Felt Colbornes Team

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!!