The Long Rock rides. The Penzance Wheelers Club Run meets every Sunday at 9.00 am at Long Rock Memorial Institute. Long Rock is about 2 miles east of Penzance, and the Memorial Institute is the long grey wooden hut next to Trader Grays (see map). The runs vary in duration depending on the good old Cornish weather, but the average distance is around 50 miles. A café stop is included. There is usually a slower group, also from Longrock at 9 o,clock every week, the ride length should be somewhere between 25 & 30 miles and ridden at the pace of the slowest rider.
Once again this winter, by way of variation, the Club Run will meet at Camborne Police Station on the first Sunday of every month from October to April. This is to add a bit diversity to the ride and allow us to find new routes, roads and cafes. New riders are always welcome on the Club Run, as are cyclists from other clubs and cyclists down in the area on holiday. Do not forget to bring suitable warm and weatherproof clothing, especially in winter. Also bring your own pump, spare tubes, drink, money and mobile if you have one. In the winter, mudguards are a good idea, not only for your own benefit, but also for other riders in the group who may be riding behind you. For weekly reports scroll down, or for more information contact a committee member (details on Committee page).
The Falmouth rides. If you are lucky enough not to have to work on a Tue or Thu morning, meet at Union Corner, Falmouth (by the 2 mini round-a-bouts at the junction of Trecobeas Road and Bickland Water Road, just off the Falmouth end of the Penryn by-pass)at 9.00am. This is normally a ride of about 40 miles, with riders from other clubs, of variable pace and including a coffee stop.

What a great ride! After struggling up the Col de Asda (Penryn) on Tony\'s wheel, I knew the day was set for a few hours of grovelling. The meet at Camborne Police Station was full of awake and smiling faces, around 16 riders. One wearing a disguise of a false beard and a Cyclelogic jersey, others disguised as a tourist with a mountain bike and massive saddle bag - more of him to come. After giving Pendle an extra few minutes to arrive, we all agreed he was probably locked in the building behind us and would not be riding today, we headed north.
A welcome following wind and a bright sky helped us past Tehidy and along a bumpy shortcut, and past Smokey Joes. In Truro the first excuses from the riders from the far west were made and headed for home. Riding tempo at 30mph, behind our friendly cyclo-tourist from chasewater to Truro obviously got them worried!

A stiff climb past the Truro police station separated the bunch, with Tony grinding out the pain, and young Luke off the pace, with me some way behind him. Dropping down into Tresilian was a welcome rest, with Shane Williams just clearing the low bridge on the descent, I am glad he ducked going under it.

A prompt right turn just over the river the other side of Tresilian was met with groans as we realised how steep the climbs get in the Roseland Peninsula. Tony had obviously been doing his homework and found a very tough, steep climb on a very rough road. Making contact with Luke, Nick Joyce and Gail as it levelled off, I was blessed with a welcome rest as Nick scrounged a tube and pump from Gail, I was reluctant to hand over my co2 gas after 2 punctures last sunday, and Luke was as unprepared as Nick.

Three tube changes and a revving petrol-head granny later, we suffered a heavy shower, and realised we were down to only six of us. Our frindly MTB rider made short work of some very steep, slippery but very picturesque roads, hugging the west coast of the Roseland, with our lightweight road tyres pushed to there limits by Tony\'s tortuous summer training route.

Severe showers and a block headwind made Nick and Luke dash for the King Harry Ferry, while me, Gail, Tony and MTB man headed for St Mawes.

A waitress with a face (like a slapped arse) greated us with open arms. A long way from home I was wishing I was back at Bissoe with a short descent home and friendly staff to serve us beans! The secret to our friend on the MTB (sorry I can\'t remember your name) was revealed, having just lost 4 1/2 stone in weight, hills now felt like a flat road - I hope he doesn\'t come out on his racing bike next time!

A sunny crossing on the chain ferry was spoiled by the grovel up to Penlewey, with Tony disapearing up the road, twiddling away a low gear, blissfully unaware of the sore legs behind him trying to keep him in sight.

The rest of the ride was rather hazy, I am not sure why, but I did make it home to the sofa safe and sound, despite a brief near death experience with a talking horse and an oncoming car. Boy was I glad of that shout of \"car\". I wouldn\'t be here othewise. Perhaps Tony was not trying to kill me after all...what a pro!

