The bar is raised again!
Once again London couriers (and some visitors) were blessed with fine weather for their annual speed test.  The conditions and the increasing reputation of this event led to a huge improvement in the standard of racing, the top 15 times in the blue riband event "the flying lap" were all faster than the top 15 times from last year.

Two hundred spectators marvelled at the athletic exploits of forty of London's "street heroes" who for one day turned to the velodrome to test their mettle against their colleagues.

A Fantastic BBQ, a huge bike jumble and for the first time a licensed bar led to a very relaxed and enjoyable day, we hope all those that attended enjoyed it as much as we did putting it on....thanks for coming and a big thanks to all those who put in their time to help out, especially:

Don, Sara and Joe, Brett, Simon, Rob, Katja, VCL venue managers (Dave, Steve and Corinne) Amelia, WCS, Amy and our sponsors who generously donated prizes (see links page).

Flying Lap
Kept in the programme by the request of couriers themselves this event is an opportunity for messengers to measure their max speed over 450m in comparison to other messengers. Visiting Dutchman "Jos" took a break from the beer and fags (see photos) to dominate the event and amazingly beat Skot's "untouchable" record from last year by an incredible 1.5 seconds! only 6/100ths of a seconds slower than guest pro Brett's time from last year, realising this Brett dug to the bottom of his kit bag and found his aero helmet! thereby managing to just better Jos but Brett's time didn't count, he's not a courier.
Nobody else beat Skot's old record, however all times in the top five were exceptional and all the individuals near the top of the table went faster than last year, Rick discovering that racing bars really are faster than straight bars!
Visiting continental pro and ex courier Sophie Rudermann was surprisingly beaten by Charlene in the "Ladies Lap".....just goes to show, 200k road races are not good training for the track!
Special mention to Iain who lopped nearly four seconds off his last years time to claim fifth spot and winning the best improver prize.
Full results at the bottom of this page.

Keirin
The top 18 riders in the flying lap qualified for the "Human paced keirin", riders follow a pacing bike, usually motorised but in this case a "pro" cyclist who gradually builds the pace over 2.5 laps before pulling off to allow the pack of glory hungry couriers to sprint out the last 300m.
Jos, Yesu, Rick, Vidus, Krystof and Mike fought out the final which was run off at faster pace to the heats. Once again Jos showed his superiority to claim the win with a keen battle behind him for the placings which were taken by Rick and Yesu.

8 Lap Scratch
For those riders who didn't qualify for the keirin, a straight, first across the line, eyeballs-out race! Many strong riders showed themselves at the front, but it was the experience and tactics displayed by "little" John, that he's gained over the previous weeks training at Herne Hill in anticipation of this event, which gave him the edge to take the win.....followed by "Twitchy" then Sophie.

10k "tough it out"
All riders with any energy left started this event and a large field rolled away from the fence facing a full 22 laps of the Herne Hill loop.  The pace increased gradually but it wasn't 'til about the eighth lap that riders started to find the going hard.  Winston circled the top of the track like a vulture, picking out the dieing riders mercilessly and dashing their hopes of glory. Despite his efforts a lead group of eight riders and a chase group of six were still going strong in the closing laps.  Jos took no chances and led out the sprint, no-one could match him and he completed his clean sweep.  Vidus, Rick, Yesu, Scott and Sophie took the next few placings and even our guest pros looked knackered.

Wooden Spoon
Self-appointed "London's Fastest Courier" didn't seize this opportunity to prove his claims. However "London's biggest mouth" excelled himself at shouting irrelevant comments at the passing athletes who did have the guts to test themselves against their colleagues.....Very well done mate!

This just in from the RSPCB:
Destinies Unfulfilled
Do Track Bikes have hearts? If so many were broken on Sunday. Courier-owned, brakeless, pristine, pedigree track bikes sparkling with chrome and even carbon wheels had been denied the opportunity to ride free and fast in the environment for which they were "born".  This act of cruelty was compounded by the fact that they were shackled directly to the track railings and forced to watch their cousins in "pursuit" of track-bike heaven.
RSPCB inspectors were present at Track day and have promised to seek out offending owners, they'll identify these nasty abusers by  the rusty tear marks on their bikes head tube.
"Remember, track-bikes are like dogs, keep them happy and fit by exercising them at least once a year in a big field or velodrome" they said (Official)

email: speed@addicts.tv

FLYING LAP TIMES:
 

TIME	Name	kmh	mph
29.31	jos	55.3	34.5
31.19	rick	51.9	32.5
32.38	krystof	50.0	31.3
32.59	ross	49.7	31.1
32.73	Ian	49.5	30.9
33	wee scott	49.1	30.7
33.26	yasu	48.7	30.4
33.9	vidus	47.8	29.9
33.94	iwo	47.7	29.8
33.97	dominic	47.7	29.8
34.15	sam	47.4	29.6
34.16	mike us	47.4	29.6
34.19	martin	47.4	29.6
34.22	adam	47.3	29.6
34.58	craig	46.8	29.3
34.77	simon	46.6	29.1
34.77	marco	46.6	29.1
34.81	charlene	46.5	29.1
35.04	jorge	46.2	28.9
35.27	ray	45.9	28.7
35.33	paolo	45.9	28.7
35.34	andy	45.8	28.7
35.37	darren	45.8	28.6
35.4	yeti	45.8	28.6
35.6	sophie	45.5	28.4
35.77	yeltsig	45.3	28.3
35.8	chrissi	45.3	28.3
35.97	zander	45.0	28.1
36.23	twitchy tom 27	44.7	27.9
36.49	little john	44.4	27.7
36.55	andrew	44.3	27.7
36.63	ben	44.2	27.6
36.73	therese	44.1	27.6
37.76	al	42.9	26.8
37.95	daniel	42.7	26.7
38.15	voytek	42.5	26.5
38.5	josef	42.1	26.3
39.87	corinne	40.6	25.4
40.69	ali femle	39.8	24.9
42.59	tabitha	38.0	23.8
28.59	brett	56.7	35.4
29.33	simon	55.2	34.5
31.83	rob	50.9	31.8