Reading Cycling Club press report, week ending 10 january 2010

How to cope with snow.

Photo caption: Snow needn't bring cycling to a total halt
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Winter Cycling
Deepest winter is visiting Britain and everyone is learning how to cope
with more snow than many people have ever experienced before. Travel on
two wheels has acquired an offputting element of risk so cycle racing
and training outdoors is on hold until the snow has gone. How are
Reading Cycling Club's members dealing with the current weather?
Steve Bale has been using his cyclo-cross bike: "Slush and ice put me
off riding on main roads so I experimented with off-road. At Prospect
Park I found the snow on the paths passable but bumpy. The deep snow in
the open spaces had become too dense to ride through." He continued,
"Then I discovered that back roads were more fun. Hard packed snow was
fine with knobbly tyres and good progress could be made. However where
vehicles had cut tracks in the snow then your wheels were sent in all
kinds of directions. Sunday saw an off-road clubrun and I was confident
of my CX bike even though it looked out of place beside the MTBs. We had
all sorts of conditions to cope with. Where the snow was hard packed by
pedestrians or vehicles it was easy enough. The toughest bits were
through the woods where only a few people had walked, leaving a narrow,
bumpy and slippery path. Here for me it was easier to ride through fresh
snow, with a bit of power I could forge a path through it. When it got
too difficult to ride the CX bike I could pick it up and carry it, which
was just as fast as my friends grinding away on their MTBs. It was
lovely to get into the woods with the fresh snow. A part of me is going
to miss it."
Mark Pardoe's cycling was replaced by snowboarding on a local slope:
"Hundreds of people were enjoying the Alpine conditions. The activity
was fairly strenuous without cable cars or lifts. People had been
ingenious in constructing things on which to slide down the hill. We had
proper snowboards but my son made do with an old ironing board, which
someone had converted into a sledge!"
Nick English: "Sunday's training was hill repeats on a sledge. I've
found a MTB to borrow now to get into work."
Joe Harris has been "ticking over on the turbo" and is hoping to get
back to racing as soon as possible.
Simon Markham: "I spent 2.5hrs outside under our carport doing a long
steady ride on my turbo. To stave off the boredom I read sections of
Cormac MacCarthy's 'The Road'. Its bleak story of a father and son
trudging down a road without hope of respite in a freezing
post-apocalypse world seemed to capture the sensation of a long outdoors
turbo session pretty well!"

Reading Cycling Club's National Champion Awarded
Trudi Sammons reports from the Cycling Time Trials awards gala: "I had a
very good night out in Nottingham at Champions Night where I received my
national RTTC medal for being best veteran in the Rudy Project series.
The evening was well supported despite the awful traveling conditions.
It was great to spend time with some outstanding riders both old and
young. And I discovered that my photo is on the cover of the 2010 CTT
Handbook - that was a shock! The whole thing was great and makes the
hours on a turbo almost enjoyable."

Roderick MacFadyen
Reading Cycling Club