Friday Night WATT Bike League

News Posted: 15the December 2008

The first ever WATT Bike league of its kind in this country has been launched by Lichfield City Cycling Club. The WATT Bike League means you can race bikes without braving the elements and no fiddling about putting your bike together! All you need is shorts, t-shirt and trainers and you are ready to race.

The league, taking place at the Friary Grange Leisure Centre in Lichfield, begins on the 9th January and will run for 10 weeks. The organisers explained how the new WATT Bike race series came about:

"It's not everyday that you get a phone call from a member of staff from British Cycling suggesting you delay ordering some new spinning bikes as there is something else coming on to the market of more interest. But that's just what Nick Yarworth, West Midlands Regional Development Manager did to Phil Kelly, the manager of Friary Grange Leisure Centre in Lichfield, Staffordshire during December 2007.

Nick's reasons were sufficient for Phil to do just that though and arrange to have a meeting with WATT BIKE in January 2008.

At this point the WATT Bike was in prototype form and only an illustration of the bike and some technical details were available. Despite this Phil decided to order 11 of the WATT Bikes, using funding secured from South Staffordshire PCT as part of a larger health project already in place at the leisure centre.

Phil's 11 bikes ordered in February 2008 were the first commercial order in the world and he had to wait till October for the bikes to be ready and delivered.

Phil says he recognised the value and potential of the bikes immediately. He thought that they could be used for his normal spinning classes as well as developing a host of projects targeted at cycling and triathlon clubs, schools and local sports coaches for performance monitoring.

Spinning classes are going well and Phil needs to hire additional spinning class instructors. The bikes have been well received by members of the public who particularly like the data the bike displays during use. Class attendees have indicated that knowing how far they have cycled and at what speed is highly motivational.

Of more interest to cyclists will be the cycling development work that Phil and his team are doing. The leisure centre already hosts cyclo cross, roller and grass track racing, organises inter-school cycling competitions and a number of triathlons. A lot of this work takes place with the support of the West Midlands Go Ride coaches and Lichfield City Cycling Club. A consequence of this has been the trebling in the number of youth members in the cycling club.

Plans are now in place to run the UK's first ever WATT bike racing league. The league, which will run from January to March 2009, is being organised to run like a traditional track meeting.

The bikes will al be linked through a laptop, and a huge image showing real-time racing, projected onto a wall, The image will show the progress of riders as they race in each event.

Events will include scratch races, individual and team sprints, points, a devil and course de primes. The league runs over 10 weeks, each Friday evening from 9th January.

In addition to the league Phil is also working with local schools to develop a series of competitions for pupils from 10 to 17 years old. The aim is to run a virtual league between Primary and High schools, with each school being able to use the WATT bikes on their own with support from the leisure centre and the Local School Sports Partnership.

To enter the league download an entry form from www.lichfielddc.gov.uk or www.lichfieldccc.co.uk and send to the address on the form.

A trial event being held on 19 December at the leisure centre for local club cyclists filled within 3 days of information being released. As a consequence the leisure centre is now organising another event to run on Tuesday 30th December. This event is also open to Youth riders from the age of 10 (Year 5 at school and should have an inside leg measurement so that a minimum 60cm centre of bottom bracket to top of saddle can be accommodated).

Entry will cost just £5.00 and provides a great opportunity to get accustomed to the Watt bike before the league starts in January and escape from the Christmas telly whilst avoiding icy roads.

For information and entry details contact:
Phil Kelly on 01543 308842 or email phil.kelly@lichfielddc.gov.uk or Nigel Capewell on 07768 560932 or email nigel.capewell@ukgateway.net"

More information on the league can be found by clicking here