VELO 99 NEWSLETTER         No. 2.

TRACK MEETING CANCELLED

The track meeting at Quibell Park on the 28^th. July has been cancelled. This is because there has been a lack of entries. At the time of writing I have only received six entries (written and verbal). This is an expensive meeting to put on due to the costs of hiring the track. The total cost, giving only one prize in each group is about £100, which needs twenty entries to break even, and this number does not guarantee good racing for all. It is with regret that I have taken this decision and offer my apologies to those who were intending racing.

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

Tony Thurman has booked Manchester Velodrome for 2 hours on Sunday, 17th. November.  This session is for riders who have never ridden on this track before. There will be a coach to take us through the various stages of riding safely on the track. If you have little or no interest in track riding do not miss this session, riding this track is a terrific experience and is not to be missed. The banking may look intimidating but I can assure those of a nervous disposition that it is quite easy to get round in safety. The hire bikes are good and is an opportunity for many of us to return to the past and ride a fixed wheel. For those that have never ridden a fixed wheel it is quite easy and one adapts readily.

THE EDITORS RAMBLINGS   (CAN BE AVOIDED BY SENDING YOUR CONTIBUTIONS!)

We are well into the season and no doubt some of us are thinking that we need some of the latest go faster gear. How much easier it is going to make the racing and how we are going to have an advantage over that certain person who always seem to be those one or two places in front of us at the finish. Of course there is always that one drawback with all of this gear, the cost, but how about getting the advantage of all this gear for free! Too good to be true you may think, but no, the next time you go for a shower have a look at yourself in the mirror. Not a pretty site in many cases and in terms of performance cycling a veritable horror story. Are you looking at a sleek fat free torso with sharp muscle definition or is it all blurred with a layer of squigey fat? We know the answer without looking don’t we? Now don’t get me wrong fat does have its uses, its great for keeping penguins warm during the Antarctic winters, its good for frying eggs and bacon but when it comes to riding a bike quickly, its of no use at all.

The great yacht designer Uffa Fox once said that the only place that weight is of use is in a steamroller. Nobody as yet has turned up to a Velo 99 race pedaling a road roller even though there are some of us who travel up the hills at a similar speed.

By now most of you will be asking yourselves what is the point of these ramblings. It’s quite simple. My elder daughter conned me into wheelbarrowing a couple of tons of gravel from the front of her house to the back. While I was doing this I started to think what this amount of work meant in cycling terms. On the Rampton course we climb about 1000 feet of vertical height. This means that if you are 1 kilo overweight during the race you have used the amount of energy equivalent lifting 1 ton of gravel 1 foot. Two and a half kilos of fat and its equivalent to lifting one of those big white bags of sand or gravel onto the kitchen table. Just think what you could do with that wasted energy in the last mile of a race.

What is the money saving solution?  Simple, eat less and reduce the alcohol consumption. Get rid of the fat reduce the weight that you are dragging around the course without spending a penny, in fact saving some pennies, now you may be able to buy that super lightweight gofaster gear, but do you need it now that you are several kilos lighter?

IT’S YOUR LETTER

This newsletter is for the membership of Velo99, not just to read but to use to put forward ideas, air your grievances or just to see your ideas in print. Can we please have some contributions from the membership. I am not the most imaginative of people. I don’t mind editing and producing the letter but I’m afraid that it is not going to have a long life if I have to write it.  CONTRIBUTIONS PLEASE!!!   to,

 Derek Hemingway, 37 Lockwood Bank, Epworth,Doncaster,DN9 1JH. or  derek.hemingway@btinternet.com

FIFTY YEARS OF CONTINUOUS COMPETITION

This year John Flear is celebrating his fiftieth year of continuous competition and also his seventieth birthday. To celebrate the event he is riding the cyclosportif “La Ronde Picarde” which takes place near Abbeville in September. John is hoping to make the event a sponsored ride in favour of The British Heart Foundation. This is no easy “give me your money and I’ll ride a steady 30 miles” ride. It is virtually a full on 200km road race (even though the French state on the entry form that it is not a race and then proceed to give prizes for the overall positions and also for age categories). He will have to compete with French national Cat. 1 riders, ex pros., possibly current pros. and stage winners or wears of the yellow jersey in past Tours de France. Please give john you support in this venture. More details later.