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It was my first club ride for some time yesterday, after lots of Sundays racing, and it could not have been better. There was a healthy turn-out of more than 20 riders, including a sprinkling of newcomers, and bright sunshine all morning and no wind. It was good to see Ed back on his bike after his recent racing mishap, Pendle back in the fold after self-abuse in the gym and at the Barn Club, and Keiron out for a final ride before returning to Australia. Mike Tonkin was late as usual.
We wended our way through Goldsithney, Bal West and Ashton, before swooping down into Porthleven and picking our way up the back lanes to Helston.
The road down to the Lizard was used for some late season through-and-off. I was impressed by the performance of the newcomers, who slotted in without problems. Young Luke in particular was looking good. Rumour had it that he only got his first road bike the day before!
As befits the time of year, the cafe stop at Lizard town was an extended affair as we enjoyed the sunshine and the baked beans seemed to be causing a problem in the kitchen.
We then did a tour of Goonhilly, before I peeled off for home at Garras and ended up with 70 miles on the clock, just in time for family duties which involved lots of washing up at the end of the afternoon. Still, managed to keep awake to watch La Vuelta and the Tour of Britain.

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Twelve likely lads assembled in front of Camborne Police Station with sunny skies but a touch of frost on the ground. Impressively, Nick had ridden up from St Ives, Pendle from Praa Sands, and the Falmouth contingent from Falmouth.
Club run captain Phil Walker plotted a route up the north coast to Newquay, although it was noted that at least 2 large hills were circumnavigated. Some of the fresher riders were looking a bit frisky up the hills.
Once comfortably settled in front of our baked beans at Newquay Tennis Club, we discovered why we haven't seen much of Rhys recently - he turned up for a tennis match, pleading that he was having difficulty getting up in the mornings. Probably the shock of Wales actually winning a few rugby matches.
On the return journey, thanks to Mark, we were treated to a tour of the Newquay housing estates, before a good session of through-and-off all the way down the Ladock Valley.
By this time there were a few tired legs in the peloton, and Pendle was heard to emit an anguished cry when he suddenly realised how far from home he was. However, we made it through Truro, and the bunch started to disintegrate as riders peeled off for home. Rumour has it that someone had to be given a lift home in a car. Is this kind of thing permitted in the hard riders' group?

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Although the sky was grey the wind was nothing more than a gentle breeze and the rain held back. Surprisingly, Rhys was not there to gloat with the Cymru world cup failures still on for the grand slam. The Armstrong group set off east heading for the greasy delights of Smokey Joe's while the Merckx group of 'baked bean boys' trundled westwards with strict instructions to avoid steep hills!

So we plotted a devious route which took in Gulval, Heamoor, Sancreed, and Drift, before emerging at Sheffield. Warming to the task, St Buryan and St Just Airport were soon ticked off, and not a serious hill to be seen. The proximity of the café soon split the peloton, and we staged a staggered arrival at Geevor Café. One look and they knew what we wanted, it was just a matter how many - I think it was unanimous. Needless to say, all that desperate sprinting was to no avail, as the most venerable member of the group still was served first.

After an extended refreshment period, proceedings were further delayed by a spoke problem, but we were soon heading back across Penwith Moors on the most direct route to Penzance. Except for Lloyd, who chose the hills of the north Penwith coast, probably trying to get in some last minute training for the forthcoming 'Tour of the Tavernas' shortly to take place in the home of the paellas.

The descent into Penzance was fast and furious, but we seemed to lose Matt and Gail. We did wait for you at the round-a-bout for several minutes. Honest. Once Penzance was traversed, the pace regularly crept over 20mph through Long Rock, St Erth and Hayle, with Tristan and Hari doing most of the damage and Phil pleading for mercy. We swept past a bunch from Cyclelogic after watching Tony Rowell masterfully taking an uphill sprint as we approached Connor Downs and finally dispersed from Carnhell Green and Troon. The rain just started as Mark and I swept down into Falmouth after 5 hours riding.

Seven of us will be in southern Spain for the next 2 Sundays, so the Merckx group will have to organise itself. The Merckx ride next week should be from Camborne Police Station as it's the first Sunday in the month. Perhaps somebody can take the initiative and let me know what's happening and I'll publish it on the website before I set off.

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A dry day, tales of adventures in the rain and wind from Camborne last week, and a smug look on Rhys's face greeted us at Long Rock. Our club run 'capitain' was feeling overwhelmed by his early inclusion on the short list for 2008 hammer award, and quite unable to make route choice decisions, so the choice of the Mullion Chocolate Factory met with no resistance, there was a brief pause for a team photo, then off we set.

