February 2007 Newsletter

Click here for Printable View

New Members

We welcome David Clarke, Tom Evans, Sara Frost, Alex Fry, Steve Gibbons, Keith Hallam, Peter Martin, Paul Morris, Lisa Parsons, Ian Radcliffe, Mike Smith, Ray Timms, Mark Thomas and Michael Winters.
If you’re a new member and I haven’t mentioned you or if you’re a not so new member and I should have welcomed you long ago, I’m very sorry. We’ve had such an influx of new members over the past year that I’m having difficulty keeping up with it all!

Receiving Your Newsletter

While it is important that all members receive the newsletter, the fact remains that, because the club has grown so much, putting newsletters in envelopes and labels and stamps on those envelopes has become a costly, time consuming and tedious operation. To that end, for the past two issues, we have experimented with e mailing newsletters direct and publishing the newsletter on the website on the assumption that everyone who has e mail reads it regularly. Neither has worked properly so prior to this issue, Paul Bramford has e mailed all members with e mail address to see who is happy to read and, if they want to, download newsletters from the website. I am pleased to report that over 80 of you have replied in the affirmative. If you haven’t yet replied or have said that you would rather receive your newsletter as hard copy, but change your mind (thinking perhaps of tree saving?) before the next issue, please let either Paul Bramford or me know. There are still 120 envelopes to be stuffed!

Marshalling Rota

I am once again organising the marshalling rota for all club events. We need at least 4 marshals and a ‘pusher-off’ for all time trials on open roads. I shall be sending out a copy of the rota to members over the next 2 or 3 weeks. If you can’t make the date that I’ve given you, please let me know straight away so that I can rearrange to a date that does suit.

Performance

Late winter/early Spring is always a quiet time of year for racing but while we’re short on quantity, we’re long on quality. George Atkins, after very little specific cyclo cross training took 4th place in the National Youth Championship, 4th place in the Inter Area Youth Championship and 4th place in the final round of the National Series Youth race.

Vic Barnett went on his annual pilgrimage to the World Masters cyclo cross Championships at Mol in Belgium and took 5th place in the 60-64 category. He won the Midlands Area and National over 60’s championships as well as the Veteran title in the new 5 race Scott cyclo cross series.

The Sunday club run fast group have a race every week through the winter but I’m not publishing the results – I don’t want to encourage them.

Club Dinner and Presentation Evening

Over 100 members and guests enjoyed what I believe was the all time best attended club dinner. We are very grateful to Wayne Holton and Sarah Ferns for organizing a superb event. Wayne, the man with the contacts, deserves a special mention for (successfully) inviting the excellent Michael Hutchinson to be our guest of honour. There are two unsung heroes who also play a major part in making the proceedings run with silky smooth efficiency, namely George Barnett who arranges the trophies in the right order for presentation, and Simon Barnett who cops the really rotten job of bringing up a mirror like shine on all of those trophies – and there are lots of them! Thanks to both of them – they do a great job.

Awards for All

Well no, not quite, but a well deserved award for club secretary Paul Bramford. In recognition of the prodigious amount of work he has done in leading our successful campaign to gain British Cycling Clubmark status, he was presented with the East Midlands Volunteer Award for Club Officials at the recent British Cycling Awards Evening at the Reebok Stadium, Bolton.

Now back to Awards for all – the club is currently bidding for £9000 through the Lottery funded ‘Awards for All’ scheme to help carry out its 2007 development plan and Paul, of course, is heading up this application.

We have also been encouraged by British Cycling to enter a competition with a £6000 first prize for the Central Council for Physical Recreation’s ‘Sports Club of the Year’ award. Our submission was posted last week.

Club Event Passport

New for 2007 is our Event Passport covering entry fees for most Club competitions. To save the bother of paying George Barnett on the day there is an option to make a one-off payment of £50 before the season starts. The idea is not so much to offer a discount but instead to make life easier for everyone. The passport will cover all evening 8.5mile TTs, 10mile TTs, the 3-day mini series, the Bruntingthorpe handicap races and all club championship rounds but not Open events or social activities. For youths and juniors the one-off fee is only £10. To order your passport, just add the fee to your subscription when renewing. If you’ve already renewed, just send the fee on to Mike Reay. Of course the existing facility will continue to be available for those who wish to pay on the day.

Coaching Bits

The theme of the advice in last November’s newsletter was fast pedalling as a means of generating more power. Now that you’ve mastered fast pedalling it’s time to get stronger because you’ll obviously go faster if you pedal a big gear at a high cadence than if you pedal a small gear at that cadence, so here are two drills to help you increase your leg strength, but don’t do either of them within 3 days of a race.

