Today we say goodbye to a dear friend – Don Picken

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Yesterday our good friend and active member of Stafford Road Club Don Picken passed away quietly at home.

Don has been a member of Stafford Road Club for decades and anyone who rode Time Trial events would know Don well as from the late 90’s Don ran a full racing calendar of events from March to September each year and his wife and daughter were often there help him with the timekeeping.

I myself met Don in 2002 when I attended my first committee meeting and was encouraged by him to ride the club TT’s, and thanks to Don I found the Race of Truth to be the most thrilling (and demanding) cycling discipline which I am still passionate about today and love to race, thanks Don.

I will post details of the funeral arrangements once they have been confirmed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A familiar figure to many Don Picken signing on riders as the Stafford RC time trials

 

Go-Ride Races – October 2022

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On the 15th October, the British Cycling Community Coach at Cannock Chase and SRC Go-Ride, put on a Go-Ride Race, which are for riders to get a taster of racing, in a more relaxed atmosphere.

It was a great event attended by over 40 riders (with a number of riders from the club), split across three categories, with courses to suit each category. Go-Ride courses tend to be less technical, but can still be demanding for novice racers, especially where riding on grass is involved.

All the riders enjoyed the mornings racing and had great weather, although a little breezy at times.

Well done to all the riders and thank you to the parents for bringing along the riders, cheering on all the riders and making it a memorable event for them.

Results are as follows:

Under 7s Girls
1st Edith Delicompagni (SRC)
2nd Olivia Shephard (SRC)

Under 7s Boys
1st Leo Lawrence
2nd Frankie Jones
3rd Rufus Honeyford (SRC)

Under 9s Girls
1st Isabel Stringer
2nd Rosie Anthony (SRC)
3rd Lily Emerson

Under 9s Boys
1st Luca Hodgkinson
2nd Calum McCausland (SRC)
3rd Teddy Jones

Under 12s Girls
1st Anna Hallchurch
2nd Martha Honeyford (SRC)

Under 12s Boys
1st Harry Donald
2nd Oliver Howard
3rd Cody Hodgkinson

Under 16 Girls
1st Mia Lewis (SRC)
2nd Sophie Anthony (SRC)

Under 16 Boys
1st Joseph Laidler (SRC)
2nd Aidan Walters
3rd Archie Williams

To see what is happening with British Cycling at Birches Valley, see their Facebook page here.

Keep an eye out on our Facebook page, as hopefully we will be putting on more of this next year and maybe something a little different for us in the Autumn!

2022 WMCCL CycloCross League – Halfway Stage

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We have now arrived at the halfway stage for the West Midlands Cyclocross League 2022.

For the 6th race in the series, we had 12 riders attending (unfortunately one had to leave before we could herd everyone together for the photo), all wearing club colours. We now also have an honouree member of the club called BOB. BOB is our new “Big Orange Box”, where we can gather, chill and relax before and after a race and if the weather does turn, allow some respite from the elements if needed and allow a swift change of clothes for the journey home. We also have a new bike stand to save having the bike lying on the floor and risking them getting stood on, but if the numbers keep going up, we are going to have to get another few!!

All the riders did brilliantly today and our newer racers, have grown in confidence and are now not daunted by the race starts, as they were 6 races ago, and all showed lots of desire and determination during the race. We even had a 1st and two 3rd places riders this week with another just missing out!

As coaches, we could not ask for any more from yourselves, from racing, to cheering your fellow racers on, to being great ambassadors for the club.

Every week we have comments [all good :-)] from other clubs and race officials, which makes us all extremely proud.

Keep doing what you are doing, as you are all doing brilliantly

Stafford RC 2022-23 winter training classes lead by @AlastairSempleCoaching

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Starting on the 19th October 2022 on a Wednesday evening at 18:30 I will be hosting classes for Stafford Road Club members and any of our cycling friends who may wish to join us.

The training classes will be organised on Zwift (Zwift VR cycling app ) as a group ride where all the riders will stay together and follow the same training schedule based on your own personal levels, so we ride and complete the sessions together as a team.

