Sheffield University Cycling Club

This year’s Road Cycling Varsity clash was always going to be a close one, due to the number of in form riders on both sides.

Despite heavy driving rain and a chilling wind beneath a dreary grey sky both teams met up at the Uni stronghold; The Arts Tower and rode out together via Chatsworth House for the Hill Climb on Wednesday 31st March 2011. Routinely of Varsity, the day started with some good old-fashioned banter, and Dave ‘The Poly Captain’ Starkey bashing.

There was some confusion between the teams in terms of timings at the start causing a slight delay, but Clara Sinderland kicked things off monumentally by single-handedly winning the Womens title for Uni. Overall, Hallam’s boys were quicker off the mark for the Hill Climb and beat a Uni team without Andrew Cater by 1 minute and 25 seconds at Beeley Moor. Jonathan Shuster particularly impressed for Uni by laying down a winning time of 10:26 whilst next years Hallam captain Phil Wilkinson was another 19 seconds down on ‘The Shusternator’. Poly fresher Jonni Conway showed real potential with a good first-time effort of 11:20 whilst other notable performances included Adam Dunajko (Uni), Dave Starkey (Hallam), Jamie Caldwell (Uni) and Ollie Doy (Hallam) just struggling to beat the 11 minute mark and XC Captain Robin Groves managing to grab Uni’s 5th best rider spot just behind Jerome Jacob’s pleasing 12 minutes 22 seconds. Had Cater’s mechanical misfortune not occurred, the Hill Climb could easily have swung the other way had he not visited Hallam’s sponsor JE James that morning to coincidentally be given the wrong gear cable leaving him bike-less on his birthday. However, in the words of Uni Chairman Henry Marsh “no point in coulda-woulda-shoulda, just got to nail the ITT” and so Uni did.

Nine minutes. That was the bike-busting difference between the men and the boys at this year’s varsity as Uni rinsed Starkey’s lads of their sports technology and physiotherapy degrees by this monumental gap.

Unable to ride, Hallam’s Blair Davies leant his extravagant Cube bike to his Captain for the day complete with full carbon Bontrager wheels, only for Wolverhampton’s ‘hottest talent’ to get a puncture on the way round the Tideswell-Litten 21km course and then have to bare the shame of getting picked up by the Uni team Car. With an initial climb up Miller’s Dale, a daring descent down Monsal Head and a leg-destroying climb up Cressbrook, the course made a great rolling Individual Time Trial but saw a couple of riders taking a wrong turn and not finishing including novice Ruari Hallam and newcomer Tom Fothergill (both Uni). Jammy Jamie Caldwell smashed the field with a mind-boggling in-form time of 38:50 whilst Phil Wilkinson ‘Sword’ beat Uni’s newest hot racing prodigy Shuster by a single second who claimed to be having one-of-those-days and who suffered in the heat of what was a gloriously hot mid 20 degree day.

The much feared-by-Hallam combo of riders Tom Stewart and Andrew Cater put in an excellent varsity performance that along with Shuster meant 3 of Uni’s top 5 riders finished with times under 41 minutes (only Hallam’s best rider managed this), which along with Caldwell’s mesmerising 38:50 and Nyle Howards sub 45 minute effort (as Jerome Jacob followed closely by another 17 seconds) created the strong 9 minute gap that so embarrassed Sheffield Hallam University on Wednesday 6th March 2011 and proved the (real) University of Sheffield’s depth of talent and racing prowess. It really was a great day and John Albaya, Ed Harris, Luke Chen, Tom Stocker and Robin Groves all deserve credit for their fine performances and blistering levels of effort that insured their times respectfully ranged from 46-49 minutes. It was a fantastic turn out for Uni and the ride back was just as much fun as both parties rode back into Sheffield together where everybody humoured Starkey’s fresh legs up Grindleford and went on to Bolehills BMX track for a cracking Barbie and a bit more banter. Due to the DH and BMX victories for Uni (both of which were completely dominated), the University of Sheffield’s RC ITT victory secured the full Varsity point for 2011.

That night saw a cracking bar crawl to ROAR take place which memorably featured Jerome Jacob’s Karaoke rendition of Where Is The Love? in The Cavendish to complete a perfect day for all.

Road Cycling Varsity 2011 was exemplary and has truly set the bar for future years in both levels of enjoyment and fun and a strong dedication demonstrated by both teams to see their Uni/Poly succeed.

By Jerome Jacob

Since I’ve been at uni there has always been a good association between the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam cycling clubs. We’ll often meet a few of them out riding at Wharncliffe and there is the usual exchange of pleasantries. There is some rivalry as you’d expect but it is all in good humour and no one takes the banter seriously (We go somewhere you don’t go, UNI! UNI!, Hallam scum!, etc…). Having the surname Hallam is rather unfortunate and things can get confusing when you’re at Uni and the nasties are flying.

