Hi all, well, I've had Covid for the first time ever (knowingly), so been isolating with Lisa who also tested positive for the last few days, which has enabled me to watch a bit of cycling and catch up on bike admin... Great to watch that Irish rider break the UCI world hour record at the weekend, you know the one, Philip O'Ganner...isn't he from Cork?
Also, been getting the Snowdrop/Sunrise audax ready for opening...it's on Saturday the 25th February next year and entries should be open this week... and the club run survey will be out later this week. please take a few moments to complete this. Again, you will receive this via direct email, on the message board and on facebook, save us sending Paul Johnson round to your house with a persuasive garden tool, everyone should see it somehow.
Thanks as always to the club run leaders at the weekend, namely George Barker for a textbook B-ride, Richard Chaplin for the C-ride and Mick Stanford for his BC Led ride...great stuff all. Yes, there was no A-run again, which proves that I am the most ignored poster on this message board since I last suggested something for others to do. Luckily I have thick skin. Hence the callouses.
Anyway, I'm sure we'll have an A-ride this weekend, I can feel it in my bones. Get your rides up as early in the week as you can, as it helps others' plan their weekends just to join you.
Another well done to Matt Russell at the weekend who I believe was the only rider at Sunday's WMCCL (Cross)...well done Matt again for ploughing through the mud...well, there's no mud about the moment, but you get my drift. On cross, we are still planning on running a Beacon event on the 4th December at Walsall Arboretum. This is a big undertaking and will need Beacon volunteers to help set up, marshal, sign on etc, and as such there will be no club runs that day...watch out for more details and how you can help soon!
We had a committee meeting last Tuesday and the minutes will appear in due course, but we did discuss the lack of participants in TT's, racing, cross and the recent track championships, and we're not sure what we can do about it to be honest. It's clearly a national issue and has been widely debated in these circles, but all we have to hope for is that the Beacon committee members trying to organise these things don't lose hope...it's easy to say that no one else can be bothered so why should I? Indeed, that's an understandable human reaction...but we have plans in place to hopefully continue with all of these things, but there are major questions on where we go with the Beacon Track Championships....
...The AGM on Thursday 8th December therefore has some big questions, where we'd like your help in understanding what appetite there is for these events, and how we should evolve the club direction where we get loads of involvement (Audax, Club runs etc) to where it should go (gravel?) and even what this means for the numerous trophies we give out, many of which just won't have a winner this year. Finally, don't forget to order your tickets for the Awards night at Kings' Norton Golf Club on Saturday 19th November. Despite my last paragraph, there are still plenty of awards, food, laughs and speeches, and even a 10min slot on LEL has been promised, where I may, if persuaded, recount perhaps the best/strangest/funniest phone call I've ever had.
Keep happy
Phil