Hello lovely Nomads!
Thank goodness the sun is shining again today following yesterday’s downpour! I had hoped to join you all on the club run today, but there is quite a lot of admin to be done ahead of the AGM, and sadly this newsletter does not write itself either, but hopefully I will have time to get out on the bike another sunny Sunday to join you all soon!
There are few things to mention in this edition of the newsletter, but firstly and most importantly, a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the Reliability Trial last Sunday, it was a really successful event and we have had so much positive feedback about it on Facebook, Twitter, by email, and in person. In fact Brighton Phoenix have even published an account of it on their website, which Liz has kindly sent me, so if you want to read their write up, click here. The success of the event was not only down to all of you who rode it, but down to Steve Ratford for all his hard work in organising it. He did the most amazing job, well done Steve. Thanks also to Adrian Morris and Keith Chandler for doing the time keeping, to Ade Fadero for providing documents, control cards and advice from when he ran the ESCA RT and also for helping out on the day, to Helen Codling for her amazing cakes (I have seen LOADS of lovely comments on social media about your cakes at the event Helen!), to Liz Halliday for helping carry out the risk assessment, to Dorothy Ericson who provided a couple of extra cakes when we realised the numbers were expanding rapidly at the last minute, and to Derek Middlehurst, Zoe Deeley and Peter Bradshaw for marshalling the control points. The event raised £475 for charity.
You may have seen the news on our social media feeds already, but Gemma and Janet were out racing at the SCA Hill Climb Championships last weekend, and I am delighted to say that Gemma is new the SCA women’s champ! Well done on the win Gemma. Janet also put in an amazing effort and came third, so it was a great result all round. It should also be mentioned that Janet did it on her fixed wheel vintage Claud Butler bike, which quite frankly deserves a huge amount of respect and kudos.
Gemma has also been back out competing again this weekend. She came 2nd in the Otley CC Hill Climb race yesterday, picking up some prize money and today she is competing in the epic HMT Monsal Hill Climb which attracts large crowds of spectators and high profile riders like Dame Sarah Storey (and Gemma, obvs). Keep an eye on our media feeds for more info on how she got on later.
Well done also to Steve Noake, Helen Webb, Gary Jones and Alex Beyfus who were out racing in the London & SE Cyclocross League last Sunday and particular mention must go to the fact that Alex stopped his race early on to administer first aid to a rider who had come off in the first lap. He eventually re-joined the race, only to have to stop and abandon altogether a little while later when he came across another injured rider and had to administer first aid a second time! Alex has been claimed a hero in one of the CX facebook groups, however the commissaire thinks he is a jink because she was present when he did his nurse Gladys Emmanuel impression in a race at Preston Park that had a pile up at the end. Anyway, Alex is now planning on getting a siren for his bike and a red cross on his Nomads jersey. Well done though Alex, you are a credit to the club. It’s fairly annoying you had to stop too because no doubt you would have won that CX race by a mile and dominated the entire league for the rest of the reason. Shame.
In other news, Jason Green/Neil Glover and Jason Blenkarn/Michael Thyer, were out racing in the Gentleman’s Grand Prix this morning. This event is a two-up team trial with a difference. The team is made up of one veteran and one other rider, riding in time trial team formation. The veteran is paced round the course by his/her partner and must remain as second rider throughout, only permitted to overtake for the last 200 yards! The results are yet to be confirmed, but sadly Jason & Michael (who were favourited for a podium position) took a wrong turn and added a few miles onto the official course! On a more positive note Jason says he managed to avoid all the cakes on offer at the HQ, so he is still favourited for a podium position at our hill climb on the 28th.
Well done also to James Hedley who completed his 3 day ride to Brussels and raised a large amount of money for SANE, a charity which helps people, and their families who suffer, and are affected by mental illness. It’s not too late to donate to this worthy cause and I’m sure James would be grateful for any additional donations: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/jameshedley
Another member who has raised a lot of money for charity recently is Hayley Plummer. She is new to the Nomads, and was due to take part in Velo South, which she was riding to raise money for The Alzheimer’s Society. As you all know the event was cancelled, but in order to honour her promise to everyone who sponsored her, Hayley went out and cycled the route the following weekend. It was also her first century. Well done Hayley! If anyone would like to top up Hayley’s just giving page, you can find it here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/hayleyplummer2018
Right, on to other news. A few of you will have noticed already, but I have set the Nomads up with an Instagram account. I have been meaning to do this for a while because there is a general declining trend in the popularity of twitter (seen both in the amount of people and businesses not bothering to update their feeds anymore, but also in the engagement stats on our Nomads twitter account), and there is a continued general (well, huge) increase in the popularity of instragram. I also noticed some time ago that just about every other local cycling club has been on Instagram for some time and actively use it to share out photos and events. So, if you are an insta user, then please head over to our feed and follow it: https://www.instagram.com/sussexnomads/ I’ll continue to update twitter in the meantime for those of you that like to keep an eye on it, and obviously facebook too.
Now on to upcoming events. This coming Friday is the AGM, at Ditchling Village Hall. The hall will be open from 7-7:15, and the meeting will start at 7:30pm. Please come along if you can because it’s your chance to put forward ideas and have discussions about how the club should be run. We won’t be spending any time going through all the committee member reports this year, (instead, you can read them in advance of the meeting here), so that leaves much more time for any ideas or discussion points you want to put forward. It will be a relaxed and more informal affair, and new members are very much encouraged to come along too. We will also be voting in the new committee members, and any of you can put your names forward for any role, but in particular we are looking for people to take on the TT Secretary Role from Adrian, the General Secretary role from John, the Women’s Representative role from Gemma, the Social Media, Comms and Marketing role from me, and the Racing Secretary role from Steve (I know, a lot of roles to fill!). I have spent this morning updating the ‘Meet The Committee’ page and I’ve also created pages showing the tasks and role profiles of each member of the committee, so if you want to know more about what each role involves, then you can find all that out by clicking here.
Job roles can be shared so they don’t necessarily have to be done by just one person, especially the roles that involve quite a lot of work. If you can’t make the meeting but are interested in a role, then please let me know asap. Similarly, if you have anything you want to discuss at the meeting then it ideally needs to be added to the agenda, so please let John know asap (johnmcsorley@hotmail.com).
The final event to mention is our annual hill climb race on Ditchling Beacon. Many of you have entered already, but if you haven’t, please get your entries in ASAP. Alex and I have been heavily promoting it out this week, and as a result we’ve had an influx of entries, and we are capped at 120 riders, so spaces are limited. We’ve got some really great prizes on offer, not just for the fastest riders, but for improvers too. Another incentive to enter is that I’ve been speaking with Hunt Wheels this last week about prizes, and not only have they generously offered some good prizes, but they have promised to send me a cycling cap for every single rider who enters!
For those that are not riding, Alex is desperate for helpers. We have a few volunteers already but we need more. I know it might seem like volunteering wouldn’t be the most exciting way to spend a morning, but I can promise you that you will enjoy it. It really is my favourite Nomad event of the year because there is such a buzz and excitement around it all. We always have some really great riders taking part, and there is always a really good atmosphere in the village hall. Plus there is Helen’s cakes! Alex has created a forum post with a list of duties that he needs to fill, so take a look here and see if you can help out.
That’s all for now. I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to seeing some of you at the AGM on Friday.
Sally