Our roving report Dany sent this report from the club dinner at Romas – “a night of craic and laughter and super food ..The feeling amongst members is elektric ..the club is on the up ..that’s for sure!! regards Dany”.

Here are some photos from David McVeigh. For more, check out Facebook.

William Gill with one of his 6 trophies

Jack Anderson wins 5 mile cup

Richard Hanna richly deserves club support

John Carty takes our advice and reads a good book

Who worked out these results??!

And the best shirt award …

Special thanks to organiser Maggie

And finally – Mr Movember 2013 is…. Johnny Frazer

As the winter nights start to close in now is a great time to read a few cycling books and get inspired for next season. We’ve reviewed a couple here about stars from the ‘80s, perhaps the last great age of cycling before the serious performance enhancing drugs of the ‘90s undermined our belief in what we were seeing, and the super teams and race radios sucked the excitement and spontaneity from the racing.

Kelly beats Argentin to win Milan San Remo

First up is “Hunger”, the new Sean Kelly autobiography. It’s easy to forget just how good Kelly was, rising from humble beginnings in rural County Cork to become the world’s number one ranked road rider from 1984  to 1988. All the well-known stories are here. My personal favourite is the 1992 Milan San Remo. World Champion Moreno Argentin crosses the summit of the Poggio 15 seconds ahead, a lead that history tells us is unassailable. Kelly is in the final year of his career, and not as dominant physically as he once was. But with some tactically astute riding, he’s still in the chasing group at the top of the Poggio. His attack on the descent, and the look of utter disillusionment on Argentin’s face as he is caught with a kilometer to go, are the stuff of legend.

Classic Kelly in Paris Roubaix

There are also some great photos in the book too, particularly of Kelly in the classics.

Having said all that, I found the book a little lightweight. There is little that we haven’t heard before, and there are few insights into what drove the “hunger”of the title. Kelly is famous for once nodding during a radio interview, and much of this inscrutability remains.

If you are new to cycling, or the Kelly stories, then this book provides a great introduction. But if you’re looking for a more in depth analysis of the riders and races, read on…

Lemond and Hinault on Alpe d’Huez

Our second book is “Slaying the Badger” by Richard Moore. This focuses on just one race – the 1986 Tour de France – and the epic battle between Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond. Moore does a great job building up a picture of the two main characters. He has interviewed both, along with many of the other key players, and it shows in the detail. Hinault is the pugnacious, ageing champion, aiming for a sixth victory and looking back at the days when he could dominate the bunch both physically and mentally. Lemond is the young challenger from the new world, very strong physically but open, likeable and slightly naïve mentally. The build up to the race is fascinating, and once it starts you don’t want it to end. Brilliant!

If you’ve read a good book recently, why not let us know. Maybe we could even persuade the club committee to buy a few copies and share them round

The Club regrets the passing of Michael Fowler last Friday evening.  He was a staunch member and supporter of the Club particularly in the 80’s, both as a marshall week after week and as Assistant Treasurer.

While never a racing man he was a member of the “Last of the Summer Wine”- a group who trained with the younger members of the Club, had their own group jerseys and participated in rides for charity such as the 100 mile round Lough Neagh for Action Cancer.

The Club sends its sympathy to his wife – Molly, and the whole family circle at this time.

The funeral will be held on Wednesday 13 November at 11am in Clarkes Funeral Church, and afterwards at Movilla Cemetery.

Club president Billy Kirk contacted us with some stories. Michael and Billy both rode their first race on the same night – a 10 mile time trial in 1949! Billy did a short 29, with Michael recording  31 minutes. Around the same time, the two boys decided to ride down to Tyrella for a day at the beach. On the way home, Michael’s pedal broke. They borrowed a rope from a farmer, and took it in turns to tow each other home.

And Alastair Martin shared the follow story -

“I remember sitting in church one Sunday morning, half listening to the sermon, when a drunk staggered in, sat down at the front, and started shouting abuse at the minister. We were shocked, frozen to our seats with fear, and secretly wishing he would disappear. After a couple of minutes, Michael got up from his seat, and went and sat down beside the man, talking quietly to him. Calm soon returned, and the service was able to continue. This happened more than 30 years ago, but that simple act of basic human decency had a far greater impact on me than 1000s of eloquent words.

I spent many happy hours on club runs with Michael in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The example he, and others, set was a key influence during my formative years. I can only aspire to live up to those values. Thank you Michael – it was an honour to have known you.”

