Eagle Road Club

Eagle Road Race Results

James Sale of the Eagle produced a stunning late burst of speed to break clear of the peloton to win the 2009 Eagle Summer Road Race.  With the race staying together over all six laps of the testing circuit, a bunch sprint was the deciding play in this year's race.  Most of us thought that the best chance of an Eagle win was by getting one or two riders in a break, so what a fantastic sight and surprise to see an Eagle jersey 100 yards ahead of the peloton at the finish.  We had, however, to wait until after the race to find out the extent of the teamwork that enabled the win for James today.

Teamwork that drew praise from our adversaries, "Well done to the the Eagle team for a great win.. the last 3 miles was like sitting behind the Columbia Highroad team as they showed a master class in team work".

As the race approached the closing kilometres, Damien sensed that this was the moment; sending Chris to the front, and ensuring James and Adam were on his wheel, set the train in motion.  Encouraging Chris with shouts of "Faster, Faster" Damien orchetrated the final manoeuvre.  With James in the pocket, Chris had to set a scorching pace to prevent other riders from getting near the front - this he did with a monumental turn at the front, giving it everything as his job today finished with a kilometre to go. Damien then took over and flew over the last two hills before setting James off with final intructions "Don't look back".  Adam, who was on the wheel of James, let James go, protecting our escapee over the closing metres.  So it was left, in the finale, to James to execute the final move in the plan.  All of the team' hopes now reted on his young shoulders.

Chris summed it up for all of us "We knew we could count on you, and none of us would have wanted to be in your position. Either you won or we all held our heads in our hands until the next one. That's what I liked best about today. It was about winner take all. Points are for moving up categories, wins are forever. We've been talking about this since January, and at some stage the talk stops and either you execute or you don't, and it came together as Adam said, red ball corner pocket."

Full result

1 James Sale Eagle RC
2 Richard Law CC Ashwell
3 Brad Lamb Glade CC
4 Jamie Anderson North Road CC
5 Steve Hubbard Cambridge CC
6 Adrian Pettitt Stowmarket & District CC
7 Gonzalo Rodriguez East London Velo
8 Piers Brown Finchley Racing Team
9 Ralph Keeler Cambridge CC
10 Alan Moules St Ives CC
11 Luke Smulders Team Milton Keynes
12 Tristan Emptage North Road CC - Relegated from 3rd place
13 David Farrow Eagle RC
14 Dan Corby Finchley Racing Team
15 Daryl Gannon Finchley Racing Team
16 Ben Wright VC Revolution
17 Dermot Kealey Finchley Racing Team
18 Carmelo Luggeri CC Ashwell
19 Rob Jackson Cambridge CC
20 Gray Turnock Finsbury Park CC
21 James Cocker East London Velo
22 Darren Hughes Chelmer CC
23 Stuart Clark Chelmer CC
24 Tyler Denmead Cambridge CC
25 Thomas Caldwell St Ives CC
26 Ian Heather Shaftesbury CC
27 Matthew Nockolds St Ives CC
28 Adam Dawson Eagle RC
29 Glen Vinnicome Cambridge CC
30 Christopher Baldwin Eagle RC
31 Trevor Whittock Lea Valley CC
32 Patrick Hawkins Shavedlegs.co.uk
33 Andy Sykes Thames Velo
34 Matthew Cook API - Metrow
35 Hugo Robins East London Velo
36 Terry Garlinge East London Velo
37 Nigel Burns St Ives CC
38 Alan Lawrence VC Revolution
39 Paul Dewberry VC Revolution
40 Mark Porter Glade CC
41 Steve Newman West Suffolk Whs
42 Damien Foy Eagle RC
43 Chris Hughes Cambridge CC
44 Grant Smith Crest CC - Ilford
45 Richard Mead CC Luton
DSQ Jeff Robinson North Road CC
DSQ Hamish Hoare Maldon & District CC
DSQ Trahern Rayner CC Ashwell
DNF David Boakes Chelmer CC
DNF Richard Fraczek Essex Roads CC
DNF Nick Faint Finchley Racing Team
DNF David Francis Gateway Cycling
DNF Justin Browne Glendene CC / Bike Trax
DNF Adrian Ward Shaftesbury CC
DNF Ralph Mullan Shaftesbury CC
DNF Rob Lines VC Norwich
DNF Simon Hewins Eagle RC
DNF Jonathan Roy Finchley Racing Team
DNF Graham Masters Eagle RC
DNF Andy Lack Kingston Whs CC
DNS Keith Carne CC Ashwell
DNS Alan Galloway CC Luton
DNS Anthony Moye CC Luton
DNS Lee Harvey Colchester Rovers CC
DNS Andrew Ballentyne Easterley RC
DNS Neil Bryan Glade CC
DNS Tom Stephenson Ipswich BC
DNS Brett Travers VC Revolution
DNS Nigel Hobday Cambridge CC
DNS Simon Beeforth VC Revolution
DNS Keiran Dineen Amersham Road Cycling Club
DNS Steven Kaye Fenland Clarion CC
DNS John French Peterborough CC
DNS Stoyko Bussarov Imperial Racing Team

