Hello fellow Exeter Wheelers members,
First of all, an appeal – we need helpers for our club events. It is the sad case that up and down the land cycle events are getting cancelled or not even planned because of lack of volunteers and whilst we do have a faithful set of (a few) helpers, there are not enough of them, and none are getting any younger! Please consider helping at an event or two this year. You can use the info at exeterwheelers.co.uk email address at bottom left of each ewcc webpage to get in touch.
Our next two events, both in need of helpers, are the Four Firs Hilly TT on the 13tth of April, where we need marshals to point riders in the right direction at road junctions, and the Tom Hawkins Memorial Road Race 11th May where we need people for various non-technical things, such as making sure people park correctly. We also need a basic ‘static’ first-aider, to be at the finish line, and possibly a car driver or two.
On your bike
Our next Saturday Social ride will head out as usual from County Hall at 9am (5th April) passing through Aylesbeare on the way to Tipton St John, with then a lovely ride up the Otter valley for a while before taking the lane that leads up to The Merry Harriers on the Cullompton Road and straight across up the hill to Bradninch and home via Silverton and some of the Exe Valley. What a glorious part of the world we live in down here in Devon. Then it’ll be coffees or tea in the sunshine down by the Quay/Canal Basin. As with all our rides we encourage our riders to acquaint themselves with our ‘Riders Guide’ before coming along first time.
The Awards and Social Night
Hopefully all of you who attended our Awards and Social Night last month will have enjoyed yourselves; it was really nice to get some positive feedback from some of you and one member event said that “it was just about perfect” so those concerned with its organisation can give themselves a pat on the back. Pat pat. The venue worked well for us and they were friendly and helpful,l so we’ll be back there again next year all being well.
It was of course great to have an illustrious ex-Wheeler in our midst, handing out the awards; Andrew Feather. Andrew has been National Hill Climb champion four times, most recently in 2023. In addition to presenting awards Andrew did a brief presentation about his hill climbing exploits, then answered questions from the audience. He pitched it all perfectly, and the overwhelming impression one has of the man is what a nice chap ! No bravado, no false modesty. Top notch. The National Hill Climb this year will take place on the famed Bank Road course in Matlock – an urban climb, a straight line of hill that gets progressively steeper over its 704 yard length, hitting 20% at peak, and averaging about 12%. Wowsers. It is the type of climb that Andrew relishes, and if he doesn’t win the whole thing then he’ll definitely win the National Vets prize – he’s now 40. Andrew also spoke with fondness of his years with the Wheelers, and on the morning of our ceremony he’d been out on his bike up around Yeoford and home via the old A30. He was able to tell us that the National Hill Climb will be again in the Westcountry in 2026, when it’s planned to take place on the Porlock Toll Road course – a completely different kettle of pedalling being a mighty 4.2 miles long and distinctly gentle; not at all Andrew’s cup of tea. We wish him well wish him well with his hill climbing endeavours in 2025.
As soon as we get a date for next year’s EWCC Awards and Social Night we’ll let you know.
Andrew presenting trophies and medals to young Filipe Pacheco at the recent ‘do’.
Those are Gideon Aroussi’s socks and shoes BTW. Nice.
Many thanks to Ann Owens for taking photos of the event.
EWCC & town centre racing at the Dawlish Grand Prix
An exciting opportunity has been presented to our club in that we have been asked if we would like to run some town-centre warm-up events ahead of the 6th and final round of the prestigious Lloyds National Circuit Series, which will take place in the form of the Dawlish Grand Prix on the evening of Friday 25th of July.
The town centre race circuit will be completely barriered off, and there will be traffic diversions in place. After us, the E123 women’s race will start at 7pm, the men’s/open E123 at 8pm, each c. 50 mins long. Both will have fields of c. 60 top riders.
The circuit area will be closed to traffic for 24 hours from midnight on the night of Thursday 24th to midnight at end of Friday 25th .
There will be local diversions in place for light traffic, and main road (A380/A38) diversions for heavier vehicles e.g. lorries.
There will be extra bus and train services to Dawlish for the day of the event.
