August 2001

I.O.M.2001 - INTERNATIONAL CYCLING WEEK JULY

This year despite a smaller team than in previous years we still managed third place in the champion club competition. The Army won first place with Liverpool Century in second place. We have won this competition twice before and will be making a big effort next year to win again!

Andrew Christie recorded our only win this year in the junior circuit race at the N.S.C. He also placed well in the Kermesses gaining two 3rd places and did a very good ride in the Mannin Veg (6th place). Andrew Massey also rode strongly all week never far behind Andrew Christie. Susan Massey was first lady in both the Douglas and Laxey Hill climbs. Susan, James Hartley and Danny Baird raced all the Kermesses gaining valuable experience. Mike Garner was 25th in the Curwen Clague Road Race, he unfortunately crashed in the Port Erin Kermesse snapping his forks and injuring his arm and hip and was unable to compete the rest of the week.

Geoff Brandt, Chris Quinn and Dave Newby rode well all week helping each other in the Vets Road Race. Roly Brooks was our best Vet in the 10 miles T.T. Ian Boult and Colin Clowes rode the mountain T.T and almost everything else.

Everybody rode the Two Up10 including Steve Light and Harry Mahar, managing to beat the hour with 55.44.

We would not have been able to do any of this with out the valued help of Harry and Doreen Mahar, Steve Light and Geoff and Linda Brandt, who moved bikes and riders around all week.

A very enjoyable week all round, and not enough space for all the stories, (Roly pinching Doreen’s shopping, Danny Bairds dip in the boating lake…..or Dave Newby wearing horns and a blonde wig ….)

Peter Byrne

VELO SPORT 10

Andrew Christie continues to improve with 21.09 for 5th overall (1st junior).

Other good times;

Stephen Gauller…22.51 Pb
Ian Hawkins…….22.56

WANTED

Ian Hawkins is after a winter training bike 21 inch. (Max £100) Phone 691 0939

ROAD RACE REPORT

It’s been a month of big races, with the results steadily improving.

Andy Poole memorial (90mile) 17th, Tour of Snowdonia (85mile) 15th, Weaver Valley (83mile) 9th, Henry Burton GP (104mile) 6th and the Jim Rogers Levy Moores RR (84mile) 7th.

Each race has been a family day out! Debbie has had several interesting experiences trying to control Kate (4) Abbey (9 weeks) whilst giving me time checks and running along the road passing bottles up (its a good job I've got a supportive wife).

Jeff Vernon.

ALPE D'HUEZ 2001

Les and I have ridden our bikes in the Alps twice before - and suffered both extremes of weather. 9 years ago we sweltered in ninety-degree heat on Alpe d'Huez, whereas four years later it rained on Les Arcs, and snowed on the Galibier, and the riders went past us in team cars. So I’m a bit wary of the weather forecasts the week before we set off for Alpe d'Huez this year. "Showers" and "14 degrees" seem to be the message. Not great! Pack everything except the thermal winter jacket (if it’s that cold I’m staying in the hotel!)

We get there on Monday night, after seeing the end of that day’s stage to Aix-les-Bains. The coach winds its way around each of the twenty-one hairpins, having to use the wrong side of the road on the right-hand bends, and each time we look down we’re amazed at how far we’ve risen. Oddly enough, I’m not feeling trepidation, but anticipation. The crowds are already gathering along the route, and who cares if I’m going to have to ride up here tomorrow? Naah, piece of cake!

The problem with staying in a hotel at the top of Alpe d’Huez, is that to climb it you’ve got to get down to the bottom. And on race day, there are about a half a million people making their way up! However, we’ve been told that there’s another road down the mountain, running away to the east, and coming out on the valley road that leads to Bourg d’Oisans. A nice route of some 30 miles, we’re told. Sounds good, we’ll go for that. Especially as the weather forecasters have been shown to be quite wrong: it’s clear blue skies all around, if at little chilly. A chance to use the classic "newspaper up the jersey" tactic (even if it was the Sunday Sport!) What we haven’t been told is that this road is gravel! Not just a few piles of small stones at various points on the road - from gutter to gutter is a bed of gravel. There are no crash barriers on the hairpins, there are gullies across the road for streams to flow along (all but one are dry), there’s a very steep drop twelve inches to my right, and various cars are using this six-foot-wide road to get up the mountain! Now I know what the Bobets and Coppis had to put up with! After a couple of kilometres of dead slow descending, the road levels out, and then starts to climb gently. I look across the valley at another road lower than us, and figure that this road will carry on up the valley, then cut across and come back down there. We press on.

When we reach a U-turn point, I suddenly realise that the road I saw doesn’t connect with ours at all. We actually make two hairpins and carry on climbing! Hang on - this wasn’t in the script! I’m not supposed to be knackering myself out here! I’m trapped in a valley between two cols, neither of which I was planning on climbing today. There’s nothing for it but to press on. Eventually we reach the top of the Col de Sarenne, and I’m amazed to discover that we are higher here than in Alpe d’Huez - my altimeter reads exactly 2000m! And we must have descended to about 1400 earlier! When I get my hands on that courier…

A quick breather at the top, and then we set off downhill. More tight hairpins, more gravel, more dead slow descending, and more oncoming cars (most of which seem to meet me when I am on a right-hand hairpin and want to use their side of the road!). After a few kilometres of this we finally reach civilisation - the tiny hamlet of Clavanes(?), and some smooth tarmac. Finally - a chance to release the brakes and fly! And before much longer we're down on the valley road, and can head for Bourg d'Oisans. I decide to ditch the Sunday Sport now, rather than later under the gaze of thousands! The road approaching the town is lined with cars and people, and we start to realise how many spectators will be there. Once in the town we head for the mountain road, only to be stopped by a policeman. "À pied! La route est fermé!" What? He's telling us to walk? There's still three and a half hours before the riders are due! Even I won't take that long to climb it! Still, he is carrying a gun, so we peacefully dismount and walk 50 yards before getting back on……

To be continued next month……..

Ruaraidh Gillies

Exclusive: Here are pictures of us climbing the Alpe. They were taken by a commercial photographer, Daniel Breton, who has a shop in the town of Alpe d'Huez. He spent most of the race day snapping riders who climbed the mountain, and selling them prints. A 10x8 print in a folder together with an aerial shot of the Alpe cost me 90F!

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