New National Penny Farthing Champion

Road cycling & upcoming rides
Eleri
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Postby Eleri » 25 Feb 2012, 16:48

And according to the National Pennyfarthing championship page on facebook - the new Mens National Penny Farthing Champion is DHBC's James "TBone" Fowler! Congratulations James- looking forward to hearing all about it.

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 25 Feb 2012, 18:03

James, way to go !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On facebook

Image

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 25 Feb 2012, 18:28

James was on ABC news

timyone
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Postby timyone » 26 Feb 2012, 11:42

Nice as!

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lindsay
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Postby lindsay » 26 Feb 2012, 16:10

Image

As a spectator of the great race I can tell you it was indeed one of the most decisive wins I have ever seen in the nearly 10 years I been attending this event.

James tore it up in the heats and lead out for the entire 4 laps of his qualifying race. As the day progressed there was a building headwind blowing down the straight and the hot Tassie sun sent us all cowering under shop awnings while the Grand Parade dutifully marched past and we waited for the National Championship final.

The great race was to be no different than the heats, James was first off the start and the gap to the others just kept on increasing. My photo above was the start of the bell lap with last year's champion 2 bike lengths behind and then behind him was the now losing hope hope-fulls. The sprint was no sprint, just James-ie crossing the line with daylight to the others now reduced to fighting for the minor placings.

To note a few things... It's been a long time coming for James, he's battled every year in the final (this I think was his 7th go at the big gong) and he's no blow-in. Every rider in that race has benefited from his wheel at some time or other. You would never get a body more suited for the penny farthing than James. His aero-tuck into the headwind down the straight was a sight to behold. All in all it was a brave ride with James sticking to his signature tactic of leading it from the front and crushing the hopes of the sad ol' sprinters.

Sadly however our shy champion seemed reticent to claim his deed of title last night by insisting his table be first in the dinner queue at the gala dinner...

shrubb face
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Postby shrubb face » 26 Feb 2012, 18:10

Awesome work James. He almost looks as though he is riding with aerobars in that photo.

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marc2131
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Postby marc2131 » 27 Feb 2012, 06:35

Wow congrats James.
Are there any more photos?

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tedrobin
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Postby tedrobin » 27 Feb 2012, 17:04

Nice one James - I'm sorry I wasn't there to see your triumph. Did you have a crack at the road race as well? I can't imagine who would have finished that one in front of you. In a way I hope that you were too hung over to saddle up again on Sunday morning.

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Postby shrubb face » 27 Feb 2012, 17:12

Imagine what he could do if he actually trained :)

Eleri
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Postby Eleri » 27 Feb 2012, 21:10


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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 28 Feb 2012, 22:39

Great fun in Evandale this year, even though it was a pretty quick visit missing the usual Century and week of touring.

As usual i went with my tactics of riding hard on the front in pretty much every race i went in. In the heat i was able to ease up slightly coming to the finish line after i opened my gap after 2 laps. The final took a little longer, but unlike previous years, i resisted the urge to ease up in order to recover slightly for a sprint finish when i could still see a shadow close behind. Luckily for me the persistence paid off and things opened up at the start of the last lap, leaving me to just keep the pace up for a relatively comfortable win. I'm still waiting to hear the time, but i was told the final was 5sec faster than my heat.

Following the Championships, i employed the same tactics in the Miss 'n Out, but with a much more comfortable gap opening up early on for another win. The last race i contested on the Saturday was the handicap. With 4 bunches separated by 10sec each, as well as having to deal with riding the course in reverse (remembering how to turn left), there's always the problem of getting through traffic to contend with. I was held up a few times, but worked hard and was able to just edge into 2nd place on the line.

The next day in the road race, i used the same race plan that had worked so perfectly in 2011, get rid of them straight away and ride solo for the 32km. For those who know the course, i was on my own by the Watertower. During the race, my legs were telling me they weren't in the best form, and the wind was slowly picking up, but i still managed a comfortable win, after hitting the front at approximately the 1/2way point (it's a handicap race). My time was 1hr6min39sec, so i'm still chasing that 1hr mark, but hopefully some training before next year will help me achieve that target, or better still, the 59min9sec race record.

I'll try to track down some photos when i get a bit more time.

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Dougie
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Postby Dougie » 29 Feb 2012, 08:44

Being a National Champion of a cycling discipline usually gets you a jersey. Are there collar tabs or sleeve rings that can be put on James jersey to signify and honour this? If so, what would the Green and Gold look like? Perhaps, the entire right sleeve is Green, for the big wheel and the left sleeve is just a narrow yellow band for the little wheel?

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Karzie
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Postby Karzie » 29 Feb 2012, 10:24

You get to wear green and yellow braces with your corduroy plus-fours....

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T-Bone
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Postby T-Bone » 29 Feb 2012, 15:46

As with all National Championships, you only get to wear the jersey in the discipline you won it, and not during the next National Championships. Since i only ride the Penny once a year, there's no opportunity to actually wear a champions jersey.

Hung
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Postby Hung » 29 Feb 2012, 17:34

cornering at speed and sitting that high looks scary definately not for that faint hearted

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Dougie
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Postby Dougie » 16 Mar 2012, 07:57


Eleri
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Postby Eleri » 16 Mar 2012, 11:34

Excellent quote from Stretch!


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