Club Newsletter – Summer 2023

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News and Forthcoming Events

  • Club hill climb at Bowden Hill – Wednesday 30th August
  • Wylye Valley Challenge Ride – Saturday 9th September
  • Chippenham Sports Club Open Day – Sunday 17th September
  • Doorway’s Supermarket Sweep – Sunday 24th September (see details below under ‘Club Charity’)
  • Club Skittles Night – Friday 17th November
See club calendar for more details of all events plus the usual ride programme.

Safety on Group Rides

Unfortunately we’ve had a couple of incidents on our weekend rides recently, leading to two club members sustaining fractured collar bones and other injuries. One of the incidents required a 999 call for an ambulance due to suspected concussion, even though a helmet was being worn when the accident happened. The committee discussed these incidents and would like us all to reflect on the lessons learned. We all have a responsibility to ourselves, our fellow riders and the general public when out riding in groups.

Let’s all please take note of the points below so we can ride safely and always return home from our rides as we would wish……happy, not too tired (we hope!) but above all, free from injuries. We wish our two injured club-mates a speedy recovery and hope to see them back out on their bikes again soon.

Learnings from the incidents:
  • Exercise caution when going downhill – control your speed when approaching bends, you never know what’s around the corner.
  • Be especially carefully in wet conditions, or when roads are drying out after rain, when they can become “greasy”.
  • Check your helmet is in good condition and replace it in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations. Make sure it is fitting with strap not too loose.
  • When riding in groups:
    • Call out hazards loudly and clearly so the riders behind you can hear (e.g. potholes, obstructions, vehicles approaching).
    • Avoid overlapping wheels with the rider in front, in case the group moves sideways to avoid a hazard.
  • Don’t hesitate to call 999 if you suspect any serious injury.

Sports Club News

On Sunday 17th September, Chippenham Sports Club is holding its ‘Open Day’. This is an opportunity for all constituent clubs to showcase their offering and The Wheelers will be manning a stand. If you can spare an hour to discuss your own journey into cycling, it would be much appreciated. Send offers of assistance to secretary@chippenhamwheelers.org.

The Open Day is the same day as the Half Marathon so there will be a huge turn out. We are starting the leisure rides early to get back and offer our support. There is usually a good selection of activities for children so why not bring the family along for a day out. As in previous years, children will be encouraged to come and give each of the sections’ sports a try and collect a stamp on their card from one of the volunteers. As well as supporting the club, how great would it be to recruit some more youth stars of the future?

The Club Charity

Doorway’s Supermarket Sweep – Sunday 24th September – our club charity, Doorway, has approached us for help in planning routes for a fun cycling event on Sunday 24th September. Doorway is supporting homeless and marginalised people in North Wiltshire.  We have planned 25 mile and 45 mile routes which start and finish with a BBQ at Cousin Norman’s cafe in Chippenham. Doorway also have a short 5km marshalled family route to Morrisons supermarket which is mainly on cycle paths.
The event is also being supported by Corsham Cycling Club and Bath & West Wheelers, so promises to be a fun day out with our local cycling chums supporting a great cause. We are encouraging everyone to sign up for one of the rides and join in the fun.
This is what Doorway say on their Facebook event page:
Sign up for our Supermarket Sweep Cycle fundraising event, raising money and filling the shelves of our food bank. We have 3 routes, a marshalled family route, 25 miles and a 45 mile route, all stopping at supermarkets along the way to buy essential food items for our food bank. Then head back to Cousin Norman’s where a delicious BBQ and fantastic silent auction awaits your return. Prizes for the best fancy dress costumes 😁
  Please sign up using this entry link to pay your entry fee which supports the charity and includes a free lunchtime BBQ at the finish. Doorway are also looking for volunteers to marshall the short family route, so please get in touch with them directly if you want to help at the event. email facilities@doorwayproject.org.uk See more details in a separate web site posting charity-ride-in-aid-of-our-charity-of-the-year-doorway/

