DRK

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Charles rode an incredibly strong race at Castle Combe this week to bring home 3rd place behind 2 NFTO riders in a 3 man break.

 16/6/16

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London Nocturne Track Bike Crit, 4/6/2016

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Report - London Nocturne

Earlier in the month it was the annual London Nocturne, a race I have attended for 4 years now, with 2 of those being as an entrant in the track bike crit support race, admittedly, both of those times I rode terribly, throwing myself totally into the unknown, standing no chance.

Moving swiftly on to the 2016 race, and the track bike race was back, with a new location to boot, it was set to be a fun day out in London for the boys from Bristol. The atmosphere at these races are unlike any other at this level, so needless to say, it was a rad feeling racing the tight course in front of the electric crowd.

The start line was buzzing for our race, this scene is definitely growing in the UK, with small teams from across the country popping up, with more & more awesome kits appearing with every race, it’s a fun niche within a niche for sure.

I didn’t get a great start, neither did Rob, having some pedal issue from the get go, but he got into the front group & rode a strong race, in only his second track bike crit of the year, against some seriously strong track & crit specialists. He finished in 12th place, a solid effort from the man usually found in hilly road races & TTs.

My campaign wasn't quite as successful, but from my bad start I picked off riders, and dropped those on my tail throughout the narrow city centre circuit, gaining ground on the chasing group. I was happy to finish in 28th of the 50 starters. Another step in the learning curve, and another bit of fuel in the addiction to track bike crits. Bring on the next one!

Big shout out to Jon & Christian for driving, supporting & photos.

- Tim

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Rob looking strong at the front of the bunch in yesterday's Banbury Star RR - see his blog post on how it went.

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Report - Banbury Star RR

Banbury Star Road Race – 22/05/16 Last weekend I hopped on a train and headed towards Banbury to ride another road race, the course is a little hilly and has an uphill sprint to the line, so I thought it might suit me ok, and its always ncie to travel a bit and race with some different people. I met up with A couple of Oxford University CC riders to drive to the event, Angus (who I knew, because all thin men know eachother) and Dan, who I was told eats a lot of cookies and produces big watts. This was to be made evident later on. The sun was shining, the roads were dry, and I was riding some less familiar roads. This is always a nice situation to be in, whether racing or not. After blowing up on climbs in a few races last year I've been a bit more cautious and reluctant to go with any breaks or work too hard in the early stages. the first move of the day went out on lap one with Dan and a couple of other riders in it, I knew he was strong and thought I should try to get with it but missed the opportunity. From then on it was just cruising in the bunch and hoping to pick up minor places in the sprint. We shot up the climb on the last lap, and once again a few people went over the top ahead of the bunch, getting a small gap. The group chased hard and I was conviced it would all come back together but they just held out. I was 2nd in the bunch sprint and picked up 10th. All the while Dan the cookies and watts man was smashing it out up front, dropping the other riders in his break and going to on win solo by a massive margin. He was very cool about the whole thing, and took home a decent load of cash for his efforts having won the KOM prize as well as first overall. I'm convinced this was because I did an excellent job in pinning his race numbers, and because Destinys Child were on the radio pre race. Thanks Banbury Star CC for all their efforts in hosting the event and to Dan and Angus for the laughs and the lift.

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Thundercrit #1 - 15th May 2016, Redbridge Cycle Centre.

We’ve got to hand it to them, the NLTCBMBC put on an awesome event with the first Thundercrit last week, the first track bike crit London has seen in a while. Hype around track bike crits has grown massively over the past few years, so it was great to see this radical cycle group from London’s famous London putting one on.

Rob & Tim rode in an early qualifying group with some strong riders, but Rob managed a 2nd place to get gridded in the main race, Tim just behind in 7th started in the bunch, narrowly missing out on a top 5 qualifying place.

The main race was 80 riders strong, with riders getting dropped early on, Tim hung on the strong front group, before gradually getting dropped but working with 1 other to stay in the race longer than most, before getting pulled out. Rob rode strongly & looked comfortable in the front group of 20 for the entire race, the race was decided by a sprint, Paul Vanotti of Disorderly habits beat the bunch for 1st place, closely followed by George & Alex of The5thFloor. Rob managed to sprint for 8th place, a solid show seeing as was only Rob’s 4th track bike criterium. We’re looking forward to more of these type of races!

Thanks to Jon Steel for these photos.

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Weekly club time trials are the bread & butter races in the UK, and what keep the local cycling scenes going strong for years. We enjoy entering these when not chasing points & results at weekend races & opens.

Charles rides at the Sodbury CC Tuesday races, he has placed 1st at the last 2 races by a significant margin. This week Rob took on his first of the year at Bristol South CC & took the win, with Tim in 12th. We are always happy to support these long standing events as they are great midweek training for our target races. Stoked guys!

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A low res photo of the boys on the second step of the podium this weekend in Bath after their 3-Up TTT debut.

