VCC is honoured to host the WCA 12-hour championship on September 1st 2024.
And to mark to occasion we’ve come up with a new logo!
Entries are available here: SOLO // TANDEM
Category: Announcements
Result booklet
Some info to accompany the official result from our TT event on August 13.
2023-VCC25-ResultSheetA happy new year for VCC!
VCC riders have made a superb start to 2023, notching up multiple club records, PBs and podium positions.
Let’s start at the very beginning; a very good place to start. The Cardiff 100 Miles RCC kicked things off with their annual New Year’s Day TT event, this time on the R10/9 course which starts near the RAF base at St Athan and turns at the BA maintenance depot at Cardiff Airport. You wouldn’t call it a sporting course but, as ten-milers go, it’s not the flattest either. More significant is the exposed nature of the track. At that time of year the weather is, well, changeable and this can make it a challenge just to stay upright — especially if you’re using a disk wheel!
Ten hardy riders took to the course that day, including three from VCC. Our thanks go to Kyle Blackmore, James McGrath and Lewis Richards who did us proud by occupying three of the first five places on the day. Huge congratulations to you, chaps. Your three rides take our tally for the course up to eight overall, and they represent the quickest three we’ve registered.
Previously the VCC course record stood at 25m 58s, courtesy of Jeff Rees on a warm July evening in 2021 (in generous conditions that produced the all-time course record). All three VCC riders smashed Jeff’s club record on NYD 2023 but technically speaking, because of their starting positions, the club record was broken only twice. Lewis went off at 13:11 on the day, and returned 23m 48s later to snatch the record that Jeff had held for eighteen months. However, Lewis’ hold on the record lasted less than two minutes as it was immediately improved by Kyle Blackmore who had started four minutes later and returned in 21m 36s. James started a further four minutes behind Kyle, and stopped the clock at 23m 46s — again, a massive improvement on Jeff’s 2021 mark and good enough for fourth position on the day.
Kyle’s time clinched the overall win in the men’s event, nineteen seconds ahead of his nearest challenger. A superb start to the year and a fantastic result for the club — our first ever event win! With such an outstanding performance, especially given the course and the time of year, Kyle signalled that the all-time VCC 10-mile record would be under threat later in 2023. Once again, massive congratulations to all three.
Finally a special mention to a couple of very talented fourteen-year-olds. The juvenile divisions were clinched by Mabli Phillips (Maindy Flyers CC) and Alex Coles (Evolution Racing Academy) whose times of 25:49 and 22:19 were also good enough for 1st (female) and 3rd (male) in the overall standings. Bright futures for both, no doubt.
VCC explores a one-hour TT
We don’t know if this is feasible but for quite a while at VCC we’ve been looking at the possibility of running a one-hour time trial event and would love to hear from anyone interested in taking part, either as a rider or as a volunteer. The idea is inspired by cycling’s one-hour record and our local Welsh 12-hour TT event. So with regard to the latter, we’re exploring the idea of using the finishing circuit as a base for a Welsh one-hour TT — an anticlockwise loop of approximately 15.4 miles.
To make this work there are a few things to consider:
- We’d need a lot of timekeepers. The 12-hour event uses nine TKs and we should aim to match that. We wouldn’t necessarily need that many but, to state the obvious, the more the better.
- We’d need a few riders too. Whilst having more TKs is a good thing it also pushes up the cost of running the event, so we’d a decent number of entries to make it viable.
- We could possibly run it as a club event first, then apply any learned lessons in a subsequent open event.
- We’d have to consider riders’ likely performance levels and aim to have them finish towards the end of the dual carriageway section, or on the “back road”. We wouldn’t want them to finish near the start of the DC, as that would leave them with quite a trek to get back to the HQ.
- The ideal HQ would be Llanarth Village Hall.
If this sounds interesting then we’d love to hear from you. Please click here to give us your thoughts on the idea. Whether it’s to register your interest as a rider/volunteer, or to give us some food for thought, all contributions are very welcome.
