April’s here, along with the sun finally. The racing season is now properly underway, and the month kicked off with VCL’s opening round of the Open Season series at Herne Hill. Special mention goes to Andrew who still as a junior organised the event with very little input from anyone else. Shame we didn’t get any photos, but now the racing seasons started there’s plenty from the rest of the month.

After the slightly unpredictable early season at Herne Hill due to the track centre works it was a relief to get some weekend racing underway. After the Open Season there was still one Spring Omnium left uncancelled out of three originally planned, with a strong VCL turnout in the senior categories.

The youth categories weren’t represented quite so strongly as many VCL riders were at the first round of the National Youth Circuit Series at Redbrigde, full report here. The second round is also local, Firday 3rd May at Cyclopark in Gravesend.

Back at the track the evenings were just long enough for Track League to start (can’t wait unitl the new floodlights are installed over the next month or two). The new three category system allowed the youth U16 and U14s to show up plenty of senior riders while riding gears several teeth smaller.

Our local circuit racing at Crystal Palace park starts on May 7th (don’t forget VCL are marshaling there on 21st May, and our Surrey League round at South Nuffield on 9th May). Meanwhile, Iain, Mark, Marek, Philip and Tim have been testing their legs at London’s less challenging Tuesday night crit series at Hillingdon. Looks like our riders haven’t forgotten how to hide in a bunch (and from photographers). Jules, Philip, George and Mark made the trip down to the low key, friendly atmosphere Hove Park crits in Brighton. Philip took a prime and Jules won the race – both without managing to be photographed.

Meanwhile, in a non-competitive arena (tell that to a sportive rider), David did an event down in the New Forrest and got to rub shoulders with Jens “Shut up Legs” Voigt.

Meanwhile Caveman and Tony were getting the sunny miles in over in Majorca.

First off were the u12 with VCL fielding Finley Newmark and Tom Gloag in the boys category and India Gloag in the girls. Finley had a very strong first few laps, sticking near the front of the bunch, but unfortunately was pushed off course and into a ditch – a frustrating end to his first national level race. Both Gloags stayed on however with Tom sprinting to 6th after Icebreaker winner Lewis Askey went clear and won. India wasn’t far behind finishing well in the girl’s rankings.

Georgie Hopkins, Charlotte C-H and Rachel Jary followed in the u14 girls in a race which the tempo seemed to pick up rapidly each lap with the group continuing to get smaller. Georgie and Rachel did well to stay on but got dropped when eventual winner Jess Roberts pushed hard on the descent. They started to work in a group of 4 before Rachel pulled out after feeling sick. Charlotte kept in contact with the group for a few laps longer than the others but also got dropped and ride the rest of the race by herself, almost catching the group. Both Georgie and Charlotte said that they had also felt sick during the race and this unfortunately would become a common theme for VCL in the next few races.

Four VCL riders took to the start of the u14 boys race with Fred Wright (already suffering from a cold), Boru Pratt Mcullogh, Max Cheatle and Tom Burnett. An attack up the hill on the first lap instantly split up the race with Max, Boru and Tom all being dropped. Boru and Max were able to work together for a few laps before Max dropped off and was told to pull out, and Boru felt faint and was forced to stop. Tom kept going until he suffered from an asthma attack and also had to stop. Fred was therefore our last hope and he stayed quiet in the middle of the bunch until the sprint on which he picked up a fantastic 5th place- costing his dad Phil a £5 bet.

With no VCL riders in the U16 girls race, our final 5 riders were Oliver Cliff, George Jary, Hisham Al-Ramah, Ethan Hayter and Max Begin in the U16 boys. Another frantic race, quickly shed riders, and the main bunch was shrinking lap after lap. George started strongly, mixing it at the front of the bunch, but blew up after a few grueling laps, complaining sickness. Max in hius first circuit race as an U16, and Ethan in his first circuit race at all struggled with the quick pace up the hill each lap, and soon were distanced by the bunch. Hisham looked good for the first two thirds of the race, but then started slipping back a few places each lap, until eventually, he slipped off the back of the bunch with just a few laps to go. This left Oliver as VCL’s only U16 finisher – solidly in the main bunch sprint – the famous “Hoggenburg” suiting his climber’s tendencies.

All in all it was a tough start to the year, but as the first major youth road event of the season, after a rubbish-weathered winter of probably not quite enough training, a tough, hilly course, and an as-yet-unacclimatized-to hot day it was a promising start to the year. With our local Crystal Palace circuit races starting on Tuesday evenings from 7th May, the road racing cobwebs will be properly blown off.