Eagle Road Race

It's the Eagle road race this Sunday.  Race starts at 9:00 am, and it looks like being a cracking event as we have a full field, and several Eagle riders in top form.

If you don't know, the race is based up at our clubouse and comprises half a dozen laps of a 10 mile circuit around Newport, Clavering and Rickling.

Club 25 Result

 With many of our riders away in Majorca and France, and the weather turning joyously Mediterranean, this race gave opportunity to those that were ready to take advantage. A few old hands took battle with some new faces and it was anyone's guess who would come out on top. Cheney had won his first road race the week before at the festival, John Skinner looks like the warm weather suits him better, and John Beaufoy discovered and recruited during the festival randonnee.

The unfamiliar look to the race was added to by the sight of two lady triathletes turning up unexpectedly to ride a private.

Position	Rider	Time	HCap Time
1st	John Beaufoy	1:09:48	59:29
2nd	Howard Grace	1:10:09	57:58
3rd	John Skinner	1:11:26	59:45
4th	Cheney Stenning	1:11:56	57:09
5th	Tony Paolino	1:13:26	59:08
6th	Dave Wright	1:21:27	1:00:50
PTT	Alan Leighton	1:02:55
PTT	Wendy Staines	1:10:57
PTT	Melissa Dowell	1:14:34
PTT	Steve Hodges	1:16:21

As the results show John Beaufoy made a very promiing debut at the discipline recording a fine win, narrowly confining Howard to second place.   There were many riders out on the E1 for the first time, and with a skeleton marshalling crew, good to see them all return with no mishaps.

ECCA Festival - Tandem 10

Dusting down his touring tandem Chris partnered by Graham had a crack at the tandem 10, one of the final events of the ECCA festival.
Although not looking too streamlined, the pair managed to beat the 25 mph barrier, for a fine 5th place.

Position	Rider	Time
1st	Neil DOWIE & Glenn TAYLOR API - Metrow	21.22
5th	Christopher BALDWIN & Graham MASTERS	23.27

ECCA Festival - 7km time trial

Judging by some of the times posted, many clubs take this event very seriously.  We in the Eagle, however, saw it as an opportunity for our newcomers to have a go at wearing the blue and gold.

Position	Rider	Club	Time
1st	Richard O'ROURKE	Flitch Crono	9.13
45th	Graham MASTERS	Eagle R.C.	11.28
51st	John SKINNER	Eagle R.C.	11.58
62nd	Leanne TANNER	Eagle R.C.	13.35
67th	Stephen McARDLE	Eagle R.C.	16.42
69th	William MASTERS	Eagle R.C.	19.43

John has ridden in a few 10 mile time trials and thought of his ride " Rode as hard as I could for a lousy 11.58 and 51st place. Felt faster than that".

This was Leanne's first taste of racing and to only be just over a minute down on John just shows that the focusing techniques Phil uses really do pay off.

Steve McArdle we haven't seen on a bike for quite a few years, but let hope that this gives him the springboard to kick on and get back into the sport.

Finally well done William - two events over the course of the bank holiday weekend is a fine performance.  Always nice to see a father and son competing in the same event.

ECCA Festival - 2 up 25 mile time trial

Day three of the festival started with the 2 up 25 mile time trial, and representing the Eagle we had Chris Baldwin and James Sale, followed by Adam Dawson and Dan Todman.

Position	Rider	Club	Time
1st	Douglas BRADSHAW / Digby SYMONS	Cambridge C.C.	54.31
5th	Christopher BALDWIN / James SALE	Eagle R.C.	58.16
12th	Dan TODMAN / Adam DAWSON	Eagle R.C.	1:03.30

Adam found the event not to his liking " Dan dragged my sorry **** to a 1.03.30 after I found the last incline more like Ventoux than the mound that it is. All reenforcing the idea that I really hate TTing".