Closing date approaches for our 15mi TT
We’re a few days out from the closing date for our next open TT event, which runs on the R15/5 course and offers a rare opportunity for a PB over the 15-mile distance.
If you’re familiar with the south Wales dragstrip known as the R10/17, this is effectively that course with a couple of miles tacked on at either end. The course records are 28:58 [male], 30:55 [female] and 29:42 [tandem].
Entries will close 23:59 on Sunday 10/7, with the start sheets published the following morning for an event that takes place on 17/7.
Here are the links you need.
And of course, you’re assured of the standard VCC treatment when it comes to the HQ experience at Llanarth Village Hall.
Hope to see you there.
VCC events for 2022
We’re very proud to be promoting SIX open TT events in 2022 at various distances and disciplines.
We start with an early season 10-mile event on the R10/22a in Resolven. This is a flat course turning at the Aberdulais roundabout and the event is ideal for beginners looking for an introduction to time trialling.
In May we move to the beautiful town of Usk for a 25-mile event on the R25/7 course. This is one of the quickest 25-mile courses in the UK, offering a generous downhill start and a predominantly dual-carriageway main section.
A couple of months later we have a 15-mile event on the R15/5 between Abergavenny and Raglan. For riders familiar with the rapid R10/17 course, this is effectively an extension of that (at both ends). This is a rare chance to set a 15-mile PB and the event features as part of the popular Celtic Series — allowing riders to collect points for themselves and their clubs towards the WCA seasonal awards. But there’s more! We’re also including a 4-up team time trial at this event. If you can rustle up a team of four you’ll get the chance to measure up against some of the quickest in the UK.
In August we return to Usk for a second spin around the R25/7 and this time our event incorporates the national VTTA championship.
We finish with two events on one day as we welcome riders to Treorchy, home of the best high street in the UK (and that’s official). These are a pair of hill climb events on the famous Bwlch and Rhigos mountain roads. They’re ideal preparation for the WCA hill climb championships the following week, if that’s your thing!
So we’re hoping that we have something for everybody here. Click below for more info.
Kyle storms to the VCC 100-mile title
First-year rider Kyle Blackmore clinched the club 100-mile title for 2021 at the challenging R100/1 course. Setting off at 8:56am Kyle was projected by the impressive Spindata site to finish 6th overall with home rider Chris Gibbard tipped for the top spot and the WCA championship that would come with it.
The event was hosted by our friends at Bynea CC and took place on a particularly hot day in west Wales. Depending on their cycling preference, riders either love or hate the R100/1 course. There are no junctions to worry about — it’s run entirely on the A40 — but this course is anything but dull. Instead it’s a constant challenge along a single carriageway road with constantly changing direction, elevation and surface. For this reason the organisers describe it as “good for the head” — a very dubious claim!
This might be Kyle’s debut TT season with VCC but he’s no rookie. The accomplished triathlete came into the event in great form, having finished in second place at a 25-mile event over a section of this course a fortnight earlier. The layout of the course meant that riders would pass in opposite directions several times and it was clear from this that Kyle was able to hold a tight aero position and quick tempo throughout. As it turned out, he completed the distance nicely inside the four-hour mark with a finishing time of 3:54:39 which placed him 5th in the final standings — one spot higher than the pre-race forecast. Huge congratulations to Kyle on a fantastic ride.
Bringing up the rear was VCC veteran Simon Kinsey who endured a terrible ordeal on a course that doesn’t suit him and had the added disadvantage of riding the last seventy miles without hydration (on a scorcher of a day). His finishing time of 5:38:37 was more than an hour outside his best at the distance and caused a little concern among the organisers who were beginning to fear he’d got lost (or worse)!
Event report, VCC 10-mile championship, 2020
At the 10-mile distance the 2020 VCC championship was decided at the FTP Racing event held on the U7B course near Bristol on August 29th. We’re grateful to our hosts for their superb organisation and communication throughout. The re-purposed bike rack was especially welcome at the start line, allowing riders to start the event safely.
Three VCC riders would contest the title and on recent form it shaped up to be a close battle.
