Cycling Section.


Welcome to the FSSAA Cycling Section page, information about cycling events will appear here along with contact details of the event organisers, downloadable entry forms, posters and images of those taking part.


Click on the images below to contact the Cycling Section Committee


World Firefighters Cycling Championships 2010 - Luxembourg Highlights:

LIZ BOWLER - BRONZE MTB
ALAN NIXON - 4TH MTB
IAN SIMM - SILVER TT
CHRIS SMART - SILVER TT
RAY PALIN - 4TH RR
STUART REID - BRONZE SENIOR RR..............BRAVO....

Ian Sim Strathclyde F&RS Winner of the 2009 Fire Service Road Race Championship and prestigious Colin Townsley Memorial Trophy. "The Emergency Services Road Race Championship 2009 was hosted by Gloucestershire Constabulary on Sunday 16th August at Staunton village near Tewkesbury"...... to read the full event report  Click here.

Emergency Services Mountain Bike Championships Oct 2009 Hamsterley Forest, Co Durham. "73 riders (a record entry?) lined up on a small track 6 abreast and received my pre-race health & safety brief, lap distance and number of laps per category and any "daft" last minute questions. Remarkably we started "bang" on time at 1300 hours on the sound of a Fire Service railway warning horn (very loud)"........ to read event organiser Jeff Crawford's full report on the day Click here. Check out the cycle gallery page for more images from Hamsterley Forest (link at bottom of this page). Pictured left; Dave Henderson, Lothian & Borders FRS - 2009 Emergency Services Mountain Bike Champion. Lizzie Bowler, West Yorks Fire FRS - 2009 Emergency Services Ladies Mountain Bike Champion.

Cyclocross Event 2009;  took place at Temple Park, South Shields on Sunday 8th November 2009. Click here to read the report.

Cycling Section Event calendar 2010; Click here.

Cycling Section contacts;

The National FSSAA Cycling Secretary is Jeff Crawford
The National FSSAA MTB Cycling Secretary is George Peers
The Assistant MTB Secretary is John Cameron

January 2010 saw an Elliott Davis hand picked Team take part in a 4,000 meter team pursuit at the Manchester Velodrome against the Police, which was an additional special event and acted as an appetizer before the evening’s main “Revolution 27” track event. The race was used as a charity fund raising event for the FS Charity; Police Charity & Help for Heroes, a bucket collect followed the event during the evening to a generous crowd.

A 6,000 “sell-out” crowd flocked to the Velodrome to catch a glimpse of favourite World & Olympic Champions as well Stars and future prospects from all over the Country and the rest of Europe, and were treated to a thrilling opener to the evening with the GB Fire Service cycling team taking on the Police.

In an action packed event, which saw the Police team lose a rider virtually straight away but were leading the Fire Service team for most of the 4,000 meter finally crumbled under increasing pressure from the “Flying Fire-fighters” who went on to win the pursuit by a slender 2 seconds. It was a fantastic start to the evenings racing, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd who were very vociferous in supporting their favourite team for the night. The team made up from: Elliott Davis, Phil Blacker, Andy James and Duncan Hewitt; with Robin Thompson as reserve rider. The event proved such a success, that the Section have elected Elliott (Davis) to draw a squad together to pursue Track competition in “open civilian” competitions to represent the FSSAA as well as against the Police and Armed Service teams.

So along with the GB Fire Service Road Racing and Mountain biking teams; the Cycling Section and the FSSAA will be well represented throughout the UK and Europe for 2010, in a wide variety of FSSAA and “open” events.

The GB Road Racing team, is seeking to form a Woman’s Cycle Racing Team and would (me) be delighted to hear from anyone with some experience or would like to gain some more by forming a team of this nature to expand our participation platform, if you would like to follow that path then contact (me details at the end of this report).

Enjoy the photo below; the crowd at Manchester certainly did and at events all over the UK and France like to see the FSSAA kit being displayed and having a great deal of success in the process.

Paul Trueman
Email Paul Trueman
mobile07930 325226

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Gallery link to view other images from the event.

