Dear All,
Last night (190822) an online meeting was held with Pete Varian (Behind Bars Sports) Gary Rowing-Parker (Chair of The West Midlands Cyclo Cross League) and myself about the joint Beacon/Behind Bars Sports Cyclo Cross Event on 4th December. I thought it would be a good idea to have a summary of the discussion and action points. It was a shame that we did not get wider input from the Beacon but to be fair the meeting was at relatively short notice in the middle of August and there was the club ‘10’ on. I have BCC’d (for GDPR) committee members in. I will also copy this to the CX discussion group.
Firstly the things we’ve got going for us:
• Walsall Arboretum has great potential as a venue. It is a place people have heard of and is in the middle of a conurbation. Potential for local interest and something that really adds something different to the local cross calendar.
• Pete has significant prior experience of putting on successful CX events at Blackwell.
• Gary is in on the project at an early stage and can bring in his own considerable expertise and facilitate access to the expertise of other clubs/ promoters.
• Beacon RCC has a track record of putting on successful events – notably Audaxes and the Little Mountain Time Trial
• The Behind Bars/Beacon RCC tie up worked very well for the business park road event this summer.
• We have a timetable for the day in place
• It appears we have good will from the local authority – and a bikeability person to liaise with. Walsall can be rewarded for their positive attitude to cycle sport with a good event on their patch.
• The WM season is very front loaded. The Arboretum might well be the only one that takes place in what people regard as ‘proper cross’ conditions.
Now the challenges:
I. This is an entirely new venue. Work will be needed designing and risk assessing the course from scratch
II. At present the space envisaged for the course is relatively tight – similar to Johnson’s Coaches course. This will require inventiveness to get a lap time long enough [Gary I have forgotten how long you said a minimum lap should be].
III. We have very limited firm offers of help at present.
IV. Beacon volunteers have limited experience of setting up cx courses.
V. We will be working in the dark and potentially in inclement weather.
VI. We need to get the local community on side – notably the arboretum ‘friends.’
VII. I (Ade) have limited capacity. I am shortly off on hols. I can certainly commit to on the day and coaching a kids’ event the day before. Autumn though will be busy with the coaching and trying to get a better strategy for children’s cycle racing in the city out of BC.
How we discussed meeting these challenges:
I. Pete to get going early on this. Liaise with Gary & Beacon with a view to a late August site visit – i.e. before the season gets going.
II. Pete to factor this into course design & resolve tensions between the simplicity required for inexperienced course builders and interest for the riders. Potentially look at other parts of the site that have more interesting features – e.g. slopes.
III. Pete to liaise with Beacon members – via the cx facebook group and via Laurence Cooley
club-info@beaconrcc.org.uk for wider distribution. Collate a list of volunteers from Beacon & identify other potential sources of support e.g. BMC Walsall Rd Club Walsall Bikeability.
IV. Pete to match volunteers to tasks as soon as possible. Liaise with volunteers about additional dates they are available. Gary to liaise with other organisers so that Beacon volunteers can learn about how to do their job at another race before our one. Pete to organise practice sessions. Ade to liaise with club treasurer to see if funding would be available to cover volunteers’ expenses. Gary suggested a ‘pyramid’ system so that each section of the course has a named person to oversee set up. That way Pete can liaise with the people responsible for each section rather than every individual volunteer. Pete to crate detailed maps & share with Gary.
V. Practice setting up a good part of the course on the Saturday for a kids’ ‘Come and try it’ session. Secure the venue for the Saturday too. Mark up the stake locations with paint. Paint pit area & Start Grid on the Saturday.
VI. Invite stakeholders to the course viewing. Emphasise the benefits to the local community of promotion of positive healthy exercise – especially for children.
VII. Integrate the ‘come and try it’ event to Beacon Academy’s autumn plans.
It is essential that the event maintains Beacon RCC’s good reputation for organising events amongst riders and the wider cycling community and the public at large. The significant scale of the undertaking should not be underestimated. My take is that we will be in a good position to know if we will meet the challenges by the end of September. What we don’t want is a late cancellation if it proves too challenging. Keen riders could plan entry travel to Notts/Derbs or Leics league events for that weekend if we cancel early – but not if we are late. I very much hope that will not be necessary but it is prudent to have a ‘Plan B.’
Look forward very much to taking this forward.
All the best,
Ade