The rest will not be in french as i am not that good at it yet although i can get bread and try to get riders to work in races with cries of allez!!! I have been meaning to write something for ages but during the winter not much happens apart from loads of rain but for the last five weeks we have not had a drop and tempretures have hit 3o degrees plus most days so it has been too hot to do much riding in the day. Since the start of March, when racing starts here, it has been full on every weekend, and lots of them to choose from. The licence is cheap only 38€ and you get  your kit with that and about 5€ to enter races. You don’t win money just loads of alcohol in the form of wine or a local brew call Pineau (potent stuff).  The first one I rode for my new club V.C St Romain was at St Vincent des Jalmoutiers it had 208 starters. I managed to get 3rd after 80km of mad action on little back lanes, at least all the roads are closed and not a angry motorists to be seen. Winnings- 2 bottles of wine-1 bottle of Pineau. My second event at Bertric Buree was a tough hilly course and I got 3rd again in a break of 5, nowt changes with my sprinting!!! Winnings-4 bottles of wine- 1 bottle of Pineau. If this carries on we will be alcoholics by the end of the season! I do hope all memebers are well and the racing is good. I do keep looking on the BC and CTT website for Rutland riders and glad to see plenty of them racing and placing.All the best for now.

On 15th August saw the National TLI road race champs at Alborough North Yorkshire with Marc Mallender and Gary Horsfield lining up in the 40-45 cat and 45-50 cat respectively. The course was a tough undulating circuit made harder by a strong northerly wind. After a few skirmishes on the first lap Marc Mallender got away with one other rider and forged ahead to force a good gap. On the next lap a group joined the pair to swell the group to eight in all when the junction was made it was touch and go if it would stay away as the bunch was only 2 or 3 secs away but after the a call from one of the break to ‘F@*?ing nail it’  (No wonder they don’t allow much racing on roads in North Yorkshire) the gap was made. The rest was through and off until the last lap of mad none successful attacks. It came to the long up hill sprint Marc Mallender took the silver medal and 5th overall while gary finished in what was left of the bunch to just miss out on a medal this year.This was a great event but needs more Rutlers next year. Don’t think it will be in North Yorkshire as the TLI was forced to pay £300 for some temp traffic lights!!! just to get event on.Is this the start of the end for roadracing?

A good week for Rutland team riders with two team awards in the week the first was at the clubs own open 10 mile TT on Cuckney last Tuesday (27th July) with Marc Mallender finishing second overall 59 sec down on  Kevin Dawson who apprently was not pressing on due to a back injury (I wish I did those times not pressing on) Danny Lowthorpe and Nick Latimer were the other winning members of the team award. Then today the Rutland lads took the team prize again in the Sheffrec CC 25 mile TT at Hatfield  with Marc Mallender, Danny Lowthorpe and this time Tom Bailey. Marc finished 4th overall with a 56.45 and Danny and Tom were also in the top ten on a tough windy day.

Last Wednesday night saw the first promotion by small local club Peak RC and with all there members helping to MARSHALL it was a  fantastic well organised event  helped also by  great summer evening weather. The course was tough, taking in the climbs of Stony Middleton and Millers Dale and covering 17 miles in total. Rutland members faired very well with Marc Mallender finishing 3rd overall in a time of 46.14 riding a normal road bike he also picked up the atheletes competition prize (great wine Mr Gibson are you a wine buff?) and was only beaten by a Rapha Condors Dan Craven 43.50 and Charles Taylor 44.20 of South Pennine CC who both rode TT bikes . Tom Bailey posted a 48.37 to finish 7th after taking the train from Nottingham to Cheterfield and riding to Calver while Tom Webb finished 16th with 51.28. Rutland CC just missed out on the team prize to rivels Sheffrec CC (or did they James?)

Well they forcast rain but when I set off I did not expect that much. It was the worst conditions I have rode in and my  ‘Polar’ HR monitor gave up the ghost at the start. Wise move Geoff Hague not to start but Tom Bailey did start and even rode to and from the event from his home in Nottingham. Still it was worth it as I got third with a 21.14. James Perkins Zenith CC beat me by just four seconds (Where did I lose that-too carefull round roundabouts me thinks) and Matt Bottrill hammered me by 50 secs.

Stu Smith collecting his Bronze medal

Yes! Where were all the Rutlers on B/H Monday morning for the Yorkshire 10 mile TT Champs? You did not miss much in weather terms but you did miss winning medals and jerseys.

Congratulations go to Stuart Smith who picked up a bronze medal in the 60+ catogary with a sound ride on a very cold day (5 c)

Don’t miss this next year!!!

What a difference 24 hrs make on Saturday it was scorching but Sunday morning on the east coast was a very different story with a cold easterly wind blowing across the course but Marc Mallender and Steve Ellis were wrapped up and ready to go.  The first few laps were fast and very cold with finger ends about to drop off but after that things started to warm up. In the Artic spell a group of 8 riders had slipped the field to gain a 1m 30s gap, in many riders minds it was over but not for the Rutland two who began attacking every lap between them. At the bell the gap had come down to 50s and a group of 8 splinted away from the main group after hard riding by Marc on the long drag to the finish, the group worked well and pulled back the leading group in half a lap to contest the finish on the long headwind hill. Steve grabbed 10th with Marc finishing 12th.

Last weekend things turned to the road racing scene with the first in the series of Saturday afternoon road races around Carburton Lakes. The day was fine but very windy when the riders set off for the 35 mile race with the scatch group having a 10 min handicapp to make up, things were quick with Marc Mallender, Simon Keeton, James Baillie(Sheffield Sports) and Sean Smith( Halifax Whrs) being the main riders driving the scatch group along. On the last of 5 laps James Baillie attacked up the climb out of Cuckney and was joined by Simon Keeton. Marc Mallender jumped across to the pair alone and pushed hard over the top of the climb to force the split. The last rider to make the split was Sean Smith. The four pushed on, caught and ripped through the first group leaving only them four to contest the final sprint. Sean Smith got the jump from Marc who lead out but faded a little in the sprint to finish 4th Simon grabbed second with James a creditable 3rd for a 16 year old.

Visit  http://www.nmrrl.org.uk

After last weeks victory for the Rutland in the Sheffrec 2 up it was down to solo business this with the VTTA 18k at Ranby and our riders did not fail to impress although the win was taken by Ian Dalton we did fill the rest of the podium with Marc Mallender 2nd in 23.54 and Darren Otter third in 24.29 and just outside the top 10  came Simon Keeton and Alan West.

Darren Otter and Marc Mallender took an impressive win in the Sheffrec CC’s 2 up time trail on the Hadfield Woodhouse course on Saturday in a time of 55.05 having the odds against them with a late start penalty they still beat scracth riders John Surtees and Gary Beezer on a cold day to take victory by over 30 secs.