The ride to Godrevy was tactically slow, with everyone jostling for a position at the back. Dave double-bluffed us by nipping home to get his racing bike! Numbers swelled to fifteen when we found Steve Cox waiting for us at Godrevy Bridge, together with Sam Hughes and J Hancock from Camel Valley. Phil asked where the finish was, only to be told, "At the top of the hill"!

Our defending champion, Rhys, volunteered to be timekeeper, favouring his injured knee after his recent iron man triathlon exploits, and the riders launched themselves up the hill towards Hell's Mouth into a bit of a headwind, but nowhere near as bad as last year.

Tactically, Paul outwitted us all. Pretending to be late arriving for the start, he managed to get away exactly on time, but with the benefit of a rolling start. Needless to say he was too embarrassed to appear at the results ceremony at the Godrevy Cafe, pleading pressure of work!

Times were exceedingly close, but the highlight of the finish was Phil's wonderful demonstration of how to lose weight quickly, even better than Rhys's agonised writhings of the previous year. Luckily Lloyd was able to record the event for posterity. Well done everyone - best turn-out for a club championships this year.

The initial skirmishes took place on dry tarmac - Mark Haynes jumping away on the first lap. It wasn't long before Dave Bentley, the only 1st Cat in the field, made his move and established a gap. He was soon joined at the front by Mark Barlow, who has been going from strength to strength this season. For a long time the gap hovered around the 10 second mark, but a lack of cohesion in the bunch wasted the opportunity to close it down.

Stuart Pickering caused a few hearts to flutter by first pulling his foot out of the pedal on a fast part of the course, and later doing a marvellous impression of Robbie McEwan switching across the bunch! Soon after this there was a frank exchange of views at the back of the bunch concerning work-rate and wheel-sucking, and at last the bunch began to co-operate. Unfortunately, by this time, the gap to the two leaders had grown to over a minute, and it didn't seem to be coming down. The rain which had started as a light drizzle, was by now getting heavier and heavier, and the breeze colder and colder! It was good to see an improving Sam Hughes was getting some on course coaching from Richard Edmond.

The Okehampton '10' was typical S40 - warm weather, hardly any wind, and quite a bit of traffic, with a Cornish contingent present.

The Bob Jackson race took place on a hot sunny evening, on a pan-flat non-dual-carriageway main road between Selby and York with a fairly constant traffic flow in both directions - a straight out-and-back course. The event was very well organised and supported. Just to spice things up the top seed was Kevin Dawson, multi-BAR winner. Despite the seemingly favourable conditions, the race turned out to be surprisingly hard work. Although I clocked a season's best, I went away a little disappointed with my time.

Then on June 12th I did the Prem Calendar Five Valleys race in Wales.. well that was painful! Blown out the back after only 50miles, managed to scramble back on to wheels that became the main chasing peleton and boy they do indeed have real hills in Wales... arrived at the finishing circuits just outside the 10min cut off and we were all pulled out by the officials.. at least Matt Stephens was with us.. so i felt a tad better. Also caught up with Steve Lampier who suffered a similar fate a few miles up the road and pulled out.

Main lesson learned was that I am not (yet?) the mountain goat I once smugly considered myself!

19th June and I trudged up North for the Prem Calendar Yorkshire Classic in Beverley... & again more pain. The initial pace and rolling course took its toll, but today I was feeling a tad fresher and was chuffed to see some big names drop out the back quite early, hung on to form the (yet again) the main chasing group... cramped in both inner thighs which resulted in a blood stained muscle tear the following week... ouch indeed.. and although we were only 7mins down on winner we were pulled out yet again with about 10k to go - boo hoo.

26th June National champs, was well chuffed to get in to the race and humbled by some of the big names, including the Discovery shirt of Rodger Hammond, again said my hellos to Steve Lampier and exchanged mumbled words of pain along much of the 206km course. Funny enough, this race resulted in plenty of pain too... break got away, but I stayed with big names in main group, went on the attack twice with Rodger (first name terms don't you know) and then knew my bolt was shot and decided to hide and try to hang in... and hang in.... and hang in (206km suddenly became a very long way).. all I wanted to actually get on the result sheet! Alas, got dropped at final feed station slowing down for a bottle.. couldn't get back on, caught some fellow stragglers and pushed for the finish and hoped I was within the cut off and at last i was indeed allowed to cross the finish line! A very proud 67th out of about 120 starters.

