Cycle Ink Sum 2007

Edited independently in our three areas and published quarterly.Please contact your section or the access the club website for information on any events

DA SECRETARYPeter Loakes, Church Cottage, West Stafford, DT2 8AB (01305) 263272BOURNEMOUTH & DISTRICT SECTIONDavid Chesworth, 52 Newstead Road, Bournemouth BH6 3HL (01202) 432852SALISBURY SECTIONAlan Clarke, “Hill House”, Kelsey Road, Salisbury SP1 1JR (01722) 322188WEST DORSET SECTIONMike Durham, 74 Westhill, Wyke Regis, Weymouth DT4 9NE (01305) 770140

Main Calendar Dates For 2007

THE WESSEX NEWSLETTER

Sunday 24th Mar Cycle Jumble, Weymouth Ken Reed 01305 772654Sunday 25th Mar 50 in 4 Shawn Shaw 01202 685014

Sunday 1st Apr Dorset Coastlet 100km Peter Loakes 01305 263272Sunday 1st Apr Dorset Coast 200km (PBP) Peter Loakes 01305 263272

Sunday 15th Apr Devon and Dorset Downs 300km (PBP) Peter Loakes 01305 263272

Sunday 22nd Apr 100 in 8 Shawn Shaw 01202 685014

Saturday 28th Apr Cycle Jumble Sale Jim Hatton 01202 280889

Sunday 29th Apr New Forest 50/Day Out 100km John Ward 01590 671855Sunday 29th Apr New Forest Excursion 200km John Ward 01590 671855Sunday 29th Apr New Forest 300km (PBP) John Ward 01590 671855

W/E 8th -9th Sep St Lo Concentration in Normandy Norman Payne 01202 695179

Sunday 9th Sep New Forest 50 and Coast 100km John Ward 01590 671855Sunday 9th Sep New Forest On & Off Shore 200km John Ward 01590 671855

Sunday 16th Sep Dorset Dirt 50km offroad Ken Reed 01305 772654

Sunday 23rd Sep Dorset Delight 200km Peter Loakes 01305 263272

Sunday 7th Oct Gridiron 100km Terry Walsh 01202 247888

ALL WESSEX ACTIVITIES CAN BE FOUND ON:

www.wessexctc.org

1 Cycle Ink #145Keith Matthews - Editor

Summer 2007Peter Loakes took over the Dorset Coast and Coastlet this year andmade a fine job of the 30th event. We really should be proud of thisrecord; the “Coast” is the longest continually running randonnée of anydistance in the UK by far. 110 finished the 200km and just 100 finishedthe 100km. Typical of the comments received is the following:

. . . Just arrived back in Newcastle, thank you for organising a terrificevent on Sunday, please pass on my thanks to all your volunteers . . .. . . It was my first cycling event, and it won’t be my last. I was knockedout by it . . .. . . I tackled the shorter course, certainly challenging! Two climbs wereincredible, I thought we had steep hills in Northumberland! You certain-ly live in a beautiful part of the country and all involved were so friendlyand welcoming.

Although many of us visited Majorca in the Spring, both contributionsthat we have in this issue are written by members of the BirminghamDA. Frankly Bournemouth section, you should be ashamed of your-selves. Editing the Newsletter can be fun and it is not a chore as long ascontributions come in without having to wring them out of people.

Having said that, the summer issue is usually a bit short as the tourshave not yet been done and everyone is, or ought to be, too busy cy-cling. This then is a roundabout way of saying that I expect that for theAutumn issue, I will be inundated with contributions.

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June 2007"Wet rain and bare bums"

Thanks for everyone's bestwishes - my knee mended rela-tively quickly after my slip onwhat I am sure was actually adiesel spill earlier on in Janu-ary. What with the return of thewet weather in May I have beenpretty tentative on bends. Gilland I took the opportunity to gocycle camping near Rugby onthe late May bank holiday. Thiswas to give us the chance tovisit the Narrow Boat show at Crick and we certainly chose the best day on theSaturday when the sun shone for most of the day. The rain started at about 5pmon the Saturday afternoon and was set in for the rest of the weekend. We aban-doned plans for a ride on the Sunday and spent the day in the tent - thankgoodness for new inventions like iPods enabling one to carry the whole musiccollection for entertainment when incarcerated in a tent on a very wet and blus-tery day. Not surprising quite a number of car bound campers had given up andgone home. The ride to Coventry on the Monday was pleasant as the roadswere quiet - albeit in more rain!