The varsity event is held each year to see which university is the best at various sports. Some are taken much more seriously than others and most of the venues lie in the city. However, in our case the competition is purely for fun and there are no spectators so the atmosphere is very relaxed, just like any other mates race.

The track we used on this occasion started with the top quarter of “Fast Track” and peeled off to the right after the third bus stop, continuing into what is known to me as “track with no name” or “1000 Deaths” by others (some people have no imagination). For those that don’t know Fast Track is a flat out, rocky section of track with small jumps into bus stops off of a push-up track. 1000 Deaths is tight and twisty with a couple of rock gardens and flat corners, also, the trees are quite densely packed which led to a few collisions and crashes.

For the first run the track was running almost bone dry as the small amount of rain from the previous night had either been absorbed into the parched earth or had evaporated. Despite this, very few people were happy with their run due to clipping/colliding with trees or just not hitting the lines they’d practiced. Ed Thomsett wasn’t really feeling it so just cruised and didn’t pedal on the flatter parts of the track. Andy Fowles was looking quick in practice but had a tentative run and clipped the odd tree. My run was similar as I just wanted a clean run, I was on the brakes too much in places so didn’t carry great speed in the tighter sections and also had trouble fitting my trendy, 762mm wide bars through the gaps.

During the brief respite before the push up for everyone’s second run a light rain shower began and continued until racing recommenced, this made the rocks on fast track slippery and greased up the last 50 meters of track. The poorer conditions led to more detrimental crashes, although, some people managed to improve on their times. Ed pulled his finger out and decided to put in a good time, this effort was hampered when he suffered a similar fate to others and came to a complete stop to give a tree some close attention. Andy had a crash in his run so there was no chance of him improving on his time. My second run was sketchy at the top after the drizzle, I rode well on the rest of the track and was on for beating my time by at least a second or two, until the last corner before the finish line. I took the inside line as I had done throughout practice but my front end washed out on a greased up root and I ate loam meters from the finish. A couple of others suffered the same misfortune almost at the identical spot.

Duncan was in Spielberg mode so didn’t take many still shots. Keep on the lookout for some race footage though, I’ve seen the clips and I can guarantee it’ll be a corker!

Oh yeah, results! – in short, Uni defeated Hallam!

For full results see below. WARNING! You may want to reduce your screen brightness and wear some shades. Henry made this in paint and he seems quite proud of it.

Stay classy Sheffield

Words: Ruari Hallam
Photo: Duncan Philpott

“It wasn't any old uni mates race! It was the BUCS Hill Climb Championships! The boys (and girl) put in a sterling effort. Achieving 5th overall in the Mens team rankings and a lot of PBs!” were the praiseful words of Henry Marsh, Chairman of The University Of Sheffield’s Cycling Club (TUOSCC) after the teams successful road hill climb performance at Curbar in Derbyshire’s Peak District on Saturday 30th October.

Being so close to Sheffield, Curbar Gap can easily be considered the team’s home ground and so it was vital they did themselves justice. It was a fairly early start to the day for the riders and a long wait for some who were there at 10am but not racing until 3pm. During this time, the team signed on and got race numbers, joked about and made the camp look professional with a gazebo from The Bike Tree (the team’s sponsors). They kept warm on the turbo trainers as they awaited their chance to shine. And shine they did!

