CUCC go to Manchester (ft. BUCS Track)

On the weekend of 19th/20th November a small group of us took the excuse of BUCS track Championships to take a trip to the mecca of british cycling that is National Cycling Centre. Home of British Cycling and Team Sky, the current generation of world beating British cyclists were formed and molded here, in the hard kilometres of training and countless hours spent on the boards lapping the track. The astute amongst you might be aware that the current generation of CUCC cyclists were not formed and molded on the boards, due to what I can only assume is an oversight by leadership of British Cycling to have not yet built a velodrome in or around Cambridge. Wholly inadequate as it was, 2 hours of track time at Derby would have to do.Continue reading

Recap of Touring activities – Michaelmas 2016

It’s been an incredibly successful start to the year for social cycling with CUCC. A few rides have been reported already – to Ely, and to cafes in Saffron Walden and Linton – but a highlight of the term has to be the trip to the Hotel Chocolat factory in Huntingdon.

 

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On Saturday 19th November, a cold but crisp winter’s day, a whopping 17 cyclists showed up to Brookside at 9.30am, keen to stock up on chocolatey stocking fillers in time for Christmas.

Braving the frost up the guided busway to St Ives, we then split into two more manageable groups, with Natasha and Emilie leading both halves to Huntingdon. Although there was a bit of confusion and one half went clockwise, with the other anti-clockwise, we all happily met up at the chocolate factory and were rewarded with a few tasters.Continue reading

CUCC Women Michaelmas 2016!

For the past two years, I was aware of (at most) five other women that cycled in Cambridge. Coming into my third year, I reluctantly agreed to take on the role of women’s captain for fear of the role becoming redundant otherwise. Now, after eight weeks of term, I am extremely pleased to say that our women’s mailing list is 54 strong (and still growing), and I have led weekly rides of up to 14 women (yes, we beat the men). So, here’s how it all happened in under 8 weeks…Continue reading

Ride to Linton

With Cambridge firmly in the grip of winter the turnout for this weeks ride wasn’t as high as previous rides this term, none the less 5 of us set off South in high spirits. The route took us over some of the ‘big’ hills that Cambridgeshire has to offer, which everyone dealt with easily. Toughness points for the guy tackling them on his single speed! Shortly after going through Great Chishill we spotted a Red Kite, a rare sight this far from The Chilterns where they’re being reintroduced! One of our group pealed off after Littlebury Green to catch the train back to Cambridge where he had left his friends who were visiting for the weekend, I hope they understood the importance of riding. Onwards now as a quartet we passed the beautiful Audley End House & Gardens, where I snapped the picture below, mis-timed and not quite getting the house but still capturing a happy cyclist at least!

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Next we went through Saffron Walden past Bicicletta, beloved by cyclists and café enthusiasts alike, however that was not our stop for today so we waved as we rolled past with Linton in our minds.

Continue reading

Q&A With Jason Kenny 25 Nov 2016!

Cambridge University Cycling Club are very happy to announce we will be hosting a Q&A session with Britain’s joint most successful Olympian, Jason Kenny OBE, in conjunction with Prof Tony Purnell and Trinity Hall.

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Everyone is more than welcome to attend, cyclist or not, but space in the hall is limited!

A bit of background (for those who need it!), Kenny is the current joint most successful British Olympian with 6 Gold medals and one silver.Continue reading

Revel Winter XC Round 1

CUCC MTB Captain, Tom Simpson reports:

​The last Sunday of October was the date of the first round of the KLMTB Revel Outdoors Winter XC Series, and we had a strong CUCC contingent of five riders head over to Thetford forest to race. The changing clocks (we eventually worked out) would allow us an extra hour in bed, which was a relief as we had been busy trying to obtain a bike for Arnav to race on well into the evening. Myself, Arnav Kapur, Sam Haigh and Toby Cowell rode the 1.5hr course format – Toby in the junior category – while Andy Zhao chose the slightly shorter 1hr race.Continue reading

Tour to Ely

Emilie Lostis writes:

Yesterday saw CUCC’s first touring ride of the year. It was a short social trip to Ely, with impressive attendance by 11 keen cyclists. We set of at 9.30am, and as the group was particularly fast, we reached Ely before 11am. We had a look around town, and were approached by an elderly gentleman near the Cathedral who was very happy to see us there as he’d been somehow involved with the club back in the days!

