Chairman’s Newsletter 2 – December 2020

Posted on February 3rd, 2021

Dear all

THE WHITE HORSE CYCLE CHALLENGE

The two weeks of the great Challenge came to an end a week ago.

It has been a truly amazing success and great credit is due to Steve Swanton and Nicole Pethybridge for inspiring us to set this up. I think we have captured the imagination of both the local cycling clubs and the general local population. It has done us a lot of good in terms of community engagement and general goodwill. There is a huge range of nice photos on the club Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cyclingukwantage (take a look at the media or photos tab).

The JustGiving page is still open and is here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/whitehorsecyclechallenge

Special thanks are also due to Jan McCabe for a) riding up the Hill every day during the fortnight, b) securing a generous corporate donation from her employer Infineum, and c) creating a spreadsheet attempting to track all the various riders taking part!

As a result of all this, the final position is (roughly) as follows:

  • approx 140 riders (of which at least 13 completed the climb multiple times)
  • of which, approx 60 CUKW members/associates
  • direct donations from 124 donors totalling £2,558
  • Gift Aid adds £568
  • corporate gifts from Infineum and Jacobs add £350
  • grand total of £3,476
  • White Horse route sheet downloaded 118 times

Let’s not forget that we set what we thought was a reasonable stretch target of 100 riders and £500 in donations, so this is a really remarkable result.

Obviously, the most important thing of all is to say a massive THANK YOU to all who took part, in all sorts of weather, and all those who donated so generously to Whizz-Kidz, which is such a great charity.
As for next year, we’re already wondering about a hybrid event to combine the best of both options – let’s see!

As if Jan hasn’t done enough, she also came up with the following variant on an old theme (you know the tune):

12 Dozen Mince pies
11 Cycling Clubs
10 Multi-dayers
9 Bits of Tinsel
8 loops in one go
7 Mountain Bikers
6 Different snacks
5 Misty days
4 Night Riders
3 Santa hats
2 Tandems
& one EliiptiGO*

(* other wacky elliptical/stride bikes are available…)

OTHER NEWS

More good news – a quick check of the stats page on the club website reveals that Des Higgs has passed the remarkable figure of 1,000 total club rides. He joins Steve Swanton in an elite VIP club of two who have achieved this. Many congratulations to Des!

Less good news is the need to respond to the latest announcements from Boris on the tightening of Covid restrictions. We need to emphasise that Oxfordshire is still in Tier 2 and so on the face of it there are no changes to our current activities – we can continue with club rides with a maximum of six riders. However, the extra difficulty for now is that Berkshire is in the Tier 4 area and Berkshire isn’t very far away! So I’m sorry to say that we are unable to take club rides south into Berkshire and also that members living in Berkshire are not able to come over to join our rides. This latter point is particularly disappointing as we have quite a few active members (and Committee members) living south from here, but this is our understanding of the rules for now. I will keep you updated if anything changes.

Difficult times, but the vaccines are coming! I very much hope to see you on a ride soon.

Best regards
John

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