Weekly Club Update and Club runs for the weekend of 5th/6th of November

[WorcsPhil]

WEEKLY UPDATE:

Well over 40 riders out on the club runs at the weekend in largely fine weather with one crappily-timed heavy rain shower...sorry if you got wet on your way home. Paul Johnson led a very popular A-run to Broad Acres, and great to see 16 riders out for this hokum...as I posted on Saturday, I've noted your names and hope to see nearly everyone lead an A-ride between now and daffodils time... that would line up a great series of rides, eh??? Get your name down, and imagine me metaphorically crossing your name off my hit list

Thanks also to Mariana, Pete Norman, Paul Balfe, Cedric and Mick Stanford for leading the B, C, D, Saturday C and the BC Guided ride respectively...fine work all.

Hopefully, the simplification of the club runs into straightforward A, B, C and D all leaving at 09:15 means even those late joiners or late changers of mind, or just the late arrivers can turn up and join up and ride... SIMPLE IS THE NEW MANTRA.

Thank you to all those who responded to the club run survey emailed to all members earlier this month...we had nearly 50 people fill it in, so not too bad, and some very helpful comments...I'll take a look at these and summarise the themes and report back in the next couple of weeks...so watch this space. An early recurring theme that discourages some from leading however, is people riding fast off the front and NOT at the pace of the leader. I picked up on this a couple of weeks ago, so I re-iterate it again...

1. The leader sets the pace for the club run
2. Sometimes there are people who struggle at that pace, so it is customary to ride the pace of the slowest person, or at the very least, wait for them at junctions, tops of hills etc
3. DO NOT FORCE THE PACE AT THE FRONT!!
4. If that's you, then please post a ride up at the speed you want to ride...others will join you as perhaps they want a ride at your pace also, you'll be surprised.

Finally...don't forget to get your tickets for the Beacon Dinner on Saturday 19th November at Kings Norton Golf Club...we will be looking at the format for this event for next year, so it may change...but in the meantime, please come along and enjoy the evening.

Keep happy everyone, it's only cycling, it's only a hobby....

Enjoy your week

Phil

[Philip Whiteman]

One way to curtail riders 'off the front' is not to provide a GPS route in advance.

My tactic as a group leader was to make unplanned turns at junctions causing those off the front to rejoin at the back. It generally worked and stopped such shenanigans.

[Dave Cox]

Well said Phils squared. These "problems" are of course intrinsic to club run "management". Similar appeals used to go our regularly even in the days when we didn't have GPS and relied on memory and OS maps in back pockets and cyclostyled club run sheets which Oscar ran off on a local political party's Roneo machine.