Wessex CX League, round 4, Reading
The Bill Higson Memorial Race, also round 4 of the Wessex Season was hosted at a staple of the Wessex calendar, Prospect Park. The traditional CX conditions were on show, making an already tough course, very technical and physically demanding. The slippery mud through tight corners, and steep banks made for exciting racing throughout the day.
The U10 Boys showcased impressive technique and speed. The competition was fierce, with Freddie Trosh in second place. In the Under 12 girls race, Matilda Wilks and Eve Carline 4th and 5th. The Under 14s displayed incredible endurance and skill, Tom Wilks crossing the finish line second.
In the Under 16s Open, a very close and competitive race was on the cards, with Tom Allen and Niclas Olley blasting the race apart on lap 1. In the final whittling down of the front group Tom was in the running for the win, only a bizarre mechanical with a crank arm coming loose denying him a chance. Tom and Niclas eventually coming 3rd and 4th. In the girls race, Izzy Hall finished a strong second.
The Junior Open category delivered an electrifying race, George Connell impressing again with 7th. In the Vet 40-49 category, the competition was fierce among the men, with Sotonia riders making up 5 of the top 10 places. Andrew Gardiner in second, Tom Budden 6th, followed by Phil Wilks, Pete Boustred and Phil Banks. In the female v40 race, Gemma Wilks scored a brilliant second place. Emma Harrison finishing 5th in the junior women's race.
The Vet 50-59 riders put on a spectacular display of talent and determination. Jason Harrison top club finisher in a quality field of nearly 90 riders, in 19th. In the senior men, Lewis Revill was Mr Consistent with another fine 13th place.
Overall, very impressive racing by all, on a classic course, thank you to all involved. See you all at round 5 in Southampton hosted by Sotonia next Weekend!
Photos: Pitchside Paul
Wessex CX League, round 3, Foxhill
Andy Smith Events hosted round 3 of the 23/24 Wessex season. A powerful, yet technically challenging course, provided fast and physical racing. Technical features, such as Steps and Off Camber gave the riders tricky conditions to race in, and many riders fell victim to the slippery grass.
The under 10s saw Freddie Trosh ride a terrific race, leading from the off and only just being beaten in the sprint with James Sutton rouding out the top five. In the under 12 female race, Matilda Wilks was third, Eve Carline 5th.
Moving into the first race on the full course, the under16 category was always going to be a thriller. A punchy, slippery course provided difficult racing, and Niclas Olley and Monty Flavell led the charge for Sotonia, a dropped chain on the last lap denying Monty a top five with Niclas coming 5th.
In the under 14 Open race, Thomas Wilks was again an impressive second place, Marit Davidse fifth place in the girls race.
The course was now representing a proper CX day out, and it was the vet 40-49, and juniors turn to take on the brutal course. Carnage from the start, due to the tight corners and fast straights, meant the bunch was strung out from the word go. Andy Gardiner placing 4th v40 and George Connell giving the v40s plenty to think about, slugging it out with team mates Pete Boustred, Phil Wilks and Tom Budden, to finish 7th junior.
In the 40-49 female, ,there was a third place for Gemma Wilks.
The final race of the day, the Senior Open Category. We got some of the most exciting racing of the day, with Lewis Revell finishing things off in 13th.
A massive thanks to Andy Smith Events, for providing us with a mega course, and everyone involved in putting the event on! See you all next weekend, in Prospect Park, Reading, for round 4.
Thanks for the photos: @pitchsidephoto
Wessex CX League, round 2, Romsey
A fab day of cyclocross racing this weekend for Fareham Wheelers round 2 of the Southdowns Social Wessexcxleague. Tom Allen made it to the top step in only his 2nd u16 race, closely followed by Niclas Olley. Tom Wilks finished 2nd in the u14s after challenging for the win. Andy Gardiner and Tom Budden 2nd and 5th in the v40 men. Izzy Hall 2nd u16 girl, Lucy Phillips and Emma Harrison 2nd and 4th in the Junior women. Gemma Wilks 5th v40 woman.
Thanks for the photos: @pitchsidephoto and Paceline Media
Wessex CX League, round 1, Clanfield
The Preamble! Solent Pirates hosted the first race of the 2023/2024 Wessex season, using one of the most challenging courses on the calendar, Clanfield. Bringing a mix of fast corners, and a few technical features, the course was the perfect mix for the opening race of the season. There were some great performances despite the heat by Sotonia riders.
Thanks @dfaulkner_ and @pitchsidephoto for the pics
September segment of the month change
Segment of the month September plan C - Changed again!
