Last weekend (6th and 7th March, 2022) saw the start of the Youth Road Race calendar, with the grandly titled Deux Jours de Cyclopark 2022 hosted by VC Londres.
The races, number of stages, points scoring and circuit varied for different age categories. U10s had to race for 15 mins each day, U12s for 30 mins and U14s had two races per day of 30 and 45 mins in which they could score bonus points on certain sprint laps.
The U10s field had 26 riders, 43 riders in the U12s and 20 in the U14 Girls.
Day 1 saw the riders compete clockwise round the circuit in the wet conditions.
Day 2 was competed anti-clockwise. The Day 2 weather was dry but much colder! A big shout out to the Sunday club adult riders who made a stop at Cyclopark as part of their ride to cheer everyone on.
Overall results for the weekend based on the GC (General Classification) were:-
U10
8th Riley
16th Ewan
23rd Ben
U12
40th Joe
U14 Girls
4th Millie
Also well done to one of our former Wigmore CC Go-Rider, Finn, who placed 4th in the U18 Boys. Well done Finn.
… and last but certainly not least, thanks to Luke for marshalling.
For anyone interested in taking part in future races, please check out the British Cycling events page for the Regional Youth Road Race Series where there are four more events throughout the year.
Also, don’t forget that Spring in the Park (at Cyclopark) starts on Friday evenings from 29th April. This is a great introduction to road circuit racing for Go-Riders.
Please feel free to ask coaches for further information on any of these events.
Here is a list of open event Time Trials, kindly collated by Phil Appleby. Big thank you Phil. All events are run according to Cycling Time Trials rules.
The East Kent Cyclocross League was very well attended with a total of 20 riders taking to the start line throughout the 2021/22 season. (12 Go-Ride and 8 Adults).
Hopefully, you will all be back in September and maybe we will see some new faces have a go and join the WCC CX tribe!
All 5 rounds were completed this year with each rider’s four best results counting towards the final league tables.
Here is a reminder of what happened in each round.
Henry had a very strong season and overall took the top spot in the under 10’s
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“Really well! I was on the podium in every race and really enjoyed it.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Betteshanger. It was fun going through the woods and in the mud.”
Will you be back next season?
“Yes of course! Because I really enjoy doing it.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I have improved on hills and enjoy doing the off-camber training we’ve been doing. I am more confident and the coaching we get at Wigmore has really helped.”
Riley Wastall 🥈
Just 4 points behind Riley finished 2nd overall in the under 10’s.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“My races went well because I got 2nd’s constantly and a 3rd.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“My favourite was Lydden Hill because it had two bits to it. Those two bits were the stones to sprint on and the technical bits.”
Will you be back next season?
“Definitely😄“
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“Sprinting, and throwing the bike forward at the finish line.”
Miles Anderson
Miles finished the season in 6th.
Q&A
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Betteshanger, I had lots of fun. Mostly running and rolling around the banks with Henry!“
Will you be back next season?
“I will be back for more cross after some BMX and Circuit this summer. “
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I learned that I need to use harder gears when it’s fast and easy gear when it’s slow.
Summer Cass
Summer finished the season 6th overall. A great effort and her first try at CX racing.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“This was my first season in CX, I entered three races this season, I found it hard! Especially in my first race when I ended upside down tangled in tape, on a tree stump!”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Astor College was my favourite course, I got a third in that race!”
Will you be back next season?
“I’ll be back next season, on my bigger bike, perhaps even another podium finish”
Ben Bailey
Ben finished the season in =8th.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“CX has gone well this year”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“I liked Betteshanger the most as it was bumpy.”
Will you be back next season?
“Definitely back next season.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I’ve learnt how to change gear and dismount/remounting, and running up muddy hills “
Ewan Delaney
Ewan finished the season in =8th.
Q&A
Which was your favourite course and why?
“My favourite course was Jon’s washing machine of doom at Go-Ride”
Oliver Young
Oliver finished the season in 10th.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“My racing went really well. This year has been my first try at racing and I loved it.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“My favourite race was Betteshanger as it was lots of fun.”
Will you be back next season?
“Yeah!!!!!”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I have learnt how to go round corners.”
Jude Tippins
Jude raced his first CX race in round 5 and finished 13th overall.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“I really enjoyed my first taste of racing this year and am looking forward to giving it another go.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“The main skills so far have been using the gears properly and having my first go at what it is like to race.”
