Pink Ladies Training Weekend

It was with some trepidation that the Pearson girls descended on the Pearson shop in Sheen last Saturday morning for a weekend’s training with former pro-cyclist and professional cycling coach Tanja Slater. The day started well by drawing the curtains and seeing a beautiful sunny day. Even the leaves were still. The second high point came soon with the news that, in-keeping with winter training, the weekend’s pace should be kept easy.

However, it’s surprising how tiring an easy pace can become when drills, hill training, speed and cadence work is introduced - and I doubt many of us had clocked up 90 km in Richmond Park before! Being such a male dominated sport it felt good to be cycling as an all-girl team, almost all in club kit; and we appeared to attract several intrigued looks from around the Park.

After a well deserved group dinner on Saturday night, we headed into the Surrey hills on the Sunday to practice some different techniques on the ascent and descent. Although finding them wasn’t quite as easy as usual with the thick Wuthering Heights-esque fog that had descended over London and its outskirts.

I think everyone will agree that thanks to Tanja‘s enthusiasm and expertise, the weekend was really useful and certainly very encouraging for all those with racing ambitions next year. It was flattering to hear that she thinks we cycle well together and she seemed impressed by our performance.

Finally, in addition to it being a good opportunity to get to know each other better, the weekend has generated a lot of enthusiasm for Tanja to run a girls training camp. There are some exciting plans afoot for this to take place in Spain next February, so don’t hesitate in signing up.

Pearson Pink Results

Hog Hill: Thursday 2nd June

Coralie, Nicole and Vikki enjoyed two races on this sunny Thursday evening.
Race 1: Make the start line-we failed to charm the women at the gate at Liverpool St. station.....we were allowed on the 6.37 train to Goodmayes, arrived at about 6.55, mad dash to the cycle circuit, signed on with minutes to spare, phew......

Race 2: the race, I think that we were so relieved to be there that we just missed the crucial break of 7 riders very early on in the race. (The 7 away included people that we had already beaten this season.....).

Anyway we battled on in our group of 5, worked quite hard etc etc. The last climb up the hill saw the three of us leave our companions behind and Nicole took the sprint for 8th place ahead of Coralie and Vikki. There were 16 women in the race and we gained crucial points for the London Womens' League team standings. (We are a solid 2nd). Good job done, can do even better!

SERR Women: Saturday 21st May,

Nikki and Vikki travelled down to Loxwood for this sunny 42mile road race.

About 30 women signed on, the main bunch of about 16 riders stayed together until the sprint finish (uphill). Vikki used her previous cycling experience (mid nineties) to position herself reasonably well and managed 5th place overall. Nikki had a few companions just off the main bunch and, as always, outsprinted them to earn crucial points in the London Womens' league.

Hillingdon: Wednesday 18th May

It was raining but Nikki, Kyla, Sarah Y and Vikki decided to race anyway. (Accompanied by Statue!). Only 8 women for this race, it stayed together for most of the race. Kyla worked hard on the front near the end and it ended up in a sprint. We managed 3rd, 6th, 7th and 8th. Not a league race this time, but all useful experience and lots of fun.

Pearson 150 sportive

No doubt that with only a few days to the Pearson 150 sportive, you'll be tapering your training, loading up on carbs, polishing your frame and doing that last minute fettling to your bike.

What better way to mark the shop sportive than by a mass club roll out from the Royal Marsden Hospital? So don your finest club kit and join the hoard of PCC riders to roll out at 8am (registration opens at 7am), meeting in the grounds just beforehand.

Not signed up yet? It's not too late...
https://www.sientries.co.uk/event.php?event_id=438

Move over Cancellara - Pearson CC hit the Tour of Flanders!!

