Dear Nomads,
A few updates on recent events, and also reminders and news about upcoming events.
To kick off, a big well done to everyone who took part in our recent 5 mile club TT and congrats to Jason Blenkarn for not only winning the event, but for setting a new club record of 10:19, which is an 11 second improvement on the previous course record set by Drew Stiles 2 years ago. Thanks also to Adrian for organising the event (and indeed all our club TTs!) and to Keith Chandler for being our start time keeper and pushing people off. The full list of riders and results can be found by clicking here. The next club TT (aside from the open hill climb), will be the Xmas 10, which is on Sunday 23rd December 2018 at 10:00am and will be held on the G10/94 Norvington Lane course. Full details for it can be found in the events section of the Nomads Facebook page and also in the Nomads calendar on the website.
In other news, it was the 30th edition of the “Friendship Ride” on Sunday, 2 September, and a group of 25 cyclists from two clubs in Northern France (Rouen and Dieppe) came over for it. This event was first organised by Paul Fox who was in a club sponsored by the British Airports Authority and he has continued to organise it single-handedly to this day. This year there were not as many local British clubs taking part as in the past but the Nomads stepped in to help out and lead the groups around a 70 km and a 100 km course in East Sussex. Liz Haliday, Alan Dainty, Adrian Bennett, Eoghan McHugh, Steve Ratford, Ken Cooper, and Will Faas all took part and after a leisurely morning cycling in superb weather the group had lunch at Berwick Village Hall (the French brought the wine!).
After lunch, they all carried on to the Iford YHA for an award ceremony, also attended by our club president Alan Limbrey, from where the French cyclists left to catch their ferry to Dieppe. The Nomads got the award for having the most cyclists from a British club (7 compared to Brighton Excelsior’s 3 and Lewes Wanderers’ 2 entrants). Well done and thank you to the Nomads who took part.
Next up we need to say good luck to James Hedley, because this coming Thursday he sets off on his cycle ride to Brussels in memory of Elido Vargas who passed away this year aged 15, and Boris Janssen who passed away this year aged 24. He is raising money for SANE, a charity which helps people, and their families who suffer, and are affected by mental illness. Any donations to this worthy cause would be gratefully received, just click on the link to donate: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jameshedley
Now onto a reminder about the Sussex Nomads CC 40th year Reliability Trial being held on Sunday 30th September. Steve Ratford has been incredibly busy organising it and has put a huge amount of effort into laying on this event, so it would be great if as many people as possible could get their entries in ASAP. For those that don’t know, a reliability trial is a fun cycling event that challenges the cyclist to complete a set course in a pre-set time limit but it is not a race. There are two routes and various times so that you can choose to make this as hard or as easy as you like. This special celebratory event starting and ending from Ditchling Village Hall is instead of the normal Sunday Club ride and the deadline to register is by Saturday 29th at 10.00 am (however it would be good to get an idea of numbers in advance of that date, so please register asap). Homemade cakes and refreshments are being provided afterwards by the wonderful Helen Codling at the village hall. Steve is also looking for marshals. So far Derek and myself have volunteered and we both look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the top of Kidd’s Hill (for those doing the longer route that is!). So if you are not riding and are able to help out, please contact Steve and let him know (steve.ratford@gmail.com). The event is open to all clubs, so tell your friends about it too. For more details about the event and the routes, and also to register please click here.
Another anniversary event is taking place this Saturday, 22nd September. We are holding two special rides – one of 40km and one of 40 miles. Both rides start/end at the Sussex Mother Café (within Garden Sage Nursery), London Rd, Hassocks BN6 9NA. Riders should meet up in the car park around 2.15 p.m. and start their rides from there. The start time for both rides is 2.30 p.m. The Sussex Mother Café have allocated a suitable space for a post ride get together and will provide food and drinks. It is anticipated that riders will return to the café at about 4.30 – 5.00 p.m.. We are thinking that people could place their orders for sandwiches and cakes and pay for them before setting off. The cost will be £5 per head. For more information and routes, please click here, and if you are planning on attending, it would be really helpful to let Mark know asap so he can give the café an idea of numbers (m.sturgis.123@btinternet.com).
Preperations are still very much underway for our annual open hill climb race, which is on Sunday 28th October this year. We had a large entry field last year with many Nomads taking part and it would be great to replicate that again this year. It is an open event, which means you need to enter via the CTT website (click here to enter), and it also means you’ll be competing against other clubs. If you are not planning on riding, then we are looking for lots of volunteers to help with marshalling, rider sign on, setting up the village hall etc.. so please get in touch with Alex (ratsbeyfus@gmail.com) if you are able to offer your services. There are the usual cash prizes for the winners in each age category, but we are also giving an additional prize of a Jura Cycles jersey (of your choice), to whoever has the fastest increase in time compared to last year’s event, so if you are training really hard for it, and think you can beat the time you recorded last year, you may well win it!
The last event to mention is the Nomads AGM, which will take place on Friday 12th Oct at 19:30. In a change to previous years venues, it will be held at Ditchling Village Hall. We invite all members to come along and have their say about how the club is run. If you want to play a more active role in the club, it is also the perfect opportunity to put your name forward for a role on the committee We have several committee members wishing to step down this year, so there are several roles up for grabs, and in particular we are looking for a new Race Secretary, a new Club Secretary, someone to help out with organising and running TT’s, and also someone to take over my role (which is doing all the communications, the newsletters, the marketing and looking after all our social media sites). You are also welcome to put your name forward for any of the other roles on the committee too. Existing committee members have to be re-elected at the AGM and there is nothing to stop you putting your name forward to help out with any of the existing roles, not just the ones that are coming available. If you want more information on what each role entails, then please do drop me an email (sallymcsorley@hotmail.co.uk) and I will happily send you more info on what each committee member does in their current role.
Lastly, a reminder that the cyclocross season is now underway, with plenty of training and racing events for members to take part in. This season we have Helen Webb, Alex Beyfus, Steve Noake and Gary Jones actively taking part in the races, and we wish them lots of luck with their events. If you are interested in getting involved in cyclocross racing, or want to join them for some rides, then please get in touch with either Steve (steve.noake@gmail.com), or Alex ( ratsbeyfus@gmail.com). They can point you in the right direction to get started and also add you to our CX whatsapp group.
Similarly, now is also a really good time to start thinking about road racing for next year. As a club we don’t have a huge amount of people taking part in road racing, and in order to ascertain whether it is worth the time, effort and costs of continuing to affiliate to the racing organisations that allow our club members the opportunity to do some road racing, then it would be good to gauge interest ahead of next year. Again, please get in touch with Steve & Alex for more info.
That’s all for now, except to say good luck to everyone who is doing Velo South this weekend. I know we have quite a few Nomads taking part, and for some of them it will be their first century ride! I hope it goes well and that you have a really great day.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Sally