2nd July 2 day Tour of Cranbourne Chase. Bumped into Leyton which was nice and interesting to see his solution to hydration problem via Camelpak rucksack type device - very ingenious. Horrible 6mile initial time trial saw both me and Leyton suffer as it was mostly downhill into a headwind and our feathlight frames struggled to match the stone like dropping qualities of the more 'fuller figured' men.. the we had a 75 mile stage with a nasty long climb, Leyton was going great for the majority of the ride but seemed to suffer near the end, we exchanged grunts and he hung in well but eventually got dropped. I managed to bridge the gap to the break with 5 others and finished with leaders but completely wasted. Second & final day was a very tough but exciting course, switch backs, ultra sharp hill climbs and descents that made me wine and occasionally cry like a girl, was war of attrition really, group of 8 or so got a 5min break (helped by gridlock in one of the towns), eventually wound it back in and closed to 30secs, chasing groups dwindled to 10 or 12 and I was chuffed to finish 2nd of the chasers and 12th on the day. Overall 13th and happy considering quality of opposition and sad sad time trial!

Early skirmishes were came to nothing, but on the longest of the steep climbs towards the end of the first lap, a large group of about 25 riders got a decisive gap which was never bridged. Chris Opie was looking strong, Layton made the split comfortably, and I was hanging on with difficulty.

The second time up the long drag was too much for me, so I trundled along alone for half a lap waiting for some company. As we passed through the finish for the penultimate time I was joined by a group of four, containing Ian Jeffrey. We were soon working well together and managed to maintain some momentum, although we lost a rider early into the last lap.

Meanwhile, back at the front, Chris Opie had mechanical problems, and threw his bike so high in the hedge that he had difficulty retrieving it! At least, that's the story I was given by our roving reporter and photographer.

The heat and the climbing took its toll on the last lap and a half, with the lead group fragmenting, and riders spread out over several minutes. I managed to get away from my group on one of the climbs, but couldn't quite catch Layton, and Ian managed to comfortably dispose of his two remaining companions before the chequered flag. As last week, there were only about 20 finishers.

Results for PZWer and illogicals.

1st Tonks For his adherance to his tres chic retro welsh skinsuit (it would make Rhys cry with pride).

2nd Eddy For those lilac tights.

3rd Andy For a good effort on bass with a very grumbly front wheels, tricky beat to follow.

4th Layton Looked cool on the low pro, 26" is the way forward.

5th & last Myself In too much pain to make the effort to be cool and if you gotta try you ain't keeping it real.

The race itself was 65 miles of swelteringly hot and sultry conditions. Now hot and sultry is OK as far as women are concerned, but after all the cold weather we've had for racing so far this year, 3 hours in the saddle was a gruelling experience. The course was good - 12 x 5 miles largely traffic-free laps, with one short uphill drag on each lap, plus an extra bit for the finish. An early break of two went away, then a handful of others joined them. The gap hovered at 30-45 seconds for a long time, but as usual there was a distinct lack of riders willing to help in the pursuit, so the gap widened and another small group got away.

By now the conditions were starting to take their toll. Stuart, who had been prominent in the early skirmishes, opted for sun bathing, Phil, who's new haircut had obviously sapped his strength, decided the heat was too much, and Rhys who had been looking good up at the front succumbed to cramp. The pace of the bunch became distinctly pedestrian, and attempts to chase were half-hearted. Things weren't helped by the lack of a lap count, but finally we completed the 12 laps, and Andy made a valiant attempt to break away, dangled 50 metres off the front for a mile or so, but was eventually brought back just before we turned left into the final mile. There were some very tired legs by this stage because I didn't see anything resembling a sprint and the bunch disintegrated into individual riders struggling to reach the line.

