Peter Hansford TT - Results

Results for our first club TT. Well done to all who took part and many thanks to all of the helpers.

Pos	Number	Name	Club	Time
1	15	Andy Bryson	Peter Hansford RT	22:14
2	37	Oliver Hitchings	Peter Hansford RT	23:07
3	17	Wayne Smith	Come and Try	24:16
4	10	Jon Dudley	Sotonia	24:34
5	9	Philip Conwell	Sotonia	24:49
6	35	Jim Champken	VC Venta	24:51
7	29	Mark Jacobs	Salisbury Tri	25:22
8	3	Ysarn Higgins	VC Venta	25:51
9	21	Cameron Taylor	Sotonia	25:56
10	36	Will Dunnett	VC Venta	26:02
11	33	Adel Tyson-Bloor	VC St Raphael	26:06
12	27	Adam Nichols	Bath Uni CC	26:16
13	30	Patrick Brown	VC Venta	26:23
14	31	Aaron Piper	VC Venta	26:31
15	26	Simon Weatherall	Come and Try	26:43
16	34	David Belcher	Sotonia	27:02
17	28	Paul Conway	VC Venta	27:16
18	14	Dave Pilkington	VC Venta	27:24
19	24	Ian Wall	Sotonia	27:27
20	11	Angela Burnikell	Sotonia	27:36
21	18	Ian Dobson	Come and Try	27:42
22	6	Nick Wesby	Sotonia	27:50
23	19	Gemma Marshall	Southampton Tri Club	27:59
24	32	Theo Webb	VC Venta	28:00
25	16	Peter Trunwit	Bournemouth Jubilee Wheelers	28:50
26	2	Chris Summers	Sotonia	28:52
27	4	W Hanson	Sotonia	29:22
28	25	Nicole Johnson	Sotonia	29:35
29	7	Chris Haynes	Sotonia	29:39
30	5	John Radford	Sotonia	30:05
31	20	Juilan Wherrett	Southampton Tri Club	30:44
32	1	Julia Baker-Beall	Sotonia	31:15
33	23	Julian Gee	Sotonia	31:32
34	12	Robin Burnikell	Come Try	32:18
35	22	Daniel Whitten	Perfect Balance Cycles	32:42
36	8	Mike Zollo	Southampton Tri Club	DNF
37	13	Tim Cooke	Come and Try	DNS

A testing weekend for Hansford Racing

Firstly I would like to offer condolences to all at the Severn Bridge Race.  Our team riders Phill Reynolds and Andy Shackel where competing at the time and it goes without saying that  we've lost too many good people who just wanted to ride their bikes.  (Junior Heffernan killed in Severn Bridge race crash)  


Test valley Weekend  TT  Race report from Harry Bulstrode:-  

Harry shows the clock who's boss! photo by Jez  Hart  (Sotonia CC) 

After storming onto the road race stage last season, this weekend was a chance for the Peter Hansford Cycles team to put down a mark in the ‘race of truth’. Time trialling is racing at its simplest, and this Test Valley weekend, held on the P140 10 mile course running down the valley into Romsey and back, promised to be hotly contested. In particular Andy Bryson and I were looking to defend our 2-up victory from 2012 against local fast men and erstwhile Contre-la-Montre team-mates James Gilfillan and Steve Whitewick.

The weather for Saturday’s solo event was warm enough to get the legs shaved for the first time since October. Richard Prebble, riding for Node4Giordana, was runner up in 2012, and shaved seconds off this year, finishing in 22:01. I was feeling strong and comfortable in a new position with a bit more stretch, and set off fast, averaging 370 watts to the turn, where I had to do some London cycling to duck round cars queuing for the roundabout. After the dead turn and the sprint back up to speed, I was tiring for the return leg, and struggled to lift the pace for the finish, up hill and a few hundred metres over the 10 miles to boot! I was delighted with a 21:30, eight seconds better than last year and good enough for the win. Andy Bryson got held up behind a learner driver on his way down the start hill, and finished in 5th with 23.08. Oli Hitchings, adapting to a new position on a new bike finished in 24:45. The three of us took the team prize overall.

Sunday morning was overcast and cold, but there didn’t seem to be any ice around, and after the torrential rain in last year’s event we weren’t going to complain. Andy and I shared the lead in 40-second blocks, ‘looking comfortable on the wheel, their relays slick and smooth’ (Thanks Eamonn http://blog.sportsmassagebournemouth.co.uk/). After a lorry pulled across a short way in front, the adrenaline took my pace up a little as Andy tried to recover so that I shed him briefly, but otherwise the changes were faultless. We finished in 21:22 and weren’t sure it had been enough. In the event, we had taken the victory by a narrow 11 second margin over James and Steve behind. Phil Peters and Oli Hitchens put in a strong ride to finish 5th overall in 23.15.

