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.

Another top 10 for Richard Palmer

In more Richard Palmer based news; he also stormed round the lumpy F14/25 course at Gamlingay on Saturday afternoon to finish in 1:03:00 for a fantastic 10th place.

The event was only won with a 57 so it was by no means a fast day and it shows what a hard course it was.

Rumour has it that after roughly 100 races this year (maybe a bit exaggerated, but you get my drift) Rik will now be hanging up his wheels for the year. With a new coach on board he will be building for big things with us in 2011!

Rik takes 8th overall

In a hotly contested 4 event series, Rik managed to finish in a superb 8th place overall in the Victoria CC 10.2 mile competition.

Had it not been for his dragging his team mates round the 3-up before his final solo ride no doubt he could have finished even higher.

Maybe we should try and win the overall team prize in the 3-up series next year???

Nice shot of Dave in the Team Sanjan 10 on the F2/10 course

Image courtesy of Sarah Brooke Photography

Team Salesengine take 2nd place

As the season begins to draw to a close Team Salesengine were in action in the Victoria CC 3-up 10.2 mile time trial on the E1.

It was the first time that Rik Palmer, Paul King and Steve Robinson had raced together as a team, and they stormed round the lumpy 10.2 mile course in 23:54 to take second place a minute behind Flitch Crono.

To cap a great mornings racing Rik then managed to recover sufficiently to take part in the solo event and finish in 21st place with 24:44 and a very sore pair of legs!

Another PB for Chris

Chris posted a 23:19 in the ECCA E2/10 event which is a 24 second improvement over his previous PB set on the F1b/10 in April.

Dave did a 22:53 which is the third time he has gone under 23 minutes this year. Another excellent ride.

"Another windy day on E2. The wind was across the course but slightly helping on the way back from the turn. A refreshing shower helped to cool me down on the return leg but seemed to dampen the wind a little as well. As always special thanks to Dave for training and racing advice"
Chris H.

Steve gets muddy again

Steve Robinson of Team Salesengine.co.uk was in action again off-road at the weekend when he competed in the latest round of the Mud Sweat and Gears series at Danbury in Essex. A gruling mix of technical sections, a water crossing, bomb-holes and gravel climbs tested him to the limit and he finished 31st in class about 8 minutes behind the winner.

Lots of lessons learnt about how crucial a good start is to the overall result, and the next round on August 15th is a chance to start climbing up the final results.

Ric just misses a top 10

On a less than ideal day on the E1 Ric Palmer produced a storming ride of 24:11 to bag 11th place in the latest round of the Victoria CC 10.2 mile series. His time was only slightly over 90 seconds behind the winner which shows what cracking form the big man has.

New rider - new 10 record!!

Richard Palmer, the new signing to Team Salesengine.co.uk wasted no time in making his mark by recording a team record 22:32 on a tough day on the E2.

Ric went into the event hoping to improve on his season best of 21:20, but a strong wind and 30 degree heat meant that was never going to be on the cards.

Welcome on board Ric, and we're all looking forward to helping you celebrate that magical 20 minute result before the end of the year!

Good shot from Victoria CC 10

Amazing what a well placed stately home can do for an image! Great shot from sportinpictures.co.uk