August 2019 newsletter

Please send any comments, ideas or proposals regarding the contents of the newsletter to the Press Officer. Copies of all previous newsletters can be found on the club website - About BSCC

Presidential ponderings

In July 1919, a procession and party took place to celebrate the opening of the town's People's Park to which Banbury Star was invited to be a part of and so it was with pride that I accepted an invitation from the Council for the club to come back and be part of the centenary celebrations. A full report of the day is below.

It's at this time of the year when we begin to think about the Leyden Plaque event, where club members compete in a handicap 25mile individual time trial against other local clubs. The event is now so successful that we're restricted to only 10 riders and Mark Boyles has the unenviable job of deciding who gets to don the club colours, apparently he is open to "financial incentives" from those wishing to take part. By a quirk of fate, the Swift Combinatie cycling club from the Dutch town of Leyden who donated the plaque was formed in July 1919 and have themselves just celebrated their 100th birthday. More of the Plaque below.

We have our own club open Time Trial at the end of August and I'm hoping to see lots of club members take part. Last year's inaugural race was well received and I've no doubt the 2019 event will be even better.

Congratulations go to Lydia Watts and Charlie Quarterman who recently raced in the U23 National Time Trial Championship for their respective teams with two incredible performances. Well done!

Lastly, don't forget to post your summer cycling holiday photos on the Facebook group. Let's see who can go the highest/furthest. 

Club Quarterly Meeting

Following the club secretary's recent email on the subject of regular quarterly meetings and the lack of response thereto, it has been decided that the planned 6th August meeting will now be cancelled.

Therefore the next club meeting will be the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 22nd October.

People's Park Centenary Report

Following the end of World War I, Banbury's People's Park was created with the aim of providing the townsfolk somewhere to meet and relax with their families. It was opened in July 1919 with a parade of the town's associations and groups of which Banbury Star was a part. 

And so 100 years later we were invited back once more to celebrate the centenary birthday by taking part in another parade which was followed by a party in the Park.

Fifteen BSCC members took part in what is possibly the slowest ride in the club's history starting from the Town Hall, up to and around the Cross and then into the Park where we had the new gazebo already set up along with a range of bikes new and old.

We met lots of people during the day who were either ex-members or their relatives were and attracted some potential new members too.

Thanks to everyone who turned up to either ride or help and a special mention to Brian Reid of Golden Age Cycles for the loan of the Mk1 Raleigh Chopper which was the focus of attention for many passing the stand, their stories of painful accidents involving that gear shifter were enough to make the eyes water!

2019 Membership

A warm welcome to our newest members who joined during July:

Martin Ashworth, Oli Betteridge, Derek Herbert and Richard Thomas

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

Sort code = 53-61-33

Account = 65953886

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

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

Leiden Plaque - Sunday 1st September

After World War II had finished many British towns and cities twinned with counterparts throughout Europe to help rebuild a shattered and divided continent. Oxford became twinned with the Dutch town of Leyden (which then changed spelling to Leiden) and in 1951 the city's cycling club Swift-Combinatie presented the Leyden Plaque to Oxford.

Each year since, cycling clubs from Oxfordshire have competed to win the trophy with the race now being an individual 25 mile time trial (handicap times), the winner being the club with the lowest aggregate times for their fastest riders. Banbury Star has the honour of winning it the most times, with 26 victories.

Paul Dean, club President, recently made some enquiries to uncover more about the Plaque's history and the Dutch cycling club who gave it to the region. 

The Oxford-Leiden twinning association bond remains very strong and each year a group of cyclists has ridden from Oxford over to Holland. The cycling club in Leiden is now called Swift Velo and has just celebrated their 100th birthday, being formed on the 19th July 1919. They are very successful with over 600 members and attract talent such as Dylan van Baarle (Team Sky/Ineos) to their races.

The Dutch club has been invited to take part in this year's Leiden Plaque and whilst this may be difficult given the short notice for 2019, they are definitely interested for 2020.

Banbury Star will once again be fielding a team however this year we are restricted to 10 riders (5 men, 5 women) due to a CTT limitation on the size of the race. Please see the club's Facebook group for a post by Mark Boyles on entering and leave your name if interested. A handicap time trial results in a more even field of competitors where your final time is calculated by deducting your handicap time (computed by the organisers) from your race time.

OVO Men's Tour of Britain - more news

Last month came the news that the men's edition of the OVO Tour of Britain (7th - 14th September) would like the women be finishing at the top of Burton Dassett on Stage 7 on Friday 13th September.

Since then details of the individual time trial have been published which starts at nearby Pershore the day before on Thursday 12th September. The world’s best riders will tackle a 14.5-kilometre (nine mile) course that starts and finishes in the market town of Pershore, and passes through Little Comberton and Bricklehampton during a scenic anti-clockwise loop.

