29th March 2009 – Phoenix riders Alex Christians & Stuart Jones gave London Phoenix a weekend to remember with searing performances at the final San Fairy Anne Circuit Races at Hog Hill on Saturday, and the Ciclos Uno Road Race on Sunday.

On the Saturday Stuart Jones – a true cyclocross legend – swapped knobbly tyres and mud for baby smooth tarmac and skinny tyres at his first ever 4th Cat race. As expected he decimated the field and finished over a minute ahead of his closest rival. Stuart said:

“I won! There were a few small moves and then at about the half way point there was a “preem” on offer [prime or sprint - ed]. I had a bit of a go up the hill but was passed by two others coming up to the line. As we’d opened up a gap I just put my head down, rode past the others and then carried on my own. I was then able to stay away till the finish. Very nice!”

Alex commented:

“It was so obvious Stuart was going to win, so I tried to put a few bets on with some of the San Fairy Ann folk who fancied one of their lot, a super fast TT rider. Anyway, very well done Stuart. You made it look so easy (as ever), and the smile on your face was very amusing.”

Stuart’s win was then followed by a second podium place, with Alex Christians leading from the front and finishing a fast-paced 3rd Cat race in a brilliant third spot. Alex said,

“Weather for the 3rd cat race was OK, other than the wind. Oh, and the hailstones. I had better legs than last week and felt pretty good on the reverse circuit. There were quite a few attacks and the two Primes didn’t help!”

“I stayed near the front for most of the race and after chasing down a few breaks got into the winning break of 5 riders with about 5 laps to go. We worked reasonably well together and I finished with a pretty satisfying 3rd in the sprint for the line.”

Of course Alex is not known for doing things by halves, so on Sunday he headed down to the Ciclos Uno Road Race.

“I spent the morning hurtling around Essex country roads in a pack of 60 riders. Scary at times given the number of riders, the narrow roads with potholes and the gravel. Cold too at 9am!!”

“It was a 50 mile race – 5 laps of a 10 mile circuit – and I worked out that in the run to the finish you had to approach a roundabout near the front of the group, rail around it on the outside to keep the speed up and be in a good position for a sharp 90 degree left hander for the run to the line. This worked well so I went for the prime on lap 3 and got it (kerching! £10), at which point the pace went up. We stayed together until the end, where I employed the same tactic and managed to get near the front. I bided my time for a bit and then drilled it when a rider behind went for it. I gave it ‘full gas’ and managed to hold on during the uphill drag to the line for second place, which surprised me as there were some big burly sprinters out there and I am more of a climber. I kept expecting someone to blast around me, but they never came. Phew! We averaged 25mph for 50 miles!”

Well done guys for what has been a truly fantastic weekend of road racing, and well done to Robert Moore and Andrew Newman who also did Phoenix proud at Hog Hill and Hillingdon this weekend.

Thanks to londoncyclesport for their great photos, and please check out their great new site.

Guy Elyahou reports on the recent London Phoenix mountainbike ride on the North Downs…

A glorious Saturday summers day greeted 9 hardy bright eyed London Phoenix riders. Dorking Station was the meet and greet for the hardcore group of riders, being: Geraldine (how many layers? too many, no……..umm…. too few) Andy (the man with the orange shoes, watch out Bruce Forsyth) David (where’s my bag?) Shane (when do we get to do a run and a swim?) Nick (it’s really just a small bmx – where’s the half pipe?) Sara (can we do that run again?) Federico (a roadie in disguise, chingar!) Abi (is that that this year range, no way, it can’t be!?) and me, Guy (is that a hill? bugger, wrong gear). Well I wasn’t quite there with the guys, being a through and through roadie I had to hire a bike from “Head For The Hills” bike shop in Dorking and ended up with a bike more flash that the experts (certainly more flash than my squadra) – a shop that I can recommend.

The adrenalin-fuelled day started off on the road (normal) but soon ventured off road on a mix of tracks and trails (not normal) for the next 4 hours – simply outstanding. A glorious days out in the hills. Now being roadie there was an natural urge to avoid each tree root and hit each jump with venom, but I got over it.

The trails were dry and fast, there were some unnatural drops which required the life preservation of a lemming and one particular drop and jump (which I am sure has a super funky name) with I reckon a 45 degree slope, a jump at the bottom of about 3 metres and then errrrrrrrrrr a 45 degree upslope………………we looked, discussed and went to the top of the slope. Now, whilst it was soooooo tempting to do I did not fancy an afternoon in A&E and although some of the others had done that jump before (why?) we pressed on through the green forests, glorious open green fields, flora and fauna to a much deserved lunch.

