The Beacon Message Board

Well, the appalling weather continues, and Sunday's windfest was another crawl along the lanes of Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Nevertheless, there were 21 riders out on the four rides, and great to see a D-Ride out to complement our other three rides.

So, this Sunday is the 1st March of course, Spring is here, so why not venture out with your old buddies for a bike ride into the countryside. It is the Sunrise and Snowdrop Beacon audax on Saturday, with nearly 300 entrants, so attendance will inevitably be down on Sunday for the club runs...As such it could be a good week to step forward if you're not riding on Saturday, perhaps to lead a Beacon Burst and get everyone home in time for Songs of Praise.

It is also an Intro day being the first of the month, so thanks to George Barker for taking over the leading of these rides for the year, let's support him if possible by pointing your friends and relatives new to cycling in our direction for a supported ride with new friends.

Anyway, this week's rides are:

A: Volunteer required
B: Beacon Burst - Neil Orchard
C: Kenilworth - Phil Gameson

Intro: Avoncroft or Broadacres Fishery - Led by Mariana Sorrell

For clarification, I'm not planning to lead this Sunday's Intro Ride myself (I'm away), but I am actively trying to recruit someone.

I'll lead a B paced burst this week, if the weather is too bad I'll cancel by Saturday.

Mariana Sorrell has volunteered to lead Sunday's Intro Ride, either to Avoncroft or to Broadacres Fishery. Anyone fancy riding shotgun?

Thanks for stepping up Neil and Mariana...

Just for clarification, we have a range of rides that anyone can volunteer to lead, which as well as a standard A, B and C ride each week now includes:

- Monthly Intro Ride (first Sunday of the month): Involves a cafe stop and is designed for those new to group cycling. Pace is generally 10-12mph (16-20kph)

- Beacon Burst: Short ride of 30-50miles with NO café stop at the pace decided by any leader wishing to promote one that week. Could be fast, could be slow, leader decides.

- Short Café (SC) ride: Similar to the Beacon Burst in that's it's a short 30-40mile ride, but involves a café stop at half way. Pace determined by any volunteering leader, so this can be slow or fast...you decide.

A number of potential routes for Intro, Beacon Burst and SC rides are shown on the message board under 'Club Runs'

Hope that helps...these won't happen every week, but if you want one, lead one.

neilo wrote: ↑

25 Feb 2020 17:47

I'll lead a B paced burst this week, if the weather is too bad I'll cancel by Saturday.

looking forward to the Beacon Burst B ride.....just wondered if there is a GPX file of the route avaliable, be much appreciated if one is. Stuart

I will ride shotgun on Mariana's Intro Ride this Sunday
Dave

I haven't decided on a route yet Stuart but will post something before Sunday.

I'll lead the C run to Arden's Cafe in Kenilworth. The route is just over 50 miles and is relatively flat.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/30868934

The cafe itself is just off the route.

Forecast is not too bad for Sunday - 4 to 8 degrees, not too windy (by recent standards) and hopefully dry. Expect plenty of wet roads though.

Tomorrow's 'burst' will be about 42 miles with around 2000ft of climbing, back before 12 o clock.

What areas will the B run Burst be going to?

neilo wrote: ↑

29 Feb 2020 18:25

Tomorrow's 'burst' will be about 42 miles with around 2000ft of climbing, back before 12 o clock.

Heading south via Barnt Green, Tardebigge, Inkberrow then back through Bradley Green, Ditchford Bank ending with a climb through the pickets.

Lickeys!*

I survived my first lead today
Super thank you to Neil and Andy who were my mechanical heroes
We had two new riders today
Tom Owen
Julie Warwick
And Dave ( I forgot his last name too many daves was to remember) also joined us

Today's C run got a bit tangled up with the Intro Ride for a bit, with some people temporarily switching rides unintentionally.
We then managed to lose Dave Stephenson for a while - we saw him go past our turning at speed. He eventually caught us whilst Si was mending a **flat**.
Andy Terry was waiting for us at the cafe, which was busy but served us pretty promptly. The ride back was not as pleasant as the ride out, with the headwind quite strong at times, not to mention a hard hale shower and then a bit of rain.

On the ride today were
Bryony Aitken
Helen Cotson
Phil Gameson (leading)
Neil Pawley (left us before the cafe, not sure if I have got the surname right)
Si Walker
Dave Stephenson
Andy Terry
Will Wooodhouse

Today's 'burst' went well today into a lovely headwind on the way out
Was good to see so many new faces as well so welcome to the Beacon everyone and hope to see you again soon!
Riders were-
Matt Clegg
Antony Featherstone
Matt Hale
Toby Hale
Shaun Jackson
Stuart Jones
Andrew O' Connor
Noel O' Dowd
Neil Orchard (leading)
Ade Ravenscroft
Pete Warwick
Jon William's
Cheers to everyone who had a turn on the front

Mariana278 wrote: ↑

01 Mar 2020 14:05

I survived my first lead today
Super thank you to Neil and Andy who were my mechanical heroes
We had two new riders today
Tom Owen
Julie Warwick
And Dave ( I forgot his last name too many daves was to remember) also joined us

Andrew Wrightson
Neil evenson

Great ride thanks Neil