Banbury Star Cyclists' Club

October 2020 newsletter

In this month's newsletter:

Presidential ponderings

AGM - Tuesday 20th October

Wednesday TT review

Open TT review

The Grand Tours

Club rides and mudguards

Hill Climb TT review

New members

Race Squad news

Zwift sessions returning

Autumn Reliability Ride

Club kit - winter garments

Forthcoming 2020 club events 

Don't forget, copies of all previous newsletters can be found on the club website:

Newsletter archive

Presidential ponderings

And breathe......

The last week of August and first week of September was an incredibly busy period for our club when we showed just how well we can organise and execute safe time trialling on sporting courses that attract hundreds of competitors. In a mere eleven days we held five TTs ranging from a hill climb at Burton Dassett, the multi-club Leiden Plaque race and our largest ever annual Open.

As always putting on these events requires a huge amount of effort both beforehand and on the day and my thanks go out to all those who've helped in any capacity - the hard work was well worth it as our club has received fantastic feedback from the competitors, many of whom were "new" to racing with us and have said they'll come back in 2021.

Having ended our club TT season, we're taking a few weeks off now before the planning starts for 2021.

In parallel to the time trials, I've been really impressed by the support you've given our club rides and chain gang evenings by coming along and putting your faith in our new ways of running them as safely as is possible. The standards has been exemplary and means we set a very high bar for the outwards-facing behaviours which are viewed by the public and those we come into contact with at our coffee stops.

I'll close by asking as many members as possible to dial in to our virtual Annual General Meeting - it's your opportunity to not just hear about what we've done and what is planned for 2021, but also to become more involved with volunteering and organising to make Banbury Star even better.

Until then....

Paul

Club AGM - Tuesday 20th October

Everyone should have received an email from the club secretary confirming the date and time of the club's AGM. Due to the current circumstances, this will be conducted online via Zoom and joining details will be forwarded to you in due course.

As the email also stated, items you wish to have added to the agenda, should be sent to the secretary, via the link below, before Sunday 11th October.

To assist the running of the meeting on Zoom all the annual reports from the club's officers will be sent to all members prior to the meeting.

email the club secretary

Can you help the club?

Our club is growing at a fast rate which is a pleasant surprise given the overall difficulties and challenges posed by 2020. We've enjoyed an enhanced reputation from our community work, club rides and time trials, all of which have helped attract many new members to join.

The upcoming AGM gives all members the opportunity to stand for election in any of the formal positions the club offers and in addition there are some opportunities and areas where we need your help:

- Running the club's Instagram account to promote our events and other aspects of club life and reach a far wider audience than Facebook or Twitter can achieve.

- Looking after the club's collection of racing trophies, arranging their engraving and availability for the annual prize-giving evenings.

- Become a British Cycling-qualified Ride Leader to lead a small group on our weekend club rides.

- Become a time keeper to occasionally help run our 2021 time trial events.

- Head up the 2021 Road Race organisation team and act as the focal point with British Cycling

If you are keen in helping in any capacity please email the club's secretary in the first instance and we can then sort out the details.

Yes! I can help my club

Wednesday night TT review

Back in March we were informed by Cycling Time Trials that all time trialling was to be suspended until further notice due to the Government's restrictions on travel,  meetings and sporting events. This was just before the first of our Wednesday evening time trials and so the racing was put on hold until we were given the proverbial green light which was eventually switched on in mid-July. This date meant we'd missed some of the races for the club's major trophies e.g the Russell Memorial Bowl has been awarded every year since 1958 but in the grand scheme of things this was a small price to pay given the larger sacrifices being made by so many during the pandemic.

Many cycling clubs had already decided not to hold any TTs at all in 2020 but our race team and Committee worked very hard behind the scenes to determine a safe, practical way forward and with quite a few new changes in place to comply with CTTs Covid Risk Assessment we gathered for our first event on the K4/10W course out to Gaydon and back,

Little did we know just how big the demand for racing would turn out to be and 47 riders took part on that first evening. Many riders demonstrated they'd not neglected their training during lockdown with no less than four new course records set and Luke Norris and Naomi de Pennington winning their categories. 

This story was repeated over the following weeks with near-capacity fields taking part, many more course records being set and lots of club members getting the TT bug. Almost every event attracted more riders than its comparable race the previous year and we gained many new members along the way who are keen to race and ride with us. 

TT Secretary Oli Wright has added:-

"I just want to say thanks to all those members who came out to help run the Wednesday night events safely and to note that we had by far the busiest club TTs in the Midlands region as a result. We had 391 rides across 9 club events.I will also be releasing the results of the road bike league soon."

BSCC Open 10-mile TT review

Record breaking is perhaps the right phrase to describe this season ending event. An entry of 117 riders, 33 of them club members, is probably a club event record. Then in the race itself, winner George Mills-Keeling breaks the outright record, while ever improving Star rider, Luke Norris (above), finishes second, breaking the club record. Not to be outdone, Naomi de Pennington won the women's category, breaking the outright women's record in the process.

A big thank you must go to TT secretary Oli Wright for arranging it all, as well as all the marshals who turned up on the day to help.

click here for full Open results

TdF over, Vuelta and Giro to come

Just when we all probably thought that Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), with a 57 second lead, was on his way to winning the Tour de France, along comes 21 year old Tadej Pogacar (UAE-Emirates) with an amazing TT ride, which ended up giving him a 59 second overall win. Joining them on the podium in third place was Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), with Ireland's Sam Bennett winning the Green Jersey.