The race circuit is 1km long in an anti-clockwise fashion, with start & finish on The Strand, and we ourselves can use it from midday until 6pm to put on whatever races or rides we like (within reason) – standard cat. 3 & 4 race, young’uns races, slow race, women’s race, old’uns (‘masters’) race, fancy dress race, we’re open to all your suggestions.
Stay tuned for more info on this exciting news ! We are going to be needing your help and ideas.
Springtime and our Audax events
The Mad March Hare Audaxes took place last month, which were the 200km ‘What a Budeful Day’ and the gentler 100km ‘Up and Blackdown’ rides. The weather was dry, and both Audaxes were enjoyed by a selection of our club members; for the 200km Jamie Andrews and Matt Atkinson, with Rich Taylor (and partner Nicky) David Sheehan, David Sheehan, Rob Simmonds, David Blundell, James Bowman, Allister Brimble, Lucy Bufton, Xingsan Kan, Rob Masterson, Marc Millon and Pippa Wheeler opting for the 100. Speaking afterward, Rich Taylor said “Lovely route, bit grippy and potholey on the lanes up to Churchinford, but fantastic whizzing along the elevated flat section through Smeetharpe with a strong tailwind !” Both events were organised by Sarah Britton.
Our next Audax is the long-established and very popular ‘Valley of the Rocks’ Audax at 200km, but if you haven’t entered yet you are too late ! After that the next one that’s still open for entries via the Audax UK website is club chair Ian Hennessey’s ‘Old Roads 300’ on the 10th of May.
South-West Cyclo-Cross AGM 2025
Quite a few Exeter Wheelers love to ride the SWCX League events, including our club secretary, who attended the recent SWCX AGM via Zoom on behalf of the club. The league is well run, with eight to ten events put on by various south-west clubs in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. However, at a recent EWCC Committee Meeting concerns were voiced about certain aspects of the League’s operation, most notably lack of transparency and the failure to ensure that post-event the (metres and metres) of course tape is able retrieved and stored in a re-usable state i.e. the sustainability aspect. The SWCXmLeague chair responded saying that our comments were noted, and that actions would be taken to ensure minutes, committee members identities, notice of committee meeting dates and finances would in future become available via the SWCX website. We thanked existing SWCX committee members for listening to our concerns, and for all the hard work they put into running the league – as with all community and voluntary organisations, ourselves included, they suffer from not having enough people to carry out everything, not helped in their case of being soon to be without a secretary and a treasurer.
Provisional dates for the SWCX 2025-26 season are as follows:
28th Sept. Coxleigh Barton (Barnstaple)
5th Oct. Redruth (Redruth School)
12th Oct. Wadebridge Showground
19th Oct. Newnham Top (Plymouth)
9th Nov. Escot Park (our event)
23rd Nov. Torbay Velo Park (SW Regional Champs.)
30th Nov. Exeter Bike Park Exminster (Exeter Univ. CC)
7th Dec. Newnham Lower (Plymouth)
4th Jan Perranporth Air Field
11th Jan North Devon – TBC
Amongst items discussed at the AGM were whether there could be a women only race (currently women ride with the vet 50 & 60 men/open riders), the increase in BC levies and how to absorb them, where to hold the end of season awards ceremony, and how to support clubs in providing prizes for podium places.
For those of you wishing to put a number on and give competitive cycling a go, and who have not yet done so then SWCX cyclo-cross can be recommended – it caters for a wide range of ages and abilities, you don’t have to have a CX bike (you can use a mountain bike or even, early season, a road bike with wider tyres) and it’s fantastic fun with a great community feel full of sharedness (of mud&suffering, joy&satisfaction etc) !
Exeter Wheelers at the first Road Race of the season, the Primavera.
There was a strong Exeter Wheelers presence at the first road race event of the new season, the Mid-Devon CC ‘Primavera Springtime Pursuit’, held on a grey chilly morning in late March up at Hatherleigh. EWCC Riders taking part were Andrew Whittemore, Ben Zissimos, Graham Turner and Paul Cameron, and we also contributed Chief Commissaire Andy Tombs and one Accredited Marshall.