Mental strength, focus and physical stamina are the key requirements in hill climbing to ignore the pain, concentrate on the summit and push your body to limits it didn’t even think possible. All of which, TUOSCC defiantly demonstrated with their stunning performance at the weekend. Shunning the lactic acid and many collapsing at the top, each and every rider can be nothing but proud of their own and the teams efforts and performance. Of notable exception was girl-bike borrowing, normally cross country rider Nyle Howard, who put in the clubs best time of 6:26 –just two seconds short of Adam Dunajko and under a minute less than the winning time of 5:39 recorded by Kings College’s Matthew Pilkington. Training partners Andrew Cater and Jonathan Shuster’s notorious (yet friendly) rivalry came to a head at this end of season event as they finished just 5 seconds adrift of one another (6:49 and 6:44 respectively). Training for a hill climb is relentless and after weeks of preparation, the two were heard agreeing to ride cross country for the next couple of weeks as they head into their ‘off season’, much to the dismay of their fellow roadies. With ‘Mountain Goat’ Alice Miller and ‘Heroic’ Holly Thompson both out with injured knees, it was up to Nicky Shaw to ride solo for the Women’s team up the mile long Curbar Gap at a very respectable 9:41, by which the team felt very proud. Further exceeding expectations was only-been-on-a-road-bike-once-or-twice XC rider Robin Groves who had started the day worrying whether or not he’d beat the infamous 10-minute mark only to finish with a resounding 7 minutes 57 seconds. TUOSCC is always keen to encourage new riders to take up the sport and new teammate Alex Longfellow repaid his teams loyalties shown to him in his early days in the sport by thrashing out a convincing 8:27 – doing the team extremely proud. Also just over the 8 minute mark was Matthew Tucker (8:15); famous for bringing a support convoy with him to races (in this case, his Mother, Father, Sister and Girlfriend) to urge him to his best, which certainly seemed to pay dividends on this clear, occasionally sunny 12-degree day. TUOSCC’s infamous contention with Sheffield Hallam was an easy affair for the Uni on this occasion as the rivals placed a dismal 19th overall. Jerome Jacob rode the hill in April for Varsity and swore to improve after a disappointing climb. A man of his word, on the day he made a crazy 6 minute improvement on his last time to seize a stonking 7:26. Only 22 seconds down on Hallam captain Dave Starkey who further continued the disappointing streak for the old Polytechnic as he failed to break the seven minute mark and tarnished his university’s reputation as he proved unsportsmanlike on the start line, after the Uni riders had cheered him on earlier on in the day. Another man breaking the 7 minute mark, unlike all but one of the Hallam team, was irrefutable dark horse of the day Jacob Storey who is another new addition to the club with a great time, in this case 6:54. The team left the event with 5 BUCS points in total, which is a great start to the year for the Cycling Club and hopefully they will be the first of many! Road Captain John Albaya was unable to race the event but was “absolutely delighted with the days results” and “very proud of everybody’s efforts and consequential times” as he “looks forward to next years Varsity Hill Climb” which is when the club will next compete up their ‘home hill’ hoping to hammer Hallam.

Conclusively then, the day was a success by all accounts and The Uni Road Cycling Team can feel very proud to have been part of something of such excellent conviction.

The BUCS (British University College Sport) Track Championships are also coming up this term.

The dates are the 6/7th November and all the relevant information can be found here, if you want to enter please let us know either on the forum, or email cycling@shef.ac.uk

You do need to have your own bike and race license and entries will be sent of by Friday 22nd October.

Also if you want to enter the BUCS Hillclimb, held locally to us at Curbar gap then get in touch with John the road captain on the Forum or any of the weekly rides.

It is on the 30th October but entries need to be in before then so get in touch with John ASAP. All info can be found here

All the Freshers Rides are happening next Wednesday (29th September). We are all meeting at 1.30pm outside the Arts Tower where the various disciplines will split.

Check out the Facebook Event and the Forum for more details

Henry - Captain
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The annual Cross-Country Freshers Ride is taking place on Wednesday the 29th of September at 1:30pm.

An introductory 15 mile off-road ride into the fabulous Peak District including a rest at the friendly Fox House pub. Expect a 4-5 hour ride at an incredibly relaxed pace.
The Planned Route

Everyone is meeting at the Arts Tower (Under the concourse bridge from the new Union entrance) at 2pm. Roadies, XC and DHers - You won't be able to miss us.

Road and XC will be join up again at the pub, then it's almost all down hill to the finish.

Bring:
Helmet - No Helmet, No Ride
Gloves
Food
Water
Bike - In good condition
Pump + Spare Inner tube

And please read the Safety Guidelines - They are there to keep everyone having fun.

The Planned Route

Robin - XC Vice Captain

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The Road Fresher’s ride is taking place on Wednesday 29th September at 1.30pm. We will meet just in front of the arts tower. Please do come along – the pace will be that of the slowest rider and we will ride up into the peak district and meet with the xc riders at the Fox House pub. After a few drinks you can either put in a few more miles or return to Sheffield (from the pub its downhill all the way to hunters bar). It should take about 1.5 hours to ride to the pub.

You must wear a helmet.

Bring some water and food.

Do dress appropriately for the weather conditions.

AND bring your UCard if you’re not a member of the club.

Please read the club’s safety rules

Should be good fun!

The Planned Route

John - Road Vice Captain

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The DH freshers ride will take place in Wharncliffe 'Wharny' woods.

Ideally we need as many people as we can to be transported there by car and van so anyone who is able to help out could you please let me know on the forum.

There are a range of tracks to ride in Wharncliffe, we will show you as many of them as we can, starting with the easier tracks just so we can gauge your abilities. This is important for us as we need to ensure that everyone coming on trips organised through the club will be capable of riding the terrain at the locations we intend to visit.

We will be meeting at the Arts Tower at 1:30pm on Wednesday 29th of September. There will be a large group of riders from the XC and road disciplines so you wont miss us!

You must bring:

Ucard
Helmet (ideally a full face helmet for DH)
Gloves
Food & Water
Pump + Spare Inner tubes

You should also read the safety guidelines:

Hope to meet you all soon,

Ruari - DH Vice Captain

Come to the Sports Fair this Friday. It is in the Octagon from 10-3. You can sign up to the club, meet the committee and find out what is planned for the year.