Focus now turns to the fortunes of Geriant Thomas and Chris Froome at the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. The Giro runs from 3rd to 25th October, followed by a slightly reduced Vuelta from 20th October to 8th November.

During this time most of the postponed European one day Classics will also now run, finishing with Paris-Roubiax on 25th October.

Club rides - mudguards next month

Well the temperature might have dropped quite a few degrees for last weekend's rides, but it made little or no difference to the number of members turning up. As we said last month 30 plus riders is now the "new normal" for the club's Saturday rides.

Pre-registration is working really well now, but please remember 10am on a Friday is the cut-off time to register. The club secretary now sends out a reminder every week of club activities, so that's an additional reminder. Also remember the club website (link below) contains a ride calendar, from where you can see and download all the routes.

Finally, a reminder that from 1st November, fitted mudguards become compulsory for all weekend club rides. We'll outline the exact club rules on this at a later date, but you now have time to prepare and take the necessary action.

Above all, please note

---YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO JUST TURN UP AND RIDE---

The main changes are:

  • Pre-registration for each ride is mandatory
  • Only club members can ride, no guests
  • Rides will no longer meet at Broadribbs. We will meet at the People’s Park 
  • Group size limits will be in place, each group will consist of a ride leader and up to five members.
  • Multiple groups will leave at timed intervals
  • Social distancing will be maintained throughout the ride and at the coffee stop
  • All riders must bring the necessary PPE as defined by the Government
  • Absolutely no spitting or nose clearing by anyone will be tolerated unless it’s into a tissue

It is essential anyone wanting to take part in a ride is fully aware of the changes before registering for a ride. The full set of changes can be found on the club's website here:

Club Ride Information

Durran Cup hill climb review

Whilst we were forced to cancel the Trinders Trophy freewheel downhill event this year, we were allowed to run the far more strenuous, Durran Cup hillclimb. Twenty two riders tackled the 700 metres of Burton Dassett on 5th September, with Tobi Ng coming out on top with a new club record of 1min.02secs beating the previous best set by Luke Sherlock by just one second. Skip Nelson was second on 1.06 and Jos Newbold third on 1.08, while Naomi de Pennington was the fastest woman, equalling her own record which she set last year. 

click here for full Durran Cup results

2020 Membership

We'd like to welcome all of our new and rejoining members to Banbury Star who've joined during September:

Kevin Melbourne, Johnathan Pape, Katherine Daniels, Maria Font Farre, Jose Antonio Diego Ganzalez, Jeff Robinson and Robert Ding.

All rejoining members should have now received their 2020 membership cards. Please remember to complete your emergency contact details and any medical issues on the back of the card and also bring it along on club rides.

Subscriptions and any other payments to the club should now be paid direct to our Nat West account.

Sort code = 53-61-33

Account = 65953886

Having now moved entirely to online banking no more cheques or cash will be accepted for membership or payment for club events. 

Please note: The online Membership Form must be completed for all existing members when renewing membership. The joys of GDPR compliance!

Renew Membership

Race Squad news

Our TT season may have ended, but members are still out there competing at the weekends. Matt and Luke Norris, Seanin Gilmore and Rich Collier have all sent in reports which have been posted on the News page of the club website.

The RTTC National Closed Circuit Championships take place again at Thruxton race circuit on Sunday 11th October. This is becoming an end of season favourite with members, with 11 entered this year, which includes 3 juniors. Good luck to everyone.

For those of you interested in racing crits, don't forget the Richard Krell Memorial Series, which is now running at Abingdon airfield circuit.

Chain gangs will probably now finish in the next few weeks - to be replaced by Zwift turbo sessions - but do keep an eye out on Facebook for the latest news on this.

Zwift turbo sessions returning

As mentioned above, the club plan to again run regular Zwift sessions throughout the winter months. Facebook will be used to explain further details and start dates.

If you want to know what Zwift is all about then click on the link below and read Race Secretary Mark Boyles guide that we put on the website in March.

Zwift explained

Autumn Reliability Ride

Several club members have stepped forward to run the 2020 Autumn Reliability Ride which sees entrants take on a timed 62 mile ride down to Burford having estimated their overall ride time before setting out.

Covid-19 restrictions will mean a few changes are necessary to comply with legislation on group gatherings compared to what you will have experienced in previous years. The sign-on, meeting and mass departs of each of the three ability groups won't be possible so a slightly amended way of taking part will be required. For contact tracing purposes, pre-registration will also be necessary where you'll predict your ride time.

Register for the ride here

The date is going to be Sunday 25th October, with rides starting and ending at Woodgreen Leisure Centre. For more details of the route, please go to our website.

Reliability Rides

Club kit - winter garments

Full details of club kit are on the club website and remember 5 items of any one garment are required before an order can be placed with Enduro via Dave Speck.

With winter coming, don't forget the following are available:-  LS Jersey £61.20, Compact Gilet £50.40 and Roubaix LS Jersey £73.20. Full details of these garments are available on the Enduro website, together with a sizing guide.

Matt Sleath now holds a small stock of short sleeve jerseys.

Contact Dave Speck
How to order club kit

Forthcoming 2020 club events

Club chain gang evenings - every Monday   

Annual General Meeting Tuesday 20th October 

Autumn Reliability Ride- Sunday 25th October

For more details and other events please look at the calendars on the club’s website or Facebook group.

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