Welcome

We are a small dedicated group of Isle of Wight based racing cyclists. Our main objective is to compete in a number of selected races both on and off the Isle of Wight in Cyclo Cross, MTB and Time Trials including some high profile national and southern regional events.

---

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Snow Riding on the Isle of Wight

Well, I couldn't resist the temptation to go out riding my usual Cyclo-Cross training route in all this snow, so regardless of the danger and with no experience at all of riding in snow, it came down to assuming that years of riding in slippery, mud must mean that I had at least some ability to handle it. Whether that was true or not didn't bother me though as I wasn't missing this for anything. I'd managed to ride to work every day since the snow fell Tuesday and Wednesday and have been surprised how grippy the ice is once it's been churned up and refrozen by the 4x4's; surely riding soft snow would be ok. At this point I hadn't realised how much running and walking I'd be doing. As a matter of note, the bike I'm riding is my trusty singlespeed Specialized Tri-Cross, with 42x16 gearing and Racing Ralph CX tyres.

Setting out from Hewitt Crescent

Once I was out on the main road, now clear enough and perfectly rideable, I set about putting a bit of pace in just so I got at least some quality riding in. Five minutes later, through Gunville, I was back down to concentration of not falling off on the less used road to Carisbrooke. Once up the hill to Carisbrooke and the view to the castle, I realised that things would  start getting difficult. The road now, was pretty treacherous and I still have a few miles before I reached the first off road trail up onto Chillerton Down.

View across to Carisbroooke Castle on the Chillerton Road

The road from now on

Riding the Carisbrooke to Chillerton road was pretty sketchy, hopping from one clear bit to the next, it was like riding a hard packed dirt trail in summer but with the risk of slipping out everytime you traversed the ice lumps between car tyre tracks. Once I reached the climb at Chillerton the road was almost totally snowed over, but again rideable and solid, the ice actually providing grip. Up the hill and finally I arrived at the  trail. It was worse that I'd imagined!! But the Grin Factor almost split my head in half. I tried to ride it and lasted two whole metres. Oh well, better start running then.

Top of Chillerton, start of off road trail

Looking back down the trail

Bike on shoulder, legs feeling lively for running and off I go. The first thing is see is more snow falling. That can't be right, it's not snowing, the sky is blue and there are no clouds. Oh, what an idiot, its not snowing, it's only a snow drift. Snow Drift!!! I thought that only happened in the Mountains. This is cool, I'm in a snow drift, running and breathing the coldest freshest air and . . .  oops, I've just sunk in two feet of snow and the bike is sitting on top of me.  

Two foot Hole and my leg

No, I haven't fallen in that hole and that isn't my hand trying to pull myself out.

Out of the snow drift and onto the half pipe. This is a part of the trail that we have always imagined as a half pipe and riding the MTB down here in summer is great fun but today it is the Snowboarders domain. There is evidence of them having been here but as yet it's just me. This is what solo bike riding off the roads is all about; on my own, surrounded by flaky, virtually untouched snow with the most beautiful blue sky you can imagine. Cold, but blissful. I start wishing I had a snowboard, but for now, I need to keep running.

The Half Pipe, the top is about the same distance again, just round the corner. Not very long :0(

View from the top of the Half Pipe. You can see snowbaord marks zig-zagging all the way down

So, now at the top of Chillerton, running the whole way (usually I only need to run the top section) and it's back onto the access road the the radio mast, and rideable . .  for about a minute before turning off to Lordon Copse. I've seen Lordon Copse in the worst conditions and the best. When its muddy, its hell, when its dry its fast, when its snowed in its bloody hard work and, as you might have guessed, totally unrideable on a singlespeed bike. So back to running, bike on shoulder now starting to make my collarbone sore. One thing about running (actually its almost fast walking now, I'm not a runner and it's starting to hurt a bit) is that you are going much slower and you can take more things in. There are a lot of animal tracks along here, I'm guessing rabbits by the small holes. It looks as if there little legs just sink right in and to keep moving they must use there back legs almost like a sled as there are tram like lines with intermittent holes where they must dig their legs in. Eventually I arrive at another snow drift that has almost buried the gate meaning I have to climb over. This isn't easy as I have to get out of the drift first and lift the bike over. What greets me is a tunnel of drifting snow leading to the top of Shorwell Shute.

