The Pne Farthing
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THE PNE FARTHING The Quarterly Newsletter of Portsmouth North End Cycling Club JULY 2015 Portsmouth North End Cycling Club is affiliated to British Cycling, the CTC, and has attained In This Issue Clubmark Start Line PNE En Pavé Div Champs PNE RR o PNE Open TT Record Breaker Cingle Du Mont Ventoux Easter Tour SPORTIVE Isle Of Wight Randonee Blast form the Past Doing the Double Eddington Number Youth Racing Charity Riders PTTL Quiz Night Revolution Contact Us MTB CYCLO CROSS En Pavé By Alan Collins Twelve cyclists, hailing from the Portsmouth North End Cycling Club, recently embarked on a weekend excursion to the Continent, in an attempt to emulate the professional peloton that compete in an early calendar series of races, called the Spring Classics. These prestigious races are run in March and April each year, and are iconic 'monuments' in the annual cycling season, hosted in the countryside of Belgium and North Eastern France. School Photo—SMILE! Agricultural cobbled roads, which are a product of the hard labour sentences passed down by the penal system many years ago, weave their way up the Bergs and across the fields of Flanders, and are still used today by local residents for getting from A to B. Some are poorly maintained though, hence only tractors dare use them …. Oh, and cyclists too! Races such as the Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix have been organised in the region since 1896, utilising these 'roads' to create a challenging course in an effort to promote a Belgium sports newspaper, in the case of the Tour of Flanders, and in a bid to promote the newly built Velodrome at Roubaix. Both races have been run every year since, pausing only for the World Wars. The pavé has often proved decisive when Le Tour de France has visited the area. It takes a special kind of person to compete in such events, with Pavé strength, stamina, and downright dog- ged determination being very high on /ˈpavéɪ/ noun the list of attributes required. The in- cessant pounding of the body parts in 1. a setting of precious stones placed so closely together contact with the bike requires a certain that no metal shows. "a solid diamond pavé" pain threshold, notwithstanding en- 2. a paved street, road, or path. during the pain in the leg muscles caused by the need to propel the bike forwards at speed, whilst contending Sett with the varied mixture of extreme weather conditions that this time of /sɛt/ noun year can conjure up. A lottery of condi- tions including strong winds, rain, hail, 1. The earth or burrow of a badger snow, sunshine, heat and dust can all have an influence on the result. In- 2. a granite paving block tense concentration is required, as one A sett, usually referred to in the plural and known in some places moment of inattention can put your as a Belgian block (known in Belgium as a Kassei ("Causey"), is a wheel into a gap in the cobbles and re- broadly rectangular quarried stone used for paving roads. Setts are often inaccurately referred to as "cobbles": a sett is dis- sult in the rider being thrown off into tinct from a cobblestone in that it is quarried or worked to a regu- the ditch beside. It seems bizarre to a lar shape, whereas the latter is generally a small, naturally- non-cyclist that anyone would want to rounded rock. endure such pain and suffering to earn a living, never mind do it for pleasure and enjoy- ment! But many, many fellow cyclists are attracted to this kind of punishment, and flock to Flanders in pilgrimage. Prior to the trip, the participants had carefully pre- pared their bicycles for the tough experience to come. Fat '28's' tyres had been levered onto the wheels with wider ratio cassettes; unnecessary My bikes in there … somewhere! items were removed; robust bottle cages installed; bolts tightened; and some had even added extra thick handlebar tape to cushion the vibra- tions transmitted from the road through the frame. Extra padding and chamois cream had reportedly been packed too. DAY 1 The weekend started with a Rendezvous at Mark Williams’ house, with Pain au chocolate and coffee on offer to create a continental ambience. Everyone's bikes had been dismantled and protected with a fraction of the miles of pipe insulation that had been pro- cured by Paul Giles. The complex jigsaw of fitting 12 racing bike frames, their associated wheels, riders, luggage, and other paraphernalia into the interiors of four cars was quite a challenge, with the distinct possibility it wouldn't all fit in. What, or