Club run 24/1/09

For those that rode today, nice ride. Unfortunately we were forced to use a main road or two due to early ice !! As we were passing through Tenbury on the return journey out came the sun Great for my ride back home from the shop, there was actually some warmth in those rays As always a good turn out, goodness knows what we will do if everyone turns up one Saturday, it will be a large group !

Dave, grafixman, sorry to hear you’ve had the lurgy for so long. I’m sure the good form you had before Christmas will be back soon Also nice to see a young ride out with us today, Matt, hope he keeps at it and joins us at a few Sportives and I think if you fancy an odd race or three, you will certainly enjoy that too.

From what Phil was saying, the next ‘club run’ will clash with the Ludlow cc reliability ride 8/2/09 so that club run will be cancelled and most will ride the Ludlow event which follows a fantastic route   He’ll mention it, I’m sure, if I don’t, our own Phil Weaver planned that route

Hopefully see most of you there

Spring/Summer Kit Order – asap!

Hi all – given that delivery times have been very lengthy (mainly due to Xmas in fairness) on the last kit order, we are placing one next week for spring/summer kit.  We are being promised much shorter delivery timescales this time (fingers crossed) of 5-6 weeks, but still want to get the order in asap to be ready for longer days/warmer weather and the season start.  The size chart is here if you are ordering for the first time – the design is on the Membership page and is unchanged – note, if you are a member of the Epic-Viner Race Team the short sleeved jersey will be as on the Epic-Viner RT page, all other garmets are as for Epic RC .  The items we have to choose from this time are (all prices are at cost and are very slightly higher than last time thanks to the Euro…):

Early Sportives

A few Sportives have opened entries that members may fancy !

26th April 2009 White Horse Challenge, Nr Swindon. Fantastic event, not too hilly, well signed, great scenary and mostly on quiet lanes. Highly recommended. Entries open and with only 600 places normally sells out quickly.

24th May 2009 Gran Fondo Cymru, Bala. Another fantastic event. A big challenge with lots of climbing, mainly long draggy climbs but a few steep ones thrown in ! Entries open but didn’t sell out last year so keep an eye on entry list.

14th June 2009 Dragon ride, Bridgend, S Wales. A chance to ride with 3000 like-minded cyclists on the long sapping climbs of the south Wales valleys. Entries open.

Time to start the training My brother and I will be at all 3, so anyone else fancy joining us ?

Tour of Flanders Online Entry

For those of you who are interested, you can enter online here:
http://www.sport.be/cyclingtour/rondevanvlaanderen/2009/eng/

Really quick and easy and you can pay with a Visa card. You can also look at some pics and a profile of the route if you’re still undecided.

By entering online, you get your race number, route card and event handbook sent to you in the post a couple of weeks in advance, so there’s no faffing on the day.

You can still turn up and sign on, but it could mean a bit of a queue (15,000+ cyclists!).

I’ve entered the 140km route – anyone else fancy some cobble action..?

Epic elders gather round

Phil, LVRC race calendar out

Ones that stand out are

1) 29/3/09 Pinvin RR 

2) 2/3/4 May Tour of Abberleys 

3) 9/5/09 Wyre Forest RR @ Broadheath

4) 30/5/09 VC Sevale RR @ Malvern

Bring it on

They’re starting to talk about us !!

Well what a turn around in the weather. I finished at 0420hrs, yes early hours in the morning and although the temperature was improving there was still fresh frost on the road as I arrived home. Got up at 0800hrs frost gone, felt comparatively warm and prepared for the VC Sevale reliability ride, at least I think I did, there was a possibility I was dreaming ! Anyway fast forward to the ride and we set off with the slower group, about 30 in number for the 52mile loop of Bredon Hill ! Brisk pace and very windy made visits to the front tough, however by the finish and a few digs from Graham and myself ( few more from Gra ) The undulating 20 mile run in saw some of the fast group caught and spat out and at the finish the lead group had been whittled down to 5 !!!! Over – hearing other riders in the HQ, was the chatter of “The Epic Boys were driving it on”

Now then, any of you gents put in an appearance next week 18/1/09 Worcester – Tenbury – Worcester

Evesham Road race 15th March

A great opportunity to get together for a team building session across all age groups – reasonably flat, not too long, and likely to end in a gallop. It sounds like we may a few riders up for this one – either going for a result or as an early season training race to get those legs stretched out
Open to Cat 2/3/4 and 70km long. Info is here.
If you are planning to enter then please get your BC membership/race licence asap, as they can get a bit back-logged early in the year. Both Epic Cycles RC and Epic Cycles-Viner RT have neen affiliated for 2009, but BC seem to be a little behind with getting clubs (re)listed on their website as at 2nd January…they have been nagged!