Well January came and went in the blink of eye, and despite the usual wet, windy and icy conditions often set to hinder proceedings, we began the new year with a whole host of club events and activities. Here’s a round-up of what you’ve all been up to and what we’ve got coming up this month…
Social news
A couple of weekends ago saw our annual gathering at the Wheelers Dinner & Awards night; with over 80 guests in attendance, including guest speaker, cycling photographer John Pierce, who is known for capturing some of the most iconic shots from the Tour de France over the past 50 years, we think it’s fair to say everyone had a jolly good time…some possibly enjoying themselves a little too much judging by the sore heads the following morning?!!
It was also great to see several of the club’s younger members joining us to pick-up some well-earned silverware for their efforts throughout the 2019 season, we look forward seeing what the 2020 season brings for these youngsters and who will come out on top in 2021…
Along with an evening of fun and entertainment, we held our charity raffle giving away some fantastic prizes all kindly donated by generous club members, guests, local cafes and other outlets in and around the county. We managed to raise over £400 which will be given to our 2019 charity, Wiltshire Air Ambulance.
If you have any photos you’d like share with us from the event, email them to comms@chippenhamwheelers.org
More social news
The club social team are in the midst of planning another Skittles night at the Sports Club, date yet to be confirmed but currently looking likely to be sometime in April. Watch this space…
Audax news
Sunday 19th January saw the start of the Club Audax series, with the first ride being the 50km out to Brinkworth. For once we were lucky enough to begin the day in glorious sunshine, however, after a fairly heavy overnight frost, conditions weren’t particularly favourable and in places, a tad slippy under-foot/wheel. For those of you that chose to ride and brave the minus temperatures, various groups formed and made use of the alternative route suggestions taking riders out onto gritted main roads and away from the back lanes.
Thank you to everyone who took part and to our amazing organisers and volunteers, the cakes at the village hall were superb!
The next Club Audax is the 75k which will be held on Sunday 23rd February. Click here for details. Anyone wishing to help out please email Sheni.
Unfortunately the Flapjack 100km Open Audax was cancelled this morning (09/02/2020) due to Storm Ciara. Volunteers were available to start setup at Brinkworth Village Hall should the event be run. As it happened less than 10 riders braved the weather and turned up at the start. All agreed that it was not worth running the event for just 10 (out of the booked 150) so the painful decision was taken to cancel. Perishable food has been given to Chippenham Doorway Project for the homeless, Unity House and Corsham Food Bank. Much of the home made cake has been frozen for use at the club 100km Audax. Consider entrance to have been a charitable donation. Full marks to Sheni for the magnificent organising effort with a steady stream of communications keeping the volunteers updated at all times. A few of the messages of understanding are provided below.
“I was one of the eight that turned up for the ride today and totally understand and agree with the ride being cancelled.”
“We were due to travel down from London to do the event with family, we still made the trip on Saturday but without bikes and we travelled back last night to avoid Ciara. We were very excited for the ride and gutted we couldn’t participate and eat all the flapjack. Hats off to you and all the volunteers involved, we will look out for the event and others you run in the future.”
“Many thanks to you and your team for working so hard to put on this year’s Flapjack. I can only imagine how disappointed you all must feel having had to cancel the event because of the storm. Living in Malmesbury, it would be great if I could ride The Flapjack as a perm and so would be very grateful if you could send my brevet card to me. I look forward to taking part in The Flapjack in 2021, when hopefully we’ll be blessed with better weather. “
Indoor track news
Our coached club sessions at the Newport Velodrome began a couple of weeks ago with many riders getting their fixed-gear fix. These indoor sessions are a great way of training but in the comfort of a warm and dry track. Good spinning technique can be learned which has many benefits for road riding.
There are still a few places available, if you fancy giving it a go or just want more info contact Andy Cadwalladar
Youth Section Induction Programme – Spring 2020
The club coaching team are in the process of organising a cycling skills programme aimed at young people aged 10-15 years old. This is set to run for 5 weeks every Sunday beginning in early March, and will include learning bike handling skills, group riding, bike maintenance and later leading onto race technique. For more information contact Simon at youth@chippenhamwheelers.org or see the information on this site at https://www.chippenhamwheelers.org/youth/induction-programme-2020/
Club Charity news
Every year the club chooses a new charity to support, so with a quick show of hands at last Monday’s committee meeting, Wiltshire MIND who help people, young and old, struggling with their mental health was decided as our charity for 2020. More details of fundraising events to follow.
Sports Club Charity Open Day
On Sunday 19th April, the Chippenham Sports Club will be holding their annual Charity Open Day. As a section, the Club have been invited to take part again so we are planning to run a similar stall to the one in 2019, only this time with sets of rollers and an assortment of bikes rather than a Wattbike, as we found many of our visitors were small children who couldn’t actually reach the pedals! It was a really enjoyable family day out, with people of all ages taking part trying to get their best time, then coming back later to beat their time, or more importantly, beating Mum or Dad’s time – it got very competitive!
This is the perfect opportunity for us to show off the variety of different activities the club has to offer and essentially promote our wonderful sport to a wider audience.
So make sure you get the date in your diaries now, as we will be looking for helpers. To keep things fair it was decided we will set-up a rota, then anyone helping out only needs to do an hour or so, as opposed to staying the entire day. And before those bright sparks amongst you tell us it’s on the same day as the 125km Audax, we know! We also know you’ll all be heading back to Club HQ to quench your thirst afterwards, so what better way to finish your rides and represent your club by doing a stint on the Wheelers stand – no excuses!
If you already know you’re available and would like to put your name on the list now, please email comms@chippenhamwheelers.org
All proceeds for the event will be donated to Dorothy House Hospice Care.
That’s all folks…
If you have a cycling-based tale you’d like to share with other Club members, contact us at: comms@chippenhamwheelers.org
And that’s your news for February. Whatever and wherever you ride, ride safe.