It’s a free-to-enter evening moutainbike ride held on the Wednesday nearest to mid-summer. It’s also always within Bike Week. It uses many of the (really quite interesting) bridleways around the south of Bath: Combe Hay, Wellow, Shoscombe kinda area. It’s really quite hilly, too.
Anyhoo, my friend from Bath – Andy Stewart whom I suspect some of you may know – has resurrected it again for this year. This’ll be it’s 4th incarnation, it’s last being in 2007. Think we had about 50 riders out that time. I seem to remember the Long Route was nearer 40km back then… The montage above uses some snaps from that ride.
In previous years the whole route was way-marked, people were given a map to follow and they’d ride round on their own or in little groups, at their own pace, and meet up at a pub at the end. All incredibly social and great fun. His format’s a little different this year in that he intends for several optional groups to form which will then be ‘led’ round the route. There will also be some prizes for ‘Most Spirited Ride’ in three categories, courtesy of Cadence in Bath.
It really is a great little event using some really interesting trails. And not too far away. If you’ve still got some legs after the Tuesday Night Ride, please come along.
Details are as follows:
WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2011
Meet 6.45 for 7pm start at St Gregory’s School, Combe Hay Lane,
Bath BA2 8PA (off the A367 near Odd Down Park & Ride)
Suitable for all abilities (including young adults aged 16 and over).
Off-road experience useful but not essential.
Choice of routes: 20km and 30km.
Maps provided or join one of the led rides.
Wear a helmet and bring a spare tube, bottle and lights.
Optional pub stop near the end.
For more information: www.bikeweek.org.uk
Or contact Andy Stewart analogueandy@yahoo.co.uk 01225 424905 or 07810 756 925
Make sure you check out their website for details of how to take part in the many events running over the weekend. The event is put by Colin and Gordon and the rest of the Warminster Cycle Group who do a great job of getting loads of non-riders out on their bikes and making cycling accessible to all ages. For the rest of us there’s always the MTB time trial to enter, an event that our own Dan Irons won last year and will no doubt be there to defend….
Fill your eyes with this little beauty from the weekend shot and edited by Dan Irons of Facade Photography…
Here we are again, at the start of another TickerTape series… except this time the weather is on our side!
Leaving the track announcement to the day of the event certainly made for some interesting racing as some had banked on Puppets being used, so had spent time practicing confident that their efforts would pay off. Unfortunately for them SPOONS was the order of the day, and Practicing Peter’s aside it was a very popular choice.
Now, apart form the course announcement there were a few other changes; the event was shorter by an hour, and we brushed UCI rules aside to allow a certain OAP mountain biking legend wear what can only be described as a paint on FOX T-shirt in a bid to finally win a coveted TickerTape sticker. Skintight clothing is normally reserved for our XC or Retro events, but we figured that Steve is pretty retro (over 40) so would need all the help he could get.
Well we were wrong, he schooled every one of us including Mr Smith and led the event from start to finish. Chris wasn’t best pleased with the Commissar’s T shirt ruling and could be heard protesting that the only reason Steve was wearing such a tight T shirt was because he’d developed moobs and needed all the support he could get!
Now Chris, I’m sure you could grow moobs like that too… so don’t beat yourself up about it, you must be nearly 40 by now anyway?
Back to the racing, well there were plenty of entrants, and a few new faces too. Nick G impressed with his playful style, pulling tweaks off of every feature and making everyone cheer as he styled his way down the course. Tom Dunford’s riding also drew a lot of attention, it was attacking and daring especially through the dreaded tight middle section where he flicked the bike confidently between the trees getting sideways but always making his way through. Both won beans for their efforts, and rightly so.
The new berm was pretty popular as were the slight changes to the routing over a couple of features, it’s nice to make the odd change, keeps things fresh and keeps people on their toes, though some would have benefitted from a map taking the old line out of the berm as if on auto-pilot.
So that was it, a great start to the series, with plenty still to look forward to.
