More Tour of Britain excitement as Stage 7 runs through the county.

Stage 7 of the Tour of Britain left Hatherleigh at 10.15 this morning (18th Sept.), and took a route via Crediton and over Cadbury Hill ( KOM ) and down to Seaton, which was also enjoying the Seaton Festival of Cycling.
Local cycling enthusiats were out in force and lanes and roads of Mid and East Devon were packed with people enjoying the dayout watching the tour.

It was a win for the Brits. today with Ben Swift taking the sprint at Yeovil.
Swift, 21, from Rotherham, out-sprinted his Katusha team-mate Filippo Pozzato to record Britain's first stage win in the event since 2007.
It's his first victory since turning professional at the start of the year.
Norwegian star Boasson Hagen finished third today to retain the overall lead going into Saturday's final stage in London.

	RESULTS ON BBC SPORT KOM at Cadbury on Youtube
Photos at PIXELWORKZ	MORE ON CYCLING WEEKLY

Dartmoor Devil - 25th October.

Dartmoor Devil Beckons.

As the sun beats down during this late summer, it's easy to forget that the DARTMOOR DEVIL is only five weeks away.

Entries are now rolling in fast so enter today to avoid disappointment. Two starts again this year 8am, and 9am, with the legendary Pepperdon Hill near the start of the ride, and the usual Widdecombe Hill at the end.

There is a new soup control for 2009.
This weekends 100 miles in 8 hours is an ideal training opportunity.
For full details and an entry form visit: www.dartmoordevil.co.uk

TESLA - Electric Super-Car

Outrage at Daily Mail "cyclists hate" page by James Martin.

The Daily Mail OnLine does it again. Celebrity Chef and columnist James Martin has done a feature on the Tesla Electric Car, in which during a test drive he reports that he used it to terrify a group of cyclists in a country lane.
However the makers of the TESLA car have distanced themselves from his outrageous comments, and Brad Wiggins has been using his Twitter pages to focus complaints to the paper.
Read the Mail Online article <<HERE>>
View TESLA's response at BikeBIZ <<HERE>>

South West Velodrome plans - hopes fading.

It's feared that plans for a sports centre in Kingsteignton which would feature an outdoor velodrome may now not come to fruition. Prior to the May elections the £20m project seemed well on it's way to becoming reality with Devon County Cllr. John Smith firmly behind the project
Cllr.Smith lost his seat in the election to Cllr. Mike Walters, -MDCC chairman Andrew Parker approached Cllr.Walters recently, and found he was non-commital.
It also appears that the new administration at Devon County Council will be holding a feasibility study for the project and a date for this has yet to be fixed.

High hopes for South Hams record turnout.

Recent CTC events have had record breaking turnout's so hopes are high that the South Hams Audax events this year will also be record breaking. The Grunters 150Km event, and the South Hams Audax 100Km event are on 6th September.

Full entry details are <<HERE>>

Heart FM - have your say about irritating cyclists?

A good Heart is hard to find!

Local cyclists have been outraged by a radio phone in on local networked station HEART FM.

During today's (19th August) Breakfast Show callers were invited to ring in and "say things that irritated them about cyclists".

Complaints about the show have been sent to the station, and circulated to authorities and councillors and the South West MP, cyclist Ben Bradshaw.

The presenter who was standing-in for Matt Rogan suggested that the "type" that cycle to work aren't too bad but it's the serious cyclists' that are the problem.
CTC hope he will shortly become educated with the fact that cycling is a solution and not a problem.

OKCC - 100 mile reliability run - 16th August.

This weekend there is a 100mile reliability ride, to be completed within 8 or 10 hours.
It's organised by Okehampton CC ( OKCC) and is a recognised event for part of the Devon CTC Touring Competition.
It's quite a hilly ride, so a reasonable challenge for those wanting a hard days riding.

The start is at Mole Avon car park, Grid ref: SX 610954, Sunday 16th August 2009 @ 9.00am

ENTRY FORM LINK HERE

ROUTE SHEET LINK HERE

CTC EVENTS PAGES HERE

Ursula Gibbings

CTC Torbay - Ladies Section Morning Rides
Ursula Gibbings is starting the C T C Torbay Ladies Section Morning Rides next Monday, 3rd August.
This is a ladies only ride starting from Sainsburys Bottle Bank Car Park in Newton Abbot at 09.30 am. and cycling out to a cafe in the area and back to Newton Abbot in time to get home for lunch.
We hope that the lady riders in the club will turn out for this inaugural ride and look forward to make it a regular thing on Monday mornings.
Ursula can be contacted on 'ugibbings@btinternet.com' if you require any further information.

Mike Batchelor locating photos..

