Paul King takes first PB of the season

On a windy day in Oxfordshire Paul King managed a superb ride in the North Hampshire RC 50 to record a new lifetime PB of 2:10:00.

This was a 25 second updating of Paul's previous best, which was set on a much better day, surely proof that he has the form of of his life and will be further updating PB's as the season goes on.

Photos from Cambridge CC 10 - Thanks to Dave Jones

What a weekend! The team couldn't be any closer!

An extremely windy Cambridge CC event at Cambourne was the location for the first major coming together of almost all of the team this year.

Sam Hayes took top honours with a superb 22:36 for 21st place. The battle for second fastest from the team was unbeleivably close with Dave Wentworth just edging it with 23:59 from Steve Robinson's 24:00 and Paul King on 24:03.

Chris Hartley also continued his resurgence with a fine 25:22, showing that he has put his troubled winter behind him and the form is coming.

The next big clash will be at the Northampton & District CC event in Mid May when Sam, Rik, Paul and Steve will all be in action.

Sam takes 14th in opening round of N&DCA and goes under the next day..

Saturday the 16th April was the opening round of the Northampton & District series, and although not feeling like he was on best form Sam Hayes still managed to take 14th place and gain a very handy 89 points for the season long competition. Sam clocked 48:22 on the 20 mile hilly country lane course.

Steve Robinson suffered his first bad ride of the season in the same event to finish in 53:55 for a very disappointing 47th place, his lowest placing in an N&DCA event.

Despite his hard ride on Saturday Sam then went on to race again on the F1 25 mile course on Sunday. His finishing time of 59:05 may not have been as good as he hoped, but shows that even on his bad days he can still post decent times!

Rik starts season on form

In his opening race of the season Rik Palmer stormed round the E91/10 in 24:34 to take 13th place in a competitive field. It's a cracking start to the year and signs that a good winters training will pay dividends.

57minute 25 for Sam, 13th place for Steve

This weekend saw 2 members of the team out battling in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. On Saturday afternoon Sam Hayes opened his 25 mile account for the season with a rapid 57:14 on the E2. Although not as quick as he had hoped thanks to a rising tailwind it still ranks as the fastest ever 25 by a Team Salesengine rider, and its only a matter of time before both Sam and Rik Palmer slice more time off it. On Sunday morning Steve Robinson competed in an Interclub 10 representing his second claim club Hitchin Nomads. On a calm morning Steve clocked 24:36 on the lightly trafficked single carriageway course to take 24 seconds off his PB and take 13th place overall.

3rd place team at the Icknield hilly

The early season form of continues to look promising with Team Salesengine taking 3rd placed team in the Icknield hilly 30k.

Sam Hayes led the team home with a storming 46:32 to take 13th place in the high quality field. Steve Robinson finished in a course PB of 50:24 to take 24th place and Paul King was hard on his heels with 52:03 for 33rd.

The same three are in action again in 2 weeks time at the first round of the Northants & District series, with Sam on the E2 before that looking to further hone his speed.

Paul & Steve take 2nd place

In their first ride of the season Paul King and Steve Robinson took 1:52 off their course PB in the Hitchin Nomads 2-up 25 to record 1:04:46 and take second place.

It was a mild morning with a cross tailwind on the key part of the course which meant fast times all round. But the amount of time the pair took off their previous best shows that they are going into the season with really promising form.

Next up for Steve & Paul is the Icknield hilly in 2 weeks time, which will also see Sam Hayes in action as well.

Sam in full flight

You can see from the look on Sam's face that when they call it "The North Road hardriders" they aren't joking!

Welcome to the team - Sam Hayes

So the blog has been off air for a little while now during the off-season.

It's been a good winter with everyone knuckling down and getting the work done to come into 2011 flying.

The big news of the winter is that we have managed to coax another rider to join us, so welcome on board Mr Sam Hayes!

Sam has been one of the areas most rapid testers for a few years now, and his presence in the team should keep Rik Palmer focused for the year!

With Sam and Rik both looking to complete the Northants & District series we now have the strength in depth to challenge for the overall and a few team prizes along the way, happy days!

Sam has already opened his racing account for us this year with a cracking 50:28 in the shortened version of the North Road Hardriders 25 circuit. The field list reads like a who's who of time trialling and Sam finished well up the field in around 25th place. Awesome first ride, with the promise of a lot more to come. Nice one Sam.