Steve Wood and Graham Berridge took part in the classic Tour of Flanders on 2nd April. With around 20,000 riders taking part the Flanders sportive is one of the biggest in the world and, as with the Pro race the following day, is a major cultural event for the Flandrians. This years’ event took place under clear blue skies and a heady temperature of around 23C at mid-day. The route is a mixture of road, cycle paths and cobbles, the latter being the big appeal to most cyclists as the famous Bergs and Murs of the area feature in the last 100km of the route. With so many cyclists it’s not always possible to ride up the early cobbled climbs of the Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg as all it takes is a couple of cyclists to stop on the hill and there is a domino effect all the way back down. Once the numbers thin out though every hill then becomes a challenge to climb as hard and fast as possible, maybe even pretend you are a Cancellara or a Boonen. And as we were in Belgium there was ample opportunity to pass someone who at least looked like Boonen as scores of riders donned their Quick Step replica kits and team bikes. The biggest cheer of the day went to an Italian Pozzato look-alike who amazingly rode up a jam packed Kruisberg shouting ‘achtung’ (??) and even more amazingly got people to move out of his way. As one photo shows we ‘did it’, whilst the 2nd photo shows the number of Leffe’s quaffed in the first hour after the race. Maybe next year we could have a Pearson CC day outing to ride Flanders...

Weekend racing round up - 9/10 April 2011

This weekend saw the first round of the London Women’s League. On quite possibly one of the hottest days of the year so far, four Pearson Ladies lined up at the start, kitted out in Pink, ready for the season.

The field was strong from the start with riders splitting into four main groups from the start – hardly a surprise given the field had riders from Cats E/1/2/3/4. Nicole Oh, Vikki Filsell and I (Charmaine Brown) were in the third group with 6 other riders, battling it out on the various hills and technical corners of the course, trying out our team tactics!

With one lap to go, Nicole showed true grit by picking up the pace and sprinting towards the finish, along with a few other women from various clubs. Meanwhile, Vikki and I had our own sprint to the finish, Vikki winning by a whisker! Nikki Engelbach, in the fourth group, made her debut for Pearson in the Women’s London League and held her own in the group, sprinting to the finish to win her group.
The results for the London League were as follows:
Nicole Oh: 14th
Vikki Filsell: 15th
Charmaine Brown: 16th
Nikki Engelback: 18th
Overall, a great day was had by all – a chance to blow away those winter cobwebs and get racing in the sunshine!
Well done girls!!
Results and photos can be found online at:
http://www.londoncyclesport.com

Pearson currently sit 2nd in the London Women's Cycling League (though we might need all you Pearson girls to come out and race if we are to claw back the gap to Look Mum No Hands)!
http://www.londonwomenscycleracing.com/p/rankings.html

Meanwhile, out on the A31 in Bentley, some of the boys were racing the Charlotteville CC open 10 mile TT. Despite the glorious sunshine, there was a cruel headwind after the halfway point turn that made the homeward stretch a painful slog!

Warren Higgins and David Wong Min raced the 2-up, posting a time of 23:24 coming 4th (of 8) in the 2-up category. As glutton for punishment, Warren then went out again to race a second 2-up with Redmon CC rider Doug Conroy. In the solo category, "Statue" Matt Walters rode a swift 24:15 to place a creditable 31st in what was a strong field racing.

Fancy racing for Pearson CC? Drop a message on the club forum and we'll get you out on the race circuit!

Dates for your social calendars

Girls Social Tue 5th April
As a prelude to the start of the London Women's League (9th April), we are going to have a bit of a social gathering in the week before. The plan is to do a bit of training beforehand (a modified Chertsey loop cutting it short at the Walton roundabout, leaving Sheen Memorial at 7.15), then go to THE PLOUGH pub in Sheen. For those who just want to come for beer (also encouraged), we should be there by about 8.30. Even if you don't plan on racing this year, feel free to come along.

Pearson CC Spring Social Sun 10th April
Now that's the sun's out, what better way to spend a Sunday than to come out on a ride followed by a pub lunch. The plan is for a ride (probably out Windsor way) followed by lunch at the Boater's Inn pub in Kingston at noon. Usual meeting point of 8:30am Cheam Village Crossroads with a second pick up point in Kingston (time TBC - please check back to this post nearer the time). Both members and non-members welcome or if you fancy a lazier Sunday, just come to the pub for noon!!