Top Of Shorwell Chute, drift snow to left, thankfully clogging up in the trees and bushes.

Once back on the road at Shorwell, the descent back down was a bit hazardous but again, presented no problems. Left turn back onto the trail down the lane through hard packed snow - hard packed I assume because of tractors - past a load of sheep and onto the climb up to Brighstone. Back to running again. After a couple of hundred yards my foot started hurting a little so I guessed I might not to be able to on much longer. My aim was to get to strawberry lane car park but that was optimistic as by the time I got to flat ground at the top, after falling foul of a couple more drifts the foot was sore, my shoulder was sore and I was getting cold. I'd been out for about 1hour 20mins so retracing my route would mean nearly three hours, that would be enough. So turn around I did and headed back through much the same conditions, only this time I was able to ride down the sections I was running. It's worth mentioning at this point my battery ran out on my phone so no more pics but worse than that, I was now aware that I was cut off in case I had an accident. Oh well, but that ain't going to stop me riding downhill in that snow. Descending in snow is actually really easy, not fast at all, but easy. You just have to let the bike go where it wants and make very small and gentle steering actions to keep in a  relatively straight line. I have no idea how much the tyre tread helped here but the biggest problem was getting my feet clipped into the pedals as the cleats were now encased in a tomb of ice. A few hard backward bangs on the pedals while descending did the trick, the ice fell off and I was able to click in again. Oh well, at least the trick I learned a long time ago to get mud out of cleats without stopping works for Ice too.

Start of climb to Brighstone Forest

The only other challenge really was deciding whether or not to climb back up to the top of Shorwell Shute or turning off at the Cornish Pasty road (my name for it) and getting to the top of Chillerton that way. I took the pasty option and instantly regretted it. There is no shelter here and drifts were in abundance nearly all the way up. I couldn’t ride and had cold wind, ice and snow blowing right into the side of me, freezing my ear and cheek for about ten minutes. Not nice but strangely exhilarating. 

Once at the top of Chillerton I knew things would get easier and it was now I bumped into the Snowboarders walking to the top of the Half Pipe. I had an audience descending the half pipe on the cross bike so coming off now was not an option. Embarrassingly, I came to a complete standstill when I hit yet another snow drift. Still I think they were impressed. I hung about and waited for their runs but the chickens just sat around at the top, so I left, for the final leg home on the road. All in all, a good ride. Possibly a one-off, but I suppose we will see.

Below is a short clip from halfway up the climb to Chillerton.

Happy riding

Sean

  Posted by Admin at 15:23 | January 2010 |   Comments ( 0 ) |   Link

---

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Wessex Cyclo Cross League Round 9,Cowley, Oxford

