Yet again we had a top professional cyclist grace our roller rigs, Jonathan Tiernan-Locke was our guest at the Plymouth Skyride, Jonathan was born in Plymouth and his first club was the Mid Devon Cycling Club so he learnt his trade on the country roads around the South West.

Jonathan Tiernan-Locke

In 2012 after winning the Tour of the Med early season he followed it up with overall wins in the Tour du Haut Var and Tour of Britain then followed that up with a team leader’s role in the World Championship Road Race in Limburg, having an outstanding ride along with his team mate at Sky and Rollapaluza friend Ian Stannard.

Jonathan and Conor

While his Sky Pro-Cycling team mates are battling away in the Giro d’Italia Jonathan is preparing for his next race in Germany, Bayern-Rundfahrt, but he took time out of his busy schedule to visit the Skyride and us.

Jonathan and Paul

It was a pretty miserable day but didn’t dampen the spirits of the people of Plymouth who turned out in force, we experienced a very busy day with over 120 participants, including Jonathan who went up against a previous winner of our London League Conor Bunn. It’s great for us and the public to see the professionals on our rigs. at the moment Ian Stannard leads the Team Sky Pro-Cycling roller race league with a time of 24.01 (we won’t mention JLT’s time)

First impression of the Spin London Urban Bike Show was… Great venue much fresher than say the Excel Centre, we were placed upstairs next to the DJ and the bar, so felt right at home there. The show was held at the Truman Brewery building at the heart of fashionable Brick Lane overlooking Rough Trade Records on the sunny side of the street, only slightly jealous of the people enjoying the sun and supping their cold beers.

Busy vulpine stand

I left Jim and Serena to hold the fort whilst I had a wander round the show, the walls were covered in some interesting and affordable art works unfortunately I had left my credit card at home, the basement was divided up into halls all very spacious and well lit.

swrve

in the ‘Fashion Forum’ it was good to see the Vulpine and Swrve stands displaying their wares alongside the Hackney GT an impressive variety of clothing choice for your urban or racing cyclist.

In the ‘Bike Hall’ I loved the Slate cyclo-cross bike hand crafted in Snowdonia with beautiful lug work and clean lines, funny enough one of my other favorite bikes was another cross model from Tokyo Fixed, the eye catching polo bikes from Polo&Bike were a pleasing sight with their bright colour schemes I would have been happy going home with any one of these bikes, also Foffa bikes had a range of models too suit all disciplines.

Polo&Bike

In the ‘Makers Lounge’ there were some carefully constructed bikes from Oak Cycles with Oaks frame builder doing a live bike build upstairs by the entrance, Ted James had some interesting constructions  including his BMX and a MTB with a very strange gearing system that I can’t explain, see the picture below, basically the hub gears are placed in the center of the bike aiding balance.

Ted James Design

After I had meandered around the show and had a good old chin-wag with people I popped back upstairs where Jim and Serena were just getting busy, but unfortunate I had to leave after having a very enjoyable time at a bike show for a change, let’s hope Spin London returns next year.

Jim &Serena working hard

Things are really moving on and Caspar’s Cornwall roots have inspired him to convert the old van into a camper, so he can now join the popular tourists blocking up the country roads during the summer in Devon and Cornwall, but there is the possibility of some extended cyclo-cross weekends in the soon to be revamped van so there are some up sides to the change.

What this means for Rollapaluza is a new van with some super go faster stripes and striking graphics, the van will now be more recognisable when traveling the length and breadth of the U.K.  The Rollapaluza vans premier journey was a trip past a resplendent looking Brockwell park to the not so resplendent looking Herne Hill Velodrome that is in the middle of a makeover. Look out for us on a street or motorway, and give us a toot and a wave.

The lesson in setting up a roller race was given by none other than Jacob affectionately known as Jake.

Jake had a team of ten to instruct on the building of the rigs and other accessories that make up the Rollapaluza stage, the format of the evening was to give everyone the opportunity to set up the equipment and experience all aspects of our work from entering details into the computer, taking photos and getting people set up on the bikes, then to run a men’s and women’s competition. Jake was assisted by our most trusted of team leaders Jim and together they instructed the new team in the workings of roller racing.

Unbelievably after explaining the dead heat rules Jack and Matt dead heated but Matt’s light was flashing indicating him as the winner much to the disappointment of the competitive Jack, Andrew was the fastest qualifier and contested the final with Matt,which was neck and neck until the final 50m when Andrew cracked after a hard evenings racing, Jack went home happy after taking third place from Sam. In the women’s competition Sarah took the final from Georgina with Lu in third.

Everyone went home happy and hopefully benefited from the training event and if nothing else they experienced roller racing first hand from both sides working and racing.

It’s been quite a journey, beginning at the Mud Dock Bristol where Dan Bowen and Georgina Snowdon-Brett took the spoils, with Dan putting up a great display in the finals only losing out to Alex Moloney’s famous fast start. Then it was on to London’s Hoxton Square Bar where a large crowd saw the ever young Keith Henderson and Caroline Rennie take the spoils, it was also where favourite Rob Reed realised he would not be able to compete due to a trapped nerve. Keith was suffering from man flu at the Vibe Bar and Caroline progressed to finish in second place in the finals.