Eventually, Andrew Retter made a huge effort, and successfully bridged the gap. In the end it came down to a 4-man sprint, in which Chris Opie came out comfortably on top. James Trelieving placed 3rd, giving him the 3rd/4th Cat race, and demonstrating that his imminent promotion to 2nd Cat is fully deserved.

As for the race, Jason Ball is the new club champion - congratulations Jason. I believe the 'roadies' from the club outnumbered the 'testers'! Where are all you testers? Also, several gleaming machines and their owners, whilst burning up the tarmac on Sunday mornings through the winter, were conspicuous only by their absence! Jon Butt proved conclusively that warm weather training on Mont Ventoux would be a lot more effective than lounging by the poolside drinking red wine.

The weather forecast was also bad for Sunday in South Wales. Was it worth risking the long trip up there? We decided to try it. The journey up on Saturday afternoon was a nightmare - traffic everywhere, seven hours driving instead of the expected four. The highlight was the bargain bacon butties at Cullompton. Arrived at the race HQ to see that Wendy Houvenaghel had thrashed all the other women in an amazing time considering the strong winds.

Then we had to find our hotel, booked by Chris Murphy. Two hours later, after driving down every back street in Aber-something-or-other, we admitted defeat and 'phoned the hotel. Even they had difficulty describing how to get there. So more back streets and an unlikely looking cart track led us to The Falcon Hotel. What a dive! We decided to look elswhere, drove down to Neath and booked into The Castle Hotel, right in the heart of the pubs and clubs area of the town. Women in this part of Wales seem to be particularly well endowed and wear less clothes than a 'tester' is used to. Luckily we couldn't speak the language, so were able to resist these temptations of the flesh and got down to some serious carbo-loading in the nearest Italian retaurant.

As you are probably aware they went for a Paris - Roubaix style course with 10 mile or so off road sections, race distance was a tad over 100 miles.

I was helped slightly by the fact the Tour of Ireland had taken some of the big guns out of the race, but we still had Rob Hayles, the Downing brothers and a bunch of quality full time elites in action.

My goal as directed by training buddy & coach Mark McKay was just to get a feel for the quality and aim to finish the race amongst the main group.

The start was pretty hectic, peleton pace fast and quality of riders apparent as all the skilled riders slid along constantly touching bars et al.. bit freaky at first, but eventually I calmed down.

I tried to use the recycling team as a benchmark to watch for decisive breaks and as such spent much time sitting on Rob Hayles wheel (very exciting) and or amongst their team.

Quite quickly a relatively lazy break of 15 or so riders stayed away and it appeared to have none of the big names or teams in it, no one appeared willing to chase them down, although the recycling chaps did sporadically try to crank the pace, Rob Hayles in particular was grafting away and I was honoured to be shouted at by one of the Downings for not taking my turn (McKays orders..)

After about 40 miles the first of the off road sections appeared and it became apparent that you would need to stay near the front to prevent getting strung out and shelled out the back door, some of the off road sections were not too bad and others were just manic, with huge potholes, and only gravel or sand as a surface - was fantastic and added a great dimension. I was almost the only rider using carbon deep sections and prayed that they held up against such a battering.

Some short sharp hills straight after the rough sections did a great job of dropping people out of the main chasing pack and indeed the many villages we passed through provided amazing support (although most of it was for Mr Hayles)

... and then at about 70 miles in we came to the end of another off road section and it required a v sharp right hand turn onto a tarmac road, alas, i approached it a tad quick and lost my front wheel to the sand / gravel and hit the deck quite hard, split my bike helmet in two like a walnut and ripped my legs up etc. While the medic washed my wounds and i hopped about in stinging pain, a lovely spectator informed me she had filmed my crash and offered to e-mail it to me!

What I hadn't realised was that the main group had really begun to spilt up and I was in fact in the leading chasing 20 at the time of the crash and frustratingly felt relatively fresh as I cycled a blood trail back to my car.. even Rob Hayles was about 1 min behind me (although this could be attributed to his efforts at the front!)