In summary, a great weekend’s racing, and the Peter Hansford Cycles squad took home all the silverware, or will do if anyone can find the Chalky White trophy!

surviving the apocalypse and riding bikes!

Happy new year! Despite the gloomiest of predictions from South Americans its 2013! With another year of racing to look forward to. Woohoo!  However, this said,  here in the UK the conditions have been near apocalyptic of late. Rain, rain, cold and wind with added rain, if its not submerged in several inches of water the roads are covered in flit washed out of the fields.. *sad face*   This image by new team rider Andy Shackle shows it well!. Personally I've been hiding out in my suffer cave, sweating it out on the turbo for several hours is preferable to being soaked and cold if you ask me! some would call me soft.

 Anyway, this is an extract from a local paper about the 2013 team:-

'The development of the team over the last 12 months has seen the acquisition of a varied spectrum of riders who specialise in disciplines including time trialling, road racing, track racing and even some muddier events. The ten strong local squad has its skill set expanded with this year’s addition of committed road riders Phil Peters (21, Petersfield), Andy Shackel (17, Drayton,Portsmouth) and Harry Veale (17, Clanfield). While Shackel and Veale plan to tackle the national junior events the old hands, Phill Reynolds (21, Portsmouth) and Dr Harry Bulstrode (30, Oxford), achieved Elite status last season and expect to mix it up with some professional riders in major domestic races. With the support of the team riders, Andy Bryson (30, Oliver’s battery), Oliver Hitchings (27, Badger farm), Mike Scott (47, Eastleigh) and Brook Elgie (34,Southampton) 2013 will be a fantastic year for the team.'

watch this space for updates.

Ollie 

Stage Race Fun

Last weekend saw most of the team in action (Mike is still recovering) at the Downton 2-day classic promoted by Glenn Longland.  This is an end of season stage race beginning with a Hill climb, then heading into a road race before ending in a gruelling time trial on the 2nd day. There is a twist to this tale as the road race is handicapped with groups being decided from the hill climb stage. 

   All of the team performed well in the hill climb showing amazing strength and depth in the riders we have which is great, only this meant that all of us were in the 'fast' group for the road race starting last of the four groups. 

   The road race began with though and off from the group, working together to close down the time gap on the groups ahead. The only tactic from the team was to prevent any of the good time trial riders from gaining time and to make them do the fair share of the work. Seeing as I am a poor time triallist and would be riding it on a road bike I decided to attack the bunch, hoping that this would tease the stronger riders to chase me allowing the boys an easy ride to the finish and using up valuable energy of the opposition. This plan back fired when the strongest time triallist in the bunch bridged across to join me with one other. All I could do was sit on and not contribute to him gaining any time in hope that the team would catch up. This didn't happen and we soon caught the other groups up the road and were leading the race. It came down an uphill sprint where I took 2nd. I was soon relieved to see that the rest of the team had only lost 15 secs and were in with a shout for the time trial to follow! 

   Sunday morning was gloomy and the mist hung over as we started the time trial which was a shame as the new forest can be so beautiful but on this occasion it was hard to see the road let alone anything else. Despite the teams best efforts the time trial went to the expected winner however Harry, Andy and Ollie all hit the 1hr mark or under, all great efforts to place high in the overall GC. 

   Results can be found below and we also won the team prize for the weekends efforts. 

http://blog.sportsmassagebournemouth.co.uk/

And photos can be found here: http://www.grahamrobins.net/photos/DOWNTON%202-DAY%202012/

Harry's end of season round-up

Harry's round-up of the racing from last week as follows:

The 18th and last edition of the Wednesday night World Champs at Mountbatten this week saw Phill, Oli  and myself facing off against the Felt, VC St Raphael and Pedal Heaven squads. All eyes were on Phill after his victory last week, and the early moves were well covered as usual. When the break did go, Phill made the selection again, and the group of 5 soon took a lap. Confident in Phill's sprint, Oli and I could concentrate on controlling things then ratcheting up the pace in the final laps. Oli steered the peleton through the penultimate lap, accelerating relentlessly to maintain the lead, then I came through to hold the inside line until the final corner. As I peeled off right Phill was already firing towards the finish. Felt

 and Pedal Heaven had to settle for the minor placings as Phill secured another commanding victory.

