The Welsh Open 10M TT was promoted by Pontypool RCC on Sunday 14^th August on the R10?17 Course between Abergavenny and Raglan.  On a dry day with only light winds two Acme Wheelers members we on the start line.  Gary Flower gained his second Club Championship of the season with a very impressive 22:01 on the day. Gary was not particularly happy with his time, his goal was to go sub-21:45, as it fell in the middle of his training for an up-coming Ironman event.  Gary had put in a big training session the day before and this was still in his legs.  Nevertheless, it’s congratulations to Gary on this 10M Club Championship.

Nadine Cannon put herself into the elite of Welsh women time trialists with her efforts.  Again disappointed with her time of 24:14 Nadine felt that she had given everything she could, and at some points thought she might have been able to run faster – a la Chris Froome.  Her time put her in 7^th place overall in the Ladies Event and, if we take out the visitors from over Offa’s Dyke, sets her as one of the top 3 or 4 Welsh Ladies. A very impressive season which gets better and better.

With so many events to report in August this month’s report will take a different form. Instead  of reporting on races it will centre on Club Members, in no particular order.

Regular reporter Simon Kinsey has had a very busy and hard month of time trialling and continues to seek improvement in both his times and in the way he approaches events.  Simon’s first event was the Cardiff 100 Mile RC   50M TT event on Sunday 8^{th. .}

His main goal at this event was not time based but the check out the R50/1B Course which will be used for the Welsh 100 M Championships in September.  On a clear and sunny day with some breeze Simon missed a PB by 6 seconds, finishing in a time of 2h13m02s.  The following weekend Simon was back up in Usk on the R25/7 course chasing a time under the hour on a course which didn’t include the Glynneath Bank. On a breezy but bright sunny day Simon posted a 1h02m44s.  Perhaps if he hadn’t been rum tasting in a Cardiff bar until the early hours of the morning then that sub-60 time would have been there.  Simon will certainly learn from that one.

Another weekend and another trip to the Glynnneath Bank for the RealTeam 25 (overflow event) on the R25/3H Course.  Simon is well aware of the vagaries of the weather in this area and he feels that a hard effort does not always result in a good time.  Again he was looking for a sub-1h ride. The day started wet but did dry up although the wind on the way to the turn made it hard work.  So near but so far in the end with Simon posting a 1h 00m 07s.

As has been noted in these reports this summer Nadine Cannon is having a tremendous season on the bike, but August was a quieter time for her in terms of event entries. On the 21^st August Nadine was on the R25/3H Course based at Hirwaun for the RealTeam promoted 25M TT.  On a wet and windy day, Nadine realised that good times were not on offer so changed her focus.  Nadine used this event to work on her aero position which would be of benefit to her in future events.  The outcome was still a good time of 57:58 which gave her 5^th Lady on the day.

Veteran member Jeff Rees begins to look to the winter season when August comes around and some of his races are geared to events later in the year.  Firstly, though, on the 21^st August Jeff was entered in the Real Team 25 (Over Flow Event) on the R25/3H course.  This was a disappointing ride for Jeff as he had been looking to improve upon his season’s best, but on an overcast day with a bit of a headwind on the out section Jeff eventually posted a 1h01m37s.  And so to thoughts of the winter as Jeff entered the Gower Riders – Go Ride CX event based at Penyrheol Leisure Centre, Swansea.  Different format from the TT races here, as this race was 30 minutes plus one lap with Jeff expressing disappointment that no other Acme Members had entered this event.  Jeff started his first off–road CX event since December on a dry overcast day with the atmosphere being “heavy and close”.    Jeff was testing his equipment at this event as well as seeing where his own fitness was compared to others.  In the end Jeff came out 6^th out of the 8 V50 entered and 6^th out of the 11 adults entered.

Jeff wants to encourage more members to enter events during the winter for what are safe and good fun activities for winter Sundays.

Fiona Davies enters rather longer events than the “normal” time trials. Fiona’s preference is the hard world of triathlon and she entered two during the month of August. First up was the BRAT Triathlon (Birmingham Running Athletics and Triathlon Club) at Kingsbury in the West Midlands on 7^th August.  This event was 47.2Km with 36.7Km of cycling, and is the Olympic distance event.  Fiona was using this event are preparation for a middle distance event later in the month. On a beautiful sunny day, her overall time of 3h02m10s gave Fiona much encouragement for the next event. While she felt that the swim was a little slow she was pleased with her run and the 1h23m59s bike ride. The venue, Cliff Lakes Water Park (http://www.clifflakes.org/) gets a big thumbs up from Fiona because of its beautiful surroundings, water based activities and a caravan site.  The Park is also near to the Warwickshire Cycleway.

 Next was the 113Km Cotswold Classic Triathlon based at the Cotswold Water Park (http://www.waterpark.org/) which included a 90Km cycle ride. On this day, 21^st August, the weather in Rhondda was wet and windy but in Wiltshire Fiona was enjoying warm, sunny conditions.  Fiona had competed on this course in June and was hoping to use this event to improve her time over the course.  It was a long day with the event taking 6h21m48s to complete, Fiona was delighted with this result not least because the bike leg of 3h20m47s was 6 minutes faster than the June effort.

Fiona plans to put her bike and wet suit to one side for the rest of the year and concentrate on ultra runs starting with the Cumbria Way 73 mile run in September. We wish you well in that.