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The Tourists at Ely Cathedral

 

He was only too happy to take a few pictures of us, after which we explored the vegan market that was on in the city centre. Everyone experimented with animal-free nibbles with more or less satisfaction (the Wandering Yak van got our seal of approval, but the rice milk in the coffees less so…), and with a full belly we got back on the road.

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The Vegan Market

 

All but 2 decided to join the ride home – slightly longer and faster through the Fens – despite the easy option of a train back offered, and everyone made it home safely by 2pm.

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It was great to see so many enthusiastic students on the road, and we’ll be planning many more themed rides throughout the year!Continue reading

Freshers TT 2016

The freshers TT was held on Saturday the 8th and was a huge success.

Involving one lap round a course near Newton (Start in Newton and keep turning left for about 10km until you are back where you started) it is deceptively hard.

There was a range of equipment on display, from rather flashy carbon to humble Town bikes, but everyone got round almost (!) without incident.

Our winners on the day were Rob Walker (Pembroke) and Emilie Lostis, who both will be getting a jersey from Espresso Library as a prize.
Rob’s time of 13:22 was one of (if not the ) fastest  recorded, over a minute clear of second placed Luke Fisher of Tit hall, who himself did a time that would have won it in previous years! Continue reading

National 25TT

There was one of the strongest CUCC showings in years at the weekend’s National 25, with 7 riders qualifying for the event.

Hayley Simmonds, who submitted her PhD this year, continued her storming summer at the Womens’ event on Saturday. Having already won the BC national championships (and therefore the right to wear the national champion’s jersey), set new competition records at 10, 25 and 50 miles in the space of 2 weeks (and new club records in the process!) she was the favourite lining up for the start. She came home with a clear winning margin of over a minute and a half in a time of 54:57. Hayley has been a mainstay of the club’s BUCS effort winning more BUCS points on her own than probably any other athlete in Cambridge and it will be sad to see her go!

In the mens event there were 6 people riding- in itself an acheivement, really showing the strength in depth the club has at the moment. It was quite windy, making for a very fast first leg but depressingly slow second half. John Mulvey did best of the bunch doing a short 50 and coming 27th. The second man in the Varsity team, this now means that he has completed all the criteria and is the clubs newest Full Blue!

Hal came agonisingly close to joining him but fell short so is still a half blue for the moment

MTB XC Varsity Match

Report by Tom Simpson . . .

The 2016 Varsity mountain bike XC was held on a chilly Sunday in February at Crowthorne Woods in Berkshire. The team, which left Cambridge at 6:00am (already demonstrating their greater commitment over Oxford by waking up an hour earlier), consisted of captain Matt Rodgers, myself, old hand Fin Allen, ‘retired’ 24-hour racer Andrew Clark and fresher Danny Taylor. Reaching Crowthorne two hours later we threw in a practice lap of the course, Danny making good use of his kneepads after snagging a tree; between us, our 780mm bars made us more rad but also more bloody-fingered on the twisty woodland course. We had time for a brief introduction with the team from The Other Place [Oxford] and found that our universities’ engineering prowess had resulted in not one but two home-built bikes being raced.

The nine of us lined up on the start line together after giving the category with which we shared the race a five minute head start. Oxford’s female rider, Tamara Davenne, competed separately in the women’s race, topping the podium. Meanwhile in the men’s Varsity, split seconds after the starting horn, a loud crunching and cursing indicated a bad start for Oxford’s Tom Everitt with a broken chain. The start was fast, but I held second followed by two more Oxfords and the Cambridge team into the first single track section. Unfortunately they soon edged past, but I held the third’s wheel with Matt in close pursuit behind, managing to pull him back and take a chunk of time through the second and third laps. The winding course gave regular sightings of Andy and Fin working their way through the men’s field with which they had made contact soon after the start.Continue reading