Club Records?

[David Mclean]

Why do we still do the Sawston course? It used to be the fastest one but now we have Hardwick, which I believe is also safer.

The current rundown of courses for a season is:

Bottisham 10 - 3 times
Bottisham 13 - once
Bottisham 25 - once
Hardwick 10 - 5 times
Barton 10 - twice
Barton 25 - once
Comberton - twice
Newton - twice
Sawston - twice

19 events in total.

I would propose getting rid of Sawston and having Comberton and Newton 3 times. 3 is nice because it is enough that you can monitor your times during the season, which I think riders are motivated by.

Why do we have two 25s a season?

I like the idea of Merckx/athlete style events, too. Why not allow it for all evening 10s? Have the points similar to the Morris shield format only the points count for your best 5 events rather than 10... that way if you want you can compete in both competitions during the season.

[MJC]

> I like the idea of Merckx/athlete style events, too. Why not allow it for all evening 10s?

Having set nights might be more popular. More head-to-head and therefore more competitive.
The "Come and Try" days have the advantage that CC members who "Come and Try" on a standard road bike would also be included. Non-members might be less intimidated.

Standard road bike:
http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/ge...I0MDY&LangId=1

[JoeyHalloran]

this has been quite an interesting thread so far. For the little its worth, in my opinion the Newton and Comberton courses aren't particularly safe. Bottisham and Hardwick are the only club courses I'll enjoy riding for that reason. I do like the idea of having some new courses like the ones Dave linked before. Some of them look like good fun.

Also, have we actually got a problem here? The time trials are still running and people still turning up and if people want to its very easy for them to join in.

[Duncan Murphy]

this has been quite an interesting thread so far. For the little its worth, in my opinion the Newton and Comberton courses aren't particularly safe. Bottisham and Hardwick are the only club courses I'll enjoy riding for that reason.

Depends what you mean by "safe". Newton and Comberton have more potential for crashing at junctions, corners, with pedestrians etc. By that's largely in your control. If you ride round like a nut no paying any attention to what people, cars etc. are doing on the course or have no powers of anticipation then it's quite likely you could have a minor accident i.e. you hitting a car or pedestrian or some other object at low speed < 30mph. On a DC course you don't have those things to worry about but you could quite easily be hit by a car doing 70mph from behind or on a slip road and you would have no way of even knowing you were in danger. Plus you're most likely to be killed in such an accident.

[JoeyHalloran]

I take what you mean and it wasn't meant to start a DC vs SC argument but given the traffic levels, the space cars have to overtake and the amount of reflective gear I have on my TT bike makes me FEEL safer on the 428. I have had far more close calls with cars on SC than DCs. As I say, this is just MY opinion and affects which courses I choose ride (I do sometimes ride those courses, but much prefer other ones).

[martin reynolds]

I take what you mean and it wasn't meant to start a DC vs SC argument but given the traffic levels, the space cars have to overtake and the amount of reflective gear I have on my TT bike makes me FEEL safer on the 428. I have had far more close calls with cars on SC than DCs. As I say, this is just MY opinion and affects which courses I choose ride (I do sometimes ride those courses, but much prefer other ones).

Agree with Joey on this. Despite the fact that I often ride around the Newton & Comberton courses when out on my 'training' rides, I don't think either of them are safe enough for going 'full bore' on a time trial bike. Too many blind corners - not to mention all the parked cars and pedestrians/cars stepping/pulling out in front of you when riding through the village high streets!

These two courses are definitely suited to those riders who are happy to ride in a somewhat reckless fashion i.e. taking blind corners on the wrong side of the white line and hoping there are no cars coming.........and believe me, I've seen several Cambridge CC regulars doing this whilst I've been marshalling these events and have also had to take the subsequent verbal abuse from car drivers who have had near misses with said riders!

These courses would be OK if they were run on closed roads though! .......lol......like that's ever going to happen!

I can't see anything wrong with the Sawston course....not sure why Dave wants it to be dropped???

[Oly]

I really like the idea of a mercx competition.

That is all.

[Chris Pearce]

Merckx comp yes, will inject something new.
But my overall opinion is don't tamper with the format of the TT calendar, the club has such a great mix of courses and distances that not many other clubs still do now. Change some of the courses if demand dictates but it would be a shame to lose the 2 x 25m, hardly any clubs do just one.

[JoeyHalloran]

Rather than a Merckx style competition, perhaps it should be a category system based on the average speed of your top (say) 5 rides?

i.e. average > 25 mph => Cat A
average > 22 mph => Cat B
etc.. (obviously numbers and figures to be decided upon rather than plucked out of the air)

This way you are encouraging people on road bikes (by admitting they will naturally be slower) but also encouraging the slower people on TT bikes to race for a season-long prize?

I understand this does have the potential for people to purposefully ride slower to 'stay in a category' but I kinda hope no one would do that just to win a club trophy?

[MJC]

How does the Team Cambridge Handicap system work?