Oops, I had family over for a few days so late this week with the update, but as usual, plenty has been going on in the rain and cold.
First off is the Kidderminster Killer Audax of course. Now it's a bleedin' hard ride at the best of times, but Saturday's ride was even harder in the rain and wind. You may have seen that although 88 were registered to ride, only 36 started and 22 finished! Top kudos to everyone who participated and/or volunteered, and especilaly to Dr Philip Whiteman of course who has organised this ride for the last 12 years, but has now handed it over for someone else to run next year. Thanks a lot, Phil, and that means you have to ride it next year! Plenty of Beacon disasters befell our entrants, with mechanicals and crashes befalling Helen Colson and Simon Woodward respectively. one entrant did go onto social media to exclaim that the ride was too hard and should be banned, especially as the hills were too close together, so can we have some volunteers to drag Stiperstones a few miles to the west before next July, please
What else has been happening, well, Ed Moss is still ripping up the time trials this year with a 52min 25mile TT out in East Anglia on Sunday, and the randonneurs are still riding long, with myself, John Williams, and Karl Walton riding a 3-day 910kms Tour de Wales route last week, in heavy rain on the first day. Unfortunately Karl had a wheel rim crack at the end of the second day and got a lift home, but me and John managed to finish, and a huge thanks to the boys for riding strong and carefree!
You may have seen Martin Davis' call for racing on the TLI Worcestershire Race series? It would be good to reinvigorate our racing scene, so watch out for further race announcements, and similarly, the cross season is nearly upon us, so get registered and give it a go this year...what's better than getting muddy and cold whilst riding a bike? I can't think of anything...
but top billing this week goes to Mark Roberts. who rode le Tour, the charity bike ride which rides every stage of the Tour de France a few days before the pros. Ian Taylor (formerly of this parish) did this a couple of years' ago, and another local rider and friend Jackie Fowler rode last year, so it's great that Mark continued the local tradition and rode it this year...fabulous stuff, Mark!! Any reports or photos would be welcome.
The National Grasstracks championships are back again for the third attempt after having to be postponed twice. The new date is Saturday August 19th and look out for all the details on the MB and Facebook page...
Beacon hoodies. Our kit man Neil Orchard will be ordering them in the next few days after a trial run of 10 sold out quickly, and they look good, so watch out for his announcement soon!
Good to see that club runs are nearly all complete for this coming weekend, let's get the leaders backed up by having loads of people signed up in advance to join in...you know it makes sense.
Have a good rest of week
Phil