With the racing season and training camp approaching, the pace was brisker than usual as we plotted a devious route along quiet lanes. Indeed, the pace up some of the hills caused a brief altercation, but this was soon forgotten as some Paris-Roubaix kept everyone on their toes. By this time a few had departed for home and a puncture had given us a breather, but the rest of us finally emerged at Gweek.

Heading straight across to Mullion, thankfully the Chocolate Factory was open, we received our usual free chocolates to supplement the baked beans, and the waitresses were as pretty as usual.

Popular demand dictated that we tackled the Poldhu Cove hill, just to prove that we're not all talk, and there was the usual sort-out past Culdrose. From Helston we went our separate ways to enjoy yet another Sunday afternoon with tired legs.

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Arriving at Longrock today I noticed several faces missing so our depleted 6 headed off to Smokey Joe's at Scorrier. We followed the main peloton through the lanes at the back of Marazion and over to Hayle. The coast road was chosen again, so through Gwithian past the Hill Climb course we swept our way to Portreath, out the other side and past Bridge, where Terry informed me that we could have a more direct route to Smokey's avoiding the dual carriageway. OK by me as long as we didn't pass any farms as my bike was clean and sparkling.

10 mins later and through the lanes past the muddiest farm entrance in Cornwall we duly arrived at the dual carriageway. Terry not having ridden the road for many years was his best excuse adamant we would avoid the carriageway we headed past the turning and onto a bridleway eventually arriving at Smokey's only 4 of us now as Jerry had to be back early presumably to watch England romp past Italy in the 6 nations (ha ha ha), and Andrew turned for home somewhere before Portreath as he was still feeling the effects of his running injury (stick to the bike).

Fed and watered we set off for home Terry eager to get more miles in headed off through St Day and left the 3 of us to head home through Pool. We avoided the car parked in the cycle lane (why spend money on cycle lanes if we can't use them?) into Camborne, Carnell Green where John turned. I believe Steve and myself headed west Fraddam, Hayle up the Causeway and back along the A30 (more cars parked in the cycle lane at Whiteceross), arriving back at Longrock 45 miles in 3 hours averaging 14.5 mph thoroughly enjoyable on such a nice day.

Cyclists with the desire to cycle on Sunday mornings, my short ride is having less & less attendance surely there are some riders who would enjoy the more sedate pace of the Armstrong group. Hopefully see some more riders on Sunday.

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A cool morning leaving Penzance and heading east, I was greeted by the usual faces plus Julian and Peter their first excursion with the short group luckily they managed to squeeze in 20 plus miles on the way down and fortunate enough to have Tristan for company.

Destination decided we left the Merckx group and headed off for Smokey Joes at Scorrier we met Paul at the Station House carpark and he joined us for part of the ride through the usual lanes we passed Ed and some of the Logic riders near Gwallon across to Hayle left at Lidls and through to Gwithian up the Hill Climb course (I see now why I never entered it) regrouping at the top, up the North Coast with Peter setting a lively pace we descended into Portreath which was still cold and frosty to be greeted by Richy and some of the Bikechain boys heading the other way. I was somewhat lost over the next couple of miles but eventually we arrived on the bypass near Scorrier and at the planned stop.

With refreshment onboard we said our goodbyes to Julian and Peter (hope to see you next week) we headed back west Terry decided that he needed more miles and slipped off through St Day leaving us to head back through Camborne with Jerry and Jason on the front the average mph increased somewhat as we passed Carnhell Green, Reawla, and through to Fraddom ,Relubbus, St Hilary and back to Marazion about 42 miles by my speedo with an average of just over 14 mph.

Those present Jerry,Jason,Steve,Jayne,Mark,Terry,Julian,Peter,Steve,Paul & Neil.

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What a fantastic morning - sun, blue sky, and nearly 30 Wheelers at Long Rock. The 16 strong 'Mercks' group were soon heading west, lead by the two most senior members of the club.

Unfortunately it was turn left instead of the usual turn right in Mousehole, so we had a view of the remains of the Xmas lights before we tackled the worst of the hills. A fixed wheel problem soon had the group ducking and diving, but we regrouped at the top before plunging the back way down into Lamorna, with some over-enthusiastic descending leading to Lloyd taking an interesting detour into a farm yard on a particularly tricky bend.

