Winchcombe Cycling Club

‘Chedworth is both a favourite and popular ride – be there on time’ proclaims The Captain in his weekly proclamation to rally the troops. Expecting to battle through crowds to get to the library cider press its more like a Paul Daniels appreciation meet. The Tandem duo are joined by three half bikes adorned by Kevin, Tony and another defector from the dark side – the super fit Mike.
In the age of globalism and free thinking it’s encouraging to see the MTB Community expanding their experience. Abandoning the potholes of the Bridleways in preference for the potholes of Gloucestershire Roads.

Winchcombe Cycling Club would like to give a massive thank you to all our Club members that helped and took part in the 34th HONC.

Winchcombe CC fielded over 80 volunteers on the day & we have again had some great feedback from riders on the day & also on social media.
The weather proved very challenging this year & necessitated a very late change in our usual parking arrangements at Winchcombe School to another field adjacent to the school – what a brilliant job Neil Hunt & his team did on that!

Despite the dreadful weather in the weeks before, approaching 1000 riders were rewarded with trails that had dried a lot in the preceding couple of days & lead riders posted some impressive finishing times:

50K Senior & Junior – Fraser Wight – ( Cotswold Cycles TREK) -2hr 15min.

50K Female – Sarah Wight – (Cotswold Cycles TREK) – 2hr 49min.

100K Senior – Marc Chamberlain – (Cotswold Cycles TREK) – 3hr 53min.

100K Female NR

100K Junior – Jointly Jacob & Sam Hardy (Cheltenham and County CC) – 5hr 59min.

We collected nearly £200 for the Air Ambulance & HONC will be making a further donation from event funds in due course.

David Thomas has posted some great images of the day and &  Jay Taylor  has posted a video of his view of the start from a marshalling position in Winchcombe ( See Links below)

Sadly before the start we announced the loss of one of our longest serving volunteers Alice Haller earlier in the week.Her son Graham a member of Cheltenham and County CC is our route designer. This was followed the tragic news of the the death of Michael Goolaerts in the Paris Roubaix event that inspired HONC 34 years ago. Our condolences go to their families & friends.

That’s HONC nearly done & dusted for another year, thanks again everyone at WCC  & also to our friends at Cheltenham & County CC for their huge contibution.

For information about the 2018 event – please visit the HONC website and Facebook page.

With the weather improving (??) the time seems right to re-open the Strava segment challenge for 2018. So use that winter training, or more likely, begin to shed that winter weight by having a go.

As before, members have up until the last day of the month to ride a designated segment, with speed (whilst being vigilant and safe) the order of the day. Each month a new segment will be opened, and results from the previous month published.

There is a slight change to the handicaps this year, giving the younger riders more chance after last year being dominated by dads army. All handicaps are per mile, with segments rounded to the nearest mile.

< 35 – 15 seconds
35-44 – 10 seconds
45-54 – 5 seconds
55+ – 0 seconds

This month is a 1.1 mile drag (2% average gradient) from Beckford village hall up to the Yew tree pub – view it here.

Don’t forget the TT league starts with a 5 mile leg loosener on Thursday 12th April. Full details of events can be found – here.

Good luck!!

WCC Annual General Meeting – Save the Date !!
We will be holding our AGM this year in the garden room of that well known hostelry The White Hart, at 1.00pm. on Sunday 22nd April. We thought that this would allow keen Sunday riders to come straight to the venue & as a further inducement the club will be providing complimentary drinks & nibbles!
David T will be circulating further details in due course as we will need to get some indication of numbers attending.