What I hadn't realised was that the main group had really begun to spilt up and I was in fact in the leading chasing 20 at the time of the crash and frustratingly felt relatively fresh as I cycled a blood trail back to my car.. even Rob Hayles was about 1 min behind me (although this could be attributed to his efforts at the front!)

Great experience, great race, superb local support and a fantastic course.

I am hoping to gain further experience and or get a good kicking next weekend at the Prem Calendar Welsh Tour of the Valleys.... and hopefully not do so much gravel kissing.

Good luck to all Wheelers racing in the next couple of weeks, hope to ride with you all again very soon.

The racing was fast and closely fought. Junior Dean Robson road brilliantly to unexpectedly snatch the race from favourite Julius Jennings. The strong Cornish contingent showed up well in the results. Adrian Warne dipped under the hour, Chris Murphy just missed out on the prizes by 3 seconds, Jason Ball did his third fastest time on this course, John Payne managed a South West PB, and I was delighted with an all-time PB. Eighteen riders were under 'the hour'.

3-4 miles into the TT and the rain comes. Bo**acks, going to get wet again. However rained eased and managed to get round reasonably dry. Got changed, loaded the car up, and was about to set off home when my top testing mate noticed he was winning with most of the times in. We hung around waiting for the final times to come in thinking, 'I wish I had a little book to write everyone's time in'.

However, Mr Polkinghorne spoilt Stuart's day and recorded the fastest time (and more importantly cost him a fiver). Still, not a bad day, £10 for Stuart, £5 for me, finished my third race of the season, and home with the feet up watching the grand prix by one. You don't get days with this much excitment very often!!! One question though, where were all the PZ Wheeler racers today? [Andy Ellis 24/5/05]

The race was on the usual 5 mile circuit - nearly eleven laps meant eleven times up the hill through the finish line. The very first time up the climb Rowan Boswood (Mid-Devon) and Robert Adams (Bristol South) put their heads down and soon opened up a gap of about 50 seconds, which they more or less maintained over the next few laps, until pulling further away as the rest of us fought out our own battle for third place.

Back in the bunch, there was no concerted chase, but sparodic attempts to get away, which were all soon neutralised. As the laps wore on the temperature rose and riders were regulary shelled out on the climb, but there was still a pretty big peloton at the bell, including Stuart, Layton, Chris and myself. At the top of the final climb, St Ives boy Steve Wedge (Exeter) flew off the front purposefully, got a gap, but was soon reeled back in and everyone settled down for the final sprint.

The race started with a 3.5 mile neutralised section which only furthered the hypothermia, I was so cold I swear I was hallucinating, I was convinced I saw a guy in the bunch wearing see-through white cycling shorts and I'll tell you it was not a pleasant sight and he does urgently need to see a doctor about those 'farmers', it was so bad I had to put in an effort to get to the front (has you all know this is not something I do lightly).

The flag dropped and we were off. Jesus I hardly had time to stop shivering before the pace hit 35mph on the slightly uphill dual carriageway, the pace settled at approx 25mph and stayed there for the duration of the climb, I did not! My rapid descent through the field was only matched by the speed that the bunch rode away from me.

I came, I saw, I left with my tail between my legs.

PZW off-the-back-correspondent, Stuart Pickering.

The winning break took place shortly after the start of the race, on the climb up Burrington Combe. The devasting pace set by a group of six riders had an immediate impact behind tearing the field apart.I managed in get into the second group on the road, but the group were affraid to work due to the climb up Blagdon! We were then joined by another group, but the negative riding had little effect, as after the first ascent of Blagdon Hill the breakaway group had increased their lead to over three minutes. My group up the climb split into, several smaller groups but eventually regrouped to leave the six leaders and a smaller group of four. On the back straining into a headwind I tried to bridge across but with little success. The final time up the climb to the finish the group split and I hung on to finish in around 15th place, with Phil finishing further down.

In the 33 miles race, Devom BiM rider Alex Fitzgerald had a brilliant ride to finish ist Espoir and 6th overall, just in front of Nigel Polkinghorne. St Austell Wheeler Chris Murphy finished 15th, a commendable performance after falling off the start ramp!

