Congratulations to Dale Appleby who recently completed the Tour of Britain Cycle R
ace. Dale started cycling with the ACME and now rides for the NFTO Professional team. The 2015 edition of the British race was regarded as a tough event with a world class field, won by MTN-Qhubeka rider Edvald Boasson Hagen. Dale originally from the Rhondda was the 15th best British rider in the pack overall. A Specialist climber Dale did take the ACME Hill Climb Championship trophy in 2002 as a young member. Members recently met up with Dale before the Abergavenny classic and he said then he was very pleased with his form in the run up to the British premier event.
Personnel Bests by Members over 25m
The Realteam 25 mile TT on 23rd August proved to be a delight for some riders and a cause of anguish for others. Due to the poor weather this summer combined with a poor weather forecast only 53 riders started from a full field in the main men’s event. Similarly, in the women/junior/overflow event only 67 out of a field of 108 started. Most of those non-starters must have been hugely disappointed when they saw the results. The majority of riders in the overflow event recorded personal bests, often with substantial improvements. Four Acme riders started and all achieved personal bests. Nadine Cannon goes from strength to strength and on this occasion improved from 1.05.30 to an amazing 58.56. Simon Kinsey must have been all smiles too, reducing his time from 1.03.35 to 59.15. Our veterans were not to be left out either with Jeff Rees going under the hour while improving from 1.00.59 to 59.32. Fiona Davies only features occasionally in time trials, her main activity being duathlons, but she too, the oldest of our competitors, improved from 1.09.09 to 1.08.49.
Club 10 mile Championship
The Welsh Championship 10 mile Time Trials organised by the Pontypool RCC provided the platform for our own Acme 10 mile Championship. Held on the R10/17 Abergavenny – Raglan course, Alec Morris was looking forward to reducing his personal best but unfortunately crashed on the return leg and failed to finish. Three other club riders were very close together on times with Simon Kinsey recording 25-22, Tom Stoddart 25-03 and Nadine Cannon just one second slower in 25-04 which gave her 8th place of the eighteen females who finished. Jeff Rees continues to churn out good times and passed the timekeeper in 23-27 while Dai Long produced a personal best by eight seconds to become our 2015 10 mile TT Champion with 22-41.
Nadine Achieves Gold
Nadine Cannon has certainly found good form recently, following up her Gold Standard ride at 10 miles with another at 25 miles. In the Realteam 25 on the 19th July she recorded a great 1-03-19. In the same event, Simon Kinsey finished in 1-03-35, Jeff Rees 1-00-59, Ross Morgan 58-06, Dai Long 56-56 and Neale Lewis 55-44.
Neale Hits Good Form
Saturday 11th July did not bode well for PB’s with wind bending the trees but the Ross-on-Wye 10 mile Time Trial on the Abergavenny/ Raglan course proved otherwise for our riders. Fastest of the Acme riders was Neale Lewis, who usually does very well in events less than 50 miles, passing the timekeeper in 22.34. Veteran Jeff Rees just gets better and better, his 23.00 was his fastest since returning to the sport and not far off his lifetime best. Young Alec Morris, having ridden few open events, took 1.23 off his PB, finishing in 24.54 while Nadine Cannon, also in her first year of open competition and second year of club-level cycling, was hard on his heels with her PB, an impressive 25.17. With this ride Nadine also bettered the Acme Gold Standard for women at the distance. What a day ! The smiling Acme faces at event headquarters must surely have brightened up the place. 
