Colin H

It's all happening on Planet Jet this week.
 
We are all sorry and at the same time delighted to report that Sarah Bradford is moving on from the club. For season 2016 Sarah is moving up to Team Jadan, a women's race team based in Yorskhire.
 
She is guesting with them this week at the An Post Rás na mBan, Ireland's premier women's road race. 
This is a 5 day, six stage race covering 400km with an international field of over 100 riders.

Full race info at http://www.rasnamban.com/ including a start sheet showing some big names.

No results from this evening's opening 68km stage yet, but our spies tell us Sarah had a safe bunch finish. Keep tuned in for more!

Congratulations on the new team Sarah - but come back and see us please!
 
(pic shows Sarah in tonight's first stage - 4th rider from left)

Jets Danny Mulholland and Gemma Penman were selected to race for Scotland as part of the 8 rider team that smashed it at the BC inter-regional champs in Manchester last weekend.
 
The inter-regional track champs is a huge event in the u16 racing calendar. It's only opportunity for our Scottish u16 riders to wear national colours, competing against 12 other regional teams from across the UK over 3 days.
 
This was the first time Scotland has ever won the event, and I'm chuffed to say our Jets played their role in a dominant team performance.
 
Danny was one of 2 endurance riders in the boys team, alongside Joe Nally of Hardie Bikes and sprinters Lewis Stewart (Glasgow Riderz) and Stephen Dent (Nevis Bikes). Gemma was joined by fellow sprinter Amber King of Stirling Bike club, and endurance riders Jenny Holl and Rhona Callander (also SBC).
 
Gemma won silver in the standing 250m time trial and team sprint. Danny missed the individual podium, but came soooo close with 4th in the devil, madison (with Joe) and skills challenge. 
 
The girls madison team went better, winning gold, and the boys went even better in the team sprint, taking gold and a new national record. Hot stuff.
 
Scotland team coach John Bremner (Discovery Junior CC) paid credit to all the riders, saying he'd never worked with such a dedicated and disciplined team in his life. Youth racing looking good in Scotland.
 
Mon the Jets.
 
M
 
 

Sold

I'm selling my TT bike-a few of you may have seen it as you overtook me on the Georgetown over the las couple of seasons.
 
It's a 56cm aluminium frame with FSA headset & specialized carbon seatpost.
 
Zipp carbon 808 wheelset
Ultegra calipers
Ultegra 10 speed rear mech
Ultegra front mech
SRAM Red carbon chainset
SRAM carbon brake levers
Vision carbon tri bars
Microshift carbon bar end shifters
Bontrager TT saddle
 
£1125 ovno
 
Can send pics or you can come view/try it.

Well its been a while folks since I last posted.
 
Finally decided to put this cycling malarkey to some good use and doing a charity ride home from work.
 
So what I hear you say.........thing is I' am working in Aberdeen at the moment and still live in Houston. That's circa 175 miles in a day.
 
A wee link to my charity giving page in the email title (couldn't get it to show up down here). Please give what you can.
 
Intending on posting a tracker on the day (Friday 28th August) so anyone who wants to join in around Glasgow probably circa 1800) is more than welcome.
Cheers
 
Colin
 
 

Well its been a while folks since I last posted.
 
Finally decided to put this cycling malarkey to some good use and doing a charity ride home from work.
 
So what I hear you say.........thing is I' am working in Aberdeen at the moment and still live in Houston. That's circa 175 miles in a day.
 
A wee link to my charity giving page in the email title (couldn't get it to show up down here). Please give what you can.
 
Intending on posting a tracker on the day (Friday 28th August) so anyone who wants to join in around Glasgow probably circa 1800) is more than welcome.
Cheers
 
Colin
 
 

Spotted Richard too today in my work for tea & biscuit :-)
 
Then later, Colin Howard - lunch time in Glasgow toon centre.
Looking well & tanned :-) in civilian clothing, had a wee blether with him. Great to hear he's well & on the bike whenever he can!
 
Hope to see you on the road soon!
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Might actually get round to trying a couple of races this year. Any proposals for training this year?
 
Also does anybody have a map of he Glennifer Braes course from last year?

Colin,
 
The eerie silence to your query, probably means "No". 
 
I plan to race as much as reasonably practical this year so hopefully will have some Yellow and Blue company at a few races. I have entered the Bute "open" race so the agony starts on Saturday.
 
Re. training I am still trying to regain some fitness from my lay-off and through some research on the cyclo cross sites have been concentrating on "tabata" intervals - basically blocks of short (20 second) intervals with an even shorter 10 second rest, sounds simple enough but which in reality is horrendous. This mixed in with a few Sufferfest videos to get some longer intervals will hopefully do the trick.
 