The E/1/2 race split surprisingly quickly, with some prominent SW riders stranded in the second group, never to regain contact. On the last lap Chris Opie (Cyclelogic) and Rowan Boswood (Mid-Devon) escaped, and Chris took the sprint without too much difficulty.

The 3/4/J race took somewhat longer to develop, with a general reluctance to get to the front. There were some early stragglers, but the first major split came when we were caught by the E/1/2 leaders. The sudden injection of pace lead to a bunch of nine getting away.

A crash about 5 laps from the end reduced it to seven. Mark Schofield (CVCTC), who has been in outstanding time trial form this year, gave us a good lead-out for the last lap and a half. Andy Ellis took the sprint and made it a double for Cyclelogic, obviously getting back to fitness after his illness, Tony Farnell managed to salvage 3rd, and Rhys Ellis-Davies made the top ten.

Day 1.
This consisted of a prolog of 2.5 km with 800m climbing. This was hard and the winner did under 4 min with Richard E getting 4.26 and Phil a 4.45. Then followed a 50 min plus 3 laps crit on the same circuit. The neutralised lap turned out to be the quickest lap of the race and from this the race was split to pieces.

Day 2.
A 100km race over 6 laps with a good climb each lap. The race was uneventful with a break nearly getting caught at the end. I managed to stay with the peloton and in the final km got caught up in the crash in the bunch. A few cuts, remounted and finished. A few were not so lucky.

Day 3, The Killer
The route consisted of riding 115 km across the Brecon Beacons! I managed to stay with the bunch until the final climb! The locals call it the 10 mile climb!! A group of us worked and managed to regain the bunch just before the final climb. I was racing for best 4th cat overall and sat on the wheel of my nearest rival.

The course started on an uphill stretch of a B-road, then a mile and a half of undulations until it joined the dual carriageway. Then it swooped down a big hill before flattening out, with several miles, mainly slightly downhill with a following wind, to the turn at 15/16 miles. The return leg was a real slog back into the wind. Traffic throughout the race was light.

The first stage was a 5 miles time trial. One circuit of an undulating triangle, with most of the climbing on the final leg and the road surface distinctly on the rough side. Everyone seemed to find it hard! Winner Ben Luckwell did it in 11-57, Tony F 12-54, Richard E 12-57, Chris Murphy 13-05, Jason B 13-18, Stuart P 13-19, Rhys E-D 13-42 and Layton W 13-52.

A couple of hours rest, and it was time for Stage 2, defined as 2 hours and then 3 laps of the same circuit. The 2 hours turned out to be 10+ laps, so we ended up doing 13+ laps altogether. This meant 13 times up the long drag through the finish! An early break got away, but the bunch stayed together, gradually losing riders through a process of attrition. Stuart and Andy decided to head home early, Richard was prominent in the early laps, but then lost contact and called it a day. Rhys was looking good, but had the misfortune to puncture. Layton got dropped, but valiantly struggled on to finish, no doubt affected by the cold that had prevented him racing the previous weekend. I tried to go with a break, but then spent about 2 laps gasping for breath and recovering. In the end Jason and I managed to make the bunch sprint, not too far down on the lead group. By this stage the field had been whittled down from 80 to 60 riders.

Stage 3 was 4+ laps of a 13 miles circuit, which meant 5 times up the long finish climb. Of the Cornish contingent, only Jason and me started. The rain held off for the first lap, but after that it became wetter and wetter and colder and colder. When the break went, it never managed much of a lead, so into the last lap there was still everything to play for. The Cycleurope team controlled things pretty well to ensure a victory for their French rider Benoit Lagorce. Jason looked strong throughout and even managed a bit of a gallop in the final sprint. I was glad to be able to hang on and finish near the back of the bunch. At the end, the 60 starters had been further reduced to 40 finishers. We were halfway home before I stopped shivering!

