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. 
A Day to Remember at the Wales Velothon
Velothon Wales Sportive
The eagerly awaited and much published Velothon Wales Sportive turned out to be a really spectacular event. A number of members and partners luckily signed up to ride the quickly sold out 50 and 140km events. Closed roads were promised by the organiser’s and 100% closed roads we were given with thousands of spectator’s cheering from the roadside as we passed through the villages and towns on route.
Leading up to the event the Press and TV voiced criticism of the event due to the disruption it was going to cause, but as we pedalled around the route enthusiastic applause and encouragement was all we heard from the public as we passed by.
Starting in Cardiff 15,000 cyclists were quite a sight around the centre, marshals quickly organised everyone and released at designated times. Group after group smoothly rode past the castle and down St Mary’s street and through the start area cheered on by Wales rugby Player Colin Charvis, also a very keen cyclist and was starting in a later group. A gentle tailwind was a welcome start to the event as riders had a first taste of the closed roads, negotiating roundabouts in opposite directions, ignoring red lights and having the freedom of using the full width of the road. Moving in the direction of Newport average speed were high as chain gangs amongst the riders developed. From Newport the 50 and 140k events split with the longer event going on a loop around Magor and then it was back and up and around the Celtic Manor, this was where the Tacks on the roads incident occurred delaying a number of riders with punctures and most carried their bikes over the affected area. Usk was the next town on route with the first feed zone with Welsh Cakes and Bananas on the menu, then on to Abergavenny and the feared Tumble climb. An average gradient of 10% slowed many with some deciding to walk for sections of the long tough climb. ACME support with Chairman Jeff and Chris were a welcome sight on the summit with further refreshments and photos to record the special day. Miles of decent followed through the valleys and onto Caerphilly Mountain for the final test. Regularly used in the Tour of Britain the climb brought many to a slow crawl up the steep ascent with a 20% gradient in places. The fast twisty decent off Caerphilly mountain is always a thrill, then passing through Roath and on to the finish on the King Edwards Avenue amongst the civic building in Cardiff.
Paul Harries, Jason Dodd, Mark Nicholls, Dean Cummings, Hywel Morgan, Kevin Millard & Kerry Lewis completed the 140k route and covering the long undulating event in a riding times ranging from 4.30 – 5.00hrs. We were all of the same opinion the event was amazing and we all had a taste of being a Professional Rider for the day having the full freedom of the roads and cheered along for the full 140 kilometres. We recently heard this event is in place for the next three year and we would all recommend entering for a great days riding experience.
In the 50k event Craig’s partner Michelle took up the challenge to complete the tough undulating course. Craig’s report Continues:-
When the Velothon was first announced, Michelle jumped at the chance and entered straight away. The idea of cycling round her local roads while closed to traffic really appealed to her. As the route hadn’t been announced, we both assumed that the race would bypass Caerphilly town centre and the mountain. We were in for a surprise!
As the race drew closer, there was a bit of apprehension at the thought of tackling Caerphilly Mountain so a few practice hill climbs were in order. The road from Tongwynlais to the top of Caerphilly Mountain was ridden 3 or 4 times in the weeks leading up to the race, each time quicker than the last. The entire route was ridden on the weekend before the race, completed in just under 3 hours.
Come race day, Michelle’s enthusiasm wasn’t dampened by a 4:45am start to the day! She even managed to make a friend in the starting pen before starting off at 7am.
The target she had in mind was 3 hours, so a finishing time of 2:28 was the icing on the cake. Michelle is now looking forward to the 2016 race, her only problem is the decision whether to go the 50k again or jump in at the deep end and go for the 140! She had the time of her life (her own words!)………… Well Done Michelle.