Further details and a course map can be found via the link below.

The names of Charlie Quarterman and Lydia Watts will be familiar to club members. Charlie recently raced in the U23 Giro d'Italia and went head to head with Dan Bigham on one of our club time trials and smashing the course record in a dead heat race. Lydia's performance continues to improve - the days of 37 minute K4/20 times are long gone!

Both Lydia and Charlie recently competed in the U23 National Time Trial Championships which were held on a 17 mile course starting on the Norfolk retreat of the Queen on her Sandringham Estate. The proximity to the North Sea and flatness of the surrounding area provided a challenging 13mph headwind for the 50 competitors on the outbound leg of the circular course.

During his ride, Charlie's average heart rate was 186 beats per minute and his average speed 30.9 miles per hour with a maximum of 47.6 mph. This incredible effort stopped the clock in 32 minutes and 1 second, a full 45 seconds ahead of rival and silver medal winner Ethan Hayter giving him the National Champion gold medal and the National Jersey so improving on his 2018 silver medal performance.

Bike Maintenance

Mike Gillet is planing another session on bike maintenance very soon after the great feedback he received last month and it will be advertised on Facebook for those interested in simple bike servicing.

Look out for an article on the website coming soon about preparing your bike for winter (yes, I know it's still summer but being prepared is all part of the marginal gains).

Tour de France Results 2019

Well, what a Grand Tour that was, lots of drama, exciting racing and the emergence of a new star in 22 year old Colombian Egan Bernal, the youngest winner for 110 years. He beat last year's winner and Team Ineos teamate Geriant Thomas by 1 minute 11 seconds, with third place Steve Kruiswijk a further 20 seconds behind.

Peter Sagan again won the Green Jersey and Romain Bardet the Polkadot Jersey, while Julian Alaphilippe certainly deserved the Super Combatif award for his 14 days in the Yellow Jersey. 

Star Summer Sizzler Sunday 18th August

Ila Pearson has kindly organised the summer BBQ, this year it will be held on Sunday August 18th at The Bell Inn, Great Bourton from midday to 3pm.

It's open to members and their families, priced at £10 per adult with children getting a 2 for 1 discount. 

An event has been created in the club's Facebook group, please respond there if you are interested in going.

2019 Time Trial season and calendar

For those of you who are not on Facebook, or missed the post, the following is an important message from TT Secretary Oli Wright 

We are now well over half way through the club’s TT season and things have been going pretty well. So far, we’ve had high numbers of riders most Wednesdays (members and others), a reliable and keen number of marshals and a few local and not so local pro riders coming along to show us how it’s done.

I’d like to put out my thanks to Keri and all the helpers from our club and also those from Team Cherwell who make our events happen each week.

I also wanted to put out a couple of necessary messages to everyone please. Our events do have a bit of a local impact even though they only happen for a short time one night a week. We want to keep that impact down and also want to ensure that our timekeepers and marshals are not harassed by unhappy motorists and locals, as happened recently when one of our team was rather rudely approached due to some riders crossing white lines. Keri has also reported some bad manners from people driving past (hand gestures and the like), and we would like to do our best to ensure this is not caused by rider behaviour having a knock-on effect.

Riders must obey the rules of the road and ride safely. You must not cross solid white lines, or any centre lines on bends and at junctions. Whilst this may help you to gain time, it may also be illegal and is potentially dangerous and as mentioned it impacts negatively and may provoke some people to act aggressively towards our helpers,,who are on their own and vulnerable at the roadside.

Whilst rider responsibility is key, so is it necessary to institute regulations to ensure rider safety in my view. Therefore, marshals will be instructed to note the numbers of those riders who cross the centre lines as described above. Those riders will, I am afraid, be disqualified from the results.

A few other reminders for riders are that you must not:

1. Pace others

2. Draft others (if overtaken, give at least five metres and keep out of line)

3. Warm up past competing riders

For marshals, can I please remind you to read the marshalling guide and play an active role in helping the race to proceed safely. Marshalling is not supposed to be your chance to enter the club’s photography competition even though some of you have produced some great shots. Your role is for safety and assistance and we now have a few people out to specifically take photos from time to time so you are best employed helping to make things run smoothly.

We don’t want to make TT nights rule-heavy, but I hope these sensible tweaks to our light touch are understandable. Safety and welfare for all involved on our evenings is absolutely key. As always, feedback is very welcome on anything TT related. Do bear in mind that it won’t be long before we begin to plan for next season so any thoughts on the calendar etc are welcome. One matter I would be keen to hear views on is the continuing use of the Swerford to Chipping Norton course. As a bystander this year, the traffic count and speed of traffic on that road concerned me a bit, and I think Keri is of the same view.