To make things more sociable we will also use the free Discord phone app so we can use this to talk to each other while riding.

These Zwift group rides we have run this year have proved really successful and the software is very simple to get to grips with.  So please let me know if you are interested in taking part by emailing me at ascoaching@outlook.com.  You are welcome to join the classes at any point this winter so do not worry if you miss the start on 19th Nov.  If you need any more info again please get in touch.

CANCELLED – Sunday’s 50 Mile TT – K7/50

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K7/50 – 4th September 2022 – CANCELLED

We have just heard 3 way traffic lights have been set up on the course this week by gas contractors. We have been on site today to speak to them and they have confirmed that the lights will be in place now for approximately 3 weeks so Stafford RC has had to cancel the K7/50 which was to be part of the Midlands VTTA championship, alongside the normal club championship.

If you know of anyone planning to attend can you please convey this message to them.

Hope to see you at the VTTA K48/10 Open TT on the 17th September

2022 West Midlands MTB XC Series – Team League Winners

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What a brilliant season for the youth section of SRC at the West Midlands MTB XC Series. Unfortunately it was only 2 races, but what races they were, with some quite technical and gruelling courses provided.

Out of 105 team that attended the event, SRC came first, even though it was only attended by the junior section of the club. What a massive achievement by all the riders that raced.

Of the 20 riders that attended the series, 11 were new to racing, but you would never have known as they threw everything in it.

Over the two races, the riders had 3 first places, 2 second places and 4 3rd places, which is a fantastic achievement, especially with so many first timers. As said in the last write-up for the second round, someone did question if the podium was correct in one of the categories as the was no SRC rider on it.

The club and coaches would like to say a massive thank you to the riders who attended and gave it there all. There were a few spills on the way, but everyone finished their races and made us proud and behaved impeccably.

The final shout out goes to the parents for bringing their riders to session after session on a Saturday morning and/or a Wednesday evening and giving up a weekend lie-in, especially on a race weekend.

New course record set by Farley Barber on the K7/21

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@FarleyBarber who rides for Spirit BSS which is part of the British Cycling elite development team smashed the long-standing course record lSt night taking 74 seconds off the previous record held by Andy Moore.

Conditions were by no means perfect either, blustery cross winds both out and back, rain and lots of traffic in the villages turning hindered rather than helped rider on the night.  But despite the conditions Farley finished in 47:01 on the lumpy 21 out and back TT course – Superb Ride !

2022 Reg Pearce Memorial Trophy Competition

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Every year in memory of our dear friend Reg Pearce a trophy is awarded to the fastest Stafford Road Club member in our Open 10 mile Time Trial based on handicap times.

Reg loved to use handicaps as it ‘levelled the playing field’ he said, giving everyone of any age or gender an equal chance of winning.

This year saw 9 riders competing for the coveted trophy and for the second year running Susan Semple was the fastest using the handicap system, second place went to Roger Morris and 3rd place to Dave Smith who was the fastest rider on the day based on the actual finishing times.

 

Position Name Gender Age Actual Handicap Results
1 Susan Semple Female 56 00:25:09 00:04:59 00:20:10
2 Roger Morris Male 74 00:30:14 00:06:53 00:23:21
3 Dave Smith Male 36 00:24:30 00:00:25 00:24:05
4 Ceri Evans Male 53 00:27:21 00:02:07 00:25:14
5 Ian Durber Male 51 00:28:32 00:01:51 00:26:41
6 Paula Blackburn Female 56 00:32:53 00:04:59 00:27:54
7 Sarah Brookes Female 44 00:31:32 00:03:33 00:27:59
8 Mark Richards Male 45 00:29:16 00:01:11 00:28:05
9 Richard Knowles Male 52 00:30:34 00:01:59 00:28:35
10 Peter Williams Male Apologies DNS

Hopefully we will see more of our riders entering the club times trials this year in preparation to challenge for this trophy in 2023.

Full details of the trophy and handicapping system used can be seen on the Reg Pearce Trophy page via the Racing tab on Stafford Road Club website LINK