2006 Cycling- Hull Thursday Road Club

Sometime on the night of 30 OCT 05, (my birthday), the faithful Fondriest road bike went missing under suspicious circumstances. Luckily, the insurance company gave me a new �1200 bike, a TREK 1400 with a Shimano 105 groupset including a triple chainset with 10 speed rear cassette. I had planned to sell it to buy another Fondriest and indeed put it up for sale on ebay, only to remove it a few days after riding it. Since I had joined a road racing club in the summer, I needed a winter training bike. After dabbling on ebay, �200 got this French made Decathlon, but now since I had the Trek, then I could have a decent training bike and use the Decathlon for commuting instead.


DECATHLON 7.1

The Decathlon turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, the brakes were made of plastic and didn't work very well, no matter how well they were adjusted.  Also, there was a lot of flex around the bottom bracket, but it was OK as a commuter on rainy days with its SKS mudguards. The Trek also had problems - a few weeks into winter 06 the rear Bontrager wheel developed a large amount of play in the hub bearings due to water ingress. Since it was only a few months old, it surely wouldn't be a problem to replace it under warranty?  Wrong! After an exchange of e-mails Trek agreed to replace the wheel as a goodwill gesture only. Unfortunately, I damaged the STI shifters taking it in the car to the Trek dealers and they had no spares in stock, so it spent months off the road. After four months it came back with a much better spec of wheels, so all credit to Trek for their excellent customer care.


 06 TREK 1400 
Ebay was scoured for another Fondriest road bike and one turned up in the USA. Named after the Italian ski resort of Madonna Di Campiglio (The empress fields), it had full Campagnolo Chorus groupset and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels. �720 managed to buy it and after having parted with another �200 in duty and tax before the York parcel depot would release it, I drove the 30 odd miles back home with it in the car. It turned out to be a very nice machine; a very light 16lbs and a great climbing bike. The only "drawback" is that the wheels have flat spokes which can catch the wind if it's coming strongly from the side . Still, it handles beautifully but somewhat different to the Trek, as I found out by nearly crashing it coming off the Humber bridge trying a U turn as its turning characteristics were quite different.


04 FONDRIEST M. DI CAMPIGLIO.
Last summer a friend at work suggested I join a cycling club as a means to meet new people. The only local one that sprang to mind was Hull Thursday Road Club as my uncle and granddad had ridden with them back in the 1950s. Looking them up on the internet I paid my subs and discovered that there were evening rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays meeting at Willerby bus stop. I had naively thought that they would go out for an evening jolly around the local country lanes.

 The first ride was a taste of the agony to come. Big Derek Palmer took out the group and Paul Kilvington and Steve Macklin were amongst the other riders. Little did I know what was in store as we headed out to Skidby and Little Weighton. Just keeping up with these guys was a struggle and stupidly heading out from North Cave to South Cave I thought I�d better stop drafting behind Kilvo and go in front of him � as if he needed any help from a novice like me!

I�d gone into the red zone long before the long drag out of South Cave to Weedley and on the climb I blew up completely. Derek came alongside to have a laugh as I fought to keep the pedals going round. Welcome to the sport of cycling. Stupidly I turned up the following week and top time trialer Chris Whitelam was there. It soon all kicked off as they set a fast pace and I found myself in Newbald all alone with a 20mph headwind and a solo climb up Trundlegate to tackle on the long solo ride home � and they wondered why I always take a radio with me!

Still, I stuck with it despite being given a kicking twice a week � it�s so easy to become demoralised when you go out with a bunch of guys who�ve been racing for years and you�ve turned up expecting a Cycling Touring Club type ride. Amazingly, one week a guy in his 70s turned up. Dave Penny, even more amazingly, used to ride with my uncle way back in the 1950s and he was still going strong over 50 years later!

As winter drew on and the light disappeared, we headed over the Humber Bridge to the climb out of Read�s Hotel to the South Ferriby road and down to the bridge approach road � 5 times. In dreadful conditions one questioned one�s sanity on suffering up the hill over and over again in freezing cold wind and sleet twice a week. Still, the sauna and beer afterwards was well worth waiting for.

As the spring approached we headed off to Barton on Humber for the time trials and I decided to see what was involved. Gradually, I got sucked in.
17 AUG 06 Got suckered into doing a 10 mile TT at last. Rode out to the local meeting point to see if anyone was mad enough to turn up with it lashing down and with lightning in the air.

Local hardman Derek - he of the CSI glasses



was going in the opposite direction and nobody was at the bus stop meeting place. Oh well, never mind, I'll head off home to get warm and dry. Big Derek had turned around, collared me and before I could use any of the 10 excuses in my head, talked me into doing a 10 mile TT across the Humber in Lincolnshire.

After a miserable 12 mile ride to the start line, I asked 3 different people the route as I hadn't a clue what it was. Unfortunately, they all gave different instructions and said there would be marshals out there (there weren't any).

I was also on the Trek with clip on mudguards, not a TT bike. Anyhow, got pushed off, turned Kraftwerk up loud and tried to ignore the rain. I was number 15 with one guy behind and had to stop 3 times to read the flaming road signs along the way. Looked around to see if the guy behind me was anywhere, no sign of him, so not doing so badly. After 8 miles came to a crossroads and hadn't a clue where to go, so took a wrong guess as I found out when the guy behind went the right way.

After turning back, I kept him in sight to the finish and ended up with a 28-51. Well chuffed that there were 4 people with slower times. Just got to start saving up for all the aero gear now ;-) 2007 TT season.