We seem fated with this month’s segment. Despite me going out for a scout ride at the weekend, it seems that since then, the road outside Hamptworth Golf Club has been selected for “improvement” through top dressing. This has turned it into a gravel extravaganza inappropriate for our segment competition until it’s all settled down again.
Rather than find a whole new segment – again – we’ll just swap the October segment with the September one.
So, the segment for this month is now Woodgreen Hill. This is one of my favourite slopes in the New Forest. 1 km of steady climb, on a wide road. We'll ride the Hamptworth segment in October.
Once again, all jokers that were previously played for the September segment at Hamptworth are now void. If you still want to play your joker on the new Woodgreen Hill segment, then please let us know by a revised date, which is: 1800 on Wednesday 13 September.
https://www.strava.com/segments/6833885
Tim
August Segment Of The Month results
Well, it’s all hotting up in the competition, even if the weather is starting to cool down again. 33 Sotonians tested their late summer legs against Furzedown Hill.
In the women’s competition, Sophie Sellars made it two wins in a row, but this time with a narrow gap over Izzy Hall. Jen Dawson took the third place on the podium. Sophie and Jen have the top two places in the whole-season competition, with just two rounds to go. But they are being chased hard by Emma Harrison and Debbie Hallett, neither of whom have played their joker yet.
In the U16 female competition, Emma Harrison and Izzy Hall continue their tussles, reversing last month’s finishing order. Izzy took the top step this month, but lies in second overall. This one may be decided by consistency: can they both manage to complete the final two rounds?
In the men’s competition, Will Weynberg made only his second entry into the competition, but also recorded his second win. 5 seconds off the KoM time, Will beat Andy Gardiner into second place by 2 seconds. Joey Wynne achieved his best finish of the competition, to take third place. Andy now has a commanding competition lead, but there’s strong competition for second and third place. Paul Macken and Aaron Barry are the current occupants, but they’re vulnerable to a joker played by any of Jeremy Hubbard, George Connell and a bunch of others.
It's a similar story in the men’s U16 competition. Niclas Olley took revenge over George Connell, taking first place this month. He’s breathing hard down George’s neck in the overall; once again, a joker could make all the difference.
Full results are viewable here.
September's segment
This month, the segment is a little longer: a 4 km segment ra3 that will bring back some happy memories for those of us who raced the Downton two day race. Note that this has been changed from the previous segment so those of you who had planned to play your joker this month will now have to re-consider. To allow time for this, we’ve extended the deadline; if you let us know by Friday 8 September 1800 on info@sotonia.co.uk then we’ll count your joker for September. If you have already played your joker, please let us know if you would still like to use it.
Tim
Sotonia duo conquer the mighty Paris-Brest-Paris
Huge congratulations to Sotonia riders, Chris Moody and Rob Tomlinson on completing the big daddy Audax of them all, Paris-Brest-Paris - that’s 1200km in one go in this extraordinary event. The PBP is a self-supported ride from, er, Paris to Brest and back to Paris again. Not just anyone can enter: you have to have proved yourself as a super-Audaxer, which of course both Rob and Chris are.
With a time limit of 80 hours to complete the route officially, both riders made it, Chris finishing with 71 hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds elapsed. Check out the photo from Chris - he apologises for the lack of quality, "My hands don't really work at the moment!"
Rob also made the time cut with 50 minutes to spare despite the trauma of a broken wheel and a frantic search for a bike shop after mechanics attempted to fix it. Eventually finding a shop, many miles off the course, Rob was able to find help and was stunned by their genorosity. as Rob says:
“I couldn’t believe it when the mechanic having asked earlier about where I’d come off the course then said someone was going to take me back there, this was a good 30 minute drive, I was so moved and emotional at this point and it was that one moment of kindness that drove me to finish, and in time limit!"
There were plenty of bitten nails for dot watchers following Rob’s progress but after a massive final effort, he came over the finish line with 50 minutes to spare after a last ditch dash in a time of 79:10:55.
Chapeau fellas!
P164 TT results - 22 August 2023
26 riders with an age spread of 13-76 years took part in our final club time trial in August on the p164 course near Beaulieu.
22 Sotonians rode, featuring 8 youth riders which was great to see. Fastest time was posted by Jeremy Hubbard with 22:57 even after an 11 hour drive from Inverness to be there! Impressive ride too from Niclas Olley of 24:27 as fastest youth.
