Our writer Chris Maher caught up with 2016 National Road Series Champion Nikki Juniper of Team Ford EcoBoost after her win at the Ryedale GP. Click below to listen.
Nikki Juniper National Road Series Champ 2016 by Cycling Shorts
Our writer Chris Maher caught up with 2016 National Road Series Champion Nikki Juniper of Team Ford EcoBoost after her win at the Ryedale GP. @TeamFordEB @junipernikki @britishcycling @CyclingShortsUK @chrismaher_UK
All images ©www.chrismaher.co.uk | CyclingShorts.cc
Gabriel Shaw [Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa] win’s the third Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
Pam Wainman Director of Jadan Press flagged the rolling start to the third-successive Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race around the partly cobbled one-point-two-five kilometer circuit in Beverley town centre.
Flora Gillies [Team22WRT] set the initial pace over the line in a hotly contested forty-minute race shortly after seven in the evening.
The main group of fourteen riders settled down into the opening laps to the shouts of encouragement from a packed town centre audience. Ellen McDermott [Team Jadan-Weldtite] and Amy Gornall [Podium Ambition] setting the pace.
It wasn’t long before Gornall piled the pressure on gaining over fifty-meters on the chasing group.
Pam Wainman Director of Jadan Press flagged the rolling start to the third-successive Jadan Press Women’s Circuit Race around the partly cobbled one-point-two-five kilometer circuit in Beverley town centre.
They all came back together before Shaw pushed off the front and then being reeled back.
Gornall went once more stringing the eight-rider-group out and leading them over the line for the first sprint bonus prize, twelve laps remaining.
Gornall, Rosie Walsh [High On Bikes], Shaw, Sarah Bradford [Team Jadan-Weldtite], Gillies, Sarah King [Unattached], Rebecca Longthorp [Cliff Pratt Racing], Elizabeth Burrows [Team Jadan-Weldtite].
McDermott headed a group of four, now around thirty-seconds behind.
Pressure now being applied by Podium Ambition squeezed the lead group down to four rides with Bradford and King for company.
Gornall puts fifty-meters into the leaders with five laps remaining. Taking the second sprint bonus prize, Gornall leads across the line well ahead.
Chasing hard behind, Gilles puts another burst in to try and bridge across to the leaders.
Two laps remaining and Shaw joins Gornall out front.
With the bell lap being rung, Shaw and Gornall are the clear leaders with King in hot pursuit. Unable to hold the pace Bradford just misses out on a podium finish and Gilles sprints into fifth.
Cycling Shorts: Was there a plan?
The plan was just to be aggressive.
Just see how it went.
A couple of the other riders had a few of digs, we were just following to begin with. After the race had gone on for a few laps we started to rack it up a bit.
Cycling Shorts: What did you think of the course tonight here in Beverley?
It’s a great course, the cobbles really strung it out. You can put the power down over the cobbles – that was really good!
You can get out of sight, out of mind around the back through the little streets.
There’s quite a lot of support here in the town centre. It creates a good atmosphere.
It’s really good. People were shouting all the way round, especially on this backside out in the Sun. They were all enjoying it. It was really good.
Provisional Race Results
When I do that, I find little gems of hills both up and down that go on my list of favoured (not favourite) I don’t live in a particularly hilly area, but when you find one it’s usually spiteful. This has the lot. Fast flat runs, long uphill drags, hills and throw caution to the wind descents. It’s actually a tad longer than recorded. I forgot to start Strava until I was around 4 miles in.
The scenery on this ride, crossing Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntindonshire and Northamptonshire; is wide, woody and rolls from tranquility to tranquility.
Click the VeloViewer link below for the route.
Enjoy
Jon
with no particular place to go – VeloViewer
93.23 kmroutes with 424 m of climbing. Check it out!
With an ever increasing number of cycle related road accidents, Lincoln-based photographer, film maker, cyclist and organiser of Lincoln Bike Night, Phil Crow who has decided to do something about it.
Having spoken to the emergency services and to Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, Phil put together a short script back in October 2015 and Share the Road began to take shape.
I wanted to present a balanced argument to try and show motorists and cyclists that, with a bit of care and thought, we can all use the UKs roads carefully and safely.
Everyone has been really positive about what I’m trying to achieve and when I got Jason Bradbury to agree to present it I was beyond pleased! I just want as many people as possible to take a few minutes, watch the film and share it with their friends… Facebook, Twitter, email etc and if this saves just one life, then I’ve done my job.
I regularly cycle (and drive) on Lincolnshire’s roads. It’s a wonderful county and always great to see more and more people out on two wheels. However, I am always amazed by some of the incidents and near misses I regularly see. My hope is that this film can go some way to raising awareness of how motorists and cyclists can share the road and hopefully reduce some of those incidents.
Share the Road is on Twitter @sharetheroad_uk
So please follow, message and RT the film so you spread the word. There will be car stickers also available so keep an eye on social media so you know where to pick one up!
With the summer finally arriving and the long school holidays on the horizon we asked Isla Rowntree, ex-national
cyclocross champion and founder of Islabikes how to approach teaching you child to ride a bike.
What are your thoughts on stabilisers?
For years children’s bikes have come fitted with stabilisers, but that doesn’t mean they’re the right thing to use. We encourage parents to avoid stabilisers as they prevent children from learning to balance naturally and actually make the process of learning to ride a bike trickier.
Far better is to let your child use a balance bike before starting to learn a pedal bike. A balance bike will teach them the basics of balancing on two wheels and make the transition to first pedal bike much easier.
How old should my child be?