It has arrived! Click here for pictures.

click on image to view in HD

After the humiliating defeat last year the cycling club upped their game in 2010 and smashed Sheffield Hallam in the downhill and cross country to assure victory even before all the events have been completed.

The BMX race is to be held this wednesday afternoon.

The mens cross country victory was secured by club captain and newly wed Mike Guilford, xc captain and cramp lover Eóin Elliott and Will 'high peak sucks' Farnsworth.
In the female event road captain turned freeride star Helen Clayton raced to victory against a Hallam team so off the pace they've yet to cross the finish line.
The race was held in the exotic Ae Forest in Scotland on a course designed to test racers ability to stay awake for the duration. Thankfully the DH boys were on hand to provide some new exciting lines which Hallam struggled cope with after too much road training blunted their skills.

Unfortunately the road event didn't quite go to plan for a road team with a few notable absences. Despite a stunning 35 second victory by xc captain Eóin Elliott in the hillclimb, and a spirited team time trail performance by a reduced 3 man team (against Hallam's 5), Hallam took the points.

The downhill event was held on world champion downhill rider Steve Peat's very own trails in Wharncliffe woods. This fiercely competitive event had plenty of drama with big crashes and pinch flats marring runs for competitors of both universities. Thankfully some consistent quick runs from donk fan Ed Thomsett, Andy Fowles and Sam Hill lover Dominic Haines snatched the victory from Hallam by a few hundredths of a second.

The biggest event of the year, the BUCS cross country and downhill races are drawing near so its time for us all to let our competitive sides shine and get racing.

The races are split into two categories, sport and championships, with the top four riders from each university entered into the championships.
This means the (ever so slightly) less competitive sport race is open to everyone, no matter what the bike or ability. The xc has even been done on a 16" wheeled kids bike...and he didn't come last!

This year for cross country in the month leading up to the event we're organising weekly 'ghetto races,' which were introduced with great success last year.
These handicapped short course races are great practice and more importantly, great fun. We've got a slightly different format this year and some fast technical trails lined up. Bring a bike and your lactic tolerance.

There will be downhill practice races organised at the weekends and regular trips to wharncliffe. These will include a seeding race to select the top four riders for the championships.

Please check the forum for details.

Sheffield gallantly battled it out on the mile long Curbar Gap road, at times in some gruesome weather conditions, in a brave attempt to retain their hill climbing champions’ title.

Well done to all involved, some excellent times were recorded by both the women and the men, but sadly in the end Durham and Leeds Met took the team titles in the Men’s and the Women’s categories respectively.

A special prize for submitting false information and generally putting off the opposition goes to: Former road captain Andy Steel!

Helen showing the lads what suffering in pursuit of glory really is. Quicker every year she's raced this hill, hints she's going to win it next year.

Rachel doggedly battling on despite her fiancés mechanical sabotage.

Captain Michael knocking 24seconds off last years time for an impressive 25th place.

Seasoned professional Ben giving it some pasty. Sadly his lucrative sponsorship deal wouldn't allow him to wear his prized Sheffield kit.

XC Captain Eóin gasping his way to the top to give the roadies a basting on their home turf. He attributes being six seconds slower than last year to reducing his training to sitting on the couch eating cake.

Photos courtesy of Will1985CC on Flickr

Results:
9 Helen Clayton Sheffield 08:45
23 Holly Thompson Sheffield 11:41
25 Rachel Mills Sheffield 12:19
29 Lauren Cadman Sheffield 13:19

16 Eóin Elliott Sheffield 06:17
25 Michael Guilford Sheffield 06:27
61 Ben Thomas Sheffield 07:03
108 Andrew Cater Sheffield 07:56
108 Edward Harris Sheffield 07:56
136 Luke Johnson Sheffield 09:06

Full results sheet available on the BUCS website

An excellent afternoons racing with a fantastic atmosphere; We hope to see you all next year, even if you're not racing!

The Cycle Challenge runs from the 9th till the 22nd of November with the aim of encouraging more people to enjoy riding bikes around Sheffield.
Perhaps the greatest thing about it is that it's a competition...and we like competitions!

The department/faculty with the most number of participants and miles cycled wins and there are spot prizes along the way.

To register and find out more visit the website:
www.sheffieldunicyclechallenge.org.uk/

The BUCS hillclimb is being held at Curbar gap in Derbyshire on Saturday 24th of October.

Sheffield are the defending team champions having smashed the competition last year with three consistent rides including a 3rd place individual finish from Kit Gillam.

This year we will be without both Kit and Andy Steel, requiring new riders to come through and put in some big efforts to maintain our title.

If you're not competing why not come along to soak up the atmosphere and shout encouragement at riders trying to turn themselves inside out in pursuit of that sub 6 minute climb.
Best of all there is a pub at the bottom of the hill...recovery drinks all round?