Give us a clue!

Riders in this weekends CTC Vernon Deith Memorial Treasure Hunt managed to dodge the worst of the heavy showers, and navigated a fine route from Escot near Fairmile down to Budleigh Salterton, and back. There were 20 clues to be found along the 26 mile route with a photo location memory test at the finish.
A report of the days events from John Rowland is <<HERE>>

To View the results of the event organised by Kirby James, and the Touring Competition and overall placings
<<CLICK HERE>>

JUL
2009

Roy at Land's End with Pippa and Lexi.

Roy completes 1200 mile End to End trip.

Roy Russell from CTC Exeter has completed his ride from John O' Groats to Lands End.
You can read his blog of the ride <<HERE>>
His ride was also to raise money for the South West based charity Shelterbox.

Notes from his last day blog:
"The shortest route from John O'Groats is 874 miles, I've stretched this to 1,230 miles. Time for a celebratory pot of tea and words of encouragement to other cyclists about to set off in the other direction. We then followed the NCN route back to Penzance, stopping for lunch at Lamorna Cove and my first Cream Tea of the year in Penzance. Back home by train in time for Tea. Thank you to all my supporters and sponsors."

Last chance to enter this weekends events.

Over 100 people have now signed up to the Audax rides from Newton Abbot this weekend. There are a few spare cards left and there will be some route sheets available, but on the line entries will be limited to the spaces available and on a first come-first served basis.

Roys ride supporting Shelterbox.

Roy's JOGLE

Roy Russell is well on his way down the country on his trip from John O'Groats to Lands End.
Today he will reach Ironbridge before a rest day tomorrow, - you can view the report of his ride <<HERE>>

10th Anniversary of the "Nello" Force Charity Event

This Sunday 28th June also sees the tenth running of the FORCE cancer charity event based at Topsham.
The event follows the local training route ridden by Marc Millon and Nello Ghezzo in preparation for their epic ride from Topsham to Venice in 1997. Nello tragically died of cancer in 1999 and this cycle ride, at the end of June, has become an annual tribute to Nello.

<<CLICK HERE>> for more information.

2008 2007

Preparations under way for the Cyclosportive.

Many local CTC riders will be joing almost 2000 others in this weekends Dartmoor Classic Cyclosportive.
There are two century routes, 100Km and 100 miles both taking in the high moorland. On the 100 mile route there is over 9000 feet of climbing.
Gold medal standard is 6hrs 35min.

CTC will have a display stand at the "Depart Village" on Saturday, where there will be numerous other trade stands and displays.

Forecast for Sunday is very warm, and it may be quite humid on the higher terrain. Good luck to everyone riding.

Full details at: www.dartmoorclassic.co.uk

Ken Middlemiss - DC Cyclosportive '08

Ken Middlemiss transferred to Mount Gould

Ken Middlemiss from Yealmpton has been transferred from the Derifford Hospital to Mount Gould Hospital in Plymouth.

His recovery and rehabilitation is expected to take a long time, however his condition continues to improve.
Ken is keen Sportif and Audax rider, and ride with Yealm Rouleurs and the Plymouth Yogiis.

Exeter's Cycle Sunday

Cycle Sunday is this weekend 21st June.
There are a whole of cycling related events and fun things to do including a Unicycle display and and a Cycle Circus.
There are also 6 mile and 12 mile family cycle rides in aid of the FORCE Cancer Charity.

Littlehempston

Sixty cyclists support Littlehempston Bike Ride.

Sixty cyclists took part in a cycle ride between Littlehempston and Totnes Plains last weeeknd.
The ride was in support of a proposed route to link the two communities, and has support from the authorities.

Route planning at the start.

Mike Batchelor - making notes.

Sunny clues for tourists.

The sun shone brightly on a warm breezy day in Topsham for the Map reading tourist competition.
National stalwarts Mike Batchelor and Mark Beauchamp were there to pick up as many points as possible, - the route was up to 27 miles with a 9.5 mile compulsory loop around Woodbury Common.
Part of the Devon CTC Touring Competition, and also qualifying for the national competition - results can be found on our website by clicking <<HERE>>
The next events are the Torplex and Devon Delight rides - see above.

Exmouth Exodus & Valley of the Rocks this weekend.

It's going to be a busy weekend for cyclists in the South West.
At 8am on Saturday 6th June riders will set off on the Valley of the Rocks 200Km organised by Ian Hennessey.
Later that evening at 10pm riders assemble near the Clifton Suspension Bridge for the moonlit dash to Exmouth.
The weather forcast is a bit dubious for both rides, hopefully riders will miss the worst of the weather.
On Sunday the Devon & Somerset 100Km event starts at Honiton at 9am.