Dave Rayner Fund Dinner 2015

We were delighted to take part in the 2015 Dave Rayner Fund Annual Dinner last weekend. The fundraiser, now in its twenty-first year, was set up after Dave's tragic death at the age of 27, which cut short a promising career. The Fund's lasting legacy is to help young and aspiring British riders realise their dreams of becoming road race professionals by providing the necessary funding. Dreams such as these take time and money to stand any chance of succeeding and the rigours of training and living in both the UK and on the Continent come at a high price for any aspiring youngster.

There was a warm northern welcome to the sell-out event, which featured special guests such as Steve Cummings, Adam Yates, Owain Doull, Jessie Walker and the Brownlee brothers. The on-stage guest interviews and accompanying video footage brought back some emotional memories and joyous victories from the 2015 season, which the crowd could share - for a moment - with those who achieved them.

The evening was punctuated with an array of fundraising opportunities comprising both silent and live auctions. Items such as signed jerseys from Chris Froome, Peter Sagan, Lizzie Armitstead and Ian Stannard created a real stir with some totally outrageous bidding battles going on. It was so cool to see people blowing vast budgets all for a good cause!

Fund-raising events such as the Dave Rayner dinner are a vital source of funding and encouragement for potential stars of the future in what remains an incredibly competitive sport.

After an excellent three-course dinner, the evening ended with some well oiled cyclists, young and old, hitting the dance floor throwing some shapes and executing some top class dad dancing moves. Good job the Lycra was left at home!

On the shoulders of giants

Each of the Grand Tours seems to be engaged in an ongoing battle to assert itself as the definitive benchmark by which the others will be judged. Fired up and fuelled with national pride, these tours reflect the best features the hosting countries have to offer.

We are presented with a bespoke three-week cultural and geographic insight into Italy, France and Spain that's better than any tourist board commercial.

This year's Vuelta a España began a fortnight ahead of the Tour of Britain - enough time for it to get firmly engrained into the hearts and souls of an audience still in denial about the last Grand Tour. The Tour of Britain was televised back-to-back with the Vuelta, allowing a direct comparison between two nations. It's always good to see your homeland but the constant sun and jaw-dropping beauty of Spain won every round.

The Giro saw Alberto Contador announce his intention of completing a Giro/Tour de France Grand Tour double. He rode well, winning the race and setting the stage for an intriguing TdF. It was interesting to note the appearance of Fabio Aru and his single day in pink.

For us the Tour de France, although a great race, felt a bit flat this year. Yes it was amazing to see the tactics of Chris Froome and Team Sky pretty much dominate the race but it all began to feel a bit like another era of one-team control. Sorry Chris, you are a great rider but for us the real excitement revolved around who was going to come second. It was the constant attacking of Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana that gave the race its real edge.

The Vuelta is the purest, least spoiled and, in some ways, most innocent of the Grand Tours. The riders come across as being calmer and more relaxed as the season's end draws near. Chris Froome was ready to attempt his own Tour Double, Vincenzo Nibali wanted to another opportunity to shine at a Grand Tour along with a host of riders including Tom Dumoulin, Dan Martin and Tejay van Garderen sidelined by crashes and injury at the previous Tour.

This year's Vuelta was extreme. The climbs, the crashes, the heat, the cheating of Nibali and the spirited performance of one rider... Billed as the best time trialist in the race, Tom Dumoulin was never rated as a contender but as the race unfolded he emerged as one with some inspired, spirited and talented riding. For us, his will to succeed will remain as the defining spectacle of this year's Vuelta. Seemingly out of nowhere he took the red jersey and looked capable of securing overall victory from the likes of Fabio Aru. Dumoulin's ride was the type of performance that dreams are made of. He literally came from nowhere to ride the race of his career (so far).

It's true that everyone loves an underdog - to see a rider excel like Dumoulin, it's easy to see why. He made this year's Vuelta unmissable - we just didn't want it to end! If you missed it first time round we highly recommend you catch it on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9maK3OJ5NA

Saluting lives well lived

There’s something incredibly heartwarming about the way the cycling community can pull together when the chips are down. 

In recent months, Sussex has seen two tragedies that claimed the lives of local cyclists. Two were killed in the Shoreham Airshow disaster - 26 year-old Richard Smith and Dylan Archer, who was 42. Just weeks earlier, Don Lock, a 79 year-old member of Worthing Excelsior Cycling Club, was stabbed to death in a road rage incident on the A24.

All three leave devastated loved ones as well as friends and fellow cyclists left stunned by the random nature of the awful events that took place. All three are being mourned and missed.

There have been many tributes made and events held to mark the three deaths. One of them was a ride organized by Excelsior to celebrate the life of Don Lock, who’d been a member of the club for 50 years.

Around 150 cyclists joined the ride, a gentle meander through the West Sussex countryside, ending at a little village hall in the shadow of the South Downs, where tea and cakes – lots of cakes! – were available.

