself road the event on these and the are compliant, responsive and so fast out of the corners. Not to mention, bomb proof!

Results

1 Wouter SYBRANDY (Sigma Sport/Specialized) E
2 Jody CRAWFORTH (Hargroves Cycles/Trant/Next/Scott/GSI) E
3 Phill SYKES (Sigma Sport/Specialized) E

12 Lee SMITH (Felt-Colbornes RT) E

20 Richard MARDLE (Felt-Colbornes RT) 1
21 Tim ELVERSON (Felt-Colbornes RT) E

The 51^st Wally Gimber Road Race, Tenterden by Tim “Sicknote” Elverson

With clearing rain and many teams well represented this was going to be a fast race, history says this race breaks early but the team had split opinions as with so many strong riders present it would be hard to make anything stick.

Tim decided it was his day to go down the road from neutralized, and then again and again until one worked.

Tim was away half way round the second lap (18miles in) in a four man break with an Orbea, Sigma and a Corley so a spread of the strong teams but never enough to last the distance then another four men came across the gap 2x Orbea riders, a Corley and a Cycle Premier. With the cycle premier rider in attendance all the big teams were present and the break moved away. Tim was always going to be out numbered by the teams with multiple riders but he fancied his chances at the finish with any of them.

The break extended its advantage out to 2 minutes but with the CyclePremier rider puncturing with 3 laps to go it completely changed the race. With no one in the break the Cycle Premier and Wyndy Milla teams each starting riding hard and Pete and John sat just behind for an armchair ride at this point. Justin was licking his lips at the thought of the break coming back for a bunch sprint and also to get a chance to try the mini mars bar in his back pocket.

Mean while at the front with 2 laps to go the inevitable was happening with Orbea and Corley taking it in turn to attack the break, none of them keen to take Tim to the finish. The combined efforts of Wouter and Tim were just about keeping it together but half way round the last lap the elastic finally broke with a Corley, 2x Orbea and Wouter getting clear. With no one prepared to help Tim had to do all the work himself and was finally pulled back with just under 3 of the 75 miles remaining.

Now it was time to activate Plan B, John and Pete went to the front  to put a big effort in to keep Justin out of trouble and maybe take the front four back, it got close and Justin took an easy Fifth only 100m back from the front four.

John and Pete had done a sterling job on the run in and unfortunately Lee and Tom had been taken out earlier in the race in a big crash caused by someone else so we could not stick any more firepower on the front. Fortunately Lee only has a bit of gravel rash and, if you believe Tom, he has broken every bone in his body but he may have a broken collarbone. (If so I can see a stem cap being moved on).

All in all we were well represented throughout the race and everybody knew Felt were there.

With Justin back trying to repeat his win from 2009 and six other riders to help him we were feeling confident at the start. This year the field was much stronger with Rapha, Wilier and Orbea fielding some quality riders.

The opening couple of laps were fairly steady with only the narrow lanes, swirling wind and constant attacks as everyone probed for weaknesses, it was at this point that Rapha decided to up the ante by putting all six riders on the front and promptly splitting the field to pieces.

Justin and I found ourselves just a few riders back and as sheltered as possible adn waited for the next round of hostilities to begin and with just over a lap to go the attacks were coming thick and fast. There was no time to look round and think too much just keep your head down and hope the rider in front didn’t let a wheel go.

And so with under a lap to I had my moment of clarity as I realised there were only 10 or so riders left at the front, up and over the final climb my legs were cramping and it took nearly 2 miles chasing to close a 30m gap to the remaining riders. Whilst they continued to attack each other I tried to recover enough for the final sprint, the long drag seemed to go on forever but I finally rolled across the line in 7th place.

To give that a little perspective the winner is an ex-Australian National Road Champion, I finished in front of the current British National Champion and I was the first rider over the line with a full time job.

Coming just 24 hours after getting back from Gran Canaria was always going to be a tough challenge for Warren, Justin and myself. After being delayed whilst the last of the ice melted Justin was one of the first to test his legs on the long and draggy Forestside climb. As a previous winner of this event he was never going to be given much leeway and was soon brought back.

 After another couple of laps of constant attacking I went clear over the top of the climb, when this was pulled back on the run in to Rowlands Castle I went again and stayed away to the bottom of the main climb. At this point I was thankful of Justin’s push to get me back up to speed, a hollow eyed stare was all I could manage by way of a thank you.

The field threatened to split many times in the next few laps and it was only the intervention of a group of horses with 5km to go that finally worked. Whilst some chose to attack at this point a horse running alongside the bunch and then throwing it’s rider was enough to see us watching the race disappear up the road. Perhaps not the finish we expected but we live to fight another day!

Our race programme up to April now includes:

 1st March – Severn Bridge Road Race – sponsored by Saddleback so expect a good showing here.

