CUCC Newsletter, May 1994 (2nd ever MTB trip plus other race news)

1 May 1994

AND NOW, BACK BY POPULAR (?) DEMAND, IT'S...

A C.U.C.C. NEWSLETTER

Yes folks, it's the penultimate newsletter of the 
year (you'll get the last one after the exams) - it's also 
my last newsletter, as next year's Club Secretary will 
(as I did 12 months ago) produce the end-of-year 
epistle..
The new committee is pretty much finalised - 
I've been 'persuaded' to take over the mantle of 
President, partly because I'll be one of the few people 
still around who knows anything about how the club 
works ...my back-up squad will be Tony Hornbuckle 
(Trinity) as Racing Sec., Andrew Blain (Pembroke) as 
Treasurer, Chris Jones (Churchill) as ATB/Touring 
Sec.' and Nick Smith (Churchill) as Secretary (i.e. 
Newsletter Writer). You may have noticed that (a) we 
don't have a Social Sec., (b) 60% of the committee are 
Churchill students, (c) Chris Jones has an asterisk 
after his job titles - well (a) that's me also – the social 
side will take on a new look next year, (b) it just turned 
out that way, although we do have over 10% of the 
club membership and (c) some assistance would be 
very much appreciated on this front - Chris admits the 
touring side has been a bit slack this year, but then his 
interest is really ATB'ing and he can't do anything 
unless the rest of the touring side of the club come 
along and take part. Therefore if anyone would like to 
take over the role of Touring Sec. and try and inject 
some enthusiasm into the club then please don't 
hesitate to come forward and volunteer...
In a couple of weeks' time (i.e. after exams but 
before everyone goes home) the annual CUCC garden 
party and AGM will be held; these may (or may not) be 
held almost concurrently (OK - one after the other) so 
that it's easy, but not compulsory, to attend both...a 
date, time and place will be announced soon (next 
newsletter). Please make an effort to come along – we 
don't see most of you during the year – feel free to 
volunteer to be Touring Sec. or arrange to meet other 
CUCC members over the summer - cycling's so much 
more enjoyable when there's someone else there to 
talk to...

You may have guessed from the pattern of 
previous newsletters that there's no touring news; 
however to stop this newsletter becoming overly race-
dominated, here's a report from Chris himself of the 
recent club ATB trip....

CUCC vs The Peak District - Episode 2

At the end of the Lent term, way back in March, 
another group of CUCC MTBers set off for the Peak 
District on a rather last-minute expedition. Eyam youth 
hostel was the base for the trip, high up on a very big 
hill above the village where the plague apparently 
started (not wholly surprising once you've been to the 
chippy there...).

On the Saturday morning, once we'd wrapped up warm 
and jammed waterproofs into our saddlebags, the sun 
came out. Sigh. We took Jeremy's car to Castleton, fed 
the pay-and-display machine and set off towards 
Hollins Cross. The promising-looking bridleway on the 
map turned out to be nearly vertical, so we had to carry 
our bikes up the nearby steps (all 200m of them). Sigh 
again. Once we'd got to the top of the ridge, though, 
the views were spectacular and the riding good. We 
dodged the ramblers to the top of Mam Tor and 
stopped for a chat with the National Trust man, who 
thought we had too many gears.

There was a good if slightly slippy track along Rushup 
Edge which brought us to the top of Chapel Gate, a 
track which led back down to the road. Quite a long 
way down, actually, and in a pretty short distance. The 
good surface made for fast & furious descending until 
we discovered the speed bumps (on a bridleway?). 
One of them jumped out and threw Manhew off his 
bike, skewing the handlebars and breaking both brake 
cables. After some impromptu repairs we were off 
again, straining up the road to the top of Winnats Pass. 
We decided not to take the orthodox route down but to 
use the old abandoned road, most of which has slid 
down into the valley. Another excellent tourist-dodging 
descent with a smattering of gravel and big holes for 
good measure.