All photos from Yuebi Yang.

On the bleak morning of the 23rd March, a day of racing for over 90 riders lay ahead. Despite what was meant to be spring, it was a very cold and misty mid-morning with snow falling en-route to Newport. When everyone arrived ,however, there were smiles all round.

In the Youth C racing, commencing earlier in the day than the rest of our VCL riders we had our regular contender, Thomas Gloag. Thomas had another good day of racing, finishing well in the top half of the peloton for the majority of the races. This put Thomas in a strong 6th place, setting a rigid standard for the rest of the riders in the later races to meet.

There was a very good day of racing in the Youth B category in both the girls and the boys. In the boys we had two riders, Fred Wright and Boru Pratt McCullagh. Fred did very well and got on the podium with his consistent riding coming 2nd overall. Boru also did exceptionally well, making a break in the points alongside a Cardiff Jif rider with 5 laps to go and gained a third of a lap on the peloton, coming 2nd in the sprint and claiming 3 points for it. He was placed 5th in the points for his effort, boosting his overall placing for the day, finishing 8th.

As for the Youth B Girls, there were three riders, Rachel Jary, Charlotte Cole-Hossain and Georgie Hopkins. Rachel did very well finishing in the top bunch of every race and did the best out of all VCL girls that day finishing 5th overall. Charlotte got a good placing of 9th with Georgie 10th, us both finishing in the top half. Unfortunately we had no contenders today in the Youth A girls but we had a very strong performance from Hisham Al-Ramah in the Youth A boys. He rode well all day finishing 4th overall.

Also in the youth A boys was George Jary who had an off day but still came a respectable 13th.Oliver Cliff and Max Bergin also raced but were also off the pace and sadly did not finish. Overall I think it was a very productive day of racing and I hope everyone felt good about their performances. Well done everyone!

The road racing season is under way. A number of youth riders have tried out the new circuit at Elvenden, which provides all the experience of a road race, on a closed circuit. If you look closely at the photo above you might notice Andrew “24 hours in A&E Hero” Snowball, in the breakaway at the 3rd Cats Kingston Wheelers Dunsfold Surrey League road race. First race of the year he made all the right moves but didn’t quite have the legs to stick with the break until the end.

Later that day Jules and Iain were up in the 2/3 race. Taking it in turns to ensure one of them was in every break. Iain was quite happy to let Jules get away in the eventual winning break, to get 3rd. Jules looks a little less happy.

Occasionally even the most dedicated cyclists need some time off the bike, and the VCL club dinner was as good an opportunity as any. Almost 10o members packed into the Rosendale pub for a night of food, drink and awards.

Meanwhile at Herne Hill, Good Friday had rolled around, and although the overrunning track redevelopment works meant no-one had time to reacquaint themselves with Herne Hill beforehand, it was straight in at the deep end into one of the years biggest events.

That same weekend, and back to the road, in a slightly less competitive arena, around 30 VCL members made their way to Flanders to ride the route of, and watch the professional Ronde van Vlaanderen. Iain made the mad dash straight from finishing the Good Friday meeting to Ghent, in time to ride both events.

Eagle-eyed Eurosport viewers would have seen our flag on the Oude Kwawermont, just as Fabian Cancellara launched his winning attack. Josh’s report on the weekend is coming soon.

April sees the start of the racing season proper, so expect lots of nice photos with sunny backgrounds.

On 23 February a host of VCL youths once again made the journey to Newport for the 2nd round of the Icebreaker series.

As many of us arrived, Tom Gloag was just finishing his races in the u12 omnium. We saw him claim 3rd place overall, an improvement from the previous round and a very promising result. He then wished the others luck as they started their warm ups.

Tom Gloag in the U12 Boys

First up was the u14 girls with VCL a girl down as Rachel was suffering from an illness (but still came to support). Hopes lay with Charlotte to repeat the podium place VCL claimed last time. Things didn‘ t get off to a great start with Charlotte leading out for the last two laps of the scratch and finishing mid pack.  She was understandably dissapointed but determined to do better in her next race: the devil.

