Winter is fast approaching and the cyclocross season is in full swing. We’ve already raced in both ‘hot and dry’ and ‘wet and muddy’ conditions. ‘Cross quickly teaches you to cope with racing in a wide variety of conditions and courses. So why not join us, there are races most weekends from now until February and Phoenix will be represented at all of them. Details can be found on our calendar and at londonxleague.co.uk.

Photo’s – Andy Waterman

So as we swap the freezing cold and driving rain of summer for the freezing cold and driving rain of winter, it seems like a good time to look back on some of the highlights of the LP 2008 road season, and to take a peek at our plans for 2009.

Sportives

London Phoenix had a great year at various Sportives, both in the UK and abroad. We regularly set the pace in these challenging – and always epic – events.

Highlights included:

UK

• Etape Caledonia
• Chiltern 100 (where we came second in the team category)
• Fred Whitton Challenge
• Dragon Ride
• Devil Ride
• Southern Sportive (and most of the Trailbreak series throughout the summer)

Europe

• Tour of Flanders
• Paris – Roubaix
• Huvert Arbes (Tourmalet)
• Time Megeve
• Etape de Tour
• Le Ch’Ti (Lille)

Plans are already being put in place for 2009, so if the thought of getting up before dawn to ride a 170km route at race pace through stunning scenery and over leg breaking climbs with hundreds or thousands of other riders is your cup of tea, just get in touch.

Road racing

An early season highlight was the Imperial Winter Series at Hillingdon, with Martin Peck scoring a fantastic second place. A smattering of other London Phoenix riders also competed in the series throughout the winter, but with a little less success and a touch more incident…

Martin went on to get a WIN and a 3rd Cat licence with a well-timed bunch sprint at the Surrey League’s event at the MOD circuit at Chertsey.

Second Claim member, Julian Bray – riding for Citihub – continued his excellent season with 67 category points in the 2nd Cats, and with a 2nd place in the Older Man’s RR as a stand out result. He was consistently in the points for the majority of his races.

Abigail Armstrong, Liz Rice, Sara Planta and Leah O’Neil competed in a few of the Women’s Team Race national series, gaining valuable experience against classy opposition.

Richard competed in the Sardinian 7 day stage race again (3rd year!), and is signed up for 2009 already!

Hill Climb Champs – 2 entries this year with Alex retaining the LP trophy over the Bec & Catford hill climbs. He placed top 20 overall in both, a great set of rides especially given the opposition which included pro rider Dan Lloyd, who had just ridden the Tour of Britain!

2009 will see London Phoenix fielding 14 Cat 4 riders at the Economic Energy Winter Series (at the new road circuit at Hog Hill from the 6th December). So if you’ve got a bit of speed and want to try out racing, just get in touch.

London Phoenix Easter Classic

Easter saw us put on our first reliability ride, the Easter Classic. 74 riders braved snowstorms and howling gales to ride 110km through ‘hidden’ Essex, taking in the villages of Good Easter and High Easter on the way. Had the visibility been better the riders would have seen idyllic countryside scenes dotted with duck ponds and thatched, pargetted cottages. A memorable day out and thanks to everyone who participated.

The 2009 Easter Classic will be unveiled shortly.

Spring training camps

Mallorca – good training at our traditional training camp for the half-dozen who attended. Some poor weather in the last couple of days made it a quiet end but at least the Madonna tribute act was excellent.

Beer, bikes and burlesque

London Phoenix riders also competed against the cream of London’s couriers, a world junior track champion and some of the city’s top club riders at the fantastic Rollapaluza and Rapha Roller Races. Some London Phoenix riders also took the opportunity to take a break from their world-class training programmes and got completely drunk and probably made idiots of themselves.

The Roc d’Azur is a four-day festival of mountainbiking in the south of France with a choice of races, ranging from short one hour race to a six and a half hour marathon. London Phoenixes Abi Armstrong and David Steele managed to complete three races each in three days. Abi described it as the highlight of her year after the wet summer and David said enigmatically that “the Roc really rocked!” The run across the sandy beach section (pictured below) featured in all the races, and at 5km from the finish was as much a test of fitness and skill as the steep climbs and technical descents earlier in the races. Photos below and YouTube video.