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Report - Bath CC 25 TTT

This weekend Rob, Stefan & Charles rode their first team time trial, the Bath CC 25. We couldn’t be more happy to have the guys place second on the podium in their first event together. Rob has written up his side of the race:

“Last weekend Charles, Stefan, and I entered our first team time trial, We hadn't really done any preparation bar joking about a 30mph ride on the start line, so werent sure how it would pan out. Charles was the only one of the three of us on a full on TT weapon, with me and Stef opting to ride our road bikes, this meant charles doing a seriously good job on all of the fast sections of the slightly rolling course whilst we spun out our biggest gears clinging onto his wheel!

We ended up finishing second behind one of two Bath CC teams on the podium, and not miles off the winning time, I think we were all pleased with the result considering the aero disadvantage, and we definitely got it all out on the road, expecially Stefan who received an extra special mention for 'most vomit on skinsuit'.  Thanks to Bath University CC for providing a well marshalled course and brilliant selection of post race cake. '

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Strava

For all those fans of smashing segments, or just keeping a track of your weekly mileage, we invite you to join the DRK Strava ‘club’ as a way of connecting with other like minded, Bristol based cyclists. We will use it to share routes in the future too. Click over here if you’re interested in being part of our Strava community - https://www.strava.com/clubs/dasradklub

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Charles had an unfortunate puncture due to a safety pin halfway through the E12 Easter Classic at Castle Combe. It was all going so well up until that point in his first circuit of the season. We look forward to Charles taking on more circuit races & time trials this summer, as well as hill climbs later in the year.

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Report - Bristol South  CCRR

“The race was set off in cool but sunny weather with a full field of 80 riders. The first time up Stowey club was neutralised, with the race starting shortly before joining back onto the A37.

As soon as the flag dropped there was a flurry of activity with a rider from Radeon-Bike Science RT quickly opening a sizable gap over the rest of the field that was held for some time. There was also moves that saw from Matt Franklin (Bristol Road Club ) and Steve Cottington (Bath CC) up the road early on, with Matt holding a sizable gap for some time and allowing him to take some key KOM points.

The next big move came on lap 5 with Steve Thomas (Dream Cycling) and Kieran Ellis (Bristol South CC) jumping away from the field and attempting to bridge to Franklin. The move was brought back on the run into Stowey climb but the intensity of the chase had severely split the main field and there was now a select group of riders left for the remaining laps.

Franklin was brought back just after the the 6th ascent of the Stowey Climb, but not before taking some more KOM points that would eventually secure him winning that competition overall.

After all this activity there was a lull in the group which was taken advantage of by Kieran Ellis, who attacked again on the drag up out of Clutton and opened a decent gap, followed by Matt Franklin who successfully bridged before the fast decent on the A37.

The pair then stayed away for the remaining 2 laps of the Stowey loop, building almost a minutes gap. But with the finish approaching and some strong riders remaining in the chase group, the pair were eventually reeled in with around 5km to go.

A textbook counter attack by Stefan Barnett (DRK Racing) saw him quickly open small gap on the group and with the impetuous to chase all but gone he was then able to hold on through the fast flat run in to the finish take a fine solo win. The remaining places were settled via a very depleted bunch finish with Kieran Ellis (Bristol South CC) ad Rob Borek (DRK Racing) taking 2nd and 3rd for the podium finish.”

https://www.velouk.net/2016/03/18/result-bristol-south-road-race-2/

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Awesome work by Stefan at the Bristol South CC road race to come away with his first win, in our first road race of the season. Rob bagged 3rd place in what was the perfect result for us.

A final lap break from Stefan put a gap in between himself & the rest of the field & Rob finished the job off with a second place in the bunch sprint, celebrations didn’t last too long due to a crash right on the back of the sprint, riders down, with a broken collarbone the worst of the injuries. Well wishes to the guys who hit the deck.

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Rob & Stefan put in some quick times at the early season Frome & District 10 mile TT. 12th & 29th in a field of over the 100. Looking rad in the new Milltag & Giro kit.

This was followed by 17th & 12th for Stefan & Charles at the Chippenham Hard Riders TT, 1:00:25 & 0:59:50 were their times over the tough 24 mile course. It bodes well for a great season ahead!

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We are thrilled to reveal the kit we will be racing in for 2016. Designed & produced by Milltag with our outfits completed by Giro Synthe MIPS helmets & Empire shoes. The kit has been a labour of love for many months now for ourselves & Milltag, producing exactly the kit we demanded both technically & aesthetically.  We look forward to racing road, cyclocross, time trials & hill climbs throughout 2016 in this incredible new uniform.

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2016

It’s been a while since a blog post, but we’re pleased to refresh our website for 2016 as well as revealing our brand new race team - DRK Racing. We will be posting race reports & photos on the blog, as well as news on special events, and ways you can get involved with Bristol’s raddest cycling club.

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We are excited to team up with local bike shop Bristol Dropouts to bring you a screening of the new MASH SF movie. It will be a night of fun & bikes as we start off with messenger games & some sprint races just around the corner from the shop at 19:00 with the video screening at 20:30. We look forward to seeing you on Friday 4th December.