Lloyd Gale-Ward

Sheffield saw the emergence of Alex Maloney who probably has the fastest start in the business gaining 50m before his competitors have even started. Leeds winners were Oliver Shannon and Sarah Murray, Glasgow was where the charismatic and bubbly Ishbel Taromsari stepped up and took the win with Graham McBride winning the men’s competition.

John Paul

Milton Keynes saw some impressive rides from some of Britain’s young riders with Josh Mitchell and Harriet Owen setting the fastest times but not contesting the final. James Middleton and Verity Applecore took the wins in Birmingham. At the Good Friday meeting Lloyd Gale-Ward took the spoils and John Paul beat the German track legend Robert Forsterman the man with the biggest quads in cycling history.

Caroline Rennie

So it was onto the finals held at the Vibe Bar in London’s Brick Lane. T.V presenter and cycling journalist Sophie Smith along with Rollapaluza’s Jake co-hosted, Alec Briggs and Caspar were on the decks provided a fitting club like atmosphere to the evening and ramping up the rpm’s when necessary, although Alec declined the chance to race to the crowds disappointment, Sophie soon settled in to things having a great rapport with the competitors and audience alike. Once the qualifying was done and dusted it was down to the serious  knock out rounds first up was Scottish track rider John Paul against courier Tom Rumball that’s the beauty of this competition match ups you wouldn’t  see anywhere else.

John Paul with his winnings

It soon became evident that John Paul was going to be a force to be reckoned with and Alex Moloney’s super-fast start was causing problems for all his competitors, in the women’s competition a new star was emerging Ishbel Taromsari smashing the women’s record with a time of 22.51 and looking comfortable all the way to the final, the same had to be said for her fellow Scot John Paul. All racers gave it their all and there was some great performances from Lloyd Gale-Ward and Spiderman Greg Dickens looking like he was going to bust out of his kit more like the Hulk.

Ishbel Taromsari

The final was between John Paul and Alex Moloney the first few seconds and Alex was on top but gradually John Paul pegged him back and eased ahead to take the National title and an exclusive winners T-Shirt and some great gear from sponsor U34, In the women’s final Ishbel was on a mission and it was heads down and full gas to beat London qualifier winner Caroline Rennie and so completing the Scottish double.

You don’t have to hang yours on a door though.

Hi all

Rollapaluza are getting busier and busier.

We are looking for crew for our events. If you have availability in 2013 and are interested, please email: jacob@rollapaluza.com

Work varies with events in London and across the whole of the UK but is in general reasonably physical.

A willingness to engage with members of the public from all ages and backgrounds along with an enthusiasm for cycling and the event helps!

The events themselves range from our extensive community and schools program, club and pub competition events along with corporate (promo and internal usually), many of which will be run by our community interest company “ROLLAPALUZA OUTREACH”.

Rates start at £8.55/h with a minimum 6 hours per event.  If you are 21 or over and have held a full driving license for more than a year there is potential to earn more in a Team Leader role.

The Rollapaluza crew had come from the Bristol round at the Mud Dock the previous evening but still looked fresh and ready for action. Bristol had again been a big success with yet another long distance cyling star showing up for a spin on the rigs.The man in question had come from possible the longest bike race in the world to one of the shortest and he excelled at both .Mike Hall had raced around the world and won…in doing so he broke the previous record by almost two weeks completing the 24.900  miles in 92 days averaging around 200miles a day.

Mike Hall

Mike was no slouch on the rollers either setting a time for 500m at 22.11 quite an achievement for a proven endurance rider. Other long distance cyclists that have graced the Rollapaluza rigs are Mark Beaumont and famously James Bowthorpe who if I remember correctly rode for 24hrs in the window front of London cycling café ‘Look Mum No Hands’ on a set of Rollapaluza rigs.

The Hoxton bar was looking splendid with glitter ball and a colorful lighting display adding to the mood and with DJ Alex Briggs on the decks it was hard to imagine there was serious bike racing going on here, there was no shortage of people joining the queue, aiming to set a time that was fast enough to qualify for the knockout rounds, after all these year its great to see so many people giving it a try for the first time, also nice to see some old face’s returning to show the young whipper snappers how to spin the legs. When the cut of time arrived there were still people wanting to try again or who had just plucked up enough courage to have a go but who sadly had left it to late.

The evening was now in full swing and the new DJ for the head to heads was Rollapaluza’s Caspar, the music seemed to mirror the feeling on the stage a calm heady beginning while the riders were getting themselves set then immediately ramping up the revs per minute once the race had started , this in turn raised the general atmosphere and level of support shown to the competitors with the loudhailers becoming a popular accessory . A tweet on the night from Simon Warren said “my legs hurt in places i didn’t even know i had places” my heart went out to Jason Coleman and Ben Turner who dead heated then immediately had to race an extra 250m Ouch that must of hurt.

Keith Henderson

There were some great performances from people including the experienced Jason Humphries and of course the men’s winner Keith Henderson who did look completely shattered as captured perfectly in this picture from Jason.

In the women’s race a very enthusiastic Caroline Rennie (below left) set some fast times from the outset and in the final held off a strong challenge from Verity Applecare, there were quite a few women there in Hoxton trying the Rollers for the first time, and I’m sure they will  all be back for more.

Caroline Rennie

There was disappointment on the night for last years winner Rob Read the BMX rider trapped a muscle in his back while warming up so had to pull out from the event Which was a real shame. Bristol and London have now led the way for the other cities and the race is on to see who can become the National Rollapaluza Series winner in 2013.