Charlotte and Jess in the devil

This she did finishing 2nd giving her confidence for the points. Knowing it would be hard to beat a strong  Jess Roberts in the sprints, an attack went containing Charlotte who claimed the last sprint. This gave her 2nd in the points too. After finishing 3rd in the dash Charlotte could be satisfied with another VCL podium (3rd)

Our hope of a first place lay in the u14 boys in which we had Max Cheatle, Hayden and Kareem (in VCL colours for the first time) and Fred competing. All four were comfortable in the scratch and with 2laps to go Kareem found himself on the front with Fred on his wheel. Kareem steamed along to give Fred a good advantage in the sprint to the line which he took to finish 1st. Hayden also finished impressively crossing the line in 6th. Fred looked equally strong in the devil taking 1st again. He clearly felt yet stronger in the points, attacking early on and almost lapping the field. Max C, Hayden and Kareem were not too far behind finishing a strong group behind the chasers. It then came down to the dash to see if Fred could make it a clean sweep therefore taking the round and series lead. He proceeded to do so giving VCL first place in the u14 boys again after Max Bergin, last year. A promising category for VCL, Hayden, Kareem and Max will be striving for the same success next year.

Hayden, Max and Fred in the group

Amy and Eleanor were VCLs representatives in the u16 girls. In the scratch (always a fast race from the start)  both of them stayed in  comfortably for the duration with Eleanor 10th and Amy finishing 12th. In the devil Eleanor improved finishing a strong 6th while Amys back wheel took a knock, but she held it and came out 16th understandably shaken. The dash was even faster than the scratch with both girls struggling to keep in contact but coming home in well enough to keep their current overall positions. This could be said for the points aswell as only a small group managed to finish out front while Amy and Eleanor finished off the back in a bigger group. These performances were good enough for 10th for Eleanor and 14th for Amy.

After a well deserved 3rd place in the last round, george was looking for another strong result with Oliver, riding a lovely new set of deeps, looking to improve on his last outing . With Max and Hisham absent, these two were our only competitors in the u16 boys but still performed strongly in a mad scratch which was split up very early on. They helped in pulling the group back together and finished 7th and 8th respectively. George grabbed an incredible 2nd while Oliver was 13th in the devil, the devil seeming something of a speciality for the VCL youth.

George sprinting to second in the devil

This put both of them high up overall with neither of them particularly looking forward to the dash. In the end this turned out to be true for George who was back in 20th while Oliver was in 7th. After these results they were both eager to light up the points. They did as they intended and were very satisfied with 10th for Oliver and 8th for George. This gave George 6th and Oliver 8th overall.

All in all another set of solid displays and more promises of something great!

February marks the end of the cyclo-cross season, and a wake up call that the “summer” racing season is imminent.

A number of youths have been starting their road seasons early at Hog Hill and Cyclopark. Findlay Newmark scored his first ever win in the U12s at Cyclopark. Well done!

It’s been a saturated cyclo-cross season this year. Two rounds were canceled due to soden ground and those that ran were very tough going. The final round of the London League, the Team Champs hosted by Crawley Wheelers was possibly the wettest yet. Jules reported barely getting out of his top sprocket on his way to 3rd place. The VCL senior team came a respectable 5th overall. Report here.

With illness/unfitness/injuries/operation recovery preventing them from taking part in recent cross races, Philip, Shaun and Jason hitched a ride with Rollapaluza to the Middelkerke cyclo-cross race in Belgium. A typical Begium day out, with beer, frites, public urination in the background of your photo, and buying tubs off Helen Wyman.

Away from racing, and with fewer Sundays taken up by cyclo-cross the riders have been knuckling down to the club runs. Gradually uppping the distance and intensity ready for the racing season and the Tour of Flanders sprotif looming over the Easter weekend. The weather has been very changeable with what seems like a different season each week.

Autumnal Gloom

Sunny springtime

...and back to snowy winter

Keeping warm indoors, it was round two of the popular Newport Icebreakers series. VCL was probably the best represented club there, with riders in each category and some classy rides. Special mention goes to Fred Wright for winning every race in the 4-race U14 omnium, and topping it off with a solo lap gain the the final points race.

More great photos from Yuebi here. Josh’s report should be up soon, once the results have been finalised.

Straight after the Icebreakers Jason, Iain, Hisham, Josh and Andrew hit the boards with friendly local club Twickenham CC for a marathon 5-hour training session to remind them what track racing was all about. Georgie and Max Bergin both revisited Newport over the following week for an NSR and the Sprintfest coach-led racing session. Roll on the opening of Lea Valley velodrome in early 2014 to save us many hundreds of miles travelling!

