The National Criterium Championship was held on a sunny but blustery morning as part of the Travelwise Criteriums at Warwick on 16th September.
The course was cut on the start line to 5 laps, but Ferg Muir was counting and we completed six laps. Geoff Booker rode away from the rest on his broad gauge machine. Jeff Jones took off in pursuit, but never made contact. The rest of us followed behind, Martin Badham hung within sight of Jeff for a couple of laps, and taking the bell in third position hung on, hoping to stay there. Ian Matthews caught him on the last corner to take third, and he just held off a rapidly closing group containing Steve Avery, Ian Mackenzie and Pete Holland.
The results of this short, fast and furious dash around the historic buildings of Warwick can be seen at 2007 Results.

Geoff Booker lead the Tricycle Parade at the Mildenhall Rally and repeated the process in the heats and finals of the Tricycle Criterium League event which followed. No one could get near him on his own Trykit trike. Roger Akers made a tremendous effort to close the gap on Geoff and take second place and the lead in the League. See our 2007 Results page for full details. There are also some pictures in our Activities Gallery. We were all blessed with hot sunny weather, three club runs, great racing and entertainment non stop for three days. If you have never been, make a date for next August Bank Holiday.

The latest event in the Criterium League was the Grass track meeting at Bury St Edmunds. Six members attended and we were given several races to keep us amused. The event to count for the League points was designated as the 400m. This was held over two heats with the final between the first two from each.
1st Heat :- 1st Roger Akers; 2nd Martin Badham; 3rd Ferg Muir.
2nd Heat :- 1st Boyd Nicholas, 2nd Gawain Akers; 3rd Callum Akers.
Final :- 1st Roger Akers; 2nd Gawain Akers; 3rd Boyd Nicholas; 4th Martin Badham.
In the absence of a repecharge Ferg and Callum were credited with 5th equal.

Other races were the 3 lap handicap, a flying 1 lap time trial and a novelty relay with teams consisting of one trike and two or three youngsters on bikes. Roger led his band of yellows to victory, followed by Boyd and his blues. Martin's team of greens were third and Ferg's red team completed the event. It was great fun. For full results see 2007 Results.

Photos from the event taken by Andrew Pattle are in the Activities gallery.

Next event is the grass track at Mildenhall on Bank Holiday Saturday.

Four aspirants contested the Criterium in Bridgewater last weekend. Ian Matthews taking a break from Commissaire duties for the bike event rode away with Roger Akers with Gawain and Callum following. At the final corner Ian chose the shortest route, but missed out in the sprint to Roger coming wider but faster.
Gawain and Callum became the first competitors to finish 5 events, and head the league table. There are three opportunities for those of us in the van to get the full quota of rides in:
Bury St Edmunds Grass Track on 12th August;
Mildenhall Grass Track on 25th August;
and the National Criterium championship at Warwick on 16th September.

For updated results see 2007 Results.

In what was a very short warm up for his proposed 'End to End' record attempt, Ralph Dadswell left the rest of the field gasping in his wake as he attacked on the fourth of five laps at Hyde Park on Sunday to win on his own by over a minute. Michael Vanhaelen led the main bunch in for second place followed by Jeff Jones in third. Ian Matthews showed the benefit of high altitude training (he is just back from a treck to Everest Base Camp) by storming through the group to take fourth, while Geoff Booker tired from towing the bunch round and dropped to fifth followed by Wayne Baker, still a bit sore from his crash in the World Championships. Alison Purser took the Ladies Prize 3 seconds clear of Hilde Verbeken. See our 2007 Results page for full details. There is a gallery of pictures taken by Martin Purser and Linda Moody during the event in our Activities gallery.

Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Horwich!
The town was en fete for the day when my daughter, Ellie, and I arrived and the youngsters were bashing their bicycles around the course. We eventually found the HQ and Roger Akers who told me that we had been invited to take part in the Carnival procession. Due to our event not being on until 3pm my barrer was still in the car, so I had to run back to the car park and fetch it. Then we proceeded slowly around the course with a brass band breathing down our necks. Lunch whilst the runners and walkers did their stuff, then watch the ladies competing for the National Criterium Championship.
Then we were on!
Al Shuttleworth shot away with Roger and Gawain Akers, while Callum Akers and I got our beasts moving. At the first corner we whooshed down to a beautiful trikie's corner - right angled with the wrong camber. There I caught and dropped Gawain and set off after the other two. The nearest I got to catching them was when Roger retired with a loose block and the bell ringing in our ears. Al was pleased with his win in his first crit in twenty years, and I think they quite liked our racing. Dave Leyland was talking about us coming back next year. Let's have some more barrows on the line then.

Overheard by Ellie during the event by a small boy with a spiderman crash helmet:
"Trikes have 3 wheels! Not 2... or 24... THREE!"
Maybe the standards of education are not as bad they'd have us believe.
For updated results see 2007 Results.

Geoff Booker stormed away from the start to win the Ixworth Criterium from non-member and eternal second Jeff Jones. Mike Madgett took third with Steve Avery leading home what was a chasing group for fourth. See the 2007 Results page for full details of this and all the weekend's racing. You can also admire Andrew Pattle's excellent photos in our Activities Gallery and see a professional photographer's full set on www.mphotography.co.uk

Dave Keene went one better than last year to win in the Kenilworth Wheelers promotion in Victoria Park, Leamington Spa on Saturday 7th April. A splendid field of 17 started the event, with 16 finishing. Dave won on his own from Jeff Jones and Geoff Booker. You can see a veritable feast of photos from the event at Richard Robotham's superb site. The full result is on the 2007 Results page and the points for the Criterium League and a list of all the events in the series are on the Criterium page. Go join in the fun, all levels are catered for.