Then it was back into Castleton for some lunch and 
some proper repairs to Matthew's brakes. We spent 
some of the afternoon tearing up and down the 
worryingly steep Winnats Pass. Sadly there wasn't 
enough traffic around to overtake, but had there been it 
wouldn't have been difficult – 45mph with the brakes 
on was a fair bit faster than the cars dared to go!
We spent the Sunday explonng some more of the 
area round the Derwent and Howden Reservoirs, 
staring with a trek up Hagg Side and across the valley 
to Blackley Hey: lots of ups, lots of downs and lots of 
fun. Some of the tracks were lined with traditional dry 
stone walls. Unfortunately quite a lot of the dry stones 
were on the track, which added a whole new 
dimension to downhilling...

We eventually came to the National Trust car park by 
the Derwent Dam, where there were dozens of other 
riders waiting to set off and queueing for hot pasties 
from the kiosk. The various groups set off in their 
various directions, and we went all the way round the 
reservoirs and through some exceptionally muddy 
places where the Forestry Commission had been at 
work. When we got back to the car park, we seemed 
to be much muddier than everybody else despite 
having followed pretty much the same route. What 
were we doing that they weren't? I don't know, but 
whatever it was it was fun and a very welcome change 
from Cambridgeshire.

Watch this space for future trips...
Chris Jones (Mud Secretary).

Future trips are indeed being planned even as 
you read this - my intended trip for a couple of weeks 
in September may well have to be aborted, but I don't 
see why someone else can't organise one. Failing that 
there will doubtlessly be a trip in early October...

MTB ADVERT: Nick Smith (Churchill) wants to sell his 
Trek 820 to buy a Kona Cindercone -if interested, 
please contact him for details, negotiation, etc...

Well, it's time for racing news! Before all you 
non-racers switch off, I'd like to thank all who came 
out to the Varsity match to marshall – we couldn't 
have held the race without you. If you're not too busy 
next year (and you're still in Cambridge, of course) 
then feel free to come along to whatever race we've 
got then - it ought to be the '10', in which case we'll 
not need so many marshalls, but we'll know later in 
the year exactly what's going to happen.

RESULTS: Since my last communication, the three 
solo BUSF time-trial competitions have been held; 
despite a couple of setbacks, I believe the phrase '?le 
won" is generally applicable...

BUSF 10-mile TT championship, organised by Oxford 
Univ. CC - Sat. 1st May, course H10/11 – rather 
breezy, but it was a crosswind; I thought it was an OK 
day but the Oxford lot were moanin at the finish...
Cambridge took the team prize by just 15 seconds from 
Oxford Brookes, with Aled, Pete and John recording 1-04-
16 to scoop a BUSF team medal each. One week later.....

BUSF 25-mile TT Championship, organised by CUCC 
- Sat 8th May, course E3/25 – again breez, this time at 
about 45º to the course and therefore rendering it a 
less-than-ideal day ....

This time the lads were only third on team time with 6-12-25 
but, horror of horrors, Oxford were second (6-06-16); 
Loughborough won with 6-05-11. Just for the record, (a) 
Pete got tunnel vision at around 35 miles and elected not to 
continue racing, later hyper-ventilating at the team bus, (b) I 
didn't ride so therefore didn't set any time, and (c) Andrew 
arrived 45 secs late at the start (not recommended) but was 
beaten anyway by Edinburgh's fast girl, Anna von Klopp....

Finally on the results front, congratulations to Aled on 
his 51 minute ride (a new dub record?) on Saturday 
29th on the H25/13B – I suppose we should 
congratulate Chris Boardman on doing 45-56 (32.656 
mph!) on the same day on a fixed gear...

If anyone wants to go racing, don't forget to contact 
other members of the club in order to get a team 
together; if you fancy doing a club TT then the Team 
Cambridge events are ideal (Wednesday evenings) - 
contact me on 423692 if you want more details...

Training continues - contact others if you want a group 
ride as the clubruns tend to disappear as we all go 
racing at weekends...

GOOD LUCK to Aled, Pete and Christopher in the 
national 25 championship on Sunday - and to 
everyone competing at any level for the rest of the 
year.

And finally on the newsletter front, I'd just like to say it's 
been a pleasure (?!) writing to you; see you at the 
AGM/Garden Party, or next year, or who knows 
when....?