Tour to Ely

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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

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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

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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

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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→

Freshers’ TT 2015

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Well done to the 22 riders who rode our Freshers’ TT this afternoon. Particular congratulations goes to the fastest male and female riders of the day, Sam Bell (Trinity) and Rachel Grewcock (Trinity), who completed the 10km course in 13mins 56secs and 17mins 38secs respectively to claim the Espresso Library jerseys.

Results can be viewed here and photos taken by Women’s Captain, Lottie Mallin-Martin, can be found here

Cycling Cuppers TT 2015

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Location: Stow cum Quy village hall.

Thanks to all those who turned up and raced, and thanks to all those who helped marshal. Emmanuel won the Women’s Cuppers and Girton won the Men’s. Congratulations to Hayley Simmonds and Edmund Bradbury for the fastest individual times.
Full results can be found here.

Lecture – Helen Lloyd: A Take On Adventure Travel

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Feb 5, 2015 – 7pm
Pavilion Room, Hughes Hall CB1 2EW
Presented by Cambridge University Expeditions Society
Facebook event: here

Helen Lloyd has cycled 45,000km through 45 countries – under the Saharan sun and across Siberia in winter. She has also made remote journeys by river and horse. She talks about different styles of travel and what it’s like to travel alone.

Helen Lloyd was born in 1981 and grew up in Norfolk. She studied, and until recently worked in, engineering, juggling this with hockey, rowing, biking, adventure-racing and various other sports.A knee injury curtailed her sporting participation, but gave her extra time to indulge in other passions… namely travel and photography. The end result was that she quit her job, left England on a bike and cycled through Africa on her way to Cape Town, photographing all the way.

Come and hear about Helen’s adventures! Refreshments provided.

 

Lecture – Can science make a cyclist faster?

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Jan 30, 2015
Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College
Presented by Trinity College Engineering Society.

Today’s sports are very professional and no stone is unturned in the quest to go faster, higher, further. Cycling leads most Olympic sports in its approach to technology intervention, simply because the speeds involved make attention to the pointers that simple engineering analysis reveal as important pays dividends, especially when the margins for victory can be so very small. Professor Tony Purnell of the University’s Engineering Department is the Head of Technology for British Cycling and will provide an overview of how science and technology have contributed to the raw speed of all Olympic cycling disciplines. He will show that it’s not just about incremental gains, but also about avoiding increment losses. Materials technology, sports science, aerodynamics, friction engineering, physiology and nutrition all contribute although these have to been seen in context with the bigger picture that there are no silver bullets. Determination, hard work and a clear mind still dominate, not to mention a good deal of talent.

Free and open to all. Refreshments from 18:45.

Winter Training Camp

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Many thanks to Citrus Cycling Holidays & Training for once again hosting our annual winter training camp in the Valencia region of Spain.