The Beacon Message Board

27 riders out on what has to be said, was more than acceptable conditions for late November...Big thanks to me, Si Walker and Noel O'Dwyer (first time leader) for leading the three rides. Good to hear the banter and bonhomie of a social club ride is alive and well.

Good grief, it's December...so mount your wonky mudguards and give your winter bike an outing for a few weeks of cold and miserable cycling, only enlivened by the joviality of your fellow Beaconite...it sure beats riding alone or trapped in our desire to calculate our FTP to six decimal places in order to see improvement. Have a sausage sandwich and don't worry about it.

This week's rides are below and will fill up in the week, with George clarifying the Intro/C ride plans over the next few days.

A: Volunteer required
B: Volunteer required
C: Destination TBC - George Barker - could be co-ordinated with the Intro ride

Intro ride: May be subsumed with an appropriate C -ride...

I'm definitely leading a ride on Sunday. Whether that's a C or an Intro depends entirely on what other volunteers we get.
- If no one volunteers to lead either the C or the Intro, I'll lead a combined ride.
- If someone volunteers to lead either the C or the Intro, I'll lead the other.
I'll make a definite announcement no later than Friday.

Plus not forgetting of course a track session at Newport starting at 3pm till 6pm, everyone welcome. Fancy giving the track a go, well now is your chance....c'mon down

Viva el presidente!

Okay, no one else has volunteered to lead the C or the Intro, so here's my plan:

I've worked out a route of 52km (32mi), which should be doable for the Intro target group. I also have a longer (but not very long) version ready in case no newcomers turn up.

- If there are newcomers at the BH, and there is a last-minute C run leader, my ride will be a standard Intro Ride.
- If there are newcomers at the BH, but no last-minute C run leader, my ride will be a combo ride, and any C riders who find the outward leg too easy will be invited to make their own way back from the café.
- If there are no newcomers at the BH, my ride will be a C ride, at standard C pace, but relatively short (60-odd km / 40mi).

Destination will be Avonscroft, and the basic Intro-distance route will be this: https://www.strava.com/routes/22793586

An impromptu C/B Ride was organised to Kennilworth.
The lanes had some patchy ice, with strong sunlight and a chilly easterly wind.

Finbar Costigan
Neil Evanson
Andre Gardner
Mark Russell
Vince Tennant
Si Turner
Si Walker (Leading)

Only one newcomer on today's Intro Ride, but Helen turned out to be a strong rider, so the ride we did turned out to be more of a C run, certainly in terms of pace (21kph), and not far off in terms of distance (68km). Due to a bit on confusion at the start, Noel ended up coming with us as well, saving Helen from three hours of my exciting conversation. Thus, the full register was:

Helen Colson
Noel O'Dwyer
George Barker (L)

Disappointing turn out again yesterday afternoon at Newport, just myself and Simon Woodward. So on that basis l shall no longer continue with them as their is clearly no interest

AlanW wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2019 06:10

Disappointing turn out again yesterday afternoon at Newport, just myself and Simon Woodward. So on that basis l shall no longer continue with them as their is clearly no interest

It's a great shame that you have put in so much time and effort for (almost) nothing, Al. However, if the demand isn't there, it's hard to see what can be done about it. My impression is that it's been well-publicised. So, if there were no exceptional factors keeping people away (I can't think of any myself), maybe we have to reluctantly accept that it's an activity that should be shelved until the demand picture changes. Thanks for trying, anyway.