Cycle Section review of 2009. The Great Britain Fire Service Cycling team has had a successful year in 2009, 'under new management' as they say. After deciding not to continue with the Pro-Lite sponsorship, the team was reborn under the guidance of the Merseyside Mafia of Andy Bennett, Duff Fawcett and Paul Trueman. We currently have 15 active riders racing the length & breadth of Britain from Strathclyde to Kent. The season got off on a winning note with Stuart Percival winning the North West 3/4 Divisional Championships, following this up a couple of weeks later with a win in the Bickerstaffe Road Race, benefiting from some good tactical riding from three other team mates. The team was also represented at elite level with Graeme Sumner riding the Lincoln Grand Prix Premier calendar race. We had two riders representing the team in France for the Fire Fighters World Championships, Ian Sim and Duff Fawcett. Ian was to go on to win the prestigious Colin Townsley trophy in the National Police and Firefighters Road Race in August. A strong team presence was used to bring back all but one of the escapees to enable Ian to take the sprint and claim the National Firefighters Road race Champion title. On the Time Trialling side of things, team member Dave Jackson from Merseyside did a sterling job of organising the National Police & Fire Service 10 and 25 Championships in June. Our Time trialists had a fantastic year with Mike Piper recording a 20 minute personal best over 10 miles. Another outstanding ride was done by Simon Best taking just 52 minutes for a 25 mile personal best in the same race that Dave McCann of Ireland broke Chris Boardman's long standing 25 mile record on a perfect day in South Wales. The team has had regular training rides for those whose shifts allow it, including days out in the Lakes, North Wales and the Peak district. In 2010 we are planning on expanding the team and developing some of the younger riders by once again riding all the National and World Championships, entering a few stage races, and continued improvement in Time trials.

The 14th World Fire Service MTB Championship. 17th - 20th June 2009 The 14th World Fire Service MTB Championships was held at St.Croix, Switzerland just over the border from France near Besancon, and as usual, a team from Great Britain attended the event. We arrived late afternoon on the Wednesday to find the event was being held at a ski Resort. The weather was very nice and we ventured out onto the course to see just what the conditions were like and as expected the course was very good with a variety of long climbs combined with technical descents and long rides across alpine meadows, all in all not too bad. Thursday was the day for proper reconnaissance of the course at speed and at the end of the day, all was well and the general opinion was, that the race should be ok provided it didn’t rain. Overnight on the Thursday/Friday morning it rained, sorry, a monsoon broke over the area but it stopped before lunch and the riders were able to go out on to the course to see what difference the rain had made , when the riders returned the comments were to the effect they needed to change to Mud tyres as it was almost impossible to stay on the bike with the tyres being ridden at the moment and as the day went on the course got muddier and muddier with the riders coming back to base covered in mud. On the Saturday (Race day) the overnight rain had eased off.........to read the full report  Click here. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Gallery link to view other images from the event.

Report from the 2009 National Emergency Services TT.
Saturday 13th June – Sunday 14th June 2009.

Saturday 13th, 14.00 - 10 Mile TT day.

Conditions excellent, blue sky and hardly any wind. The only problem was that the local authority had decided to cut the grass on the central reservation on the same day, which was due to finish at 16.00. The official Time keeper, for the event kindly extended the start time so that every body got a ride. The day finished with results as follows:

1st Phil Blacker 21.04 Hereford & Worcs FRS. National Champ.
2nd S Hall 21.15 Devon & Somerset FRS.
3rd N Mercer 21.38 GMC FRS.

Fastest Time of the day goes to W Moore 20.52 West Mids Police.

Sunday 14th, 07.30 - 25 Mile TT day.

Conditions excellent again and similar to Saturdays event, blue sky but a head wind finish. The Day finished with results as follows:

1st S Hall 55.27 Devon & Somerset FRS. National Champ.
2nd Phil Blacker 56.02 Hereford & Worcs FRS.
3rd N Mercer 56.09 GMC FRS.

Fastest time of the day goes to W Moore 54.12 West Mids Police.

National Combined 10 & 25 TT Champion goes to:
S Hall, Devon & Somerset FRS. National Champ. “Well Done!”

Both days for the TT Champs was very well attended by Police, Fire and local riders. Weather was excellent this year as compared to last year’s events.

Thanks:
Both host clubs Liverpool Century and Phoenix CC. Tim Dalton, Paul Truman: Result board personnel. Louise Speed: First Aid, organiser and moral booster. Jeff Crawford: Buffet security, carrot cake tester and beer sampler. S Jackson: Catering and drinks etc. Plus all other volunteers who helped with getting the event off the ground.

Dave Jackson. Event Organiser
Merseyside FRS.

To download the full race results  Click here


2 day mountian bike tour North Wales, organised by George Peers and crew of Cheshire FRS.


Safety Briefing at Hamsterly Forest.

Cycling Section website; www.fireservicecycling.co.uk

The Cycling Section have their very own website which features a comprehensive list of whats on and when, results and who's who. The site is managed by Nigel Clarkson, living and working in Durham, Nigel maintains the North East connection. You can contact Nigel here..... 




Dalby Forest, left to right George Peers, Clare and Richard Whitley.