Many thanks to organiser Phil Connell, our timekeepers and marshals.
| Pos | Name | Club | Time | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremy Hubbard | Sotonia | 22.57 | TT |
| 2 | Niclas Olley | Sotonia | 24.27 | Road |
| 3 | Jon Dudley | Sotonia | 24.31 | TT |
| 4 | Marius Kwint | VC Venta | 24.52 | TT |
| 5 | Joey Wynne | Sotonia | 25.34 | Road |
| 6 | Jon Legg | Sotonia | 25.38 | TT |
| 7 | Jason Harrison | Sotonia | 26.07 | Road |
| 8 | Stan Phillips | Sotonia | 26.20 | Road |
| 9 | Mitchell Todd | 26.47 | Road | |
| 10 | George Connell | Sotonia | 27.01 | Road |
| 11 | Samuel Ridgment | Sotonia | 27.07 | TT |
| 12 | Ian MacDonald | VS Vecchi | 28.31 | TT |
| 13 | Martin Nobbs | Sotonia | 28.39 | TT |
| 14 | Mick Anglim | NFCC | 28.57 | TT |
| 15 | Lucy Phillips | Sotonia | 29.35 | Road |
| 16 | Debbie Hallett | Sotonia | 29.39 | TT |
| 17 | James Blankley | Sotonia | 30.04 | Road |
| 18 | Mark Riley | Sotonia | 30.04 | Road |
| 19 | Chris Summers | Sotonia | 30.15 | TT |
| 20 | Emma Harrison | Sotonia | 30.24 | Road |
| 21 | Justin Ridgment | Sotonia | 31.00 | Road |
| 22 | Steve Phillips | Sotonia | 31.34 | Road |
| 23 | Si Blankley | Sotonia | 32.00 | Road |
| 24 | Nigel Aiken | Sotonia | 32.35 | Road |
| 25 | Corbin Gregson | VC Venta | 35.17 | Road |
| 26 | Laura Phillips | Sotonia | 35.17 | Road |
Zwift Racing League is back!
It’s raining outside, which is an unwelcome reminder of things to come. But fear not, Zwift Racing League (ZRL) is back, to keep you motivated across the winter on your turbo.
Sotonia has a strong record in the ZRL, entering women’s, mixed and men’s teams across all categories, along with our men’s Sotonia Buzz team winning their division last time out. But we welcome all riders, regardless of standard or experience. We are particularly looking for men to race in category A and women to race in category C (you can read more about the categories in our Guide to ZRL). We also welcome men to join our B team (which we may be able to split into two teams if we have enough riders). And if we have riders from other categories who are interested, we’ll see if we can form a new team.
The first round will be a six week round, each Tuesday evening, starting September 12th. Races are usually about 45 - 60 minutes long; their start time depends on the team you are in, but we usually enter teams to start between 18:30 and 19:30. There will be a second 6-week round starting November 14th, and a third starting January 16th, before the finals in March/April. But you don’t have to commit to the whole series, and you wouldn’t have to race every week.
Get yourself signed up!
You can find out more in our Guide to ZRL. If you are interested in riding, send us an email on info@sotonia.co.uk and we’ll get in touch. First race is on September 12th, so we need to have this all sorted in the next three weeks.
Ride on!
July Segment Of The Month results
July’s segment took Sotonians out to a brutally steep (and mercifully short) climb up Lynch Lane in West Meon. Sophie Sellars continued her dominance in the women’s competition, and had a good gap to Jen Dawson and Emma Harrison in 2nd equal. Sophie leads the overall competition but is being chased hard by Jen Dawson and Debbie Hallett; a strategic use of their joker could change the overall result.
In the women’s U16 competition, Issy Hall was beaten into second place for the first time this season, with Emma Harrison claiming the top step. Their order is reversed for the overall competition, however.
Andy Gardiner chose a good month to play his joker; he was only one second off the KoM time, and rightfully claimed the top monthly spot. The youngsters came to the fore on this climb, with Tom Allen, Niclas Olley and George Connell earning 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively. Andy’s position in the overall competition looks pretty unassailable, but there’s strong competition for the other two places on the podium, with Paul Macken and Aaron Barry currently occupying them. But Jeremy Hubbard is lurking dangerously, and has yet to play his joker. Special mention to John Phillips, one of our vets riders, who is high up in the pecking order too.
In the men’s U16 competition, George Connell has a good lead, but is again vulnerable to a yet-to-be-played joker from Niclas Olley in second. They have a large gap to Corbin Gregson in third.
Full results can be seen here.
The August segment is uphill again, but a gentler 3% gradient up Furzedown Hill, just outside King’s Somborne. It’s never too late to join the fun; full instructions are here.
Tim