Pothole Mayhem

Potholes and road defects are more than just a nuisance; they’re a danger to cyclists and other road users. In the UK, there’s an average of one pothole for every 110 metres of road.
Devon County Council say they have filled in around 17000 holes recently, but roads and lanes are littered with them after the long cold winter.
Report dangerous holes via the CTC's own potholes reporting service: www.fillthathole.org.uk

Bovey Tracey 2009.

2010 Dartmoor Classic is half full!

If you want to ride the Dartmoor Classic Cyclosportif in 2010, you'll need to scrape the frost off of your bike and enter soon. Over 900 places have already gone, meaning the event is almost half full already.
This will be the fourth year of the event, and on 27th June over 2000 riders are expected to set out on a very similar route to 2009.
Now registered with the UCI, the Dartmoor Classic is a truly international event, and is one of the top rated Cyclosportive events in the UK.
The event is organised by the Mid Devon Cycling Club who have over 170 members making them one of the largest and most successful cycling clubs in the UK.
Visit the website at:
www.dartmoorclassic.co.uk

Bike fun in the snow. photo; Vaughan Brean

Cold weather forces ride & event cancellations.

For the first time in many years, local CTC rides have been cancelled, mainly due to the icy conditions on many of the lanes and side roads, which are the mainstay of our rides.

Torbay CTC will not be running the hard ride to Hatherleigh tomorrow, there may be still be an easy ride starting from Kingskerswell at 9am utilising more main roads.

Exeter CTC have cancelled the ride which was due to start at Exminster at 10am. This has been replaced by a walk, with the destination as Powderham Farm Shop for coffee.

The Watership Down Audax event is also cancelled.

The Soggy Bottom MTB event in Newnham in Plymouth is postponed until 17th January. For further info check websites, and emails from section secretaries.

Haldon Forest Park to benefit from £7.5m cyling package.

The Forestry Commission is looking to complete it's off road cycling facilitieswith anew trail aimed at novice and beginners, funded by a share of the regions £7.5M investment in off-road cycling.

The project is being funded by the Rural devlopment priogramme for England, supported by DEFRA and the EU

Jersey Cyclist killed by "Careless Driver" in Ecuador.

A Jersey cyclist died on Sunday when he was knocked down by a truck on the final leg of a sponosred cycle ride for the Jersey Hospice.
John Lyons was on his third cycle challenge for the hospice, and staff there are deeply shocked by the tragedy.
A fellow doctor also suffered head injuries in the incident, Dr. Helen Mansfield should return the UK shortly.

READ MORE

New "Severnlink" fast catamaran.

Good news for cyclists' on new Severnlink Ferry.

There was no planned provision to carry bicycles on the new Severnlink Ferry between Ilfracombe and Swansea, but thanks to cycle campaigners in Swansea this has now changed and arrangements are being made to allow stowage of bikes on the service.

For cyclists the 50 minutes crossing is highly attractive, opening up possibilities for day trip's in to Wales, and for cyclists in South wales to daytrip to Devon.
<<CLICK HERE>> for more info.

Johnny Helms dies - aged 85.

Readers of Cycling Weekly and our own "Highwayman" magazine will know well the familiar cartoons of Johnny Helms.
For 63 years he provided his cartoons for cycling weeekly, and as a good friend of the "Devon DA" he gave his permission for many to be reproduced in our own magazine, where they feature regularly ( see below for this months offering.)

Johnny who was a guest at our Dinner a few years ago was formerly the president of Warrington Road Club.
His memory will live on through his clever cartoons and artwork.

Potholes!

Autumn Pothole Blitz

The local authorities have been having a blitz on potholes recently, and have plegded huge sums of money to fix many of the roads next year, and there are promises of a better and quicker repair service.

Although the present system can respond quickly to remediate defects when they are reported, 2009 has been a particularly bad year for roads, exacerbated by the cold weather and snow in February.

This winter why not log in to the Devon County Council pothole reporting site, or use the CTC's own website - Fillthathole.org.uk

Sunshine and smiles - Devil 2009

A fine day out on Dartmoor

This weekends Dartmoor Devil was a great success, with possibly the most settled weather for many years. It was mild and sunny, with a fairly strong breeze across Dartmoor, and a few very light showers.
Roads were still slippery where lanes were shrouded by greenery, and there were several spills on some of the descents, and numerous potholes and patches of hedge clippings also presented a hazard.

Ian Hennessey survived a spill to finish his 17th event, along with Mike Steer, the only two have completed all rides, - organiser Kevin Presland completed his 16th ride.

Several were taking part for the first time - a full report and photos and some video will be posted on the website: www.dartmoordevil.co.uk

First photos here:

Dartmoor Devil - 25th October.

Fine forecast for Devillers

The SEVENTEETH Dartmoor Devil takes place this weekend. ( 25th october)

Two groups of around 100 riders will set out from the bottom of Hind Street Hill at 8am and 9pm. This years route takes the riders across to Cold East Cross, through Widecombe and North Bovey, with the notorious Pepperdon Hill climb to a control at Heltor Rock.
The descent into the Teign Valley is followed by the steep climb out to Drewsteignton.
The route then heads across towards Whiddon Down, with the long climb to Jurston, and the the traditional finishing sectuion across to Princetown, and returing to Manaton via dartmeet, Ponsworthy and Widdecombe Hills.
The weather forecast is mainly dry but with strong winds, so the section to Princetown may be a challenge, good luck to all taking part. With luck there will be pictures and video on this website shortly after the event.
www.dartmoordevil.co.uk

"The Highwayman"

New issues of "Highwayman Magazine" printed for 2009-10.

Covers are about to be printed for the next 10 issues of the club's colour magazine
"The Highwyman".
Member are being encouraged to take out an annual subsciption for the magazine, which cut's down on wasteage and makes it cheaper to buy!

At the moment the editorial team are inundated with copy, which is great and the first issue of the next series is set to be a bumper one.

Cyclists' not welcome on First Great Western trains.

Regular cycle commuters had a bit of a surprise on Thursday when they were requested to leave a busy train.

Although there were no other bikes on board ( three had just come off) the train was busy with people travelling to schools and colleges in Totnes and Plymouth.
The cyclists were told that they were blocking a gangway, and that they should leave the train. When one of them pointed out that all the gangways in the train were blocked by luggage, people and prams the train manager asked them to leave the train again and then called the police.
The train then waited for a bout 15 minutes during which time there was some shuffling on the train which allowed the bikes to be stowed. The riders were then told that no police were available, and so the train continued on it's journey.

The 0832 service to Plymouth is regularly overcrowded, and replaces two original trains. Despite regular complaints FGW have no plans to enhance the service, but admit that it is unsatisfactory.