Under 12s
Rowan Murphy 🥈
Rowan took a very impressive 2nd in the final tables for the under 12’s.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“Quite good.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Betteshanger, because I felt like I did extremely well. The muddy bit was good fun. “
Will you be back next season?
“Yes, absolutely”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“Probably power, ride faster and harder all the time.”
Joe Cass
Joe scored points very consistently throughout the season and finished 6th in the under 12’s.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“Being my first full season of CX (I only did Betteshanger in December 2020), and being in the under 12’s was challenging. My first race at Sandwich was a great race, I fell off four times but still finished! I’ve practised my cornering since then! The final race at Betteshanger was a great race too, being head to head with Miles for most of the race was good fun!”
Will you be back next season?
“I’ll be back next season, it would be good to get on the podium!”
Under 14s
Sammy Bassett
Sammy finished the season in 7th
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“I had an OK season.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Betteshanger.”
Will you be back next season?
“Of course, I will be back next year.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I learned that the placing is not important.”
Millie Dean
Millie finished the season in 8th.
Millie only rode two East Kent races this season, at Sandwich Tech and Northbourne Park. Millie’s early-season London League results were good and she had five podiums! Millie had to cut short her cyclocross season due to injury to her knee sustained at a crash in a circuit race at Colchester and came back to ride the regional champs at Cyclopark but her knee wasn’t 100% healed and she never raced cross after that.
Her favourite course this year was Canada Heights in the London League as it was a brand new course and very hilly. Millie says what she learnt this year was don’t listen to her Dad when he says ride a circuit race in Colchester! Millie’s looking forward to riding both London League and east Kent League cyclocross next year and is stepping up to the under 16 girls.
V40’s
Luke Anderson
Luke finished the season in 25th.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“I didn’t get to race much due to injury.“
Which was your favourite course and why?
“My favourite course was the new version of Betteshanger.“
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I learned that I need to try the tricky bits more on practice laps to make the most of my skills when fitness is so bad.“
Chris Murphy
Chris finished the season in 33rd.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“The first few races were a struggle due to lack of saddle time first half of the year, but felt stronger as the season went on.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Lydden Hill was my favourite full lap due to it having a bit of everything from a long straight, to a few short sharp climbs, muddy off-camber and little banks.”
Will you be back next season?
“Oh yes.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“I learned that even though I don’t finish up the front of a race, I still love every painful second of the race, and what skills did I use most? The simple answer is, I don’t have any skills lol.”
Jon Bassett
Jon finished the season in 47th.
Q&A How did your CX racing go this year?
“My season is just getting started. I feel the best is yet to come.
Kevin Ford
Kev finished the season in 79th.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“My one and only race was more challenging than i’d hoped for, having had to stop my regular daily cycle commute and therefore the chance to train to ride under effort.
I knew I was there for the fun and more importantly to support our younger members racing, so entry was a spur of the moment as the race had plenty of spaces.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“I only raced at Betteshanger, and as I knew from my one other CX race in 2019, the East Kent league is very friendly and encouraging.
The big dip was daunting to look at, but all over and done with once you had committed to it.”
Will you be back next season?
“I’m hoping to be fitter for 2022 and subject to work, joining the training sessions and entering a race or two, but just for fun.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“Jon Bassett gave me a great tip for dismounting (foot over axle when unclipped) which really helped me have confidence coming up to any dismounts. Thanks Jon.”
Dave Wastall
Dave finished the season in 82nd.
V50’s
Dave Bishop
Dave finished the season in 32nd.
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“Not as well as I thought, still an over-hang from Covid!“
Which was your favourite course and why?
“The one at the school as it’s not hilly but fast and technical and I had my best result.“
Will you be back next season?
“I will be back next season and in better shape hopefully “
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“My balance and control of slides is pretty good“
Senior
Jamie Harris
Jamie finished the season in 10th
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“This year went well and happy with 10th overall having not raced CX since the 2017/18 season. The technical cobwebs blew off pretty quickly but my fitness could have been better.
Aside from the slipping and sliding in the mud at Lydden Hill, I only had one crash which was on the off-camber at Dover so I’ll take that as a win!”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“Lydden Hill was my favourite course and the gnarly conditions suited me too.”
Will you be back next season?
“100%.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“To go hard on the straight or hilly sections and to go easy/smoothly on the technical sections.”
Cameron Carthew
Cameron finished the season in 18th
Q&A
How did your CX racing go this year?
“My racing went OK, I didn’t have many expectations as I only did one race prior to 21/22 season.”
Which was your favourite course and why?