• • Choose a short steep hill that you’d normally climb out of the saddle, then ride it hard while seated – obviously your cadence will be low so be sure to pull up on your pedals with the aid of your hip muscles as well as pushing down, and don’t roll your shoulders. When you get to the top, freewheel down and ride 3 mins easy, then repeat the climb, then 3 mins easy and continue until you’ve climbed it 5 times. Now ride easy for 10 or 15 minutes before you have do a second set of 5 climbs. If you’ve still got any energy left, have another easy spell then repeat the set again. I’m going out to do this one this afternoon on that horrible hill on the road from Welham, leading into Slawston.
• Warm up for 10 or 15 minutes, then on a flattish route make a flat out effort of from 10 to 15 secs every minute for 30 to 50 minutes, depending on your level of fitness. Vary your sprints – some could be in very low gear at cadence of 130 or more, some could be in very high gear and very low cadence, some in the saddle, some out of the saddle, some part in the saddle and part out.

For both of these drills, especially if you do them seated, it’s important to keep your upper body still, which means you need good core strength. Try doing 30 stomach crunches per day and the following exercise 5 or 6 times: lie on your front with your arms by your sides and slowly lift your chest as high as you can and hold for 5 secs – don’t pull your head back or you can easily hurt your neck.

Dave Birch 26.02.07

Items for sale

From Tom Evans

• Pair of Mavic CXP30 track wheels on Campag large flange hubs, both with 32 spokes - £100.00
• 23.5” Raleigh titanium track bike, complete with Profile carbon road forks, titanium stem and seat post, Stronglight chainset and Profile handle bars - £500.00

Contact Tom on 01536 745393

Mallorca in the spring

Hi everyone

I mentioned at our last AGM that I was looking to organise a trip to Majorca in May. The idea will be to enjoy riding in what I expect will be very warm and pleasant conditions. Whilst it definitely will not be a training camp as such, it is possible that riders of similar ability will choose to ride hard and long together. Others (myself included) may take a more leisurely approach. I am aware that many members are considering taking in part in Sportives during the summer so this trip could provide some ideal training on long climbs that are simply not available in the UK. There is also plenty of undulating roads if mountains are not your thing.

We will stay at 'Club Pollentia' on the northern coast between Puerto Pollentia and Alucudia. I have stayed at this hotel on two previous visits and found it to be of a high standard at modest prices (approx £33 to £40 per person, per night, dinner bed & breakfast). There are all sorts of facilities including three swimming pools, gym, fitness centre etc etc. See http://www.clubpollentia.com for more details.

Both the local area and the hotel caters for non-cyclists so this is a trip for friends and family and not just die-hard bikers.

To start this off three of us have already booked accommodation and flights. So we are going whatever! I hope you can join us.

Unlike my other trips no deposit is required but you will need to book the accommodation yourself directly with the hotel (via their website). Whilst we have booked for 6 nights you can book for more or less to suit yourself, the hotel is very flexible. There are various room options. I suggest and I have personally booked ' Village Room' at £40 pppn. The Maris Rooms are smaller and a little further from the hotel centre but everything else is the same.

There are major Club events on May 5th (our N&DCA round) and May 13th (revised date for Club Championship/Armstrong/Timson Cup) so we are flying out on May 6th and returning on May 12th ,viz:-

Easyjet, Luton to Palma
Out Sunday May 6th Dep 12:35 f/n 2273
Return Saturday May 12th Dep 17:00 f/n 2274
Flights are currently £100 return (+ bikes)

Please let me know if you decide to join us so I can keep track of who's coming.

Don’t hestitate to call me if you would like further info. (01572 770306)

Best wishes

Paul Bramford

Success brings Challenge

Welcome Whizz Kids and parents, for most of you this will be your first edition of the Welland Valley Cycling Club newsletter. In previous editions I have shared with the more established members of the club the activities the Whizz Kids have been enjoying.

This year the youth section of the club has taken strides to encourage young children to get on their bikes and join us. This has been a big success.

During the last 12 months over 60 young people have attended more than 4 sessions, we now have a core group of over 40 young people attending throughout the year.

A number of the factors that have lead to our success are:

• A safe and secure venue. The Market Harborough District Council has been so supportive and has actively encouraged the use of Welland Park.
• Publicity in the local papers. Regular updates in the press and photos to promote Whizz Kids.
• Publicity (flyers) in local bike shops, council offices and Welland Park.
• Word of mouth. This I feel has made the biggest impact, young people and parents are talking about Whizz Kids in the school playground.
• A comprehensive website (www.wellandvalleycc.co.uk). We have recently set up a forum for parents and children to access.
• Achieving Clubmark status. Parents know that we are creditable and organised.
• Attracting young people from Northampton and Kettering.
• A strong team of coaches and volunteers.
• The sessions promote the fundamentals of cycling with a big emphasis on FUN.