Pearson CC Hillingdon skills session

Pearson CC had a fantastic afternoon at the west London cycling facility at Hillingdon on 6 March.

Attended by 20 riders including 3 non-members the session started with warm up laps followed by a rigourous drilling of close proximity riding, dished out by Coach Bradshaw, which lasted for a whole hour. Riders had to even lean on each other while negotiating a slalom course. This was followed by a one lap time trial - we are still waiting for the times - and then into the clubhouse for a very civilised afternoon tea. The day ended by a most excellent handicapped race where each rider worked in one of three groups until the race came together towards the end, finished by an exciting sprint for the line.
The session was regarded by everyone as valuable and fun, Pearson CC will most certainly be running another one later this year.

Weekend racing round-up 19/20 March 2011

Pearson CC racer Chris Rees' bagged some more points this season, coming 5th in the 4th cat Beyond Spring crits at Hillingdon. Chris then topped it off with a victory at Thruxton on Sunday in the 4th cat race to earn his 3rd cat licence in style (photo and race reports to follow).

Meanwhile out on the dual carriageway, Warren Higgins raced the SCCU 25 mile TT, taking the prize for the fastest non-aero time (standard road bike and helmet) coming home in 1hr 4mins 2 secs, taking home a bottle of wine in the process!

Well done both!

Pearson CC host London Women's Cycle Racing Meet & Greet

Pearson CC hosted this week's London Women's Cycle Racing Meet & Greet ride in Richmond Park on Sunday. Thank you to our Committee members and veteran racers Andrew Middleton and Graham Berridge who took the session. The girls had a enjoyable morning practicing group riding, thru and off, climbing, descending and cornering, all washed down with a coffee at the cafe afterwards.

Pearson riders take on the Surrey Rumble sportive

Club Riders Graham Berridge and Peter Coleman completed the Surrey Rumble on March 6th in a steady time of 4hrs 27m (excluding stops). This was Peter’s first real sportive and the target was for him to get inside 5hrs actual riding time so he was pretty pleased with the outcome. All in all it was a good day, no real wind and a bit of warmth creeping out at lunch time which made the last feed zone at Manor Farm a little hot spot to sit in the sun and have a cuppa. Peter was also riding as a research subject for Graham’s PhD and so although officially they both clocked 5h 07m, the two feed zone stops added to the overall time as they were used to interview Peter for the research.

Don't forget - Pearson 150 Sportive - 22 May!

Pearson CC out in force at Goodwood - 13 March 2011

Women's rep, Nicole Oh reports:

The Pearson girls kicked off their racing season at Goodwood on Sunday, with 4 pink starters (Vikki, Nikki, Charmaine and me!) in a field of 21. Initial pace was pretty slow, with no one wanting to ride up the front, until a couple of attacks split the group. Vikki, Charmaine and I made the front split of 12, with Nikki just behind in the second group. Vikki and I had discussed tactics on the car journey down - 1) to chase down any attack and 2) to attack ourselves with 5 or so laps to go. Plan 1 worked well, with one brave girl from AW cycles making a couple of attempts to get off the front, but was caught quite quickly each time. Plan 2 kind of worked - I managed to make a break with 4 laps to go (with said AW cycles girl in tow) only to run out of legs pretty much as soon as we were clear. More chain-gang training for me. Needless to say, the group of 12 was back together with 2 laps to go for a bunch sprint, where we failed miserably with team tactics and/or organisation, and all made our own sprints to the finish line. We look forward to some guidance and training sessions from our expert boy racers!

The results... Nicole 7th, Vikki 9th, Charmaine 10th and Nikki 13th, in her first ever race! Most importantly, she also had a great time, and will definitely be back for more. And thank you to Char for the excellent builders tea cake to re-fuel after the race!

Chris Rees and Dave Keaton also competed in the 4th Cat race finishing 11th and 23rd respectively. I know nothing of the internal unfoldings of the race, except the part where they lapped us, then were promptly hunted down by the lead girls group for riding too slow!