Jeff Rees and Simon Kinsey made the journey from South Wales, where TT racing had been suspended since March, and were joined at the event by local rider Dan Laasna Reuter who has a love-hate relationship with this particular stretch of the A38.
All three had prior experience of the course, especially Dan, and a glance at their course PBs suggested he would start as favourite. Each rider had set his course PB at an event hosted by Severn RC in June 2019 — Dan 24:09, Jeff 24:54, Simon 25:16. So while Dan was clearly the man to beat based on that previous visit, he was continuing to recover from a calf injury that had bothered him for several months and was not expecting to reach those previous heights on this day.
The magnificent SpinData website also predicted a Dan-Jeff-Simon finish, though an unflattering prediction of 26:47 for Simon did raise some eyebrows — influenced, no doubt, by his shockingly poor performance at a 15-mile pre-lockdown event.
The riders would be encouraged in their efforts by VCC legend Justyn Cannon who spurred them up the final climb of the day and later remarked that the event had re-ignited his enthusiasm for a comeback.
First to the line was Simon, knowing that he faced a 5.5-mile headwind to the turn.and a steady 3.6-mile climb in the early stages. Simon doesn’t do climbs. This would call for a full-on effort from the start and, hopefully, a wind-assisted return if there was any fuel left in the tank.
Things are never easy on this course, the constantly changing road surface and the undulating profile preventing a consistent rhythm at any stage. But Simon set a decent pace from the start, reaching the turn ten seconds sooner than he had in 2019 (not that he knew it at the time). Things continued to go quite well until he reached the first of two railway crossings on the return leg. A close encounter with a van set him off balance for a little while, causing him to unclip one of his shoes and lose valuable time striving to regroup. He gave away all his gains in that mile and a similar portion in mile nine to finish with a time of 25:32 (unofficially), sixteen seconds down on his course PB. He knew this wouldn’t be enough to trouble his rivals on the day.
Starting 15 minutes behind Simon was Dan. Little is known about his in-ride experience. He returned to the HQ reporting a self-timed result of 25:02, which made him the clear clubhouse leader but gave Jeff a real chance of snatching the title. The coronavirus restrictions meant that there could be no results board at the HQ so the official result would not be known for some time. But if Jeff could get close to his 2019 performance the prestigious cycling title would be his.
Jeff was the final rider onto the road. He was concerned about being one of the last few riders on the start sheet, with several very rapid riders on his tail. As expected, the eventual race winner David Janes flew past him inside the first two miles. Jeff would later remark that he’d never been overtaken so early in a race or by a rider with such a speed differential. But that was it, no other rider would come past, which indicated a solid performance from Jeff given the relative PBs of all concerned.
The unofficial results pointed towards a narrow win for Jeff, his self-timed 24:56 giving him a six-second margin over Dan.
After their rides Simon and Dan waited for Jeff’s return, but were pressed for time and for obvious reasons were not permitted to linger near the HQ. So when Jeff nonchalantly sailed past the HQ toward his parked car, enough was enough. The official event photographer decided to hedge his bets and photograph Simon with the third-place medal and Dan with both first and second. Similarly, when Jeff eventually sauntered back to the HQ the photographer doubled up with a couple of photos of the former Welsh CX champion while everyone waited for the official result.
It was a sleepless night for the front two as they anxiously awaited news from the southwest. They’d refreshed the web page a thousand times each, to no avail. Simon was somewhat less concerned. But finally, at 10am the following morning, with the tension now unbearable, the FTP Racing officials released the news the world had been waiting for.
Simon’s time of 25:33 was 17 seconds slower than his course PB and gave him third place in the club championship. Dan had clocked 25:06 which was about a minute slower than his own course best and this opened the door for Jeff to claim the top prize with his 24:53.
. 
A man of few words at the best of times, Jeff was left utterly speechless as the magnitude of his achievement set in. The former Welsh cyclo-cross champion had now added the VCC 10-mile title to an already impressive palmarès. For all his success at the Olympics and the Tour de France, not even Sir Bradley could boast such achievements. Well, not yet anyway.