Results

Name	Club	Time	Cat'	No.
Jamie Newall	VC Meudon	01:01:43		45
Michael Cotty	Wheelbase	01:03:25		77
Matt Wakefield	DVATC	01:05:09		88
Mike Groves	Hargroves Cycles	01:05:11		40
Sean Williams	Wightlink/Offshore RT	01:06:03		39
Nick Onslow	Pedalon	01:06:43		18
James Cotty	Wheelbase	01:06:50		63
Martin Tuckey	Dorset Fire Service	01:07:47	V40	97
Gary Allan	GA Cycles	01:08:08	V45	35
Peter Kench	Team GWR	01:09:12		75
Anthony Green	GA Cycles	01:09:16	V45	9
Robin Willmott	GA Cycles	01:09:38		60
Robert McCory	VC Meudon	01:10:41		34
Mark Cracknell	AW Cycles	01:10:47	V40	42
Peter Gidding	VC Walcock	At 1 Lap(s).		90
Kevin Blann	Team Rose Blann	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	19
Ed Sneddon	Sigma Sport	At 1 Lap(s).		52
Anthony Dyment	North Hants RC	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	72
James Astbury	DHC	At 1 Lap(s).	U23	23
Tim Costello	Southdown Velo	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	58
Karl Norfolk	Pedalon	At 1 Lap(s).		24
Andy Kerr	Not Known	At 1 Lap(s).		38
Graham Rogerson	Army CU	At 1 Lap(s).		79
Jason Hawkins	Coventry RC	At 1 Lap(s).		43
Pete Scott	Swindon RC	At 1 Lap(s).		71
Peter Bolke	DHC	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	22
Dan White	Corinium CC	At 1 Lap(s).		68
Richard Fairhome	Kenilworth	At 1 Lap(s).		21
Pete Hutchinson	Swindon RC	At 1 Lap(s).	V40	1
Nigel Page	Not Known	At 1 Lap(s).		46
Allan Simmonds	Aylesbury CC	At 1 Lap(s).	V55	50
Andrew Carnall	Agiskoviner	At 1 Lap(s).		6
Ian MacDonald	Hargroves Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).	V55	99
Jason Painton	Behind Bars Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).		93
Jason Blann	Team Rose Blann	At 1 Lap(s).		13
Tony Parker	North Hants RC	At 1 Lap(s).		59
Martin Dymond	GA Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	36
John Stevens	Blue Sky Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).		98
Chris Long	TVS Sherboorne	At 1 Lap(s).	V40	91
Robert Lobuda	Bornemouth Arrow	At 1 Lap(s).	U23	102
Tony Turner	Oxonian CC	At 1 Lap(s).		82
Damien Corigan	Pedalon	At 1 Lap(s).		12
Andy Smith	Swindon RC	At 1 Lap(s).	V45	55
Dave Wadsworth	Beeline Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).	V40	85
M Page	RAF CC	At 1 Lap(s).		16
Mark Edwards	Hillingdon Tri Stars	At 1 Lap(s).		66
Peter Goodwin	Oxford Tri Club	At 1 Lap(s).		103
Stuart Grace	GA Cycles	At 1 Lap(s).	V50	11
Ian Daws	Dream CC	At 1 Lap(s).		89
Rai Alsemcrest	Not Known	At 1 Lap(s).		92
Clair Smith	Swindon RC	At 1 Lap(s).	W	54
Mathew Jones	Hemel Hempstead	At 1 Lap(s).	V40	76
Neil Buckingham	Dorset Fire Service	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	94
Jon Gammage	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).	V65	84
Stu Thompson	Behind The Bike Club	At 2 Lap(s).		65
Mark Edwards	Pioneer	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	32
Pete Warwick	Didcot Phoenix CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	49
Richard Bremner	North Hants RC	At 2 Lap(s).		73
Richard Wilks	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).		81
Caroline Goward	Hargroves Cycles	At 2 Lap(s).	W	80
Andy Murphy	North Hants RC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	8
Harvey Pitt	Oxford City RC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	105
Ed Nye	Fareham Whs	At 2 Lap(s).		44
Mathew Rowley	Oxonian CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	29
Stuart Hathaway	Oxonian CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V50	104
Steve Dines	White Mountain	At 2 Lap(s).	V50	27
Dextor Gardias	Zappis Cafe	At 2 Lap(s).	U23	100
Steve Freeman	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	53
Nick Adnitt	Andover Whs	At 2 Lap(s).	V50	64
Graham Hughes	Corinium CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	95
Malcolm Rose	Oxonian CC	At 2 Lap(s).		7
Mike Sneddon	DHC	At 2 Lap(s).		47
Stuart Walters	Kettering CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	17
James Wright	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).	V45	101
Martin Ward	Sotonia	At 2 Lap(s).	V60	87
Matt Derrick	Oxford City RC	At 2 Lap(s).	Jn	30
Karen Murphy	White Mountain	At 2 Lap(s).	W	41
David Tarbox	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).		56
Pete Jeans	Swindon RC	At 2 Lap(s).	V55	83
Peter Bird	Ampthill	At 2 Lap(s).	V50	33
Keith Smith	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).	V45	10
Chris Tomlin	Not Known	At 2 Lap(s).	V40	67
Martin Saunders	New Forest CC	At 2 Lap(s).	V60	37
David Babistock	Bicester Millenium CC	At 3 Lap(s).		70
Phil Chimm	Fareham Whs	At 3 Lap(s).	V45	74
Simon Blann	Team Rose Blann	At 3 Lap(s).		15
Graham Freeman	Hemel Hempstead	At 3 Lap(s).		62
Bob Marmon	Not Known	At 3 Lap(s).	V50	57
Lauren Barber	Bornemouth Jubille Whs	At 3 Lap(s).	Jn W	4
Andre Barjor	Bornemouth Jubille Whs	At 3 Lap(s).	V55	3

  Posted by Admin at 18:21 | November/December 2009 |   Comments ( 0 ) |   Link

---

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Wessex Cyclo-Cross League 2009