Salisbury has been a hive of cycling activity recently what with the Connect2project (see below) and the planned opening of the Goldenway. This is a circu-lar route round the city identifying quiet routes to schools, college, shops, lei-sure centre and Cathedral. Our new CTC President "Jon Snow" will open theGoldenway on Saturday 9th June at 11am within the Cathedral grounds - whynot come along meet our President (I wonder what tie he will be wearing?).

I occasionally get enquiries about cycling in the Wessex region - tonight’sphone call from one of our Octogenarian members had me stumped really as Iwas not sure how to reply. No it was not about our brilliant list of DA events,or even about National Bike Week rides in the region, this was about, and I amblushing now . . . "where are we hosting a ride for the World Naked Bike RideEvents".

From the President

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These rides actually do exist:

http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/ukand our nearest one will take place on Friday 8 June 2007 at 6.30pm at Northend of Southampton Common in the clearing next to Highfield Road and op-posite the junction with Omdurman Road.

It is fantastic news that Wessex DA have has had two projects short listed inthe final list of 79 projects elected for inclusion in the last round of the Sus-trans “Connect2” initiative.

http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk

The Weymouth to Portland Olympic connection:

http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/projects/search_results.php

And:

Connecting Salisbury, the Alderbury and Wilton (C-SAW) route

http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/projects/project_detail.php?id=89.

Well done to all those involved that got supporters to click on the Sustranswebsite. Now we need everyone to get together to for the final TV vote in De-cember - hopefully we can make cycling the number one project and win thatLottery money!

Saint Lo Concentration on Sept 8th / 9th - what a great response to this eventwith approximately 50 cyclists booked to attend. Many thanks to Norman forbeing the contact for the DA.

The DA committee has organised two intersection meets in the summer withthe first being on June 24th at Gold Hill Shaftesbury and the other on Aug 12that Semley. My apologies for the 24th June - my parents will be celebratingtheir 60th Wedding anniversary and so all the family will be returning home toScotland for this momentous event.

Happy and safe Cycling,

Jimmy Walker

Cycle Ink #145 4

What’s On ?

Informal Wayfarers Rides to BurleyThis ride happens every Saturday and is completely informal. There is no leaderand no back up, but generally an experienced cyclist somewhere around. Theroute is designed for beginners but joined in by all abilities.

Start 08:45 at Pioneer Supermarket, Christchurch every Saturday

Or just make your own way to the NewForest Tea Rooms, Burley for 10:00

Blackmore Vale Section RidesCycle Rides arranged by Richard & Margaret Nicholl. All rides meet at theCafe at 10:00am for coffee, departing at 10:30am. Please note that some

rides are on a Saturday and some on a Sunday. Details (01963) 32840

Sun 17th JUN MEET: SHAFTESBURY, John Peel Cafe LUNCH: KnowltonSat 30th JUN MEET: CROCKERTON, Furniture Store LUNCH: Salisbury PlainSun 15th JULY MEET: WOOKEY HOLE LUNCH: Watchfield near Highbridge TEA: Burcott MillSat 28th JULY MEET: COMPTON ABBAS, Airfield LUNCH: Badbury Rings TEA: Compton AbbasSun 12th AUG MEET: EAST STOUR, Udder Farm Shop LUNCH: Semley for Wessex DA Intersection MeetSat 25th AUG MEET: YEOVILTON RNAS Museum Cafe LUNCH: Barrington Court TEA: YeoviltonSun 9th SEP MEET: CRANMORE, Steam Railway LUNCH: Radstock TEA: CranmoreSat 22nd SEP MEET: CASTLE CARY, The Old Bakehouse, High Street LUNCH: Westhay TEA: Castle CarySun 7th OCT MEET: BOLDRE in New Forest for “Gridiron” 100km ALTERNATIVE: Meet GILLINGHAM, Waitrose.

