Friday 5^th January saw the return of the Friday night Wattbike league at Friary Grange Leisure Centre. The Wattbike league is based on the type of racing commonly seen at indoor velodromes and provides 5 different events for each competitor to participate in. Riders are split into 3 groups of 10 riders.

The first race of the evening was the 500m time trial, Chris Stilgoe blasted to the fore with a 33.25 second ride ahead of Beth Clayton’s time of 34.39; David Beattie made his first appearance at a wattbike event and came third with a 34.85 ride.

In group 2 Neil McDonald’s time of 30.83 ensured him of the win ahead of Steve Clarke in 31.02. Tony Wrighton’s 31.32 earned him third place. With both groups having such close finishing times between the top 3 riders all eyes turned to Group 3 to provide similar racing. Clearly, Ian Beard had not read the script so far and powered away to win in 26.31 seconds. David Hirons 27.63 gained second place but was still 2 seconds clear of Steve Clayton who finished third in 29.95.

Race organisers in a cruel streak according to the riders then imposed the distance races as the next event. Normally left to the end of the evening, this promised to turn proceedings upside down. The sprinters could find themselves too fatigued to gain valuable league points, although the riders who preferred the longer distances could suffer even more in the later sprint based events.

Group 1 also had to contend with an extra kilometre, being made to ride 3 instead of the normal 2. Beth Clayton showed her form by winning in 4.20.62 with Chris Stilgoe second and Alison Holmes coming through to third. In group 2 meanwhile Rob Cox continued his good form in the distance races to secure first place in 4.08.86, Tim Challinor was second and chris parlour took third.

Group 3 race over the 4000m distance, Matt Gee’s ride of 4.56.86 secured him first place and a new event distance record. Steve Clayton finished in 5.06.17 with Graham Birch taking third.

A short respite in the evening’s races allowed riders time to recuperate whilst the teams were decided for the next event: The Team Sprint. Each rider completes in turn 250m their cumulative time deciding the placings. Organisers try to team riders together with the aim of creating an evenly matched race. Debbie Capewell and David Beattie took the honours in Group 1, giving Debbie her second team Sprint win in 2 weeks. In Group 2 Tony Wrighton and Pat Staite won whilst in Group 3 Ian Beard and Phil Kelly took the honours

The Devil race, with pre-determined distances used to eliminate the last rider to reach it, guarantees fast and furious racing in which tactics are all important. Alison Holmes did enough to ensure she wasn’t eliminated in any of the sprints and finished ahead of Beth Clayton in second and David Beattie in 3^rd. Tim Challinor proved the stronger rider in Group 2 ahead of Chris parlour and Rob Cox. Matt Gee, Steve Clayton and Graham Birch finished in that order for Group 3.

The 500m Handicap event, the last of the evening, sees riders set of at intervals dependant on their times in the 500m time trial event. If the handicapping is done well it should see all riders crossing the line together. It does however rely on the riders not holding back in the first event, as if they would consider doing so!

Anne Robinson held on in Group 1 to win ahead of  Alison Holmes and Debbie Capewell. Pat Staite took the first place in Group 2 but was hotly pursued by Tim Challinor and Rob Cox. In Group 3 meanwhile Ian beard proved to be the 500m specialist taking the final event  despite being set off las with a 5 second deficit. Ian Simms took second and matt gee 3rd

By the end of the evening Alison Holmes and Beth Clayton tied for first place overall in Group 1, Chris parlour and Tim Challinor also tied for the top place in Group 2. Group 3 was more decisive as Ian beard took the overall ahead of Matt Gee and Steve Clayton.

If you would like to participate in this event which is open to anyone to do so please contact Nigel Capewell on 07768 560932 or Phil Kelly at the leisure centre on 01543 308842. Full results and details are available on www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/wattbikes

In Nottingham today I was watching a guy training on his time trial bike – round and round Holme Pierrepont (National Watersports Centre), it was 2°C. I was struck by the difference in training between the amateurs and professionals, and the misery of riding in the winter in the UK. Even if you are lucky enough to have a closed road circuit like the road around Holme Pierrepont you still have to wear every piece of clothing that you own, dodge the bird spotters and geese, but at least it wasn’t raining. 

Also riding around the lake today were a father and young son on their mountain bikes and a guy who was doing a wheelie all the way around – pretty impressive really. It always strikes me as a shame that more people do not make use of the facilities at Holme Pierrepont and probably reflects the activity levels of most people in the UK. With 9 out of 10 of the current generation of primary school kids facing obesity as adults (and as children for that matter) what is the country doing to turn this worrying pattern around – spending £200 million on an advertising campaign (Change4Life) and website to help people get more active. So how is that going to help? Well if you did not know that kids should be active then it tells you that – thanks! Apparently 60 minutes per day. Then there is a list of activites in the local area – I was interested in cycling so it supplies a list of cycling clubs, not where to go cycling with your family, not a link to a site with a list of cycle routes but a list of competitive clubs. No investment in infrastructure just telling people what they should do!

How about sign posting people to things that they can do for free. Or maybe spending some of that £200 million on providing activities that people can do for free. Or ride on the back of British Cycling’s success and get people riding more by encouraging them to ride to work, ride with their family or go mountainbiking.

I suppose it is a start though, and at least they are doing something. Of course it would be easier to get people active if there was more access to either better weather (we are not all Lance Armstrong) or inexpensive indoor facilities, so lets see if this advertising campaign will make any difference or whether it will just be a waste of tax payers money in a time that we could probably do with using it to bail out the Brown Government.