Roger Allen

Cycling

I have been riding since 1975 when I joined West Bromwich CTC. Since then I have ridden almost every type of cycling event and in 1993 changed clubs and joined Stourbridge cycling club with whom I ride to this day.
Those early '70s days were my initiation, many ultra-tough rides with poor equipment, poor clothing and no knowledge of nutrition. On my first rides I took a couple of sandwiches, a chocolate biscuit an apple and a bag of crisps, what a waste of time taking crisps! Budget for the day was 50p which would buy a pint at lunchtime and a cup of tea on the way home. The first ever clubrun I went on was meant to go to Frith Common but we didn't make it, thanks to some punctures outside the safari park and lots of messing about. Then we jumped onto the old trackbed just ouside Bewdley, rode along it through the Wyre Forest and then onto the Cleobury road where we turned left back towards Bewdley. We went into the first pub we saw - which was my first ever pint of beer! After this was an amble back I think through Arley and then Wombourne and the horrifying climb past Himley to Dudley. i was completely gone, had never experienced anything like it in endurance and there was no escape, I had to keep on pedalling, nobody was going to pick me up! It took days to recover physically and about 3 weeks before I had the nerve to go again...but I did, this time, my second ever ride to Shrewsbury, about 100 mile round trip. The Walker Brothers managed to lock their bikes up at the pub at lunchtime and realised the key was at home. A friendly landlord with a hacksaw saved the day. So another right seeing to - I was so smashed it was another month before I rode again, but then I began to see the light - the more you do the easier it is...
From then on, I became a regular rider and made loads of good friends, my first competitive event was a Walsall Roads time trial in 1977 somewhere past Walsall towards Cannock, 3 of us rode out to it, my time was 27.44 which was a reasonable benchmark for a 16-year old beginner. I rode another 10 a couple of weeks later on the Stafford Road and started my quest for better times, this one 27.00. Next tt was the following year on the Stourbridge evening 10 where I did a 24.03 - this wasn't to be beaten for 19 years despite some frustratingly close times to this. But in 1978 I started road racing which was far better and provided me with plenty of opportunities to improve over the next ten years. 1978 saw 2 accidents, one in Swindon where a horse appeared in the bunch and I swerved to miss a young girl and fell off, the next one was at Ullenhall in the last road race of the season where I was cut up in the final sprint and hit the deck at about 40mph. About a months convalescence and a year to get my confidence back.
After years of training and getting nowhere I decided I had enough of racing and just rode for pleasure, having been on a superb CTC tour in 1987 and with pendin marriage I slowd down, just a little! I moved house and switched clubs, joining Stourbridge CC in 1993, this gave me some new energy and after a couple fo years I bagan to look again at racing...restarted with some time trials, then in 1997 I came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to beat my 10 pb was to ride as many 10's as possible. Si that I did and beat my pb 5 times that year, each ride was a bit better until I managed 22.30 on the K37 one still Saturday afternoon at the end of August. No grat by some peoples standards but to me it was a time I never imagined I would do.
As I approached 40 I wanted to road race as a senior before turning vet so once again bought a licence for the 1999 season where I rode 4 races and was rubbish in all of them! So it was back to riding for pleasure only with my clubmates which I did until 2007, this fateful year I dipped my toes in cyclo-cross having not ridden one since I was at school when I was 16 and found that my performances were surprisingly good considering no training and a novice. Thus I rode the whol 2007/8 season then continued into the road season in 2008 and continued racing until September 2010 when a back injury brought everything to a sudden stop. To be continued....
Now in 2011, training is starting again but very cautiously with that ageing back!

West Bromwich CTC in the 1970's

West Bromwich CTC in the 1980's

West Bromwich CTC in the 1990's

West Bromwich CTC 80th Birthday ride March 2006

Stourbridge CC A-rides

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