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Mary Evans - Birmingham DAMALLORCA 2007

Twenty members of the Birmingham DA joined the Thurday Potterers fortheir annual trip to Majorca in March and the following is Mary Evans,their leader’s, impressions of the holiday.

This year it was decided to change the hotels. We stayed at Hotel Daina,Port de Pollenca for the first week and at Cala Gran Hotel, Cala d’Or forthe second week. Well, Fawlty Towers comes to mind when we think ofHotel Daina. Birmingham group stayed in the apartments round thecorner from the main ho-tel. On arrival we found agroup of men,(electricians and plumb-ers) fixing the electricityand dismantling the pipes.The place looked com-pletely unfinished or bad-ly in need of repair. Therewas no room in the lock-up garage for all ourbikes, so we carried ourbikes up and downstairsfor the first day/night. This was very unsatisfactory so we left them in thefoyer/lounge of the apartments. There was no hot water; no heating; liftdidn’t work; water ran brown when the tap was turned on and theapartments were very cold! Bournemouth comment the rooms in the mainhotel were fine.

On our first morning, we woke up to a free shower in the vestibule of theapartments. Water was gushing out of the ceiling and the plumbers werestanding looking very perplexed and didn’t appear to know what to do.

The next day John and I returned from a ride to find the ceiling over thesofas about to collapse with water pouring onto the furniture and floor.We moved all seating out of the way and watched the disaster unfold! Allthe pipes in the building were corroded so there was a lot of work to bedone before the season started!! However, the staff were very friendly and

Cycle Ink #145 6

helpful and provided us with extra blankets when requested. The foodwas excellent! I’m sure the waiter’s name was Manuel!!

The weather was disappointing this year. The first week was so windy –gale force at times. It kept us awake at night, howling around the narrowstreets and rooftops and it prevented us from enjoying some of the

glorious rides in the north of the island. It was also very cold so there wasvery little relaxing done in cafes after a very satisfying day’s ride. RobGarnett (Bournemouth) did a magnificent job of leading the slow groupevery day during the first week and for that we were most grateful. Wewere kept to the lanes for the most part because of the strong winds. Ona particularly windy day, five or six brave souls ventured forth andclimbed Formentor but found it very dangerous when descending. Theride to Lluc Monastery was cancelled because of the wind but later in theweek, the stronger riders decided to go. However, they were againthwarted because both roads to Lluc were closed owing to a car rally.Many of our rides were repeated which couldn’t be helped. I heard Peteand Colin (Bournemouth) mutter “not Muro and or Campanet again!”The Southern Wheelers who were part of our group chose to do longer

Deia

7 Cycle Ink #145

and harder rides and managed to reach places which we did on our secondweek last year! The weather certainly did not deter them!!

We transferred to Cala d’Or on the Saturday, cycling across the island ona cold, dull day. (48 miles). John (Evans) and Reg Elliot went with thecoach and by the time we arrived at the hotel all luggage had been sortedby them and the Bournemouth ladies and placed in our rooms. All exceptthe Porters’ luggage but you had better ask John about that!

This week was damp and cold. Routes were there to be discovered asnobody had been before. There seemed to be more main roads and fewerlanes. However, Rob and John found two very good rides each one ledto delightful bays and beaches. The terrain was quite hilly in places buthad wonderful descents. (We never did find the elephants in the Erotic(oops, sorry) |The Exotic Park. John was to lead a ride to a lighthouse thenext day but the wet, stormy weather put paid to that.On the last day, Colin and Pete, (Bournemouth) who had researched a rideon the wettest and coldest day, (brave souls) took us to Portopetro andCala Mandrago beach which we had to cross to reach a track which in turntook us through quiet lanes full of flowers which had bloomed overnight,following the storm of the previous day. A delightful ride it turned out tobe.

What will I remember of Mallorca ’07? “Did you hand pick your group”asked a Bournemouth cyclist?

