Reading Cycling Club press report, week ending 25 July 2010

This week: long-distance specialists.

Photo caption: Steve Ferry took just five days to cycle the length of
Britain
Photo credit: Rod MacFadyen
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Southern Counties Cycling Union 100-mile time trial
Greg Woodford rode to an excellent 4.04:59 in his first ever 100-mile
time trial. Perhaps using his sportive experience to good effect,
Woodford paced himself well over the distance to claim 6th place. The
SCCU event was won by Rob Pelham of Lewes Wanderers.
SCCU '100' (54 starters):
1. Rob Pelham Lewes Wanderers CC 3:52:40
6. Greg Woodford Reading CC 4:04:59

Road Race Series
Joe Harris is the winner of Reading's Road Race series of events. Points
were awarded for placings in selected road and circuit races. Harris was
a narrow winner after the fourth and final event. John Snead, series
organiser, said: "Joe Harris is the deserved overall winner in what
turned out to be a close-run series, just pipping Simon Notley".
Final RR Series placings after 4 Rounds:
1. Joe Harris 17 points
2. Simon Notely 16 points
3. John Snead 14 points
4. Nick English 10 points
5= Nick Davies 9 points
5= Steve Bale 9 points
7. Wayne Thomas 6 points
8. Murray Hogge 5 points
9= Pete Graham 2 points
9= Paul Cooper 2 points
Trevor Bradbury, Dave Harmsworth, Fred Hale, Jun Ashima 1 point

Steve Ferry - Land's End to John O' Groats
Reading's long-distance specialist Steve Ferry successfully undertook a
five-day unsupported ride from Land's End to John O' Groats recently.
Many cyclists have taken on the challenge of riding the length of
mainland Britain but few do it to such a challenging schedule. The bare
statistics show that Ferry took 107 hours to cycle a distance of 1,465km
containing 9,298m of climbing. Ferry describes his ride:
"There is an Audax-approved time limit of 116 hours (five days) for
getting the LEJOG brevet award. Planning included much reviewing of
routes. Finally the route was set and holiday, overnight stays and
trains were booked.
On the first day I had planned for 240km of hilly riding. I started too
early for breakfast at the Youth Hostel and had to breakfast on oat
bars. Reaching Taunton by 7pm I decided to press on to Severn View to
log 341km for the first day, a good start.
The next day's roads were familiar to me but the section north of
Monmouth to Hereford was corrugated and horrible. There was a long urban
section between Warrington and Preston but I made another 330km of
progress.
On day 3 I had a good cooked breakfast to start the day off, soon
followed by the climb to Shap Summit, the highest point of the ride.
Penrith had the best cake and coffee of the trip. Pressing on in into
Scotland, the sunset was fantastic over the Isles of Arran and Bute. I
finished in Gourock having advanced 312km.
At next day's self-service breakfast I ate so much the staff began to
look at me. The route continued with a ferry from Gourock to Dunoon
where it was raining and cold. There was stunning scenery but also a
strong headwind. Aiming for Inverness, I gave up at Fort Augustus with
220km covered.
The 5th day saw my earliest start of the ride. I woke at 5am to the
sound of pouring rain but was on the road by 5:20am. The A9 north of
Inverness is a horrible road for cyclists so I crossed the Black isle
instead but found more climbing than I had expected. In the afternoon
the headwind dropped and I arrived at John O'Groats at 6:45pm to the
most low key welcome ever. Totally deserted and everything shut. I took
a couple of photos and sat around for a few minutes to make sure I had
really finished.
In conclusion, the ride was not as hard as I expected and I only had two
bad moments. I'd like to try some more routes through Scotland,
especially the 'snow roads' from Balmoral to Grantown-on-Spey."

Sunday clubrun
All groups leave Reading Market Place at 9am on Sundays.

Roderick MacFadyen
Reading Cycling Club