A ‘pursuit road race’ is formulated so that the less strong/lower category riders start first, with the stronger/higher category riders starting in successive waves at two minute intervals behind them. It’s a great way to get started with road racing, and it can provide some very interesting racing, nicely illustrated by our rider Ben Zissimos’s account:
“One thing I’ve learned the hard way from my first few races is the importance of getting a good start. So that was something I was targeting this time. It was really lucky I was paying attention because the commissar’s car accelerated hard from the gun and a group of us stayed with it. But when I looked back, Graham and Paul had been dropped! Aidan and another guy were clearly trying to ‘pull a Tristan’ and we didn’t have the legs for that. So that left me and two other guys working together in a nice little group.
After about half way round the first lap, the 2nd group caught us. They were mostly mid-Devon guys being directed by Jason Kettle. They were very well drilled, and I got dropped by them at the top of the biggest climb.
Funnily enough, I felt more at home with the 3rd group, because it contained several mates from a regular Saturday ‘racy ride’ I do: Tristan Kelsall-Spurr, and Andrew Whittemore, and also the Okehampton CC lads Lloyd Copp, Jonathan Hobbes and Calum Orchard. For a while I started to wonder if I could catch the 2nd group with them. But suddenly Calum looked around and said “They’re coming, boys” referring to the last group, and theythen really put the hammer down, and I couldn’t stay with them. Not long after that, I get shelled from the race bubble. The medic in the broom waggon was lovely. She asked me if I was okay and I was fine, so off they all went.
I TT’d for a bit, which felt fine, and I started to wonder if I would do that for the rest of the race. But about half way round the 2nd lap, I got caught by one of the 4th cats from the 1st group who must have got dropped by the commissar’s car. We worked well together taking turns for some time. I couldn’t determine his club as he looked like a privateer. After a further while, we got caught by an 05-03 guy. To my surprise, he was one of the blokes who I was working with right at the start, so he must have got dropped by Jason’s group before me. Anyway, he was full of beans and kept launching attacks, which kept us on our toes. But when it came to the final 3-up sprint, the privateer I had been working with was strongest and won our 3-up, while I came 2nd and the 05-03 guy was 3rd. That was the right outcome”.
The race was won by the very fast strong and decent chap that is local roadman George Kimber. Full results of the race can be found via this link, and we thank Mid-Devon CC for running it all.
Ben, Graham and Paul awaiting their group’s roll-out at the Hatherleigh ‘Primavera’ pursuits.
Exeter Wheelers at the Tavistock Wheelers Hilly 25 Time Trial.
The goodly people of Tavy Wheelers were race organisers for Round Two of the ‘CTT Classic Series’ last weekend. This national series, run as a league, consists of 6 events on various ‘sporting courses’ throughout the country, from the Scottish Borders to our fair county and various upsydownsy places in between. It attracts a high quality field from far and wide although Sunday’s road bike only event was won by a south-west rider in the form of Blake (No Pins in My) Pond, the only rider to get under the hour, which he did by a few seconds. New Exeter Wheelers member Luke Osborne was runner-up, in just over the hour, a fine performance, although Luke was just a little disappointed not to have won the event. A few minutes after finishing he said “It was a challenge to get the pacing right on such a hilly course, and riding on a road bike rather than my usual TT mount took a little adjusting to as regards gear selection”. A day or two after the race he had reflected on his race, as we do, and said “On review I’m happy with the performance, I don’t think there was anything I could have done to make it to the top spot, it was an excellent ride by Blake Pond, soundly beaten. As I’m sure you know it was challenging to get pacing right given the wind and rolling terrain but it made it more of a puzzle which I feel played into my favour, I’ve been time trialling a long time and have got pretty good at intuitive pacing. I do feel a bit like a barn door on the road bike (Luke is 6’ 5” – Ed.) but to be honest the TT bike on that course would be a little harrowing!”