The first thing that comes to mind is the friendship between the twogroups. From the start we got on very well and everybody mixed whichwas very heartening. Some of the Bournemouth people were as one putit “bowled over by the Birmingham groups’ friendliness and warmth.”So well done our group!

The food was awful at this hotel but there was one thing that was ratherspecial and that was the professional pianist who practised in the after-noons in the lounge and it was sublime. Requests were taken!

It was a good holiday for all of us except for poor John Mont-gomery who was very poorly for the most part.

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MALLORCA - 2007 (again!) Hilary Porter

Hilary Porter’s impressions of a ride to the Monastery San Saladorduring our joint holiday in March 2007.

We joined the Bournemouth Potterers organised holiday to Majorca andfor the first week had a good time at Puerta Polensa although the weathercould have been warmer. For the second week the party moved across theisland to Cala d'Or which is on the East Coast. Most of the group cycledthe 50 miles.

Having been out on a few rides on our own John offered to take an easyand short ride up to the monastery at San Salvador. The monastery is in avery prominent position perched on a mountain at 494m and can beenseen from many parts of the island. Majorca has a lot of monasteriesperched on top of hills, most of them in seemingly precarious places, andthis one was the second highest. It was a grey day and not very warm as

Almond Blossom time in Majorca

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a group of eleven riders headed out of Cala d'Or along the coast road pastall the expensive yachts in the marina and then through Porto Petro. Thenheading inland and on to a nice quiet lane to Ca's Concos passing throughalmond orchards and olive groves with lots of wild flowers, to come intothe back of Felanitx. This is a fairly large town and was quite busy. Weheaded to the main square and had coffee and the sun briefly showeditself. Reg had previously spied a cycle shop in Felanitx when he rodethrough a few days before, so of course we had to go and find it to see ifthere were any bargains. Coincidently Tom's rear gear mechanism brokejust before we arrived at the shop and we continued on whilst he waitedto have a new mechanism fitted.

The monastery was about 8km from where we left Tom with a 5km climbup to the top. The road was straight to begin with up quite an incline andthen started to twist and turn as we climbed higher. There were loads ofcyclists going up and coming down (mainly German) and it was fascinat-ing to seem them zig-zagging up in front and also below. Some of thecyclists went down very fast and were quite often on your side of the roadwhen getting round the hairpins. Not good when there is a sheer dropbelow you!

About half way up there is a small chapel with fresh flowers and litcandles and a bit further on a separate path leads off going on up to a largecross which dominates one of the summits of the mountain. Eventuallywe all reached the top and were rewarded with an incredible 360o view allaround. It was a pity that the weather was still poor but we could see theeastern coast including where we were staying and quite a way along thesouth coast towards Palma, with all the fields and orchards laid out below.The only bit of sun we could see was shinning on Porto Cristo where wehad cycled to a couple of days earlier and where John Evans was takinghis group that day. The sun only shines on the righteous!

It was quite cold and windy at the top but those who opted for a picniclunch managed to find some picnic tables out of the wind with a greatview. Others went into the café at the monastery and in the entrance hallare displayed some world champion road vests donated by GuillermoTimoner, whose cycling career has been unequalled. He was six timesWorld Guerny Champion and on 27 occasions Spanish champion with

Cycle Ink #145 10

more than 1500 professional victories in road and track. He lives in thearea.

It was a tremendous descent and a little frightening on some of thehairpins. At the bottom we regrouped and John chose a route on a quietlane to get back to Felanitx to meet Tom. This was more difficult than we

thought as we had greattrouble finding thesquare again, most Ma-jorcan towns and vil-lages have a gridsystem with many oneway roads and in somecases more than onesquare which can beconfusing. Eventuallywe located Tom whohad been joined by Lesand Wendy (from theBournemouth group).

