12 Apr 2012

Former RAF Officer Secures Silver In Worlds



Former RAF Cyclist Wendy Houvenaghel, added silver in the individual pursuit to Britain's World Track Cycling medal tally as the final session began in Melbourne.
Houvenaghel, one hundredth of a second outside her personal best in qualifying, finished behind Alison Shanks of New Zealand in the final.

16 Mar 2012

RAFCA Has Flying Ambition in 2012




After a break of nearly 20 years away from the sport he once dominated as a child, Matt Haywood is back for more. At the tender age of nine, Matt became interested in BMX racing, riding for Barnstaple Bandits BMX Club, racing mainly at local and regional level. Once in his teens his performances began to improve whilst riding at Regional level. Matt went on to become No 2 in the South West Region when he was 16 and maintained that ranking until he stopped racing in 1994. Matt also raced at National level for a couple of seasons, including one season at International where he finished 7th overall. In 1993 he made his first British Championships Final and finished 3rd whilst also qualifying for 2 World Championships but was unable to attend these.Now Matt is back, he recently took part in the British Cycling (BC) Regional Series at Gosport BMX Track and took the opportunity to get a little race practice in for the start of the season. With a full gate of 8 riders and the fact that he hadn't gated in nearly 2 decades he thought it be prudent to see what he could remember.All was going well until the second corner on the first moto when it all went wrong over a small set of doubles and he ended up sliding along tarmac on his left side, thankfully his body armour did its job but his nice new RAF Cycling jersey didn't fair so well.However, this was only a minor setback and Matt managed to settle down and post some credible results with the commentator and fellow riders surprised to see him jumping the big doubles as none of the other mature riders seemed to take the chance. At the end of his first race back he had managed to post the following:Moto 1 - 8thMoto 2 - 2ndMoto 3 - 1st Final - 2ndAs there was only 8 riders, the final is classed as a 4th Moto so the end place scoring matrix placed Matt as being 3rd place overall. Not bad for a BMX Bandit !

25 Feb 2012

RAF Active Magazine runs development story.

Sqn Ldr Matt Tope reports from RAF High Wycome on the RAFCA Development Initiative.


Click on the title to read the finished aticle.



For more stories and past editions of RAF Active Magaizine please visit http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafactive/





Dan Lewis flies to Wessex win

Dan Lewis (RAF CC) secured a deserved victory in Behind the Bikesheds January Jaunt, final round of the Wessex League staged at the Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire on Sunday.
Lewis, 35 and from Swindon, crossed the line around 42 seconds clear of his nearest rival after steadily building up a good lead over a testing course.
Lewis was one of several riders to hit the front early in the race. But Swindon Road Club’s Crispin Doyle missed out on the early exchanges when he snapped his chain on the start line and had to run half a lap to the pits.
After rejoining the race in last position, Doyle rode superbly to claw his way back through the field and finish an eventual fifth.
While Doyle struggled at the back, at the head of the race Lewis was on the front alongside GS Henley’s Mike Simpson. Sean Williams (Wight Mountain) was around 13 seconds back with Peter Kench (GWR Team), while Nick Onslow and James Cottee were a little further off the pace.
By the third lap Doyle had reached eighth spot and was pushing hard, and by the fifth lap he was fifth, and just 1-23 off Lewis’s pace. But on that same fifth lap Lewis attacked, and pulled out a ten second lead over Simpson, while Williams was now 33 seconds back.
With two laps to go Williams, Simpson and Kench were all together, but still struggled to catch Lewis. Simpson and Williams attacked and dropped Kench, while Doyle was in no man’s land in fifth following his herculean effort.
At the bell, Lewis was 35 seconds up on Williams and Simpson, and he extended that lead to 42 seconds on the line, while Marlow 42-year-old Simpson won the sprint for second spot from Williams, from Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
Results:
1 Dan Lewis (RAF CC) 57:402 Mike Simpson (GS Henley) @ 42sec3 Sean Williams (Wight Mountain) @ same time4 Peter Kench (GWR Team) @ 1:505 Crispin Doyle (Swindon RC) @ 2:12