There are some other messages on the club Facebook page.

Martyn’s done it again, taking gold in the Points race at the first World Cup track meeting of the winter in Manchester. After a quiet first half of the first race, Martyn helped drive a break clear and began building up his points total. In the end it all came down to the final sprint. Martyn wound it up from several laps out, and in a similar way to his World Championship win in February, his breakaway companions couldn’t get past him and he took the win. Brilliant!

We wish Martyn all the best for the remaining World Cup events this winter.

Ards Cycling Club runs lots of club races during the year, and these count towards various club trophies and medal competitions. You may have seen the winners of some of the club competitions announced along with the club race results during the year. And you may have seen the list of this year’s medal winners on our Facebook page recently.

For many members, it is a bit of a mystery trying to understand what competitions we run, and how they are worked out, so we’ve added some new pages to the site to explain it all. Alternatively, follow the link to “Club Competitions” in the main menu bar above.

If you’ve any questions about this, or your own performances this year, please let us know and we’ll try our best to answer them.

And finally – a couple of the questions we received so far…

Question – has any one won 3 Super Golds?
Answer – yes, a small number of riders have achieved this. Perhaps most impressive was Jamie Hunter, who won his three in a single season back in the early ’90s before the advent of modern time trial bikes. More recently, Gareth Crowthers, Kirk Sloan and Michael Rowan have all won 3 super golds, and Ivan Robinson will win his third this year. Perhaps the biggest surprise is Martyn Irvine, who in spite of winning numerous medals are World, European and Irish level, has only managed to win 2 Ards CC Super Golds. Perhaps he will try to rectify this major gap in his palmares by taking part in the Champion of Champions 25 at some stage.

Question – how many medals are won each year?
Answer – this year 13 medals will be awarded, including 2 super golds. The number of medals awarded is a good indication of the health of the club, as it reflects the number of riders competing and improving. Thirteen is an increase on last year, backing up Dany’s claim that the club is on its way up!

This is what Martyn used to do to our club road races just a few short years ago….

Martyn Irvine has won another medal at a major championships – this time a bronze in the Omnium at the European Track Championships in Holland last weekend. The Omnium is decided over 6 events, and Martyn was particularly strong on the first day, taking a win in the Scratch race.

It’s great to see Martyn back in top form, and we wish him well for the rest of the winter World Cup Series, and on the road next year with his pro team Unitedhealthcare.

Riders line up at the start in sunny Newtownards

Over one hundred riders came to Newtownards Town to ride the sportive of Ards CC in aid of the Motor Neurose Disease Association NI ..This in very difficult weather conditions..the rain hit us badly around ten am ..and the wind became stronger every hour after..with a stop for tea and coffee and food about halfway ..the riders set off for the most hardest ride they done this year..choppy ferryboat ….

The ferry rolling gently in Sunny Portaferry

and then in to hell..headwinds of 50 km a hour ….

Riders take in the sun on the Lough Shore Road

and this for another 26 miles back to Ards Town ,,all riders in around 4pm, tired ..but happy..early indications tell us that we have raised nearly £1400 for the charity with some hefty donations at the start such as the Tesco Distribution centre in the Boucher Rd in Belfast wo collected 0ver 180 pounds !! Thanks to all the Ards CC committee members ,family and friends for the back up today,and all the food.. and to all riders for showing up on a day like today..Also to Holly’s Hobbies from Ards for the donation towards the food bill…Ards CC is back on the map of cycling!!

For more great photos from David McVeigh, click here. 

Former Irish hill climb champion Mark Kane was a clear winner of tonight’s hill climb on Bradshaw’s Brae. The Road Service had done a magnificent job re-surfacing the course over the summer, but a stiff breeze meant that the course record was never in danger.

Gareth Murray was second overall, and first Ards man, and his efforts earned him the John Smilie shield.

William Gill broke Ivan Robinson’s course record in tonight’s 5 mile time trial on the Donaghadee Road. His super fast time of 11:30 was 26 seconds faster the Ivan’s benchmark set back in April.

Martin Drennan and William Orr also did personal bests this evening on a great night for the Ards riders. Click here to see the full result, and the latest standings in the 5 mile handicap trophy competition.

All club members are reminded about the club meeting tomorrow night at 7pm in the Ards Fire Station training room to plan for the Strangford Touring event. Also, anyone wishing to ride this event who hasn’t entered yet is advised to do so as entry on the day will be more expensive – click here for more details.