Las Vegas Institute of Sport

On Sunday 20th April Giles and Dan took part in the inaugural North Cornwall Tor Sportive. The organisers billed it as one of the hardest sportives on the UK calendar and they weren't joking!
Riders could set off between 8.00am and 10.30am and the two LVIS representatives rolled away from the start line in Bodmin just before 9.00, and straight into a long steep climb. The scene for the day was set.

The first section ran over Bodmin Moor and was plagued with blustery winds. As the field was so fragmented by the rolling start times there was no bunch to shelter in, so it was heads down and on with the job in hand. We hit the coast at Bude and turned South West to head down the coast, with the wind behind us. The whole section of coast road down to Wadebridge was a mix of superb coastal views and brutally frequent and steep climbs (and descents - a couple of riders were seen walking one of them!). Riders walking up the climbs was a frequent sight, though Giles and Dan upheld Vegas honour and rode all the climbs of the day bar one - a ridiculous 30% greasy climb where rear wheel spin defeated the best intentions. A marshal stationed at the bottom of the climb said he had only seen two riders get up it on the bike all day.

Previous feed stations had either been ignored or stopped at briefly for refuelling, but at the last stop at around 80 miles we stopped to eat vast quantities of cake and stretch out on the grass for 10 minutes to ease aching limbs. The assumption was that the final 20 miles would be easier than the preceding 80, but the organisers had other ideas. Yet more climbing followed then at last - fast A road with a tailwind - 30mph bliss. As a road sign advising of 6 miles to Bodmin flashed past it was in the bag... but no, an ominous pink turn left sign, followed by the inevitable narrow, steep, pot-holed, gravel-strewn descent into a valley, with corresponding climb out. Then the same again! By now the Vegas guys were on the verge of hysteria with babbled talk of extreme violence against the organisers. Finally our tyres hit Bodmin tarmac and - quell surprise! a climb back up to the finish. One final big ring sprint up the last drag to drain the last minute reserves of energy and the beep of the timing mat at the finish never sounded so good.

Two minutes later with large steaming pasties in hand (included in the entry fee - a nice touch) and the day's suffering was forgotten and talk turned to returning for next year's event better prepared and ready for a better time. Overall time was 7hrs 40min including stops, about 7 hrs 10mins riding time, for 100 miles and 11,000ft of climbing.

An excellent event, well organised, well sign-posted, flag-waving grannies at strategic points, and a post-ride pasty. We'll be back next year, hopefully with a larger purple and gold contingent!

Some pretty momentous news - It seems that LVIS founder Barry Jaeger is alive and well, having faked his own death last March. It appears that he's been working undercover since the date of his untimely 'death' in order to bring a big new sponsorship deal together. The details are just being finalised but expect to hear more information on this blue chip sponsor in the next couple of days but in the mean time, rest assured that LVIS social events in 2008 will go off with even more of a bang! GO VEGAS!

The pics from the weekend at Afan are available here. More will be added as they become available.

Marcus, Dan and Neil joined the realms of old mans cycling in taking part in the Cotswold Corker 100km Audax. Good value at £5.50 per entry, Dan was the only fully paid up entrant as Neil took Giles (Sick Note)'s entry and Marcus took a late entry, so late in fact he forgot to pay. The course started with nice 25% climb onto Cleeve Hill, preceded by some ice skating, then some downhill, a tea stop, a pretty Cotswold village and then another hill, some more ice, tea and cakes etc etc and stayed like that for the following 100+ kilometres, only punctuated by occasional stops by Dan and Marcus who had an uncanny knack of racing to the lead only to realise that there were no way markers so they had to wait for those organised enough to have the route pinned to their handle mounted clipboards. Only someone with kids (Dan) could find AUK's acronym funny enough to refer to Lord of Rings the whole way round. Distracting enough to come in just after an octogenarian wearing a horse riding helmet. Here's to the new LVIS sport of Audax (for the over 40's mostly).. count me in..

There's a new Events page on the site which has details on the Road Races, Time Trials and other events that we'll be putting on in conjunction with PerformanceCycles.co.uk

John raced the third round of the Thetford Winter Series finishing fourth again but is now within striking distance of the leaders and is also up to second place in the series ranking.

Warren has started the year with a flourish, racing at the Edinburgh New Year's Day Triathlon and finishing 35th/300 despite it being his first triathlon and losing 15 places at the transition between the swim and the cycle - something to do with drying between his toes apparently.

Happy New Year to everyone. 2008 is shaping up to be another year of excellent LVIS performance with the various squads expanding to ensure that LVIS's fame is spread far and wide.