A four man senior VCL team was assembled from those not yet too cross weary and those not side-lined by injury/surgery (we wish Shaun Bayliss and Phil Glowinski speedie returns to the saddle!); and it was Andys Snowball and Bradshaw, James Solly and Jules who took to the start line representing VCL. The hilly twisty and technical course always makes for good racing; persistent rain on saturated ground made conditions testing to say the least and it was testament to the choice of venue and course design that the circuit remained largely rideable and fun.

Good starts from Andy S and Jules put them both just inside the top ten come the summit of climb on the opening lap. As the race went one Jules picked riders off dragging himself to an exhausted 3^rdplace, with Andy eventually an equally exhausted 25th. Andy B had a sound race, dealing well with the testing course and conditions, he finished 32nd. James honourably took our last allotted start position on the grid, towards the very back of the 120 strong field, and pulled himself up to rather respectably 48th finish – not bad for his only cross race of the season on a borrowed bike. All of which was good enough for VCL to finish a rather handy 5th senior team overall.

The youths had the misfortune of racing after the seniors and had to ride a course that was so cut up it looked like it had been rotivated! The rain and mud took their toll on equipment and enthusiasm alike, with Thomas and Arlo victims in this regard. Only two from the VCL four man team were able to complete the race, and thus sadly we did not qualify for a team finish. However, the individual performances of George Jary in 6th, and Freddie Wright in 14th, were certainly more than respectable.

So that is it. Season over. And what a diverse and interesting season it has been with VCL representing strongly throughout at youths, seniors, vets and womans; promoting and participating at Go Cross, League and Inter Regional levels. We look forward to next cross season, but not too much, let’s have a decent summer first please!

Warming up!

As is now part of a normal early season race calender for many VCL youth members, the first Icebreaker omnium of three took place in Newport velodrome on Saturday 26th January. 13 youths in total made the journey up to Wales (the second in a week for some) with Tom and India Gloag in the U12 categories, U14 newbies Max Cheatle and Hayden Cassidy along with the always reliable Fred Wright, Rachel Jary and Charlotte Cole-Hossain in the U14 girls and Amy Good and Eleanor Holden in the U16 girls as well as 4 U16 boys: Oliver Cliff, George Jary, Max Bergin and Hisham Al Ramah.

There was an interesting start as a gas leak in the velodrome led to an evacuation into the tennis court car park. After about an hour delay we were let back into the velodrome where the U12s quickly got onto the track for a warm up before India’s first race, the scratch. She looked relatively comfortable and finished a respectable 9th. The same was to be said about Tom until the final lap where he had to take the long way round and didnt quite make it finishing 15th. Tom then improved in the next 2 races finshing 5th in both giving him 8th overall. India also seemed to improve finishing 9th.

Next came the U14 girls with Rachel and Charlotte, Charlotte seeming restless, chasing a break before being forced to sit on the front for 5 or so laps. With 2 laps to go another break went which Charlotte chased with the pack behind her biding their time. Rachel was in this chasing pack and almost timed her sprint to perfection to finish in 5th while Charlotte faded and finished a disappointing 17th. She stepped up however finishing 3rd in the devil and points while Rachel remained consistent finishing 6th in the devil and 5th in the points. Both girls performances in the devil could have been straight out of the British Cycling manual as they stayed exactly where they needed to at all times. This put Charlotte 5th overall and gave Rachel a terrific 3rd place podium finish!

Rachel and Charlotte in the devil

Fred at the front

Max and Hayden

Amy and Eleanor worked together throughout finishing 14th and 15^th in the scratch and 13th and 12^th in the points, respectively. Eleanor put in a very strong performance in the devil finishing a very strong 11^th. This put her 15^th at the end of the day with Amy 16^th.

Working together

The U16 boys as always was the most competitive and largest field with 28 boys signing up. The scratch came first and VCL displayed fantastic team tactics as Max went on the attack and George, Hisham and Oliver stayed near the front making it clear they were not going to chase while waiting for anyone to come through. Lap after lap passed and Max and another rider stayed out front with no one in the group showing willingness to chase until 3 laps remaining. The chasers were closing in quickly on Max and no one was sure whether he would get it or not. He ended up a close 4^th with Hisham 6^th, George 8^th and Oliver 11^th. This put all of them in strong positions heading into the devil with strong performances again by Hisham and George giving them 6^th and 4^th respectively. Next came a gruelling 60 lap points race (at least double the distance of any of the other races). With all of them seeming to know the plan they set off with Hisham and George placing in the first sprint. A few laps later George won another sprint before Max won the next one. Hisham was racking up the points to with 2^nd,3^rd and 4^th in multiple sprints while Oliver was still looking very strong and eager to add himself to the points. By the end George finished a remarkable 3rd with Hisham 5^th, Max 6^th and Oliver 9^th. This gave George VCL’s 3rd podium of the day with him coming 3rd overall. Hisham was also up there finishing 5^th with Max and Oliver finishing 8^th and 13^th respectively.