On the first climb of 3 laps I found myself going backwards but to my surprise I was not 'Le lantern rouge' Got myself into a group of about 6/8 riders which included Andy Ellis and we worked well,sort of, to see what we could do. Meanwhile at the business end of the race Stuart Pickering and 2 other riders were working hard to stay away off the front which they managed to do until the final km. Jason was the highest placed Wheeler, Phil and Richard E found themselves on the wrong side of a crash, Rhys cramped up on the last climb and Richard G made Andy Ellis complete the last lap after the rest of the group we rode with packed.

Each day was c. 70 miles, with two road stages and the 2nd day held on Goodwood motor racing circuit.

Was a great weekend overall and I learnt loads, especially as I was staying with the legend that is Mark McKay, (plus Matt Talbot and Henry Furniss) main thing I learnt was that you can be fit enough but unless you know how to read the race you are stuffed!

1st day and I made the cardinal sin of not eating enough pre race as I had to leave home v early to stay with Henry who lived near the course.. thus i bonked with about 15miles left and fought to hang onto the bunch while I got more and more dizzy & wobbly.. finished in the bunch (no breaks) but was so mashed I managed to leave my wallet in the female toilet of the post race changing rooms... don't ask!

2nd day and 30 or so laps of Goodwood racing circuit, 2nd lap in and my font end went into a tank slapper / death wobble... apparently due to a crazy short stem I had recently stuck on the bike and deep sections... so I stopped and changed front wheel via the support car and then spent the next 2/3 laps tucked behind car trying to get back on terms with bunch. Once back in Mark McKay informed me that Matt had escaped in a good looking break and we spent the next 30mins trying to managed the chasing bunch to reduce risk of gap being bridged... . however, due to team agiskoviner.com working a s a unit it eventually did come together and by the time I had blinked another break had gone taking Mark with it, I tried and failed to bridge the gap and then decide to try and protect Mark as best I could. Again finished in the chasing group.

3rd day and 5 laps of a 15 mile circuit, very narrow and very busy with cars and with my short stem frightening the bejezus out me i was more happy when the peleton started to get strung out on the long draggy climbs, again I failed to identify the break that counted (unlike Mark) and thus spent 20 / 30miles doing what I could to assist in allowing his break to work, once I knew his break was safely well away I repeatedly tried to get a break of my own going...which eventually me and 6 others did and to my delight the break stayed away (my first successful break!).

The final result saw a fantastic return to bike racing proper by Mark after 6 or so years out and he came 2nd overall and I (proudly wearing the Wheelers kit) came 23rd out of about 80 riders, which I was well chuffed with as most those behind me were either 1st or 2nd cats.

I am hoping to do plenty more road races as they sure get the hairs on the back of your neck going and each time I race I learn something new! however, I am at last able to run again and am thus targeting the Powerman Duathlon in Holland at the end of the month as it is the qualifier for the GB elite team and the long course (17k run / 80k TT / 11k run) worlds champs in Italy at the end of May.

Luckily, the first climb was taken at a leisurely pace, but Phil was desperately unlucky to puncture here, and although he received a wheel change, this was effectively the end of his race. Rhys was looking good at this stage. My rear changer attracted an annoying piece of polythene, which refused to be dislodged, attracted a lot of comments from other riders, but didn't seem to be doing any harm.

The long lap finished with a deceptive uphill drag back into South Molton, and unfortunately for Rhys, it coincided with a distinct increase in speed which saw him off the back. He soldiered on for three short laps, but was not able to regain contact. Serious attacks were now testing our fitness, but a sizeable bunch remained together.

At the top of the climb on the second small lap, the peloton came face-to-face with a large lorry on a sharp bend. I was so busy avoiding the lorry that I forgot the bend. The landing in the hedge was mercifully benign, but I was more upset to lose contact with the bunch. It took half of a lap of hard chasing to catch them up.

A few more riders went off the front, and each time up the hill some lost contact at the back. On the final climb, Richard, Layton and myself were still hanging on in there. Inside the last kilometre, with only 13 riders left in the bunch, Layton made his move too soon and died a death, allowing Richard and me to sneak in front of him. 38 riders finished the race.