With a renewed enthusiasm Sean Williams of the BAE Systems/ WightMountain Wighlink/Offshore race team restarted the season in round 7 three weeks ago after an early season rib injury picked up in the opening round at Swindon, then aggravated at the Bike Blenheim Palace 2009 event a week later. On an unexpectedly fast course at War Memorial Park, Basingstoke three weeks ago Williams finished in 11th place from around a total of 80 or so riders. A week later at the Grand Prix of Southampton it seemed the form was starting to come back. The Wightlink rider spent the first few laps battling for at top 15 position in horrendous, wet, and muddy conditions. Often Suited to this style of riding he  soon found the additional training gained from the recent weeks starting to come good , eventually finishing in 7th position overall from 60 or so finishers.

 

  Posted by Admin at 17:15 | November/December 2009 |   Comments ( 0 ) |   Link

---

Sunday, October 11, 2009

British Time Trial Championships 2009

These pictures come courtesy with kind permission of Sarah Brooke, one of the countries most renowned cycling photographers. We are really impressed by Sarah's clean, crisp and excellent capture of the sport in action. These images (below!! that's not us to the right obviously :0) were taken at the British Time Trial Championships held in September 2009 at Botolph Clayton in Buckinghamshire. Check out Sarah's website for hundreds if not thousands of images. Also, we'd like to use this news blog to help promote Sarah's new 2010 calendar. ALL the money raised from the sale of the calendars will be given to this year's four chosen charities. The Air Ambulance, Help for Heroes, The British Heart Foundation and The Macmillan Nurses. Don't worry, we arent in it!!!

 

  Posted by Admin at 22:50 | September 2009 |   Comments ( 0 ) |   Link

---

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Bike Blenheim Palace

The highly acclaimed "Bike Blenheim Palace" was one of the last events on the 2009 Time Trial calendar for three members of the BAE Systems Insyte & Wight Mountain sponsored Wightlink/Offshore Race Team.
 
The spectacular grounds of Blenheim Palace played host to a day dedicated to a number of high profile events including a Time Trial, attracting a massive entry field of over 300 riders including the 2009 National Champions Michael Hutchinson and Julia Shaw, a Sportive ride, a Cyclo cross event, and the World Brompton Championships where the riders must compete on these incredible commuter folding bikes wearing suits. Some were so in the spirit that they even chose to wear bowler hats!
 
Team members Steve Taylor, Martin Piper and Sean Williams all competed in the early morning 20km Time Trial. Although a little chilly, the conditions were generally good for the race, which was a surprisingly technical course with good twists, turns, bumps and two interesting climbs, which actually suited the Islanders who are used to riding similar conditions on the local roads most days.
 
The first rider to complete was Steve Taylor with a time of 32mins, 46sec giving him a good final placing of 47th out of the 275 finishers. The next rider was Martin Piper who rode very strongly and was one of only a handful of riders on the day to break the 30 minute mark. His time of 29:59 placed him a superb 13th overall. The team rider of the day however was Sean Williams, who finished his best ever Time Trial season on a high just ahead of Martin in 9th place with an excellent time of 29:43. The event was won unsurprisingly by National Champion Michael Hutchinson with a staggering time of 26:21.
 
After the Brompton World Championship race the attention switched to the spectator friendly Cyclo Cross race, held in a small section of grassland in the palace grounds on a very twisty circuit, totally flat but not without technicality in the form of tight turns, a sprial centre point that was almost enough to make a rider dizzy, and two sets of hurdles forcing the riders to dismount. The race was to last for one hour which on this course worked out at nine laps for the winner, Jamie Newall (VC Meudon). Sean Williams of the Wightlink/Offshore team also started this event after doing the time trial and had high hopes for a good placing, but an injury to the ribs picked up in a race the week before flared up again on the hurdles on lap 4 while battling for a top ten position, forcing him to retire for the second cyclo-cross race in a row; a bit of a dissapoinment after his top ten position in the time trial earlier in the day.
 
This was a brilliant event, and will no doubt be on the agenda for the team again next year, who upon their return to the Island will now spend their time between now and the start of the new season (February 2010), preparing with a mix of solid base training and a number cyclocross events.
 
Keen followers can catch up with the latest news and results through the team website: www.wightlinkoffshore.co.uk
 

  Posted by Admin at 22:35 | October 2009 |   Comments ( 0 ) |   Link

---

- Next ››