Please find our Christmas newsletter updating you on the activities across the club in the last few months. We have short reports on the amazing club donation to Wiltshire Air Ambulance and the very popular club 90th birthday ride and lunch.
A packed programme of rides is planned over the Christmas break and these are all listed below. Your vote is required to select our charity of the year for 2023 and we have news of club member James Bradbury completing the Trans Pyrenees race back in September.
As always, check the club calendar on the web site for upcoming events which are generally scheduled at least a month ahead.
Have a very safe, fun and festive Christmas break and a very Happy New Year for 2023.
Your committee.
Festive Rides
Our festive ride programme is up on the club website now, kicking off with our traditional Christmas Eve ride where festive costume and bike decoration is positively encouraged! We have a new route this year, starting from the Town Bridge and heading around the villages to the Flying Monk Café & Tap at Hullavington, who have kindly agreed to host us again. Everyone welcome.
On Boxing Day 26th December, the traditional hard ride around Imber will be heading out, 90 miles non-stop with the aim to be back home for lunch.
Tuesday 27th December has the Easy-Peasy to Luckington. A gentle 26 mile ride to the Old Royal Ship Inn for coffee, cake and possibly bacon butties around the fire. Plus, the usual discussions about what we all got from Santa for Christmas. They were very welcoming of us last year and have kindly agreed to host us once again.
New Year’s Eve sees us take a leisurely ride out to Imber Village, with a coffee and cake stop on the way out in Warminster. A chance to enjoy the normally closed roads and see the deserted village that’s normally used for firing practice.
On New Year’s Day we have a leisure ride over to Tetbury and Café 53.
Club Audax Series 2023
Our Audax series dates are all now in the website calendar. We kick off with the 50km Audax on 15th January. Each month we increase the distance by 25km, so 75km, 100km, 125km etc culminating in grand 200km audax in July. It’s a great chance to challenge yourself to get that little bit further each month and enjoy some of the best routes in our region. There are three levels of distance medal award available depending on how many of the rides you complete over the series. We are planning to introduce a couple of new routes later in the series.
Our famous Fletcher’s Flapjack 100km Open Audax is set for 5th March and is now open for registration. For club members willing to help in some way, we offer a limited number of free places to anyone willing to ride and help on the day. Or provide a home baked cake or some flapjack in return for a free place so you can enjoy the ride! The event is already starting to fill up with entries from around the country. We are expecting over 100 riders on the day, so don’t delay if you want to enter this one. Entries will be closed when the event is full.
Wiltshire Air Ambulance ride
On 2nd November we finally got to go to Semington to present the cheque to Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Culmination of a number of different proceeds from club activities organised pre Covid. A total of £1,300 was donated to such a worthwhile cause. Sadly, the helecopter was away having a new spare part fitted. However, the staff were on hand to receive our donation on the helipad.
Thanks to all who rode out on the day, Stewart for planning the ride and Midge for creating the wonderful bespoke cheque in club colours.
Fingers crossed none of us need its services…….! It has been used previously at Thursday night Castle Combe races…….!!
90th Anniversary 90km Ride and Celebration Lunch
On 27th November we had our 90th anniversary ride which was very well attended with a fantastic route of 90km created by Sheni to look like a 90.
After the ride, we met at the Sports and Social Club for a sausage and mash lunch. Many thanks to Sue Andrews for organising this.
Club Charity for 2023
At the AGM in November, we discussed how to decide which charity we should support for 2023 and the suggestion was to put it to a vote of our members. Traditionally we have tried to support local Wiltshire based charities, so we have put together a choice of three charities for us all to vote for. Whichever one gets the most votes will be our club charity next year for proceeds from raffles or other donations at our events.
Please take a moment to cast your vote using this link, it will only take a minute. Voting will close on 31st January 2023.
The charities to choose from are:
- Doorway Wiltshire – a Chippenham based charity helping homeless people to find stable long-term accommodation and signposting them to other places of support.
- Wiltshire Air Ambulance – our County’s emergency airborne rescue service, based at Semington.
- Wiltshire MIND – an independent charity supporting people in Wiltshire who are experiencing mental health problems or emotional distress.
Hopefully we can raise a good amount of funds next year for one of them whilst enjoying riding our bikes.
James Bradbury Trans Pyrenees Race 2022
Finally, congratulations to club member James Bradbury for completing the Trans Pyrenees Race back in September. James competed in the race from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean coast and back again, crossing the Pyrenees twice, including almost every major col and some off-road sections.
The race required over 1,600 kilometres of riding and over 32,000 metres of climbing (just under 4 ascents of Mount Everest!) In a nail-biting finale James just made the cut to finish in the General Classification with a finish time of 6 days, 17 hours, and 25 minutes, ranking 57th out of 150 riders. Congratulations James!
James has written a fascinating blog on his race experience with lots more photos if you would like to know more about his incredible achievement. See the link here.
Upcoming Events for your Diary
Club Awards Dinner in February 2023 – We are planning a new format for our Annual Awards Night, where we’ll present the 2022 TT trophies and Audax medals. More details to follow soon.
Any Other Business
Currently the club rents a storage facility to store all our equipment which costs the club a significant amount of money each year. If anyone has any storage options that we could use then we would be grateful if you could let the committee know via email.
We are looking to set up a Social team to organise social events for the club. This could include but is not limited to such events as skittles nights or film nights. If you would like to volunteer then please contact the committee via email.