Weekends will probably see me in Parkhill woods but wouldn't mind finding a more cross like circuit as the rocks and roots are a wee bit extreme and have led to some problems running lower pressures on my tubeless rims (burping).
 
As for honing my very modest skills, my remounts are still useless and will no doubt remain so, but in terms of handling and control if you can run on tubeless or tubs at lower pressures it makes an unbelievable difference. Swapping from canti's to disc brakes has also been a revelation with the novel feature of having brakes that actually slow you down.
 
Would be good to get a few more bodies racing as it is one of the more fun ways to race on your bike.
 
Cheers,
Davie

Good to see you out again Colin!
 
I was in a group of three (with Kenny Christie) who passed the other way between BOW and Brookfield - we shouted once we recognised it was you, but the moment was passed.
 
Hope to see you on the road soon.
 
Iain

Ideally a closed road circuit where multiple races can be held back to back ( we need an Ingliston in the West) this would allow beginners women races as well as Vets categories. Paul and Mul will remember when we ran a series of crits at Glengarnock when the surface was good . Different club running events weekly . The circuit was fast safe and very tough to get a breakaway , tough uphill finish toward Beith road to sort out finishers. Mul will also remember plans for closed road circuit at Linwood sports centre from early days of Jets. They have a circuit in Jersey where this type of racing takes part weekly . Its in a local park and when the flags are flying dog walkers ,joggers etc know to keep roadway clear . Maybe a dream but so was a Velodrome a few years ago . Good to see WOSCA moving forward with the help of Mr Mulhooligan well done !!

Thanks Paul! Yes, managed to pull out an 8th place finish in the national 25.
 
I wasn't really feeling great after a busy week and a couple of injury tweaks but decided to ride anyway. I've got a good warmup routine going so got set up and ready to go.
 
There are a few dragging hills on the course, and these are what I was worried about, but I managed to keep up a good 25-27mph on most of them, and also negotiated the 15 or so roundabouts at a good speed too so kept the average speed up nicely. I really enjoyed the downhill and tailwind bits and was flying along at between 31-36mph.
 
I came in at the end with a 53:52, a good two and a half minutes up on my PB, and I sat in the GSK social club in the lead untill the last seven, and in the end, fastest riders. I was quite close to Ben in 7th, and a minute off 4th so quite pleased with the result at the end!

Four of our Jets gained entry to the International Youth Tour at the weekend, organised by Cycling Development North West
 
Danny Mulholland - Youth A Boys
Sarah Bradford - Youth A Girls
Jess Millar - Youth A Girls
Lusia Steele - Youth B Girls
 
The event is part of the BC National Series and is five stages over three days at closed circuit venues in Preston, Blackpool and Lancaster. (The facilities at Preston and Lancaster would make any Scottish cyclist weep)
 
Being part of the National Series, this event attracts the best from the UK and Ireland and our youngsters represented the yellow and blue of Johnstone extremely well with consistent, attacking riding at the front of the respective bunches with the Jets joining the breaks, driving the bunch and featuring in the final sprints. The aggressive, thoughtful type of riding that the youngsters are being encouraged to produce
 
A summary of the Tour is on the BC website
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20140525-road-Latest-news-from-the-2014-North-West-Youth-Tour-0 with further info and a host of pics on the Jets Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/JohnstoneJets?ref=tn_tnmn
 
As coaches, we know that we have other riders who can compete at this level and we'll look to take a larger Johnstone representation next year
 
Full results are now available on the CDNW site
http://www.cdnw.org/NWYT_Stage_Results.html

http://youtu.be/LMrlCpLRIXU

Not for me this weekend Darryl. Just thought you might like the video.

http://youtu.be/LMrlCpLRIXU

What option are you thinking of opting for Graham? I think I'll leave from Miller St, but haven't done the ride before so not too sure of the routes once at Dunoon.

Personally, I'm not fussy. The consensus on this post is for 1000 so 1000 it is. Its a sunday run and that it shall be. No need to skelp it to the ferry, plenty time to go skelpin down loch eck!!
 
Greg

Well, this is morning after our Paris Roubaix & we all survived to tell the tales!
 
I just want to echo Billy's comment, indeed this was extremely HARD both for man & machine.
170km, 28 sectors of horrible pave which tried it's very best to throw you off the bike, but amazingly we all manage to stay up right and finished in one piece. In fact I don't think I've actually saw anyone fell off on the Pave, although Big Al Yullie had a wee incident, he clip the kerb on a road section while trying to "protect" me of some bollards ahead, what gent! :-)
We were also lucky on the mechanical front too, only one puncture, one dropped chain & a few lost bottle between the lot of us, not bad at all everything considered.
 
