Hello everyone
I wish you all a very Happy New Year. Despite some truly awful cycling weather in recent weeks, it is nice to see some sunshine today and hopefully the floods all around our patch are now receding. The club rides programme is now up on the website to the end of March so you can start to plan your forthcoming adventures. A few things to highlight:
MINCE PIE RIDES AND THE WHITE HORSE CYCLE CHALLENGE
The weather conditions throughout December definitely affected the number of challenge rides which were possible this year, but great respect to those who did make it up the great Hill. Personally, I will long remember the ice forming on the front of the bikes during the kick-off ride, but also the glorious blue sky once we broke through the freezing fog! The main Mince Pie Rides went very well, with considerable support from many of the local clubs. We saw riders from Didcot, Abingdon, Newbury and Oxford amongst others, and I know that the Charlbury group is planning an alternative version of the ride soon. Using our sophisticated ‘cup count’ algorithm, we saw approx 85 riders pass through in total. As always, grateful thanks to the ride leaders and all who helped out on the day and in the preparations beforehand. It was also great to gather in the Fox at Denchworth for a lovely Christmas lunch afterwards. Adding together the online donations and the contributions on the day, we have raised a magnificent £1,242 to date and again many thanks to all who contributed so generously. The JustGiving link is still active for any outstanding contributions:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/whitehorsecyclechallenge2023
We had very good engagement and support from the Whizz Kidz charity and I had this message from them just before Christmas: “I’m so glad the event went well in spite of the weather! The amount raised is brilliant and will make a huge impact on the lives of young wheelchair users, either through equipment provided or support.” They have really raised their profile nationally with their inclusion in the Times newspaper Christmas Appeal and their involvement in the Doctor Who TV specials, so it has been great to be a small part of that.
A final point on this – as highlighted last month, Whizz Kidz have kindly gifted us a box of branded cycling jerseys to be distributed for any donation you wish to make to the Challenge. They are short sleeved summer weight jerseys (so you can dream of summer…) in all sizes from S to XL. Let me know if you would like to take one or try one on.
RIDE LEADER TRAINING
As always, the quantity and quality of our rides are entirely dependant on the willingness of our ride leaders to lead. We are fortunate indeed to have such a great group of leaders at all the ride levels, but we could always do with a few more. We are planning a ride leader training session for later in the month (date to be confirmed) – some of you have already expressed an interest in this and we wil be in touch individually, If anyone else would like to volunteer, then please let me know.
That’s enough for now – I hope you see you out on a ride soon!
Best regards
John