James had an equally hard time trying to keep up with Chris " What can I say, he is a BEAST. I was so wrecked all the way round, I didn’t see any of the course, all I could do was concentrate on keep his wheel. We did the first 10 miles in about 23:20, which is faster than I have ever been before then ended up setting a 58:16, about 5 minutes faster than I have ever been before. All in all, a painful, yet very enjoyable experience".

ECCA Festival - 25 mile time trial

The Sunday afternoon saw the 25 mile time trial for solos and tandems. 

First off were the tandems and we had Mark Ambrose stoking club president Alan McArdle.  Mark reports "The tandem was ok but the sylphlike Alan could have done with putting on a few pounds.  The photograph was taken at the high point of our ride....we had just returned past the start and was negotiating the mini roundabout...everything was in our favour in terms of traffic so we managed to keep the pressure on and utilised the other side of the road to smooth out the bend...poetry in motion".

They finished with a time of 1:06:39.  The winners were Geoff FROST & John ISZATT of the API with a time of 57:14.

Our solo riders managed to go a little quicker finihing with the following times

Position	Rider	Club	Time
1st	Douglas BRADSHAW	Cambridge C.C.	54.08
8th	Christopher BALDWIN	Eagle R.C.	57.03
25th	Damien FOY	Eagle R.C.	1:00.33
75th	Antonio PAOLINO	Eagle R.C.	1:17.39

ECCA Festival - Map Reading

Map reading contests involve answering questions to do with buildings and locations generally around a certain locality, in this case High Easter.  Of course there is no way you would know any of the answers unless you were stood outside the building in question, so the whole event requires intelligence to work out where you need to be, fitness and speed to get there quickly, and keen eyes to spot the answers to the clues.

We had Peter Smith and Howard Grace representing the Eagle, who both put in a creditable performance for 12th place.

ECCA Festival - Senior Road Race

The Eagle had two rider in the Senior road race, Phil Hersey and Ben Preston. Both had ridden the day before and had to overcome sore legs.

Ben tells us that " The E123 RR started extremely fast as the elites showed everyone their legs. I looked at the average speed after 5 minutes, it was 28.6 mph! Luckily the race slowed down to tortoise like 25 mph avg for the 82 miler. By the end of it my legs were very tired, and I didn't have the energy to contest what was left of the points in the sprint. I rolled in at 41st place".

Phil suffered a puncture with two laps to go and decided to save himself for the following day's time trials.

ECCA Festival - 3 4 J road race

Sunday began with the 34J road race at High Easter. The Eagle had four riders in this race, Adam Dawson, James Sale, Dave Farrow and Simon Hewins.

Once again Adam, our reporter in the peloton take up the action "It was rather frustrating. I was hoping that the might and power of Hewins or Farrow would be able to come through and break the raw power of the peleton. Dave came up and had a chat with me as I was monitoring James and breakaway potentials. Dave decided that this was not his race and he was content with getting round... as for Simon, well you will have to ask him as I didn't even see him! The real excitement was the learning in James. We worked well focusing on certain key players from East London Velo. James was nearly away with 'Rob?'(Rob Windsor of the ELV, 2nd cat to the Eagle?) a few times yet paid for a brief thought of should he or shouldn't he. Suddenly he was off but never quite made it the 3 bike lengths on to the wheel of the key protagonist. James and, eventually, Rob were brought back by some stupid attacking from within the Velo squad.

Come the final, infamous, left turn off the main cuircut to the finish, the peleton was tense and anxious to get to the line and have the race over with. I had marked out the API team and the fresher James was following the wheel of the Velo sprinter. Coming into the final 400 metres James pulled up beside the Velo rider and, as I am told, 'touched' handlebars. This 'touch' resulted in the Velo rider going down (his lack of bike handling and being next to the dirt) and taking over half the pack with him! That said all the Eagle few over the line - upright! Unfortunately for James it was a case of being a little too close to the action as one of the bikes that went down caught and buckled his back wheel redering him useless in the final 300metres. Suddenly it was down to me and my little legs we shot from the chasing down of breakaways and blocking moves. I took off in hope of victory and realised that finishing was more realistic objective. The pins had blown a gasket along the way and little was left in the tank. 16th was all I was good for.

Lots of learning and valuable knowledge for the Eagle team prior to the Eagle road race. I am excited about that one".

James looked back philosophically, "The RR was okay, I tried many times to get away, and it just didn’t happen for me. It was going to come down to a sprint and Adam had advised me on what to do, it was just a case of implementing it! Then the crash (which was not my fault!) Chris Baldwin has spoken with Darren from ELV since, and he puts no blame on me. I am disappointed because I was in a very good position and now looking at the results, I possibly could have had a top 5".