Standing there admiring the views and devouring the cake, we reflected on how wonderful it was to see so many different club strips in the same place, alongside more casual cyclists on their shoppers and folding bikes and hybrids.

There were no speeches or presentations or great outpourings of emotion. This wasn’t the time or place for any of that. It was just a collection of cyclists enjoying each other’s company and saluting a life well lived – a tribute as pure and simple as the sport we all love.

Come on, dive in!

Just over two years has passed since I popped along to Look Mum No Hands! for the Simpson Magazine launch. That night was a mix of friends, family and excited publishers – evidently a dream come true for a few pals with a vision of putting out a well made, delightfully designed and lovingly written magazine. Was there room for one more? Certainly. It’s still going strong with the same charm and care the initial arrival heralded. Dig the new breed indeed.

The same care and attention now extends to Simpson’s kit. With a day’s notice I was tempted by one of my riding pals to jump in a van and scarper off to France, trading laptop watching for some in-the-flesh TDF. “Damn, I wished I’d grabbed a Simpson CC top” I thought, as I threw assorted items into a bag. Via the power of Twitter I asked if there was any hope of grabbing a jersey before leaving. Writing this now I don’t really know just what I was expecting as an answer - “yeah mate, we will bike one over”? Two hours later I was trading money I probably needed for food for a new top and matching socks at a clandestine hook-up at the nearest Northern Line tube station. That is some service (the jersey and the tube network).

Despite my best efforts I don’t entirely look pro. I’m certainly a few pints of real ale the wrong side of Chris Froome’s shape. A quick glance at Strava confirms I don’t ride very much like a pro either. But in the right clobber and with the right shoes and a carefully procured sun tan, it’s possible with a splash of escapism to feel pro. In a similarly dramatic and fascinated-with-sport way that I’d scream “Neeskens!” when kicking one of those cheap plastic newsagent-supplied footballs back in the 70s past a set of rolled up parkas, I did have the odd moment climbing in the Alps when I allowed myself to have my pain and suffering described by the commentator’s voice in my head. I’m sure there’s a Dutch corner joke there too but I’m too worn out to make it.

So what of the “Simpson CC”? Does it actually exist? Is this another of those gangs of earnest-looking Sunday riders who grind past solo riders without a perfunctory nod, let alone a smile? Well no, it’s more a statement of intent, a show of support and, from what I can tell, a commitment to that famous Eddy quote about just riding your bike. It seems to be a cycling gang whose members are far less likely to spend their time bragging about who has the fastest segment or who got dropped. The only award you’re likely to get with this lot is nicest bloke you met that day. Fancy that!

By the way, the jersey is as good as anything I’ve got in terms of quality and that design…well, you can see for yourselves that it’s got the same panache as the mag. Hurry up and dive in.

A tale of the unexpected

However hard you train for that event you've targeted, on the day there are so many variables that nothing can be certain. You can (and should) prepare as meticulously as possible but you should also prepare for the unexpected.

Having identified last weekend's Suffolk-based Crafted Classique 100-miler as 'something to aim for', we spent several months building training frequency and mileage until we finally felt reasonably confident of achieving a respectable time.

That's the thing with time chip technology - a sportive becomes, on one level, a mission to propel a digital chip across the line in the shortest possible time. With these chips now automatically associated with the rider numbers securely attached to your bike, there's no escaping that all-important finishing time.

Part of the fun of these events is in the planning and anticipation of the build-up. Piece by piece, you put in place all the essentials. How are you going to get to the start? Are you travelling there on your own or with a fellow rider? Have you got a kit checklist ready? On the day you must ensure that you get yourself to the sign on in good time and equip yourself with a route map. And then you must plan where to meet with friends after the ride and get yourselves home again.

During this obsessional planning period, you become an avid devotee of the long term weather forecast. There's nothing you can really do about it, of course, apart from taking along the appropriate kit. For some, these events present an opportunity (or excuse) to refresh their cycling wardrobe - 'go on...treat yourself!'

We rode last year's event as an informal team but this year saw us ride as Simpson CC. We actively encouraged our readers to join us for the ride and ended up with a good mix of natural rouleurs, confident clubmen and racing veterans, all eager to devour 100 miles of beautiful Suffolk countryside. These guys could set a good pace and maintain it for the duration.

In the end, we split into two groups from the very start, mainly due to varying arrival times. The faster guys were already on the start line as the others arrived to sign on. The weather was good - maybe too good, with baking heat becoming a hydration factor. With high average speeds being clocked up everything looked set for a quick finishing time until one of our riders was taken ill.

When this happens, you must prioritise. Targets and training clearly take second place to a fellow rider's wellbeing. The race against the clock ended there and the final 40 miles became more of a survival challenge. We eased back on the pedals and started to chat on subjects far removed from our present situation. Reaching the finish line now had a different meaning.

We're pleased to say that everyone did make it back in one piece and the ride was still an amazing experience. But it means that we now have a 2016 ride target already in place - not that any excuse was really necessary.