 8th March – Jock Wadley Memorial Road Race

14th March – Spring Chicken Road Race – one of my favourite courses and to be used for the National TT in September.

15th March -Wally Gimber Road Race – A South East Classic with a great course.

22nd March – High Wycombe CC Road Race

29th March – Peter Young Memorial Road Race

5th April – Cycle Kingdom Classic

All photos courtesy of Graham Robins (www.grahamrobins.net)

With such bad weather back in the UK it has been a perfect time to accumulate some (more) warm weather miles with the team. It was also a great oppurtunity to try out our new Felt F3SL bikes, Castelli clothing, Zipp wheels, bars and stems and super stiff Bont shoes. The demanding terrain made for some great rides with long twisting climbs and some really fast descents, a perfect testing ground for the new kit.

The evenings were spent planning our season, full details to follow shortly. In the meantime Warren, Justin and myself are looking forward to the traditional UK season opener at Perfs. Fingers crossed that the weather improves enough for it to go ahead.

With the season drawing to a close the National TT Champs was the last big race for the three of us.

Tim and I had headed up the day before for a ride round the course, only to find part of it under water and the wind and rain didn’t make it anymore inviting. We retreated to the hotel car park where we managed to get a short turbo session in to the amusement of the other guests.

 Getting up early the next morning the rain had cleared, the wind had dropped and the course had been shortened. This didn’t make it any easier as the course was over some rough, twisty roads with a couple of nasty climbs before a long descent back to the start/ finish area.

I was off first and it seemed to take all of the first lap to get warmed up, the second lap felt much better. As I slowed after the finish line Tim was heading out to the start so between breaths I gave him  a rundown on what to expect. 

Justin was off next and, by the time I’d changed, was flying through to start his second lap. Tim followed a few minutes later whilst I headed for the village hall and a deserved tea and piece of cake!

Master A   
1 Danny Axford  Arctic Premier RT   00:30:45
2 Ben Anstie  Chippenham & District Wheelers   00:31:23
3 David Crawley  Fibrax-Wrexham RC   00:31:33
4 Peter Kench  GWR Team   00:32:06
5 Justin Hoy  Felt Racing   00:33:02
6 Patrick Brennan  a3crg   00:33:11
7 Bryce Dyer  a3crg   00:33:14
8 Mark Heath  Echelon – Spuik   00:33:22
9 Jason Streather  VC St Raphael   00:33:33
10 Mark Simmons  Team Milton Keynes   00:33:41

Master B   
1 Ben Instone  www.scientific-coaching.com   00:30:48
2 Jeff Jones  Chippenham & District Wheelers   00:31:45
3 Gary Robson  Dooleys Cycles Racing Team   00:31:53
4 Rob Lyne  Climb On Bikes RT   00:32:06
5 Jeremy Ponting  a3crg   00:32:22
6 Tim Elverson  Felt Racing   00:32:27
7 Nigel Haigh  Sportscover-Spiuk-JeJames   00:32:31
8 Simon Berogna  Velocity Bikes CC   00:32:55
9 John Wager  Felt Racing   00:33:02
10 Sean Williams  Wightlink/WightMountain RT   00:33:03

Thanks to Sarah Brooke for the photos.

www.sarahbrookephotography.co.uk

After nearly 8 months of riding road, mountain and individual time trial events round the country we thought it was time for a change.

Bicester Milleniums annual 4 up TTT seemed like a good place to start and we assembled a crack team of specialists! When they didn’t turn up we were left with Justin, Tim, Will and myself to show everyone just how fast the Felt DA really is. With all of us having full time jobs there was no time for any training, just a quick chat before hand and a ride round the 2.5 mile circuit, warming up was a similarly spartan affair as Tim and Justin argued over the last Jaffa Cake, Will spent 10 minutes clearing a thick layer of dust from his DA and I contemplated the aerodynamic effects of number placement.

The plan, in textbook fashion, was to start hard then move up a gear in the middle before lighting the afterburners on the last lap. Will took this a bit literally and we were up to 50km/h going into the first corner!! From that point on it was a flat out effort all the way round as we tried to keep a tight formation despite the speed and the gusting winds.

Even with the gusting winds the Sub9/ 808 combination was comfortable throughout and I found I could ride every corner on the aero bars. We finished strongly with a time of 20:31 and this in spite of me with a rapidly softening front tyre and Will with a flat back tyre.

After a quick drink and scrub up it was time to don our team tops and find out how we’d done. After a couple of minutes deciphering what was written on the results board it was announced we had won and a large pot was thrust in our direction.

The final split times showed how close it was against the composite team of Sigma Sport/ High Wycombe CC with only 2 seconds seperating us. It was definitely a fun(?) change from the usual racing we all do and we all hope that the dust free bike and shiny trophy make up for punctured rear tyre of the borrowed Felt DA!!