Sunday was a different matter. The final South BC road race of the season kicked off with Met Office warnings of gales, floods and an outside chance of locusts. This was a hilly 65 miles, and on a day like this, a true hard man's race. The strong Peter Hansford Cycles contingent were on the back foot on the opening lap. Brook suffered an early puncture, and the searing pace meant this was the end of his race. The climbing pace set by Phil Peters (Peter Hansford 2013 squad) among others was putting  Andy and I, flatland riders by choice, well into the red zone. Through the second lap the squad consolidated within a chase group of some 20 riders behind a lead break of 3. Phill was soon bridging across to the lead group, while Oli Andy and I controlled the group behind (occasionally from some way behind on the climbs, with some hasty chasing over the crest...). The early pace and apocalyptic conditions had created a gritty attritional race. Phill had enough in reserve for the relentless attacks which would eventually carry him over the line with the leaders, taking an exceptional 3rd position in 'the hardest race I have ever ridden', behind nationally respected Elite road men Colin Parry and Tom Stockdale. The Peter Hansford squad behind demonstrated real strength in depth. In the last race on this course, the South Div RR Champs, I was the first Hansford rider with a 14th place. This time I finished 14th again, but was the last Hansford finisher, with Andy (10th) and Oli (12th) turning in storming performances. A great end to the season all round.

End of season success!!!

The end of season has been winding down slowly, with few races on now it has been a case of placing well in those left.
  The penultimate race at Mountbatten saw most of the team in action. The pace of the race was lower than normal but this just made the attacks twice as vicious. The team did a great job of covering all the breaks and it finally ended with Harry and I taking a lap on the field. The team then saw both sides of the double edged sword as I took the win after a great lead out but moments later Mike crashed hard into the judging stand. Almost 2 weeks on and he is due to have the 12 stitches out of his knee tomorrow and is slowly getting back on his feet. We all wish him a fast recovery.

   The final race at Mountbatten saw lots of teams out in force and the pace showed as attacks went but nothing stuck for a long time. I managed to form a small break of 5 riders to eventually gain a lap. The boys then did a great job looking after me before going toe to toe with the felt lead out train and doing a great job sending me to my 2nd victory in as many races. Needless to say I was delighted to have finally got rid of the poor mid season I had after crashing out!

  The final big road race of the season was upon us today in the form of the Stockbridge downs RR with a reputation for being a 'hard mans' course. We were greeted with lashing rain, wind and cold. Despite this we fielded a strong squad with myself, Harry, Andy, Ollie and Brook slotting into the starting line up of a few over 40 riders. The race was hard and I tried to bridge across to an early break more than a couple of times. The team performed great with myself taking 3rd, Andy 10th, Ollie 12th and Harry 14th. The fact that only 18 riders finished showed that both the course and the conditions gave each rider a battering.

I am so pleased with my end of season results and can only thank my team-mates for amazing lead outs, great rides and most importantly keeping a smile on my face!

Report from Eamonn Deane here : http://blog.sportsmassagebournemouth.co.uk/2012/09/colin-parry-king-of-stockbridge-down.html

Ride safe
Phill

Racing through the dark!

A summary of the race from 'Team Doc' Harry. 

There was a strong field for this late season Mountbatten race, starting at nightfall on the floodlit oval which is the familiar scene of the ‘Wednesday World Champs’.Tim Elverson from Pedal Heaven, Toby Neave from Primera and Rowan Horner of VC St. Raphael were backed up by handy teams and looking purposeful as the race picked up into the gathering night. Peter Hansford Cycles were represented by Brook Elgie, Mike Scott, Oli Hitchings, Andy Bryson, Harry Bulstrode and Phill Reynolds. 

The early moves were covered without difficulty. Nothing was going to stay away without riders from the top teams involved, and about 10 minutes in saw the first real break, with Phill quick

ly gaining a third of a lap with 5 others. This looked like the move of the night, and to tip the balance in the break in favour of Peter Hansford, Harry Bulstrode managed to use a failed bridge by a chasing group to make it across alone. This group of 7 then worked consistently to gain a lap by just after the halfway point.

Further attacks were effectively controlled by the team, to set up a sprint finish, led out by Andy Bryson. Phill took a great victory, with Harry also placing highly. Most of the action, however, was just behind. Mike Scott had been forced onto the grass in the closing stages as the speed racked up towards 60km/h. Fighting for control, the bike glanced off the metal stanchion at the finish, throwing Mike through a stack of hurdles onto the tarmac in the central reservation of the track. By the time we reached him, Mike was sat up, brushing himself down. He was bleeding from cuts on his hand and legs, but didn’t seem to have broken anything, and his main worry was his bicycle. He was taken off to Portsmouth A&E for stitching and I’m sure he will be back in action in no time.