Fri May 17, 2024 Annual Yorkshire Dales Trip - 3 Days |
Tue May 21, 2024 @18:30 - Club Chain-Gang |
Wed May 22, 2024 @18:30 - Social Off-Road Ride & Pub |
Thu May 23, 2024 @18:45 - Club H/C TT Championship - Race#1 |
Sat May 25, 2024 Annual NDCA Open TT F14/25 |
Tue May 28, 2024 @18:30 - Club Chain-Gang |
Wed May 29, 2024 @18:30 - Social Ride & Pub |
Thu May 30, 2024 @18:45 - Club H/C TT Championship - Race#2 |
Thu May 30, 2024 @19:30 - Club Social - PUB/Ale Taster |
Sat Jul 20, 2024 @09:00 - Club Breakfast Ride - Old Weston (PROVISIONAL) |
Sun Aug 25, 2024 @09:00 - Annual Century Ride - Café Ventoux |
Next Club Ride is on Sunday 12 May 2024 0900 sharp, at St. Neots market square…
Standard Route / Long Group – L11 63m
Standard Route / Medium Group – M10 47m
Standard Route / Short Group – S10 31m
Notes...
- Routes will be updated by Friday latest.
- Winter Riding... If there's a risk of ice on Sunday, start time delays and Icy Road Route options below will be shown here, they exclusively ride on council gritted routes.
- The Club will from time-to-time use reversed routes, these will be published as Reversed, beware these are untested on the road (Riders at Front!).
Quick links from here...
Coffee Stop Routes / Cafe Information
Monday 4th May 1987 Woodside Industrial Estate Circuit, Dunstable.
This features Adrian and Kevin Bradford.
1937 – 1962 – History of the Club – St Neots and District Cycling Club
Until we secured the various posters from 1898 this was the earliest record we had and is from 1962 and this captures the history of the club from 1937 to 1962. From this record we gain a glimpse of a club that held its first Time Trial in 1938 and by the end of the 1950’s was featuring in National Championships with members travelling many miles to compete in events. The Club continued throughout the Second World War and in 1943 had 54 members of which 38 were serving in the forces.
Read about the first use of the telephone in 1949 to record the “turn times” in a 50 on the finishing board before each rider had finished.
The first club member to go under the hour was Mick Buck in 1954 in a time of 59.38.
From 1950 to 1955 members would get off the saddle and take part in the St Neots to Bedford Boxing Day Road Running Relay and in two of the years beat the local athletics team. Perhaps they were the early visionaries for dualathons !!
Have a look at the profiles for Gerald Ashley, Myrtle Gander and Dave Jordan and some of the times they were setting. Remember that the bikes they were using are not like the machines of today to help place these performances in context. 100 miles, 12 hour and 24 hour races were certainly the norm especially for Dave Jordan.
We gain a picture of an active club, organising their own “Open” events with members taking their cycling talents outside St Neots and creating many records. The name of the club is also worth noting. It was the St Neots and District Cycling Club with the emphasis on “District” as it drew a large part of its membership from outside the confines of St Neots. We know from the “ Minute Book” of the 1960’s that members joined from Huntingdon , Sandy , Biggleswade , Rushden , Kettering and Dunstable. However when the first sponsorship deal came along with Harry Quinn cycles the “ District” had to be dropped as they wanted exclusivity to St Neots. So even then commercial considerations took precedence !!
Race Meeting – Priory Park August 9th 1898 and “Good Old Annual Meeting”
We are fortunate to have these two posters from 1898 courtesy of George Lendrum whose grandfather , P C Tomson , was the printer who owned the St Neots Advertiser and the building that is now Neros. George’s mother is alive and at 99 was able to supply background on some of the names on these and other posters.
Note how elegant this poster is and how much pride the Club took in presenting the event. The President was G. F Rowley and he was a farmer with a substantial acreage – see below a picture of him with his staff celebrating the coronation of Edward V11 in August 1902.
There was prize money at stake and the £2 prize today would be worth about £260 and the 15 shillings quoted would be worth about £98 today. Generous prizes indeed.