Luckily we managed to engineer a bypass of the Treen climb, but I suffered a broken chain on the alternative climb. Three chain tools, 4 chain links and some filthy hands later, progress was resumed and there was another regrouping at the Geevor Café.

The ride along the north coast through Zennor was stunning, but the climb up to Eagle's Nest was just as hard as usual, with riders scattered across the hillside. Another regrouping, and then the usual big ring thrash down to Lelant, where the Penzance contingent headed back west and the Newquay, Redruth, Camborne, Falmouth continued east.

By this time there were some very tired legs - me and Rhys, with Rich, Mark and Tristan were looking far too perky. Barripper saw another split, but although that lumbered Rhys with Tristan, it left me to trail along after Mark and Rich.

Sunday afternoon and evening were spent sitting down, eating, lying down, reading the paper, lying down, watching TV, sitting down, and finally slumping into bed. Don't forget 'Mercks' group, the 'long' ride starts from Camborne Police Station next week as it's the first Sunday in the month.

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Well it was nice to go riding with yourself and Mark yesterday, hope you weren't too tired after.......Can you please put this on the pzwheelers website?

Nice to arrive at Longrock on Sunday morning and see the biggest group of riders I've seen there since I started riding with the wheelers in 99, old faces (Tony!!!!), some new faces , a lady and even a junior..... it's good to see a rise in West Cornwall cycling.

Long may it continue.

Anyone wishing to follow my progress in Belgium this year can do so on http://www.crazyaboutbelgium.co.uk/riderblog/lampier-blog.htm. Hope ta see you at some point, have a good year.

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Mark and I were late arriving from Falmouth, partly due to Mark's love affair with the bed and partly because of the headwind. Just after Marazion we spotted the 'Short' group heading in the opposite direction and numbering about 8. Shortly afterwards we teamed up with the 'Long' group making their numbers up to a very healthy 16 riders. Thankfully it wasn't raining, but there was a nice tail wind blowing us towards Bissoe.

We were graced with the presence of Steve Lampier for the first time this winter, but he had to be on his best behaviour because he was being closely chaperoned by Michelle.

Things went well until Tristan was stricken with incontinence shortly before Carleen. While he availed himself of the local facilities dawdling and dithering led to a prominent member colliding with a stationary rear wheel and testing his bike, body and winter gear to destruction on the tarmac. You may feel that he was lucky that the Hammer Award has already been allocated at Friday's presentation evening.

Having viewed the bike skills of PZW at first hand, Michelle wisely decided to head back to Helston from Nancegollan. No further mishaps impeded our progress to Ricci's Bike Café at Bissoe, where we encountered those slackers from Camel Valley. Thankfully we outnumbered them at least 3 to 1, and swiftly put in our mammouth baked bean order.

Then we had to face the consequences of our earlier decision making, riding into the headwind on the way home via Chacewater.

The big split happened at Mount Ambrose with The Penzance group heading off down the old Redruth by-pass and the Falmouth/Beacon/Helston group returning over Lanner Hill. Nearly got home before it started raining, but good to know that Steve still had 3 hours riding to do.

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Eight riders started out on a dark, damp and cold January morning for the first of the new years rides from Cambourne Police Station. Half of us had ridden from Falmouth - Drummond, Mark, Steve and Stuart(enjoying his new year comeback and first puncture of the year on the way!) Rhys was making the most of the holidays by sleeping in, and warmed up after pleasant car journey on the climb to Carn Brea. Skirting Four lanes we descended through Perranwell and on through Carnon Downs to reach the King Harry Ferry.

Fifty pence tolls all paid, a pleasant sailing was foiled when Blake snapped his chain on the steep slog up the slipway. Luckily a swift fix with a chain tool had us on our way to the cafe at St Mawes, dreaming of Swarfega and warm water.

A very erratic and fragmented rabble continued to struggle with the pace of Drummond and Tristan, the weaker riders suffering the lack of the usual steady riders to set the pace to the cafe.

Having learned there would be no ferry sailing back to Falmouth that day, we continued our trek around the Fal river, through Tregony, Tresillian and Truro.

The long drags back through Chacewater and Scorier proved testing at the end of a long ride, especially with legs softened by our two winter warriors.

75 miles at an average of 16mph on a very hilly ride, luckily the heavens opened for the rest of the day, preventing any movement from the settee for the rest of the day.

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