Oli can be contacted via the link below

Other news: Please note that with evening daylight gradually getting shorter, Wednesday TTs will start at 6.30pm on 7th, 14th and 21st August and then on 28th August at 6pm.

Open 10 mile TT - Saturday 31st August

Entries have been open for some time on the CTT website for the club's Open 10 mile TT, and as the date draws near will increase rapidly so it's essential you enter now to secure a starting slot. This is the same K4/10W course from Warmington to Gaydon and back that nearly 40 of you entered last month.

We'd like to get as many members as possible racing for their club on what is now our second Open TT event of the year. The course starts near the top of Warmington Hill with its fast descent and the record set last year was 21.04, with average times around the 25 second mark.

The Race HQ will again be the NOA Pavilion where coffee/tea and most importantly cake will await the finishers.

Please note: As this is an Open event, there is no "on the day" entry - pre-entry is mandatory which will close on Saturday 17th August. 

Race Squad news

Lots of Stars were out in action across the area during July, including the above four riders Matt Sleath, Ila Pearson, Katie Pamphlett and Mark Boyles. They competed in the mixed 4Up Team TT at Weston on the Green on 23rd July.

Another busy Star was Stuart Quick, who took in a race and an Open TT in the same week. At a Thursday MK Bowl Cat 4 race he finished an excellent second and then on the Saturday finished 13th with a PB of 23.15 at Rugby RCC's 10 mile TT.

Local events coming up this month are as follows with further details on the Racing Calendar section below:

17th Didcot Pheonix CC 10 mile TT 

25th Failry United RT 10 mile TT

26th High Wycombe CC 10 mile TT   

Then looking forward to 1st September we have some of the squad racing at the Warwick town centre Crit, so it would be great to get some spectators from the club supporting our riders.

Finally, don't forget Junior racing continues at Weston on the Green throughout August with events on 6th and 20th. Keep and eye out on the Rising Stars Facebook page for details.                                                                        

The 2019 Racing Calendar

Don't forget this section now lists the dates of time trials, crits and road races throughout our region for the months ahead. This gives members more information on each event, with a further link on how and where to enter.

Follow the links below to see what we've got planned so far, plus all the CTT Open events.

Rising Stars - youth section news

With August being the month for most family holidays and that includes the volunteers who run these sessions as well as the children - there will be no sessions this month.

As we've said before and as you may have seen on Facebook our new youth section is growing and taking part in some local events. The club would really like to grow this initiative and promote it to a wider audience, but we need more volunteers, especially coaches. Can you help please?

If you have any queries regarding Rising Stars, or would like to consider becoming a much needed coach, then please contact Lee via the link below.

Cycling at Silverstone on 14th August

This is the next opportunity for families to cycle around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. The track is open to the public for family cycling for just three more dates this year - 14th August, 17th September and 9th October.

The whole track was recently resurfaced, so why not enjoy the chance to cycle around the wide, super smooth and traffic free 5.89km Grand Prix circuit. Booking is required via the link below. It's £10 per person with children free.

Club kit

Below is a list of club jerseys which Dave currently holds in stock:

3 x Short sleeve jerseys - Medium
3 x Short sleeve jerseys - Large
1 x Long Sleeve jersey - Large

Don't forget, if at anytime we have 5 orders for any one garment, regardless of size, or men's or women's fit, then an order can be opened and placed with Enduro.

The 5 Weekend Club Rides

Five weekend club rides are now available, please make sure you pick the one to suit your ability and speed.

Have a look at the club's website and Facebook group for details of the rides, all of which have downloadable Garmin maps:

10am Saturday: easy café ride: 25 miles, 12-14mph

10am Saturday: intermediate café ride 35 miles, 15-16mph

9am Sunday: fast non-café ride 50 miles 18mph*

9am Sunday: intermediate non-café ride 50 miles 16-17mph*

10am Sunday: intermediate café ride 35 miles 15-16mph

All rides will start at Broadribb Cycles, meeting 15 minutes before the departure time.

* may be quicker depending on who is riding

Banbury Star CC monthly social evenings

Our next club social night is on Thursday 1st August from 7.30pm, at our usual friendly venue, The White Horse in Banbury, sponsors of our men's road race.

As always, family and friends are welcome and food will be available.

Upcoming events in August

Social night - White Horse 7.30pm Thursday 1st August

2Up TT - Wednesday 14th August, K4/20 course 6.30pm.

Summer Sizzler BBQ and downhill competition -  Sunday 18th August from 12 noon

BSCC Open 10 mile TT Saturday 31st August K4/10W course 10am

Chain-Gang sessions for men and women every Monday from 6.30pm - see Facebook for any updates.

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

Follow Banbury Star on social media