Blink and you miss them!

A fantastic turnout for VCL and some marvelous displays. Everyone racing should be very proud with lots to look forward to in the year to come. More Icebreaker podiums? A National Championship? A Stage win in Assen? The future definitely does indicate something impressive coming this season so watch this space.

Thank you to Yuebi and Tony for the photos. More here

January kicked off straight away with our traditional New Years Day cyclo-cross. The course tried to keep everyone as dry as possible on a waterlogged course after the 2nd wettest year on record, but it was still a muddy affair. We didn’t have quite as many VCL pairings as previous years, with members either nursing hangovers or helping run the race. Thanks to Tim for organising and everyone else who helped out. More photos here.

A few days later we had our winter return to Calshot. Such is the demand for velodrome sessions we did well to get any track time at all. We had 3 main groups of riders including a taster session for youth riders who had never ridden an indoor track before. For most of us it was the first time in months we’d ridden a track, let alone the roller coaster ride that is Clashot. It was great! More photos here

Social media was alight with blurry white photos. Yes, as is becoming fairly common in recent years, it snowed. Slippery surfaces and two wheels don’t always mix too well so we had to cancel our regular Sunday club run. That didn’t stop plenty of club members getting out and slogging through the snow for a novelty. Luckily the snow didn’t hang around for long enough for the novelty to wear off.

That same Sunday was the last London League cyclo-cross of the season (excluding the Team Champs which is next month). Hats off to Team Darenth for managing to put the event on in heavy snow. It made for some good photos. In the seniors Jules came 5th with Philip crashing out and not wanting to push his luck before a shoulder operation. Hayden was the only youth rider to be able to make the journey and found the conditions better suited to a mountainbike. Photos at Moran Photography and UK Cyclesport.

Finally the indoor track racing season was underway, and around 10 youth riders trekked over to Newport for the first of the very well regarded Icebreaker series. VCL had some great results in the different categories including 3 podium placings. Josh’s write-up of the action is here.

Tony and Yuebi got some good photos, here and here. Results should be here soon.

Next month sees the final cyclo-cross of the year at the team championships. Also, Friends of the Velodrome organising a working party clean up day in preparation for the racing season on 16th February.

December kicked off with the biggest cyclo-cross event VCL has ever run, the South East and Eastern Regional Championships, and also a rare event away from Herne Hill.

On the 16th of December we had our club hillclimb and Christmas dinner. Jules found the twisty, steep and traffic-free Old Polhill for the hillclimb which was won by Andrew. This should be the only non-cyclo cross photo of the month, you have to look quite closely to find see the tarmac, with the road being closed to traffic it was a little “rustic” – still a great location though.

After we headed en-masse to the Bever Cafe for a full Chirstmas dinner…

We hosted our round of the London cyclo-cross league on December 23rd as part of a two day “Double Cross” in collaboration with Vicious Velo. We’re happy to work with them. For a small club they shame many larger clubs with the amount of events they put on, plus they like the Dead Kennedys.

Like much of the country the ground was saturated, and quickly made for a muddy race.  A new water feature had formed, which Shaun filled with washing-up liquid. As well as running the event we had a good number of riders. Stand out performance has to go to George Jary who came 2nd in the youth race.

Arlo had a good race too, but excelled in falling off on the muddiest parts of the course.

Jason also took some cool photos from the “ballooncam”. Full set here.

December is the London cyclo-cross league’s last full month of racing, with just one league race in January, and the team champs in February. As is now a regular event, Abi has been walking away with first youth girl at every event, and beating many of the boys in the process.

First thing next month, we’re running our New Years Day Madison cyclo-cross on January 1st, and off to Calshot for some winter track training on January 4th. Check the calendar or Facebook for details.

…and finaly, ever photogenic, Tony was featured in the winter edition of Paved magazine.