Weekly Club Update and Club runs for the weekend of 18th and 19th of March

[WorcsPhil]

WEEKLY UPDATE:

The cycling Gods were shining on us on Sunday which proved to be by far the best day of the week, weather-wise, so out we all came on four textbook club runs; namely a splendid A-run to Cobhouse under the tutelage of John Williams, a hilly, testy B-ride to Bewdley led by Stuart Jones, a Whitlenge C-ride led by George Barker (El Presidente), only spoiled by a solo crash, involving the those two unfriendly items, a kerb and wheel, and the weekly BC Guided ride, led by the inimitable Mick Stanford. Great stuff all and thanks for leading.

The weekly kudos this week goes to two people. First up is Celia Brown, who started the TT season, with a quite splendid, rocket ride down at the Swindon 30mile TT on Sunday, winning fastest road bike, first vet and 2nd overall female, a splendid warm up for the LMTT in a few weeks. Oh that reminds me, the first Beacon TT is on the 1st April on the 20mile course starting at Shell Ford... Simon is still looking for a couple more volunteers, so please have a look at the MB thread and help out, please.

The second kudos of the week goes to Richard Greer. Now, you know I'm not a big follower of indoor rides, and rarely reference them, but Rich got up at 4am on Saturday, connected his bike to the smart trainer, booted up Zwift then promptly rode for 10 straight hours to achieve an Everesting ride up and down Alpe de Zwift 8.5 times, 209kms and 8,900m of climbing!! All good training for the Mallorca 312 at the end of April, he says. They often say Suggs walking down your garden path is the first sign of madness, but this indoor Everesting is a close second...

The temperature looks like getting into double figures next weekend, so catch yourself on, and post about leading a ride...the regular A-riders may be thin on the ground as many of us are doing a 302kms audax next Saturday, but no excuses for anyone else!

Finally, a bit of good news to finish. We have developed a close relationship with British Cycling over the last few months, and become aware of funds that we may be able to tap into, and to cut a long story short, we have just been granted an award of £2,700 to help fund all of the fantastic work in the Academy that Adrian Ravenscroft organises and runs in 2023...so it's a full season of funded activities for local junior riders this year!!! Again, if you're a parent of an active child who wants to get into cycling, then check out all that the Academy does, it sets us apart in trying to involve the wider community of south Birmingham and to provide cycling opportunities for youngsters who would have no access otherwise. Great news!

That's it - have a succulent week.

Phil