2012 freewheel winner John Keen maintained bragging rights for another year as he took victory on a very windy Siddington Hill which saw probably the shortest freewheel competition in the club’s history.
A good crowd rolled up to the Legion this morning, the 2 inches of snow on Friday evening had been washed away by heavy rain and improved tempatures on Saturday. Although the wind bitter, the temperature wasn’t too bad (and compared to previous weeks were a barmy 6 degrees C). A small group headed for training miles with Kempy while a good 20 headed to the freewheel champs at Siddington. You know it’s an occasion when you get Westy and Tommo rolling up for a second club run in as many weeks! It was also good to have Kev and El on board recovering their legs from a tricky Saturday off road ride.
The freewheel champs awaited but first we had to get there. Firstly we headed through the center of Northwich (I know we like to live on the edge sometimes, taking on the mini-roundabout at 10.45am on a Sunday). Luckily we didn’t get run over but we came across the first problem of the day as we headed through Marbury. Ice and snow, shadowed beneath trees meant that bikes were unmounted as we trekked avec cleats through the snow.
Much swearing, cursing, digging out of cleats and threatening of Al’s life later we headed up through Great Budworth and round the back of Pickmere to Knutsford. It was here, just along from Arley Hall, that our next problem arose. Ady Japp punctured, or should I say went direct into a massive crater. A bang and an instant cry of “puncture” went through the bunch. Repaired we continued around the back of Tatton Park to Ashley and then Mobberley. It was as we headed through Warford we came across out third problem of the day.
Ady Japp yet again had decided to ride straight into a pothole. You may imagine the amount of taking the piss happened after this. It was at this point that Al decided to tell our new members what the freewheel was all about. This then set off a whole lot of trash talking for the next 15 minutes with Jim declaring that John Keen had cheated last year by weaving (they used some other term I can’t remember), at which point Steve Thomas proudly stated that he had won it 4 times and would be victorious once again, while Jim reminded him that he had also won it 4 times. If we hadn’t moved on at this point I’m sure accusations of doping, dubious weight gain and all sorts would have started.
So we got to the top of Siddington Hill and what a view.
The view from the top as request by El.
Us lot on the hill. Fortunately Cheshire Police were on hand to keep autograph hunters at bay.
Josh and Mike head off on their way.
Thanks to incredible winds, the majority of us could only manage a quarter of the way down the hill.
Even Carol couldn't manage it on her posh new bike...
- But Elaine had skillz to pay the billz and managed to continue on down the hill. Along with Mike & Jim who had earlier gone further down…
- But so did John Keen.
Steve Thomas came down fighting, he went on down the hill...But so did John Keen.
And so it happened. We descended, chains removed to seal our fate. It ended up being the shortest freewheel in the club’s history with riders pulling to a halt just a quarter of the way down due to the wind. A handful of riders broke clear, Mike, Jim, Tommo, Jim and Elaine with some great skills to keep the bike rolling. As the rest of us rolled down to see who won we found John Keen hands aloft having beaten Steve Thomas by literally a few inches.
After beans on toast at Henbury we headed back home which included the sprint at Lach Dennis which saw a few shoulders bumping and grinding to get wheels with Wood fending off Al “the cannon” Silver to take the win.
A great day, very funny and all good fun. The serious stuff starts from next weekend. Holt and for the long run, a 9.30 start to Llandegla. The next 2 weekends will be critical for Llanberis training, fingers crossed for good weather.