Lunch was at the standard stop at Peaslake. Now being a roadie I felt traitorous seeing all the club riders on road bikes and me with my fat muddy tyres, again I got over it. Although respect had to be given to the roadie with a prosthetic arm.

It being a social ride we all managed to stuff ourselves silly on sarnies and chocolates and then naturally proceeded straight up an incline that would make superman’s eyes water – alp du south downs, all but one of us ended up heaving our machines up the hill – Nick clearly had far to much redbull and coke for lunch as he just went and went and went.

We hit and screamed round trails such as the swoopy bombholes behind Leith Hill, “Parklife” on the north east side of Holmbury Hill, “Reservoir Dogs”, the “Telegraph” descent east of Peaslake and “Summer Lightning” off Wolvens Lane. A world away from the traffic infested A roads and B roads of the south east.

The day ended up with team Phoenix doing their bit for the British economy, even the Aussies helped out (how sweet). Credit cards were damaged in the mountain bike shop, I reluctantly handed over my Gary Fisher for this strange looking road bike of a machine.

No mechanicals, no-one got lost (due to Abi & co being shepherds of biblical proportions) and no punctures – just smiles! The day’s activities were then re-lived over a pint still in the glorious Saturday sunshine before team Phoenix disbanded for a well earned bath and curry.

Phoenix rider Joss Miller got a great result this weekend at West Drayton MBC’s Black Park XC Race.

“After a long muddy cross season it was great to be racing the Mountain Bike in the sunshine on a dry fast course. The Men’s Open Category kicked-off at 11.45 and it was the usual hectic start along the fire track towards the pine woods. I managed to get to the single track fairly near the front steering clear of any nasty tangles.”

“It was a long race – eight bone jarring laps of a very technical course – but I managed to hold my position all the way to the finish and was well pleased with 10th place after 2 tough hours in the saddle. Roll on Gorrick Round 4!”

Well done Joss!

London Phoenix fielded three riders at Hog Hill this weekend for Round 2 of the SERRL Summer Series, with Alex Christians picking up his first 3rd Cat points of the season:

“A pretty tough one, with a strong headwind up the ‘Berg’. Matthew Harper was pretty active early on, often near the front, and there were a lot of attacks. In the end a few stayed away (4 or 5 I think). Twenty four ascents of the ‘Berg take their toll!”

Once again thanks to Taka Wu for the great photographs, more here

March 2009 – XC MTB ace Matthew Webber joined Robert Moore at Round 1 of the SERRL Summer Series this weekend. The combined 1/2/3/4 event was held at the excellent Fowlmead course in Kent, and was Matthew’s first ever road race. Both riders finished in the points, and Matthew turned quite a few heads by getting in a break in the final two laps and finishing in a stunning 5th place. He said:

“It was a VERY different experience from the head-down, flat-out hell of XC, and I really liked the tension of it – waiting to see what would happen next and trying to make sure you’re in the right place when things do start to kick off.”

“Having said that, I don’t really remember what happened when I did ‘decide’ to break, but I managed to get a fair way ahead with a couple of others with two laps to go and, somehow, managed to maintain it, dropping the other riders in the process.”

“It was a scary sensation approaching that final, very windy section, with the pack breathing down my neck – but it was one that I hope I may experience again!”

Robert, who finished an excellent 7th just yards behind Matthew added:

“The first few laps were fairly leisurely with a few pace changes warming everyone up, then the cat 1 and 2 boys caught up and we all accelerated to the usual 40kph +.”

“About half way through the race there was an 8 man break featuring a mix of 1/2/3 riders. There was one chance to bridge the gap on the windy section when they were 50-100m ahead but I bottled it, and by the final straight they were well clear. Some bravely (or stupidly) tried to bridge the gap a little later when they had 400m + on us, but they just ended up getting dropped. By the end of the race the break was at least half a lap ahead. Now that’s something to aspire to, truly stunning!”

Well done guys!

London Phoenix was well represented at the Gorrick race at Crowthorne Wood on 1st March with excellent results in the Masters and Open men’s races. The course was relatively flat and technical featuring the “corkscrew” section, and there was little opportunity for recovery, so the racing was intense.

Stuart Jones finished 4th in the Masters race despite two painful crashes which cost him a few places. He was closely followed by Matt Webber in 5th, Gary Lingard in 10th and Paul Troughton in 11th place. And new member Joss Miller finished 12th in the Open mens race. In the afternoon, David Steele and Geraldine Treacher raced in the Sport races; unfortunately Geraldine was caught up in a crash at the start so spent the race suffering from her injuries. Despite these setbacks the racing was described as the “most enjoyable one in a long while”.

More photos by Abi here.

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