PTW

I am writing with advance notice of the upcoming Cardiff Rollapaluza - Roller Racing event, Monday June 21st 7pm - midnight, Cardiff Arts Institute, 29 Park Place, CF10 3QD. Roller racing has a long history in club cycling (see below) and Rollapaluza have been breathing new life into the format. Racers race on rollers (front wheel removed and forks clamped) over a virtual 500 metres and the winner goes through to the next round. It’s fast, furious and a lot of fun – especially as the gearing is quite low! Watch out for 200+ rpm cadence to win it. Cavendish popped into a recent event and surprisingly this is one event that Chris Hoy is not the fastest recorded.

It’s a personal promotion and the motivation is not doing another Dr Bike or recycling or family fun ride during Bike Week – I was casting around for something else, something fun, stylish and grown up and then I bumped into a Rollapaluza crew member at St Fagans, as you do, and when he said they also did school events, I was sold. (We are also staging an afternoon school event at St Francis RC Primary School, one of Tim Anfield’s Bike It schools.)

I reckon that entry will be free and there will be a small charge to race – maybe £2 or £3. There will be prizes for fastest women, fastest man, fastest senior (that gives me a chance) and best placed team. I imagine that team membership will be unlimited and the best three placings will count, or something like that. I already have a vintage GB track team top for women’s prize, working on the others. All comers will receive a Bike week reflector and stickers of course – it’s the first Monday in Bike Week!

I also to want to hold an invitation one mile challenge, recreating an event at the Swan PH way back in 1892 when Arthur Linton from Aberaman was gearing up to rule the world (http://www.arthur-linton.co.uk/) – invitations will probably be issued on the night to obvious candidates. The time to beat is 1:26 – apparently Stuart Stanton was going to set up a recreation of this event at the Manchester Velodrome as part of the National Championships but he wonders whether the time is too good to be beaten – we shall see! Ian (Jif) at Cyclopedia used to be WCU roller racing champion for instance, one of my colleagues in Cycle Experience is a semi pro BMXer and reckons he is top ten nationally at this, Courtney Rowe is no slouch and who knows who will turn up on the night.

There will of course be a bar, food and even PBR, if we can find a wholesaler. So look forward to seeing you there and do bring your friends. Quite a bit of bike parking at CAI out front or in the back garden smoking area. It’s about a mile from Cardiff Central station.

Andrew Dade (Cardiff Byways) 07740 467 322

And this is different from Bill Gannon's post how ?