Personally, I think this was the hardest thing I've done on a bike!
I knew this was very hard but when having not done enough training due to my recent fight with a bollard, it wasn't ideal for me but I decided to do it anyway given the fact I paid & organized it already not to mention getting new set of wheels built for this.
It was an early 4am start to a really chilly day but weather improved as the day went on.
 
Anyway, 13 of us set off as a group eagerly waiting to hit the first sector of Pave. But when I hit the I first, boy did I feel like crying, it was nothing I've ever experienced before. I had my hands on the drops thinking if something happens I'm close to the brakes, I've been told only the either ride on the drops or top, never on the hood. While on the pave, you & bike are thrown violently from all directions with absolutely no control of the bike at all, this of course slows you right down & this just makes it much worse. I have to admit I want to quit after the first sector, I was deliberately looking out for some support vehicle or broom wagon. Luckily I got a toll from Tom & Andy (Martins Eastcoast pal) and manage to get through 6 sectors before we rejoined the group waiting at the first feed stop. By then I was still in sh*ty mood as I did not enjoy one second of it at all.
 
At this point I must say a big THANKS to all my fellow wheelers - Al, AllanM, Billy, Charlie, Greg, Iain, Mark, Martin, Paul & Tom and Martin's 2 friends Andy & Garvin for getting me through this. They waited, regroup, feed & water me along the way. I honestly think that I wouldn't have done it without you guys help.
 
As the sector came thick & fast I manage to felt a lot more comfortable on them to the point of date I say "enjoyed" them. But the 5 star "Trouee d'Arenberg" was the worst of all, big massive stones stopping every momentone of you have of going forward & it's long and straight. The sectors are graded 2-5 stars, 5 being the hardest of course and there was three 5 star ones. In a way, this wasn't a bike ride in the usual sense but more an obstacle course, as Chris Boardman said "the PR is a circus show"!
 
After a long day on the saddle, we all made it to the famous Roubaix Velodrome as one big group, riding the track & finishing altogether - pure brilliant. One fellow English PRer on the road summed it up quite well, "that's some Sunday Club run you guys are doing"!
To be honest, I got a bit emotional when I cross the finish. I honestly did not think I could make it, but again I want to thanks my team mate for getting me through this!
 
Now, we going to watch how it should be done proper!
 
Thanks for reading
 
Cheers
 
Chung

Yep no fast forwarding through this one .....first "classic" edition of the new route.
 
Interesting comments regards doing the sportive again I was thinking the very same thing, followed the next day by the worlds best bacon rolls at the bottom of the Koppenberg.
 
A plan for 2015.

Eventually settled for the following :-
 
Erskine Bridge, Stockiemuir, Killearn, Fintry, Carron Valley then the wee single track over to St Ninian (Stirling), over the Clackmannanshire Bridge, east to Dunfermline, Kingseat, Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Cardenan, Kinglassie, Glenrothes, Cupar and the final destination of Carphin House... the first beer never even touched the sides on the way down..
 
I pretty much had a tailwind all the way apart from the Kincardine to Dunfermline stretch, the last bit from Glenrothes to Cupar when the wind had really picked up and goes between pan flat and slightly downhill was a hoot at 27-33mph for about 13 miles without working very hard...103.1 miles in total
 
the first part of the journey to Stirling was very scenic, i love that wee singe track from Carron Valley Dam into St Ninian's, not the best surface, but I like the remoteness and the views from the top are awesome... cycling through Fife didn't give me the same fuzzy feeling though, quite a few really inconsiderate drivers en route, and it is such a shame to see some of the mining villages that I assume were once bustling with energy and character now looking really tired and lifeless places..
 
I then proceeded to completely overindulge in food and bevvy for 2 days, undoing any good i might have done on the trip through..
 

The out leg on that course seems to go on forever!!!!!! You can see the turn from miles away but it doesnt ever seem to come to you. Good early season indicator of form. Good rides by all,
 
Colin.

Can't believe it's five years since we lost Davie
 
Seems like yesterday we were riding carefree and joking on bunch runs and planning / developing a youth section for the club
 
Such a character and it was only when he was gone did I realise how big a part he played in so many other peoples' lives outside the club and how little I knew of him off the bike

Right, here are the times from today, although the championship results are based on handicap times, so everyone will need to wait until the dance to find out who the winners are.
 
1 - Alan T & Elaine M - 19:12
2 - Elaine S & Greg S - 20:51
3 - Carol C & Dave C - 21:05
4 - David T & Campbell - DNF (David didnae feel so good! - hope you are better David)
 
AL also had a spin and did a 15:59.
 
£27 collected.
 
Couple of photos below (thankfully I'm better at time keeping than photography).
 

Sold/bought