Humour clearly played a part in their cycling lives with the Secretary calling himself a novice for the “Half Mile for Novices” and we have yet to have a definitive answer to what “Cutting the Turk’s Head involved. It was an oval track – see picture – and might have had something to do with crossing over at some point on the circuit. If anyone has an answer then please drop a line to the Club with the explanation.
We are not sure that “The Ladies’ Parasol Race” would be popular today , however it must have been quite a spectacle back in 1898.
The entry fee was 1 shilling and today that would be about £6.50 ( shows that the Club TT is god value !!).
Alfred Jordan is mentioned as the “Judge” He was the Jordan of Jordan and Addington ltd of St Neots who were millers and owned and lived at the Priory and was the uncle of George’s mother.
Nothing changes in that members still need to be reminded to pay their annual subs !!
The poster provides a fascinating insight into the history of our Club. If anyone has additional information on the people mentioned then we would be very pleased to hear from you.
“Good Old Annual Meeting 1898”
Another insight into our history and the precursor of our AGM’s and more lately the “Big Night Out”. The governance of the Club was just as important then as it is now. The venue is still in place in St Neots and clearly it doubled as the HQ with perhaps runs leaving and starting from the “New Inn”.
They had a dance and we have had discos. They must have raised money during the winter months by holding a concert and the name Rowley appears again in connection with the track at Priory Park.
We are not sure what “BASS.” refers to half way down the poster and any information would be welcome.
Clearly , as now , the Club never stops recruiting new members and have a look at the reasons suggested for joining.
Annual Dinner 1898
Tina Dankwart who rode for the CALM charity on May 1st has passed on her thanks for those who supported her...
Read more ...Welcome to the May Chatterbox - a week late - mainly down to there's a lot happening at the moment and I hope we've managed to summarise it here. So the sun is out and so are the Club Members, I know many of you are topping up the tan lines, remember though to put on the sun tan cream.
Read more ...Quite a lot of results this week so the season is now in full flow.
Read more ...So 2 TT results last weekend from Pat Ellerbeck and Paul Willaimson plus their race reports.
Read more ...Please give generously to CALM UK a charity that club member Christina Dankwart is riding for on the 1st May.
Read more ...Looks like the Time Trials and racing are in full swing and we have a number of results to update you on. If you are doing a TT, Crit, ROad Race or any other event please feel free to submit a report and if you have photos all the better. P.S. Summer is just around the corner.
Read more ...Please give generously to the Pancreatic Cancer UK charity that club members George Lendrum and Shaun Jarvis are riding in on the 26th May.
Read more ...Gary Stevens and Norman King entered the Cambrian Audax on Sat 13th Apr. Starting in Leominster and riding out to Machynlleth and back. Around 130 miles and circa 12,000 feet of climbing with only 3 Checkpoints (you couldn't go any other way but up)...
Read more ...Hell of St Neots 24, this was a lovely day for a gravel ride despite a strong headwind when we were going South but a tailwind when we were heading North.
Read more ...No TIme Trials this week (a few have been cancelled) but Pat has been racing again and here is his result and race report.
Read more ...Welcome to the April edition of the Chairman's Chatterbox, I've not had any abuse about this column so I'm going to keep it going.
Read more ...So we had Pat Ellerbeck in the Cyprus Gran Fondo trying to qualify for the World's in Denmark which he achieved. We also had Stassi Bowler racing for St Piran Ladies as well. We know a couple of TTs have been cancelled for different reasons as well.
Read more ...20 riders took part in the Hot Cross Bun Run to the Tap & Kitchen at Oundle and the Holly Lodge cafe on Good Friday.
Read more ...So a TT and a Road Race to report on. For the TT we had 3 members riding on a very windy course, thanks to Sam McDonald for pushing off, Ian Stokes for organising the event and to Norman King for being the Timekeepers Assistant (checking for lights and helmets). The NDCA events are a great way of getting into Time Trialling at an "Open" level. Pat continues to race and did a road race on Sunday riding for VeloElite RC.
Read more ...The club has received a donation of various cycling and running gear, mainly clothing, all in really good (as new) condition. We are looking to sell them off for a donation to the MND charity – suggested donations in the attached list. Mike will bring the gear to the Ale Taster on Thursday, so bring some cash and grab yourself a bargain.