The course was indeed challenging, starting at the bottom of the Mary Tavy hill, so a mile uphill at least to start then a headwind on rolling roads via Sourton to Fowley Cross roundabout at the Okehampton end, and then return. Some nice views of the moors and the sun was out by the end of the event.
EWCC riders James Greenaway and Pete Bishop also took part, and the latter was pleased to have improved on his 2023 time by nearly two minutes and says that at that rate of improvement he’ll be able to win it by the time he is 78. James meanwhile was pleased to collect his ‘Devon Cup Competition’ third place trophy afterwards, for his 2024 performances in Devon Cup SW TT’s.
Sunday’s Tavy Hilly was run as The Ken Robertson Memorial Time Trial, in honour of services rendered by the late Ken for so many years towards cycle sport in the south-west.
The event was graced with the presence of the national Chair of the Cycling Time Trials association, Andrea Parish, as befits a round of a National series. Andrea’s own time trialling activities actually began in the south-west region, when she was down in Cornwall on holiday, brought along her newly acquired road bike, joined in a Camel Valley CC club ride, where she was encouraged to have a go at a club ‘Evening Ten’ and it went from there.
Here below is Andrea looking like a wise owl as she inputs riders’ times into the results table after Sunday’s race:
After the event, Club Sec. Pete chatted with Andrea about matters CTT and cycling related, and he will post up an article on the Wheelers website in due course with details.
Sea, Sand and Cycling – Aaron Lawrence goes leftfield racing in South Wales.
EWCC member Aaron Lawrence, whose cycling in 2023 and 2024 was somewhat dented by him breaking his arm twice, the first time in a SWCX race, is enjoying being back in the game, and reports back from what sounds a very good fun cycle event in Wales.
“The Battle on the Beach is an event which caught my eye last year, an incredible beach race on Pembrey beach and country park in South Wales. The extensive course includes a thoroughly mixed terrain! This aspect alone throws up all sort of considerations as to which is the best type of bike to use! CX ? Gravel ? or perhaps MTB?
This year’s edition race had 1300 participants in a mass start, with an opening 3 mile stretch on the expansive sand! It then turns into the dunes for a range of single track and fire-road lanes as well as loose sand sections! A real test of skill, strength and endurance! Conditions are frequently blustery, causing pelotons to form on the beach just to survive the cross headwinds!
The format is three laps which all use the beach stretch but turn into various routes within the dunes and out into the country park area, which all totals a race of 42kms.
The event has an honest mix of abilities, some of them out and out racers, some there just for the experience and fun. The winner completed the course in 1 hour 24minutes, and then a steady of stream of finishers through to over three hours. It really is a race for everyone.
I myself managed to make it round the course in 1 hour 58 minutes, so happy to sneak under two hours despite some of the bottlenecking on the single track.
The Battle on the Beach is an event I’d highly recommend if you fancy something a bit different but with the familiar feel of a CX / MTB race, and all in fantastic surroundings.”
It sounds like an amazing event and I’m sure there will be more of us there next year.
Reminder: Free Entry for EWCC members to EWCC races this year !
A reminder that for 2025 entry for EWCC members to races organised by EWCC is FREE ! For Cycling Time Trial Open Events you’ll need to enter online via the CTT website, which does involve making payment, and then claim a refund by dropping us an email to the info at exeterwheelers.co.uk email address at bottom left of all EWCC web pages.
For our three road race events (he Tom Hawkins Road Race and the two Westpoint Circuit Races) find the race on the British Cycling ‘events’ webpage and get in touch with the organiser via the email address given.
Finally, if you have some cycling experiences to share with club members via these monthly newsletters then get in touch, the more the merrier! Photos are good too.
And if you are finding this email only via the link posted on the EWCC Facebook site(s) or on the club webpages rather than into your inbox this is because you’ve chosen to not receive emails – so get in touch if you want to change that.
The next EWCC Committee Meeting, to which all members are welcome to attend, is 14th April 2025, upstairs at The Cuckoo Bar, Sidwell Street, Exeter at 7.30pm. Full details of club governance matters including previous minutes are here on the EWCC web pages
Best wishes and safe cycling from your bike club.