10's Reports for July and August 2005

Summer has arrived, a glorious day with no wind... until the time for the Tuesday evening TIme Trial to start, in fact we should rename Tuesday to Windsday although I suppose it would sound better if it was replacing a Wednesday evening Time Trial.
I'm waffling 'cos I haven't got any times or piccies to put here. The only time I have is 24:35...mine!
I also know that Andy's choice of lunch was not good, mouldy beans on toast is a recipe for a DNF later in the day on a Time Trial.
Fully recovered now and looking forward to another easy day in the Welsh hills next Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!The ride next week is the Downhill
stage.
Back to tonight, normal slower slog to the Motorway then hammer it back to the Weatsheaf at 34 plus mph, a shade slower to the Rainford roundabout. Grovel back against a head wind and then the final kick in the guts as you head back up the Lane to the finish. A final sprint past the line achieves the staggering speed of 22mph. Ah well, that's why the average is never 34mph (at least not for us non Tour de France mortals)
Many thanks to John Leach who has just enlightened me with the e-mailed results of tonight's Bobby Lloyd cup
To re-cap:-
(1) Dave Massen 23:33, (2) Dave Walker 23:58, (3) John Leach 24:02, (4) Kieran Leach 24:07, (5) Arthur Winstanley 24:21,(6) Keith Williams 24:35, (7) Steve Irwin 25:39, (8) John Hampson 26:03
Please click here for the results table.
Keith Linge has provided us with some great casual shots, please click on image for larger view.

How far.. 10 miles.. phew that'll take me about 24mins

Cool shades, cool hat, Dave's a cool dude on a hot day

Hmm, nice colours John. Hand on hip, knee forward and.. smile please....Thanks George

Dave's been practicing all week, look mum, no hands

Summer is on hold. Windy and relatively cool: the prospect of rain kept a number of riders away. The rain stayed away but the riders still had the swirling wind to battle against.
Not the kindest of nights for a fast times and Kieran was the only rider to improve and his efforts gave him the winning time of 23:41. 20 points gained and battle for the position under Dave Massen is fiercely contested!!!!..........I'm not sure if Dave is entirely happy about this!!!
Anyway, second place is up for grabs.
7 riders from 20:
(1) Kieran Leach, 23:41. (2) Dave Massen 23:47. (3) Dave Walker 24:12. (4) John Leach 24:16. (5) Keith Williams 24:51. (6) Steve Irwin 26:18. (7) Andy Burton 26:24.

A mention here for John Leach: breaking the hour for 25 miles last Sunday with 59:37. Congratulations on achieving one of your cycling ambitions (and with 10 years to spare).
Well done John. I think this deserves a photo, this is from our open 25, click on photo for larger image. Photo by Keith Linge.

What a cracking night, it's not often I can say that during the season. Compared to last week's cool and windy 10, tonight was a perfect evening. I can safely say this was the floater for which everyone has been waiting.
The Phoenix had 11 riders tonight, all anticipating some good times and not a complaint to be heard, (except that the start was about one and a half minutes early!! ).
Checking the times as they came in there was a sharp intake of breath as we saw John Leach's amazing effort to gain a PB with 23:01, a huge reduction from his previous best time. Well done John. This was not the only PB of the night, Dave Walker dug in deep and blasted around gaining a PB of 23:11, nice one Dave. Certainly not last and definitely not least, Arthur Winstanley produced the third PB of the night with 23:37, keep it up Arthur.
If not the best times of the year for the other riders I think there was a big improvement on last week's times.
Order of finish:-

Dave Massen	22:49
John Leach	23:01
Dave Walker	23:11
Kieran Leach	23:34
Arth.Winstanley	23:37
Keith Williams	24:15
Rik Swift	25:10
John Hampson	25:16
Steve Irwin	25:22
Steve Doherty	25:24
Andy Burton	25:41	Kieran, John and legs	Rik Swift exploding from start

  Click on image for larger view
Tonight's Album. Click here to view
Thanks to Keith Linge for taking the photos.

Calm all day until late afternoon. The wind then decided to swirl in from the same strange direction as a few weeks ago, which was sideways from any point around the course. Tonight the times will be generally slower than last week's floater. I have no times yet (11:20pm)other than Keith Williams- 24:47 and Steve Doherty's - 25:54. Other riders were Dave Massen, Rik Swift, Kieran Leach, Steve Irwin, Dave Walker, Andy Burton,Arthur Winstanley and John Hampson.
Sorry, no photos.
The late results from this week's ten courtesy of Dave Massen:-
Dave Massen 23:33
Dave Walker 24:23
Kieran Leach 24:27
Keith Williams 24:47
Arthur Winstanley 24:53
Steve Irwin 25:53
Rik Swift 26:12
Andy Burton 26:25
Sam Hampson 26:50

23:33 was fastest on the night from 29 riders

I think the warm up was more eventful than the race. Dave went hurting past me on the flat bit down the back lane, I put in some effort and blasted past him at about 33mph whilst appearing not to to be too fazed or out of breath. He raised a laugh of surprise.
I was soon gasping for oxygen and still recovering when Dave came alongside and with breath to spare he said the road was very wet just around the next bend. Still waiting for my lungs to recover I thought, "mmm it's not been raining anywhere else". We rolled around the bend and the cause of the wet road was apparent to me, but I'm not sure Dave had seen the huge jet of water that was irrigating the crops. A considerable amount was overshooting and was, or had been landing on the road. Dave went peddling on without a care in the world. The timing was perfect, the torrential downpour from the irrigation hose followed him down the road continually soaking him until the hose returned for another sweep. Yours truly had stopped to watch and was wishing for a video camera and thinking of the £250 from You've been Framed. Ah well, next time maybe. I quickly dashed through on a lighter pass.
The soaking worked wonders for Dave, he improved on last week's time winning with 23:22
I guess for everyone it was into a head wind from the Rainford Island but I'm sure my brakes were rubbing, anyway it was a hard slog back to the chequered flag.
Order of finish:-

Dave Massen	23:22
Kieran Leach	23:50
Arth.Winstanley	23:59
Dave Walker	24:16
Keith Williams	24:32
Steve Doherty	25:47
John Hampson	25:51
		Docker, in passing mode	The effort required

  Click on image for larger view
Tonight's Album. Click here to view
Thanks to Keith Linge for taking the photos.

The sun sets on the final 10 of the Phoenix 2005 series. The night was calm and warm, perhaps the best night of the year although some said the 26th July was faster.
Briefly tonight::- no personal bests, but Kieran, Steve, Sam and Keith rode their fastest times this year. Sam powered his way around tonight with 24:27, about 1min 30secs faster than last week. Dave Massen again produced the best time from all 31 riders with 22:56. We're proud of you Dave, well done.
Nice to see Ricky Coppell have a go for his first ten of the season.
Gorra go, hope you enjoyed this year's reports and photos.
Thanks to Keith Linge for all the photos, some were taken while Keith was still on the mend from a broken collar bone.
Riders tonight:-
Dave Massen 22.56
Kieran Leach 23:21
Arthur Winstanley 23:48
Dave Walker 23:58
John Leach 24:01
Keith Williams 24:05
John Hampson 24:27
Steve Doherty 25:06
Ricky Coppell 27:36
22:56 was fastest on the night from 31riders
CLICK HERE FOR THE VERY LATE PHOTO ALBUM OF THE LAST TEN OF THE SEASON

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To contact:- e-mail keithw@liv.ac.uk