Special mentions should go to Nigel Fudge for competing in his first TickerTape, Ben Batt for looking scary as ever on a bike, and Rob Lewis for timing only one run but getting a 4th despite hating the bike he was on and being a bit worse for wear.
Check the calendar for details of the next round, don’t bother asking me which course it’ll be on though as I won’t tell you!
Cheers to everyone for helping to set up and pack away, to MADISON for providing the race tape and to ROSE BIKES for providing the awesome trophies and prizes!
Photos thanks to Aaron Veness, and Daniel Irons
It’s amazing what you can do when you work together…
On Sunday we destroyed the existing and very tired ‘Slam Berm’ on Spoons and went about rebuilding it from scratch with some proper materials…
After hours of midge flapping, post bashing, rock gathering and mattock wielding we built ”el twato” (don’t get me started) a beautifully cribbed berm that is as good to ride as it is to look at.
With so much more speed available out of the corner we decided to open up an additional line , so set about excavating even more soil and building a new feature (a pump-able kicker called ‘Rolo’) into the same landing as used by the double after the slam berm. After a bit of wheelbarrow rodeo (video to follow) and countless calls of “just 10 -15 more…!” we called it a day, packed up and went home. Well, not before a few people sessioned the new features in their wellies of course…
Next time we’ll complete the section (it needs an additional small berm to be built) before we continue with the rest of the TO DO list. Remember, the more people we get along to Dig Days the more we can get done. Thanks to all those who helped out, you did an awesome job!
Welshmill Park, Frome
Saturday 21st May, 12 till 4pm
Frome Recreation and Open Grounds Supporters (FROGS) have got through the first stage for a £50,000 grant to improve Welshmill park and the bid includes a bike track, natural play features, woodland trails, etc, but there is a lot to do before the deadline in September.
We are running a Consultation event on Saturday 21st May, because we need to hear people’s views, and also gather evidence to include in our bid.
Please come along! Bring your bikes! No hard work involved. I will put up a gazebo and be organising a few bike games involving balloons, water pistols and tightropes. The idea is to attract people to Welshmill and sample their views about what they would like to see in the space.
All help will be very welcome, so why not pop by? Fill in a questionaire! Help with the activities! Talk to people about the loveliness of biking in general and bike tracks in Frome in particular!
Eight of the more foolhardy members of the Tuesday Nightriders had to demonstrate their cattle-wrangling skills last night when they joined the Anti-social group’s ride.
.
Just a heads-up, really. Road-racing makes a return to Victoria Park in Bath for the next four Wednesday evenings. Many friends of mine from a previous life will either be organising or competing so I’m going along to watch (and wish, misty-eyed, that I was still that young and fit). If anyone from the BCC would like to join me in spectating, they’d be very welcome.
This kind of closed-road circuit racing is fast and furious and given the narrow nature of the roads, chicanes and gradients in Vicky Park, it should make for some amazing viewing.
If none of you have ever seen a circuit race, come and see what road bikes are really for and what proper fitness looks like! First race is this Wednesday evening (4th May), then 11th, 18th and 25th May. If anyone would like a lift, gimme a shout.
Chas.
“Bike Racing Returns to Victoria Park in Bath.
It has been many years since the smell of embrocation has wafted around Victoria Park in Bath but it’s going to be back for four Wednesdays in May. Next month sees the exciting return of the Bath Cycle Races and with a slightly different format compared to your average bike race you’re promised some hard and fast racing from the off.
With the support of Bath and North East Somerset Council, British Cycling and with the collaboration of four local cycling clubs (Somer Valley CC, Avonlea-Treasure RT, Velo Club Walcot and Bath CC) spectacular racing returns to Victoria Park each Wednesday evening in May with a 6.45pm start. And with an overall prize fund in excess of £2,000 the competition is bound to be fierce.
Each race will be an action packed fifteen to thirty minutes long. There will be separate races for Youth A/B, 3rd and 4th category riders and women, with the evening of racing finishing with the Elite 1st and 2nd category race. Series leader and points leader jerseys will also be awarded after each round.”