Most children learn to ride their first pedal bike unaided between the ages of 3 1/2 and 4 1/2. But children develop their cycling skills at different times. If it seems that your child isn’t quite get the hang of it, don’t worry, let them keep enjoying their balance bike for a few more weeks and try again later.
How do I teach my child to ride?
Find a large, safe, flat open space to use as your learning zone. Something with tarmac or a fairly firm surface is perfect. Long grass is too tricky for new riders to pedal on.
Now adjust the height of your child’s saddle so they can get the balls of their feet on the floor.
Put your child on their bike and stand behind them, holding them under their armpits. Don’t hold any part of the bike. We want the new rider to feel how their bike naturally moves underneath them.
Push your child along and let the bike wander in any direction. You can help steer the bike by leaning your child right and left. Doing this will let your child learn that leaning is part of the steering process.
If your children have learnt to balance on a balance bike, they may take a little while to grasp the concept of forward pedalling. Encourage them while they practise pedalling forwards.
If your child is ready to cycle unaided they should quickly get a feel for balance and you can gradually let go, but stay close by to catch them if anything goes wrong.
For nervous riders, you may need to stay with them a bit longer. That’s fine. Just let them know that you’re there, but you’re very gradually going to loosen your hold on them. Eventually they’ll be cycling unaided without even knowing it. The look of delight when they realise you’re no longer holding them and they’re cycling all by themselves is a moment to treasure.
The final part of the jigsaw is learning how to set off from stationary unaided. For this, have your child put one of their pedals just past the top most part of the pedal circle. That means around the ‘5 to the hour’ position with the left leg, or ‘5 past the hour’ position with the right leg.
Now ask them to give a good push on this leg. With enough forward momentum they should be able to transfer both feet to the pedals, start pedalling and be a completely independent rider.
Islabikes build quality lightweight bikes that are gender neutral in their aesthetics, CyclingShorts.cc will be reviewing them shortly – so watch this space.
You can find more information at:
Dowsett, Simmonds And Davies Back Up Their Twenty-Fifteen Titles Here In Stockton-On-Tees In The National Time Trial Championships 2016 Defending champion Alex Dowsett [Movistar] successfully reclaims his Time Trial National Jersey in Stockton-On-Tees for an impressive fifth senior title. Setting the quickest first split, Dowsett was the odd-on favorite around the circuit through the High Street, along the Riverside and out of town before returning for another three laps. James Gullen [Pedal Heaven] posted the closest time for Silver over a minute down and Ryan Perry [Langdale Lightweights RT] the Bronze. Talking in-front of the assembled cheering crowd Dowsett praised Stockton Council on their circuit layout and organization.
The whole Town Centre aspect of time-trialing is really something quite incredible. (Last year’s circuit was on a partly closed circuit at Cadwell Park Racing circuit near Louth, Lincolnshire) The atmosphere was really great, even out of town there were a lot of people watching. I think the course suited the spectator crowd, so Stockton should be proud of what they put on today.
For me personally I paced it I’d say, as perfectly as I could.
The gap to second last year was a lot bigger. I’ve seen these guys at 10s this year and it’s great to see British time-trialing really coming up.
When Alex was asked about another hour record attempt in the near future: I hope so, the bar has been set quite high by Wiggins (Bradley). I know I’m capable of it from the numbers from the last attempt. It’s just a question of when. 54k is not a distance to taking lightly. It’s a huge ask from my team [Movistar] as well to set it up. It takes months to set up. I can’t see it happening this year, but possibly for next year.
All images ©CyclingShorts.cc | www.chrismaher.co.uk
Hayley Simmonds successfully defended her first National title from twenty-fifteen backing up her win having spent most of the year riding abroad riding her first professional contract.
Back on her beloved Cervelo P5, Simmonds put over half a minute on her closest on-form rival Claire Rose [Podium Ambition p/b Club La Santa] who took Silver, with Team-mate Dame Sarah Storey close behind for Bronze.
Cycling Shorts: What have you been up to recently?
Simmonds: With-in the last couple of weeks I’ve recently changed Teams. I was riding professionally for Unitedhealthcare, I made the decision when they offered me, to be let out of my contract, so I accepted that. I made the decision to ride for Aerocoach.
It was a really hard decision to leave the team. I had to weigh-up in my mind, was I prepared to potentially sacrifice defending my title today to remain on the team.
I decided that I wasn’t and that defending my title today probably meant more to me.
I want to return to a UCI team, I want to be a professional bike rider.
Hopefully I’ll be able to find a UCI team for next year.
I’m lucky that I managed to find some guest rides in UCI races for the later part of the year. So I will still be keeping my hand in UCI races.
Cycling Shorts: How did you find the course here in Stockton-On-Tees and did it suit you?
Simmonds: I didn’t think it suited me. When I looked at the course before, I didn’t think it suited me as much as last year’s course did. But it was a good course. It was a really interesting course. It was a course of two parts.
It had a technical bit in the town centre and the dual carriageway section that was more of a traditional time trial course.
The bit in the town centre was actually really good in terms of support from local people and I was lucky enough to meet some of the local people a couple of weeks ago when I first came to look at the course.
The support was great and yeh! It suited me enough.
Interview – Hayley Simmonds 2016 National TT Champion by Cycling Shorts
Haley Simmonds talks to CyclingShorts.cc writer / Photographer Chris Maher after taking the 2016 National TT Champion title in Stockton.
In the U23 Time Trial, Scott Davies [Team Wiggins] also defended his twenty-fifteen title beating Tao Geoghegen Hart [Axeon Hagens Berman CT] for Silver by nineteen seconds with Gabriel Cullaigh [100%ME] a further thirty seconds back off the pace.
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