Leisure, Audax and Challenge Rides

We concluded our 2023 Audax Series in July, with all 7 audaxes completed. The new route on the 175km Audax back in June worked well, passing through Longleat Safari Park on our way to Sherborne for an enjoyable lunch stop. The damp morning weather gave way to a dry afternoon which helped lift spirits on the return leg. The 200km Fish and Chip Audax out to Weston-super-Mare was an even damper affair, with everyone getting soggy at some point. Final results for the Audax Series are on the website. Congratulations to all our medal winners:
Riding through Longleat on the 175km Audax
Our program of weekend Leisure rides is continuing as usual. We also arranged 3 summer challenge rides. The first of these was Huff and Puff to Uff when the sun actually came out to shine on us as we climbed to the top of Uffington White Horse Hill. On 27th August we’re going Round the Block on our classic 200km route through the Forest of Dean and back home via the Severn Bridge. Finally, on 9th September, we’ve picked another old 100 mile route along the Wylye Valley. Route details are in the club calendar on the website.

Night in the Castle Weekend

Back in June, 29 of us headed over to St Briavels Castle in the Forest of Dean, via long and short routes for a night of medieval fun before riding back home the next day. We enjoyed a medieval banquet hosted by Lord John of St Briavels, who educated us in medieval revelries including riddles and witch-finding! We even got to dress up in costumes for the evening. After dinner, a few of us retired to the nearby pub, leading to a few sore heads the next morning. Thankfully, the plentiful cooked breakfast soon set us up nicely for the long and short rides home. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so we’ll look to see if we can do something similar next year. All ideas welcomed – please contact Sheni.
Wheelers leaving St Briavels Castle for the ride home to Chippenham
Dressed for banquet!

Time Trials

Whilst the club has continued to have great success with Audaxes and challenge rides, the club time trialling fraternity have met every Wednesday as usual throughout the summer and challenged themselves to be better. In addition, many of the Wednesday racers have participated in Open Events around the country, including in National and Veterans special events. The year has been frustrating with major road works in Sutton Benger taking our usual courses out of action and when we had a workaround for the Nixon 50 mile time trial, Wiltshire Council put roadworks on the Malmesbury Roundabout.  However, we have managed to run the full programme of events on the “P” Course, including an exciting 4 1/2 laps of the Great Somerford – Dauntsey – Little Somerford loop and by nominating an Open Event for the Nixon Edwards competition. Matt Chapple winning the Sheila Edwards trophy and a bottle of wine   With the closure of Lyneham Banks we have a new 13 mile hilly course which is technical with a long climb up Callow Hill, which those that have ridden it enjoyed when there was a tailwind on the Brinkworth Road.  The club has run a couple of Open Events and has two more in the calendar in October, including the Bowden Hill Climb which has a great atmosphere with supporters yelling encouragement by the Church; so why not come along and make a noise. For those of you who feel that 10 miles a pace is too much why not try the club hill climb on 30 August at Bowden Hill? And of course we have had a pub night (well post race drink).  

Club History

Mike Edwards has written a fascinating ‘A History of Chippenham and District Wheelers’ that we have published on the website.  It is well worth a read and provides real context to how the club, as we know it, came into being.  (It also provides a rare opportunity to see what your chairman looked like with hair 😉)

Chaingang

Sources suggest that Saturday’s Chaingang has been very low key recently with regulars committed elsewhere (the seaside?).  The expectation is that it will pick up again in the autumn, to become what it was always meant to be – “A ‘brisk’ couple of hours of structured and disciplined riding with a bunch of like-minded club mates”.

Club Kit

It’s been brilliant to see so many of us proudly wearing our club jerseys  (even your editor has recently been seen sporting the  ‘Tangerine, black and white’!) on our rides. Seeing a group of our distinctive club jerseys riding in formation through a town or village is quite a sight and we’ve definitely turned a few heads as we passed by!

A reminder that club kit can now be purchased on-line through our club shop at Sporting Billy. You can also visit their store on Bath Road, Chippenham to try on kit for size and arrange delivery or collection. The current range of kit can be seen through the link below. It now includes a range of leisure wear including club hoodies, t-shirts and beanie hats.

In addition, Sporting Billy will soon be stocking a range of “value” club jerseys and gilets – keep an eye on their website for them to be added to the range. Thanks to Midge for all her hard work to design and arrange this new value range for our members on behalf of the club.

See about us for more details.