It is very evident like most of the cycling clubs in the region that we are struggling to attract members over the age of 12 yrs. We currently only have 4 members aged between 12 and 16 yrs old. We have a coach who would love to work with the Secondary School aged members.

The session delivered by British Cycling to Welland Park Community College and Kibworth High School has given the Welland Valley the ideal opportunity to access this age group. I will utilise the contacts developed to promote our activities.

So what are the team of Go-Ride coaches and volunteers doing to attract such a healthy increase in membership?

December was a very busy month with bundles of variety

The now traditional Christmas Whizz Kids session saw 45 young riders in seasonal fancy dress all build on their cycling skills and receive a small gift from the club.

A strong contingent of Whizz Kids competed in the Misterton Cyclo-cross (excellent course Nick), for a majority of the youngsters this was their first experience of racing.

Leading riders were Ross Barnett finishing 12th and 1st Under 8 yrs, closely followed by 13th Jonathan Milson, 16th Frank Alden, 18th Monty Dodney & 20th Dominic Toner.

Ben & Kirsty Morris, Jack Roginski, Matthew Pearman, Jade & Ria Mobbs, Sophie Nicholls, Lewis & Zoe Bowen, Daniel Iliffe, Joseph Harper and Loki Steel all competed the course and enjoyed the challenge!

For some lucky children, Christmas wishes came true as Santa delivered a number of new machines, helmets or noisy horns and bells, these where evident at the January session (22 riders) held on a dark damp Saturday afternoon.

February saw the Whizz Kids set a new record attendance of 52 young riders enjoying a mild afternoon of coaching activities.

British Cycling have been following the progress of the Whizz Kids closely and decided to hold a February Half Term coaching camp.

The East Midlands Go-Ride coach Keith Stocker and I set out a program of activities that would keep the 20 youngsters busy and develop new skills. The 3 hour session was blessed with good weather over the four days, this enabled some of the older riders to get some quality off-road coaching tips from Keith while the younger and less experienced riders enjoyed games that developed balance, control and co-ordination with myself.
The highlight for the youngsters was the opportunity to take part in a Treasure Hunt / Trailquest around Welland Park. It was very rewarding to see the youngsters put into practise the skills developed of basic map reading and awareness of location.

One activity that needs special mention is International Penguin Racing!

International Penguin Racing will become a very big event at the next Whizz Kids session on Saturday 3rd March, a must for penguin lovers!

A few thank-you’s in relation to the camp - the council for the venue, Keith for setting up the camp, the goody bags and introducing penguin racing, the youngsters for being polite and a great bunch to work with, and finally Gaye Taylor for her assistance everyday and vocal support. Gaye is becoming a big asset to Whizz Kids.

The latest event was held in the grounds of Misterton Hall, Lutterworth with the kind permission of Mrs Craven.

26 Whizz Kids grasped the opportunity to put the skills developed on the tennis court in Welland Park into practice on a safe exciting course, that included a gravel climb, log jump, tarmac sections and a twisty descent through woodland.

The riders received coaching tips at four key points around the circuit and then participated in a 3 lap handicap race. All riders were rewarded with a bar of chocolate!

It was great to see so many parents also attending and picking up tips from their own children!

Alongside the coaching opportunities for Whizz Kids there have been group rides leaving the Market Harborough Leisure Centre, the last ride saw a peleton of 28 young riders and parents.

Route master, the Chairman, set out a 9 mile route taking in Braybrooke, Oxendon and East Farndon.
With the success of the Whizz Kids and the vast range of activities, from racing activities to coaching sessions taking place I suggest you all regularly check the website and forum for updates.

Fortunately the success of the Whizz Kids has brought new challenges to the small team. Its amazing how far the Whizz Kids have come in 2 years, too many superlatives have been written or said about the new influx of cyclists.

A coaching tool I use for riders, when you type CHALLENGE into Thesaurus you get:

• Confront
• Test
• Face up to
• Defy
• Experiment

So just what am I getting at?

It is becoming very apparent that the Whizz Kids CONFRONT a growing demand from the community to deliver quality safe cycling skills to riders aged from 5 years old upwards.

The TEST will be for coaches to maintain the quality, committed and EXPERIMENT to develop new ideas.
But parents please be prepared to FACE UP TO the fact that we need willing parents or existing club members to get involved to complete small tasks.

Perhaps we will then DEFY the national trend and see these young Whizz Kids really enjoy the benefits of riding a bike safely and build on the success.

If you feel that you can help please get in touch, a parents meeting will be held in April to share the new program in more detail.

tickety boo

Dean Barnett, Youth Development Officer 01858 434821.