With summer in full swing, its time for a review of whats been happening with the club and its members plus a peek to whats coming up.
Tumble Up 4 Life
Seems a long time ago now but back in April, three MonWheelers (with an average age of 51 I might add!) participated in the 2016 Tumble Up 4 Life event. An early (and I mean early) start and a full’s day of climbing up and down The Tumble awaited all those foolish enough to accept the challenge. However with pride and raising money for charity at stake, our 3 riders (Dave Kealaher, Simon Williams and Dave Hollin) managed a mammoth 27 ascents between them. Not bad for a bunch of old fogeys and in the process they managed to raise nearly £800 for Cancer Research
North Wales trip
8 intrepid MonWheelers made it up to North Wales for a bumper weekend of cycling from the base of Dolgellau in May. Three stunning rides including the now famous Stwlan Dam, Bwlch-y-groes, Lake Bala and Lake Vyrnwy were done and enjoyed by all. Its is rumoured that Bob Millar and Charlie Serafini even managed the infamous Harlech climb….
What a stunning area to visit and many thanks to Simon Williams for organising. Look out for a return trip in 2017 and of course helpers are always welcomed as trips like this always need a good deal of organising.
Velothon Wales
Back in May, we also had the pleasure of seeing the Velothon roll back into Monmouthshire (albeit from a Cardiff start and finish) with a good number of MonWheelers taking part. There were some fantastic times by the ‘fast group’ riders from the club and special mention to Anthony Roberts who managed an awesome 13th place finish out of 10000 riders who took part
Club rides
The Sunday ride is still the main club event of the week and we are still attracting good numbers for this. Rides are normally posted up during the week on our Facebook pages. If you haven’t already joined in and fancy coming along, please post up your interest on the relevant Facebook post. Please remember that safety is paramount on any ride and especially in large groups normally found on the Sunday club ride. Observe the Highway code, look out for others and ride safe
Chain Gang
Chain gang rides have been running now for the past few months and are a great chance to learn group riding skills whilst at speed. If you fancy having a go let us know via the Facebook pages. There are still a couple of months worth of rides left in this season so why not have a go if you havent already. Chain gang rides normally start from Magor ruins car park on Tuesday evenings. The participants often go down the pub for a swift pint afterwards as well
TTs
The TT season is now drawing to a close and the last one is being held on Thursday 18th August and is a 15miler. There have been some great turnouts and very fast times posted this season and we have attracted quite a few riders from other clubs to participate. Once again, many thanks to Simon Williams for all his hard work in setting these rides up and liaising with the relevant governing bodies. If you do fancy a go at a TT just let Simon know and turn up on the 18th
MTB rides
If you fancy a go at an MTB ride then please feel free to contact Paul Lineham and Chris Anderson who normally organise these.
Socials
As we are affiliated to Usk Cricket Club we have a fantastic venue for holding social events (the last one being back in April). As we do not have a Social Secretary currently we are always on the lookout for volunteers to help organise social events. They don’t have to be fancy or complicated so if anyone wants to get involved and help organise a social event then please contact any of the committee members.
Social Ride August
Literally hot off the press, we have just had our first ‘social ride’ of the year. Two routes taking in two starting points of Usk and Magor were the order of the day on the way to a rendezvous at the Red Door Deli in Michel Troy. The idea was to have a nice social ride at a steady pace followed by cake and coffee provided free by the club. As you can see we had a great turnout with old and new faces both.
Not sure if Paul Foster found it a little too exciting though…….
We will look to run these types of ride several times a year and hope to run another one in the autumn. Watch this space…..
Other news
We had a big Velodrome track session sponsored by the club in May which was a great event with 20 riders taking part. In addition there are normally drop in sessions at the Velodrome for riders to take part. Further sessions will be advertised via the Facebook pages
There was a good turnout for the Wye Valley Warrior Sportive back in May with many club members helping out with the running of the event and then also riding later on in the day. Many thanks to all who turned up to help out.
Also, if you haven’t seen it already, there is a club Facebook page for selling bits of cycling kit. If you are interested please contact Paul Chaplin for further information.
Don’t forget that there is a spares box kept at the Red Door Deli diner for use by club members. If you use any of the items on a ride please replace them at your earliest convenience. Ideally, pop your name, the date and the item used on a bit paper and put back into the box so that we know who has had what. More crucially don’t forget to claim your 10% off at the Red Door Deli when on a club ride!
Club membership now stands at 108 members which is fantastic news and shows that we are now well established and continuing to attract new members. Please note that as part of the British Cycling set up, as a club we are covered by 3rd party liability insurance. Under their rules prospective members are allowed up to 2 taster rides before being required to join so that the club liability insurance requirements are satisfied. For all prospective members who haven’t yet joined and wish to do so, here is a link to the relevant page on the British Cycling website:
https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/club/profile/6369/monmouthshire-wheelers
What’s coming up
There will be an ‘end of season’ hill climb challenge and mini social afterwards in the autumn. Simon Williams is busy organising this and will post up details via the Facebook pages soon. Last year’s challenge was great fun so I would encourage people to turn up and have a go. Also we will be looking to have some food and drinks afterwards.
As mentioned above, we will also be looking to organise another social ride on a Sunday in the autumn so look out for details about that one nearer the time
We will be looking to organise a club audax in the autumn (before the clocks go back) so watch out for details of this one. It will be the ‘standard’ audax distance of 200km so still plenty of time to get some training in first.
That’s it for now, another newsletter will be posted in the autumn (October/Nov) followed by a winter one (December/January). If you have any interesting ideas, stories or general information for the next one then please contact Dave Hollin.
Be safe out there, have fun and remember to ride your own ride.