John chose what he hoped would be a quiet route to avoid some of themain road. This was partially successful but Spanish Maps have a tenden-cy to indicate roads some of which are there, some are very rough tracksand some do not exist. The plan was to come out on the main road and doa left and a right on another lane. However the second part of this routecould not be located and it was decided to carry on along the main roadback towards Porto Colom. From here the group broke up, some optingto go straight back to the hotel as they were cold, and four of us droppinginto Porto Colom for a hot chocolate. This has a very large naturalharbour with a beach on the far side and another boaty place. From herethere is a good quiet lane route back to Cala d'Or. There were wild flowerseverywhere and a lot of the orchards had a lovely yellow flower carpetingthe ground. We are still trying to name some of the flowers.

We really enjoyed our holiday with the Northern and Bournemouth CTC.We did some great rides in good company and although theweather was not up to expectations we still had a great time.Our thanks to John, Mary and Rob for organising the trip.

11 Cycle Ink #145

Phillips Folding bike, three speed hub (low geared) vgc, com-plete with carrying bag and if required, well worn Carridicepannier bags.

£150.

Contact Pete Du Lieu on 01202 745472

FOR SALE

Cycle Ink #145 12

In 2006 Hazel and Peter Gibbs swapped their hectic 9 to 5 workinglives in Dorset for the more relaxed surroundings of Escala in the Hau-tes Pyrenees.

Their 3 bedroomed detached villa with views of the mountains is nowready for its first bed and breakfast visitors. A double room with pri-vate bathroom will cost 50 euros per night with breakfast.

The French Pyrenees in the south west of France are the ideal locationfor those among you who like to ski, cycle, walk, run/jog, play golf orjust sit and admire the view. Personalised training programmes will beavailable for cyclists, runners and triathletes by qualified fitness instruc-tor. Sports Massage also available.

Escala is just 5 minutes from Junction 16 of the A64 (the Trans Pyr-eneenne motorway), 5 minutes from the bustling market town of Lanne-mezan with all facilities and the same distance from the attractivevillage of La Barthe de Neste with its Sunday market, restaurants, barsand shops.

Secure storage is available for bikes and skis and, as Peter is a fullyqualified Sports Massage Therapist, a massage can be offered (for asmall additional charge) for those who take advantage of the manysports on offer locally.

Le Tour de FranceThis year the closest stage finish to us is 45km by car at Loudenvielle on23rd July. The riders cover 196kms from Foix-Loudenvielle, including 5climbs.

To find out more details about the property and about the area, contactPeter or Hazel on 0033 562 501 295E Mail at [email protected] by post to 23 Rue des Chataigniers, 65250 ESCALA, France.

HOLIDAY IN THE PYRENEES?

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Local attractions

Tennis - in Lannemezan or La Barthe de Neste

Ski ing - St Lary - 30 minutes (bus service available) Peyragudes Luz Ardiden

Cycling - Tour de France Col d’Aspin, Col de Peyresourde Col de Tourmalet, Port de Bales

Walking - From the door of the property or in the mountains further afield.

Swimming - 50 meter pool available in Tarbes

Shopping - Lannemezan - 5 minutes Tarbes - 30 minutes Pau Toulouse - 1 hour 20 minutes

Golf - Lannemezan -18 holes Tarbes - 9 holes Bagneres de Bigorre - 18 holes-great scenery.

Rugby - the World Cup comes to France in 2007.

Music - Jazz Festival in Marciac every August County and Western Festival in Mirande in June

Cycle Ink #145 14

Happy “Coasters after the Ride

Organiser Peter Loakes and friends

Ray & Margaret

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ADVERTISEMENT

Cycle Ink #145 16

Editor:

The committee meeting date is the deadline for Newsletter contributions. Editorialpolicy is to print all contributions, with minimal editing for the purposes of layoutonly. Contribute by email, disk, CD-ROM, typed or handwritten. Photographs arenow welcome in any form. We can scan them and they will be returned safely.

http://www.wessexctc.org

“CycleInk” is the Newsletter of the Bournemouth & District Section, Wessex District Association of theCyclists’ Touring Club. Published four times a year for members. Views expressed are not necessarily

those of the club.

CTC, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 9JXhttp://www.ctc.org.uk

Contributions and Photographs

Dates of next Meetings