The Beacon Message Board

At January's committee meeting we took the decision to host a round of the West Midlands Cyclo Cross League. From my perspective this is an exciting development. We are looking to give the league riders a different experience - and urban CX event. Venues and dates are still being confirmed at this point. As you'll understand there are issues at the moment - but we have a couple of strong possibilities. This event has the possibility to really make us a Beacon Cycling Club - Bringing our sport to a new area and new participants. The academy will look to base training events at the venue and we will hope to run some adult training too to maximise home advantage! Riders come away from our events be they audaxes or time trials having had a great experience. I'd really like this one to be just as good and know we have talented personnel who can make it happen. Keep your eyes on this thread. Your thoughts in the comments would be welcomed and appreciated. If we get it right in year 1, this has the potential to become a massive event.
We will be looking for helpers as follows:
Helpers to set up
•
Sign on
•
Car Park Marshals
•
Course Marshals
•
Judging Team
•
Event Day
Judging Team

Experiences Lap counters
•
Finish Line Judges
•
We can't just depend on the chip timing system!!!!


Sweeper after each race
The format of the day is set by the League committee and is as below:
•
10.00 U8’s 10mins race
•
10.20 U10’s 12 15mins race
•
10.45 U12’s 15 20mins race
•
11.10 11.30 Official Course Practice
•
11.30 Youths 30mins race
•
12.15 Vet 50+ 40mins race
•
13.05 13.35pm Official Course Practice
•
13.35 Women’s 40mins race
•
14.30 Junior/Senior/Vet40+ 50mins race

You can count me in Ade. The proviso is my training/racing schedule and Covid injections!

It sounds fantastic.
I'd be more than happy to help out. Please let me know once you have an idea of a date.

I’m so excited by this and I’d urge absolutely everyone to help out if at all possible. The atmosphere at the Cross races is super friendly and the nature of the courses usually means it’s great for the spectators as well as the riders. Can’t wait, fingers crossed

Yosser wrote: ↑

21 Jan 2021 09:09

You can count me in Ade. The proviso is my training/racing schedule and Covid injections!

Thanks!

Simon Woodward wrote: ↑

21 Jan 2021 12:03

It sounds fantastic.
I'd be more than happy to help out. Please let me know once you have an idea of a date.

Nice one

Pedlo Mudguardo wrote: ↑

21 Jan 2021 19:04

I’m so excited by this and I’d urge absolutely everyone to help out if at all possible. The atmosphere at the Cross races is super friendly and the nature of the courses usually means it’s great for the spectators as well as the riders. Can’t wait, fingers crossed

Fingers & everything else crossed indeed!!

Looking forward to this, Ade. As indicated elsewhere, I'm available.

I should be able to help out too.

I'm happy to help out too. Also thinking of riding, so could help out before or after the women's race.

Also happy to help out as required.

Thanks for all of the offers of help! Really appreciated ... keep them coming!

Ade, have you any idea of a date for this event yet?

Hoping for Oct 31st

AdeR wrote: ↑

22 May 2021 10:25

Thanks for all of the offers of help! Really appreciated ... keep them coming!

Please stick my name down as a volunteer Ade

Are we still hosting an event?

Hels147 wrote: ↑

12 Sep 2021 20:59

Are we still hosting an event?

The last I heard, Ade had encountered some problems with the proposed course.

We had a venue in mind for our race and undertook a risk assessment. Following this the new regulations for the 2021/2 season were announced by the WMCCL including reintroducing two bikes. This made our proposal unworkable for two reasons i) potential noise of jetwashers in a residential area ii) distance from the pits to the car park. Riders who have entered Beacon Events (LMTT Club events the grass track champs) have always commented positively on our organisation. I want our cross event to have a similar reaction across the cycling community. We continue to look for a suitable venue in Birmingham. If any members would like to sign up to a working party to develop our proposal please sign up here.

Hey ade. Just seen this. I’ll sign up to the working party

Great stuff Helen. Can you e mail me? academy@beaconrcc.org.uk & I can forward you some info

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

Ade, I can help out but a date asap would be great so I can commit fully.

Happy to help out

Sounds like a great initiative, Ade. I will help if the date is doable. However, I have various things coming up, so can't commit (or avoid making conflicting arrangements) without a date,

Just checked the Football World Cup schedule, and doesn't look like there is anything in the way for Sunday until the evening. Saturday afternoon could be a problem, though, depending on how England do.

Count me in.

Ade has provided this volunteers' briefing for those helping out at our cyclo-cross event on Sunday: http://beaconrcc.org.uk/wp-content/uplo ... 01122.docx. If you haven't already volunteered and you're free, it is not too late to offer help (even if you've got just 1 hour!). Regular club runs are cancelled, so please do consider this if you can. It's a big deal that we're organising a 'cross event again after a few years without one, and it would be great to support any Academy kids who are racing especially!