who, would have to be left behind? As it happened Patrick Jones tried to gain some legroom in his car by leaving Tom Goodyer behind in the confusion of getting the Flanders bound procession started, and parking other cars in the vacated places to reserve the spots for unloading on our re- turn. Once the error of his ways had been realised, he returned to collect poor Tom who'd been left on the pavement. With a very excited Peter Mac leading the convoy, it wasn’t un- til the M25 that Patrick eventually caught up. Despite all the chaffing at the bit, in an attempt to get an advanced departure, an earlier technical problem on the Chunnel meant we still had to wait for our scheduled train. Starbucks eased the pain of the wait, but we were 'sur Le Continent' soon enough after a smooth crossing. A sprint along the motor- ways saw us arrive at the Hotel in Kortrijk with plenty of time to check in, unload, and pre- pare for dinner and the days ahead. Room-mates had been randomly allocated by the Ho- tel, but everyone was happy with their drawn lot, each secretly hoping that there would be no snoring issues. The "Annex", in which we told we could securely store the bikes, turned out to be a large conference room beside Reception. This was soon turned into a mechan- ics workshop with bike parts, tools and packaging strewn around, as the bikes were rebuilt, having been carefully extri- cated from the back of the cars. The smell of oil permeated the atmosphere in the hotel, as each rider prepared his steed for the brutal punishment antici- pated to be received in the coming days. Finishing touches of "PNE - Tested en Pa- vé" stickers were lovingly applied to frame tubes. The converted workshop. Has anyone seen the Allen Keys? Supper consisted of Bockor Beer and Burger in the Hotel Bar, during which a game of 'Spoof' was played to determine the winner of the honour to wash the team kit the following evening. The Fina- le was between Rhys Lippiatt and Mick Malone. The coins were not kind to Mick, hence he was crowned 'Widow Twanky', before more beer was consumed, and we eventually retired to bed. “Spoof” for Laundry duty DAY 2 The early breakfast spread was magnificent, although it dealt a blow to those hoping to steal stock up on a certain yellow fruit, high in potassium levels, to sustain them throughout the jour- ney ahead, as they weren't on offer. Even so, a generous amount of croissants, cereal, fruit, meats, cheese, omelettes and the obligatory coffee was downed. Weatheroptimist.com gave a forecast for the day of 10% chance of dry, sun and warm – but in reality it was still good enough for us all to wear for shorts, and didn't rain on us too much. Vichte Cemetery The flat landscape surrounding Kortrijk is a patchwork of ploughed fields. These were the scene of such horrendous atrocity one hundred years ago. It was therefore poignant that the group paid its respects to one of the fallen heroes of WW1 at a War Commission grave- yard at Vichte. Amongst many other Hampshire regiment graves lies Frederick ‘Victor’ Scales who is listed as being from North End Grove, Portsmouth. Living so close to what is now our home of the Mountbatten centre track, he may have seen, or even known, the founder members of our club riding near his home before setting off to defend the country and make the ultimate sacrifice just a month prior to the cessation of hostilities. Unfortu- nately our club records for that time are not available to be able to de- duce if there was a link between Vic- tor and the PNE, however we are all of course thankful for his actions in this period of remembrance for the great war. A simple message was left in the visitors book from PNE, in case any of Victors relatives might have occasion to read it. I'm not a war his- torian, and could find scant details on the internet, however, it would be interesting to know if he has any liv- ing relatives in the Portsmouth area. Before the peloton left the hotel, ‘press’ obligations had to be fulfilled and a team photo was taken with the group resplendent on the commemorative spe- cial edition jerseys created for the trip. Distinctly PNE with a Flandrian twist and some riders had coordinat- ed accessories such as Yellow and Black ‘Flanders Li- on’ Socks and Ass Savers. “Prik!” …. as they say in Dutch! The group set off together through the streets of Kortrijk, amazed by the courtesy afforded to us by car drivers, but only managed to do 1.28km (0.78 miles) before the dreaded cry of 'puncture' sounded out. This worried us as it did not bode well for the 80 odd miles to come.