“My favourite course was Lydden, the different terrain with steep banks and a lot of mud. It wasn’t the course that suited me the best but I enjoyed it the most.”
Will you be back next season?
“I will be back next year but for the EKCX again only.”
What do you think you learned most from your racing this year?
“From a skills side it was pretty clear I don’t have many🤣 I need to put more time into riding the Cross bike, dismounting, tight corners etc. So have a few areas to focus on”
With COVID bringing an abrupt stop to our 2020 activities and a late start to our 2021 calendar, we are pleased to look back and think about what an amazing year we have had!
Starting back in March under COVID rules, we had to restructure our sessions into lots of smaller groups. We feel that this worked really well and particularly benefitted some of the younger riders getting their basic skills mastered.
We’ve welcomed lots of new riders and also had lots of regulars returning week after week.
Alongside the weekly Saturday morning sessions of road rides, CX skills and ride outs at Capstone, the summer months saw some of our riders participate in the following activities:
Weekly TTs at the Iwade course
Circuit racing at Cyclopark & Betteshanger
Regular BMX coaching at Cyclopark
Autumn brought about the start of the Cyclocross season, and we’ve had record numbers of riders enter these races in both the London League and the East Kent Cyclocross League with many podiums for our riders.
We were invited to run a Go-Ride session at the Medway Mile event in September and the coaches were completely bowled over by how popular we were. For 3 hours solid, we had queues of kids waiting to have a go. It was hard work, but such fun.
We started Zwift group rides during the first lockdown and these have continued at times when we couldn’t run physical sessions. The Winter Zwift League also added a Go-Ride competition which has been supported by our riders and continues on a weekly basis when the Time Trial season stops during the colder months.
As the year has gone on we have been able to work in larger groups again which has been a fantastic opportunity for the riders to all get to know each other, share their skills and make friends. This has also allowed the coaches to work with all the riders and watch them progress (AMAZING!).
We have also been thrilled to organise for the club riders (and their parents and coaches) introductory sessions to BMX at Cyclopark. It was great to see our Chair, Kevin, join in with one of these sessions.
We were also able to bring back our combined Awards Evening with The Grown Ups for presentations and prizes for riders.
As the year drew to a close and Christmas grew closer, many of our riders took part in the famous, traditional, annual Mince Pie Ride from Rainham to Bredgar cafe and back again. Lots of cake was consumed!
As a club, we are continuing to improve our coaches skills. This year has seen Jon obtain his specialisation in Cyclocross coaching and Paul in Mountain Biking. Dave is currently working to upgrade his Level 1 Coaching Award to a Level 2 Award, which he is hoping to achieve early next year. All these qualifications help us to improve and broaden the range of coaching we can offer.
We have also, just this month, been reassessed for our Clubmark accreditation (which ensures systems are in place to run the club to a good standard), which we are pleased to say we PASSED!
We hope you have a lovely Christmas and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2022.
With all good wishes from your Go-Ride Team: Mike, Paul, Jon, Simon, Dave, Steve, Rowan and Kirsty.
Saturday 20th November 2021 saw the return of our annual awards, held in person at the Howard Memorial Hall.
A lot of hard work goes into delivering any club event, so thanks must go first to Helen Masters, Social Secretary for shouldering the burden of the work with support from Michael Finch and Martin Trice. Thank you.
Following our meal, we presented Tom Odell with his two awards prior to his early departure for a night shift.
Nick Howlett then led a discussion and Q&A from some of our seasoned members who each have a strong interest in different areas, providing a comprehensive view of cycling:
Anthony Bee / Short & long distance time trialling;
Jamie Harris / Zwift;
Keith Walker / Short & long distance time trialling and road racing;
Michael Finch / Community Cycleworks; and
Richard Master / Bicycle maintenance and technology
Clin Maisey, Club President then presented the main body of our Annual Awards, with of course well earnt flowers and chocolates to Helen Masters first.
The full list and images are below with some notable winners being:
Adrienn Rocco, Cyclerama Award for completing her first 100km ride to Sandwich to support members of Wigmore CC racing in the Cyclocross races;
Rowan Murphy, Paul Buckley Go-Ride Champion and Junior Zwift Award for being such as strong competitor and entering many areas of cycling as a sport; and
Tom Odell, 2nd Evening Scratch League, who riding a road bike gave TT bike riders more than a run for their money in the Evening 10 series.
The traditional raffle followed, with our great friends The Bike Warehouse Gillingham donating 3 great helmets as prizes; thank you!
