Don't you just love the Spring? Warm days, a whole summer ahead, loads of cycling things going on. Not only was there a splendid B-ride to the Apple Tree cafe in Clifton led by Matt Hale and a BC Guided ride led by Mick Stanford, but there were two rides and plenty of Beacon riders going out to the Cyclists' memorial service in Meriden. Beacon always buys a wreath for this occasion, and thanks to Dave Cox as always for cycling it over and laying it at the monument in respect to all the cyclists' who gave service during the the two wars. Great to see the actual moment Dave Cox laying the wreath on Midlands Today last night! Thanks to Cedric and Paul Balfe for leading the two rides there.
So what else was happening at the weekend... kudos to Gemma Johnson (great to see you riding again and getting back to your best, Gemma) and Celia Brown for weekend TT's, with Celia breaking the magical one hour mark for the first time (on a road bike!!) on the Newbury 25mile TT on Sunday, but if they will excuse me, top kudos this week goes to the monster audaxers, with Karl Walton and Luke Hutcheson completing their 610kms audax and Stu White an overnight 400kms audax (in 15 hours!!), all of whom have now finalised the long rides necessary to enter Paris Brest Paris, the 1220kms ride in France this August. Great riding all. At the other end of the age scale, Matt Russell, our junior ginger randonneur rode the 105kms Warwickshire Wanderer audax on Saturday, along with those other juniors, James Russell, Simon Turner and Pete Norman...a bright future for all of them, methinks
...and what of touring, Helen Colson is still out on the tour of Western Britain, Si Woodward is still on his way to Ventoux, and Si Walker is riding the length of Portugal... a popular ride that... so you can see, the hills are alive with the sound of Beacon music.
Next Tuesday (30th May) sees the 20mile club TT Championships at Shell Ford, a joint production with Droitwich CC, so get yourself down there and compete for a Beacon trophy! You have a week's notice...
...and finally, our Academy does a lot of events and training for junior cycling in south Birmingham, not least our training sessions every Wednesday at Moseley School, and we have now finalised our date in our organisation of the 'Regional Grass Track Championships' at Queensbridge School, Moseley on Saturday 8th July. Races are for 5-13 years old and races are from 11:00-15:30 with two training sessions on the previous two Wednesdays (28th June and 5th July – 17:30-18:30) both set up as Go Ride events. This is another big event for us to run, so please keep this date free and help out on the day if you can, please...and even better, everyone knows someone aged between 5-13, so why not get them there on the day!
Enjoy the sunshine this week
Phil
