Hello everyone
It was great to be able to join the Thursday morning ride earlier today (23rd December), being on holiday from work. Drizzly and cold, but still a really fun ride. Let’s hope for continuing smooth running of our rides in the New Year.
The main purpose of this newsletter is to give a summary update on the two week White Horse Cycling Challenge that ran from 27th November to 11th December and then the main Mince Pie Rides on Sunday 12th December. Basically, I just want to say a huge thank-you once again to all who supported this set of activities. Here are a few stats:
– Approximately 40 riders completed the Challenge, nicely bookmarked by Philip getting in first with a midnight ride and Andy finishing things off in epic style with a six-times-around ride! All particularly impressive given the fairly awful weather during the fortnight.
– We wanted to open this up to the wider local community and we have a measure of success there in seeing nearly 60 downloads of our various local route sheets from our website over the fortnight – 37 of these for the White Horse route.
– For the big day of the Mince Pie Rides, our tried and tested ‘cup count methodology’ indicated 140 riders (or, more precisely, drinkers) joined us at the great Hill.
– It was great to see so many clubs from around the area joining us, including from Didcot, Abingdon, Oxford, Newbury, Swindon and Witney. We heard of at least one ex-local getting the train from London to join a local club ride up.
– Particular respect to those who struggled through multiple punctures on the messy roads in the area, and we know of a couple of unfortunate cattlegrid related mechanicals along the way.
– The donations made by you all have been generous and magnificent. We saw great giving both online and in cash on the Sunday and I’m really happy to say that the grand total so far is over £1,850.
the Just Giving page is still live and open, so don’t hesistate to keep on giving to Whizz-Kidz at: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/whitehorsecyclechallenge2021.
– Talking of Whizz-Kidz, I got a really nice message from them: “So pleased that the event was a success and that copious amounts of mulled wine and mince pies awaited you all. It’s a lovely time of year to take on a challenge such as this and we hope that it was a really enjoyable day. May I just take this opportunity to say thank you so much for your continued support”. This is really great charity and we are proud of our long standing association with it.
Finally, I must say special thanks to the team who made it all happen, particularly Carin for magnificent mulled wine, Steve, Mandy and Di for serving on the day and for all the ride leaders from ours and other clubs.
It only remains to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. I look forward to joining many of you on a ride soon.
Best regards
John