We hope everyone had a great evening and is looking forward to next years challenges, maybe with a new bike or gadget from Father Christmas, or indeed The Bike Warehouse!
After many years battle against Parkinson’s, Geoff sadly passed away on Sunday 4th July.
Geoff joined the Wigmore CC in 1960. He suffered with asthma and started cycling to improve his breathing problems, and it certainty worked.
When he started riding with the club, he used an inhaler to help his breathing, but by the time he was 30 years old he no longer needed the inhaler. One thing he never did was use an inhaler before an event, he classed that as cheating.
Geoff was a keen trike rider and set many club records, in fact he still holds three records. They are the 30 mile trike record of 1h 20m 47s, set in 1969. The same year he set a 50 miles trike record with a time of 2h 17m 13s. In 1977 he was one of the members that set a solo team record for 30 miles with a time of 3h 38m 43s.
He had an attempt at road racing but could not handle the fast start. When asked what happened, his reply would be , “they would not wait for me”!
Geoff was always a willing helper with club events, and when I had to stop driving, Geoff took me to the evening events.
Geoff was married to Angela for 49 years, and our thoughts are with Angela at this sad time.
The funeral is on Thursday 29th July, at Bobbing crematorium, 11 am.
No flowers, but you can make donations to Parkinson’s UK and sent to John Weir funeral directors 127 Watling Street, Gillingham ME7 2YY .
On Sunday 4th July, 1-3pm, we’ll be holding our very own track session at the historic Herne Hill Velodrome (nr. Dulwich, London) MAP.
This is open to club members >12yrs old, and more importantly ALL ability levels… whether you’re experienced on the boards, or a complete novice to going round in circles.
So if you’ve never tried riding on the track but have always wanted to, this is the perfect opportunity to give it a go. Or, if your an grizzled trackie from the distant past, this is your chance to once again dust off that fixed gear track bike.
Our session will be split into two groups… those that are experience in track riding, have ridden the track before, and want to stretch their legs a little; and those that are new to track cycling, are trying it for the first time, or want to take it a little more sedate.
There’ll be a range of different fun exercises to do and try, and if we’re lucky we may even get to have a little gallop race towards the end of the session.
If we get a full compliment of 22 riders, the cost of the 2 hour session is JUST £14* each. This INCLUDES all equipment hire… bike, shoes, helmet if you need one. The lower age limit on this session is 12 years old, so some of the older Go-Ride kids may want to join us for the afternoon. The session starts at 1pm prompt, so get there early to be ready to go.
~ REGISTRATION ~ ~ DEADLINE Sun 23rd May / Sun 30th May ~
To register, all you need to do is email me at secretary@wigmorecyclingclub.org.ukwith your name, and level of previous track experience.
IMPORTANT:
Registration is open to CLUB MEMBERS for 3 weeks until Sunday 23rd May. After that, any remaining places will be offered to our friends from local cycling clubs, family members, and other invited guests. The final deadline for all registrations is Sunday 30th May.
All places are offered on a strictly first come first serve basis.
We then restart our adult Club Rides on Sunday 4th April.
We meet at the Rainham Library car park for a 9 am set off, and will be using a registration form to coordinate rides within the guidance applicable each week.
The past year has been a topsy-turvy one for a number of reasons, and it’s restricted a lot of the things we’ve been able to do as a club. As a result, we’ve had to change our plans for the events of what we usually provide to our members. We’ve had to change the annual 25mile TT to a virtual Zwift Race, we had to restrict access to spectators at the Hill climb, we could run only a limited 10mile TT series during the summer, the Go-Ride had to pause for several months, and even the awards dinner evening had to move online.
Therefore, we felt it would be a nice idea to offer our members a special offer for next year. Starting now, and until the end February, all membership subscriptions will be 15% discounted.
Full Senior Membership:
£22
Full Youth Membership:
£8.50
Family Membership:
£33
Club Supporter:
£5
2nd Claim:
Senior: £11
Youth: £4.50
All memberships run for the calendar year, and expire 31st December 2021. This special offer runs until February 28th, and is open to EVERYONE… whether you’re renewing or taking out a new membership.
Don’t forget, members receive a very special membership pack… including a welcome letter, calendar of things we have planned for the year, a membership card, and a few club trinkets thrown in for good measure (key ring, window sticker, fridge magnet etc….)
So if you’re struggling for a last minute Christmas present, I couldn’t think of anything better for you or the cyclist in your life!
Stay safe, have as good a Christmas as you can under the conditions!