Welcome to the August version of the Chairmans Chatterbox.

So as summer has arrived I am nursing a sore knee, again, and taking a longer break following advice. The result, I miss cycling, a lot, and I am eager to get out there. Looks like I need to try a couple of things and I won't bore you any longer in this item.

Luckily I like to look at Strava and see how our members are doing and other cyclists I have made friends with. There have been some excellent long rides being put in, I urge you to read Max's excellent account on the Pan Celtic Challenge and I hope you've read Gary's account of Chase the Sun with Martin Taylor. That apart Gary Stevens has put in 2 excellent rides meeting up with the SNOGs on their awaydays. All of these 3 could do LEL25 (ask me over coffee or beer and I will bore you all about it), I wonder if they have plans!

Talking about the SNOGs. JC organised 2 awaydays for the SNOGs, they were well attended and it is good to see different people organising events. SNOGs attendance on a Tues or a Fri is constantly around 8 to 10, back to pre-Covid days.

It has been really good to see the work Tina Dankwart has put in on the Ladies rides midweek she seems to have a few regulars and they are thoroughly enjoying the rides. Also please see the off road ride she is organising on the Peddars Way on Sat 28th Sept. I hope to riding that one myself all details on the Club website and in the WB.

In August we have the Annual Long Ride to Cafe Ventoux with Adam Hutchinson is organising on Sun 25th Aug, see the club site/WB for more details. Adam is also organising a trip to the Peak District from Sept 13th to 15th, similar format to the Dales trip but different routes, pubs and cafes, what's not to like. 

The breakfast ride is on Aug 10th to a different location (Barnwell) and should be fun, would be good if we can 10 or so members on that one, again see WB/Website for more details.

I am pleased (proud) to report that the Inter Club we hosted on Sat 27th Jul was a great success with 25 starters from the 5 clubs, we had a full turn out of volunteers and lots of compliments from the other clubs on how well the event ran. A full report from Alistair is in this weeks WB (with photos).

That brings me nicely onto the Club TT at Abbotsley, it is pleasing that we got 10 riders out last Thurs and we now have a tighter competition for the Leon Bradford Shield between Simon Murphy and Nick Green. There are 5 events (4 when you read this) remaining and with this being the last year with the course in it's current format come and enter some of them and it would be good to continue to see the ladies continuing to turn out. Sam McDonald broke the course record for 2 laps on the Ashman recently a fantastic effort.

Club members continue to ride in big numbers at TT's, Road Races and Crits. although 2 members have crashed and out for a while; Paul Williamson at our Inter Club (hopefully training next week) and Anastasia Bowler crashed out in the Beverley GP (I can see she's already on the Turbo).

We seem to be getting better numbers at the Club Runs on Sundays with last week having 16 on the Long Route. Let's see if we can keep those numbers increasing. 

Chain gang is still struggling, Justin continues to run it - shall we cancel it for next year? Let a committee member know your thought, our would you prefer something else on a Tuesday evening?

The Social Rides continue both on road and off road but only attract 3 to 5 members. Is the format wrong, do you not want social evening rides anymore, a few years ago these rides were regularly attended by 10 or more riders. Again let a committee member or raise either item at the AGM.

It's fair to mention that with the AGM/presentation evening fast approaching that we have at least 3 Committee Members standing down.

They are:-

Norman King - Chairman

Mike Biggs - Secretary

Martin Bond - Website Administrator

If you want to be considered for any of these positions or want to know more about the role then please contact a committee member or write to the club and we can brief you. This applies to the other positions on the committee - in case you are not aware of the roles we have:-

Adam Hutchinson - Deputy Chairman

Alistair Henderson - Treasurer

Nic Pillinger - TT Sec

Simon Winter - Social Sec

Keep enjoying the sun and soak up those miles, I will be thinking of you.

Yours in cycling

Norman