Stafford RC Easter weekend rides – 3 distances something for everyone

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SRC’s new home is the Stafford Cricket Club

The Club is delighted to announce an arrangement with Stafford Cricket Club to give SRC a
base for rides to start & finish and for social events.

9th April Easter SRC road ride

To mark this you are all invited to an SRC Club road ride on 9th April Easter Sunday
There will be 3 rides:

Easy Ride – 25 miles at 10-12mph

For those who are new to road cycling or finding your bike legs. This is a no drop ride – which
means we go as slow as the slowest person – no pressure. It’s all about getting out there and
having a go

Medium Ride – 35 miles at 14mph

For those who feel a bit more assured on the roads and want to try out those legs that have
been resting over winter

Harder Ride – 60 miles at 15mph

For those who have been regularly on their turbos or even out on the roads throughout the
winter

All rides will start and finish at the Stafford Cricket Club
Routes will be confirmed nearer the date to take into account weather forecasts
All rides will meet at the same time (approx 9am) with a staggered departure in order of speed

Refreshments

There will be access to the Club bar for drinks after the rides – tea, coffee, soft drinks or
beer/wine.

1 free drink per rider

As a one-off incentive to join in with a club ride, there will be 1 free drink per rider.

Other key dates to get in your diaries now:

Saturday 22nd July – Summer Club Ride followed by a BBQ
Friday 1st Dec – Xmas party for Go Ride
Saturday 2nd Dec – Xmas party for SRC
Other dates and events to be announced in due course

A fond farewell to Chris Hopkins a friend to so many and chairman of Stafford Road Club for over 25 years

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Chris Hopkins who was chairman of Stafford Road Club for over 25 year passed away peacefully last week.  Chris was a familiar face to everyone at Stafford Road Club out on club rides most Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Wednesday morning.

His funeral service will take place Saturday 11th March at Stafford Crematorium at 10am. Family flowers only. Donations if desired to Katharine House Hospice. Following the service the family and friends will meet at the Moat House Acton Trussell.

ROAD RACING – SSSCCRRL are back for the 2023 season

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SSCCRRL 2023 Calendar

SSSCCRRL are back for the 2023 season

 

The League has been going for more than 20 years. It has evolved into an excellent way of gaining race experience for new and experienced riders.

The format is there are 4 groups, newcomers in group 1, up to group 4 which is 1st cats and elites giving all categories a chance of a race, without getting dropped.

The races are approximately 35 miles, group 1 starts with a gap of approximately 11 minutes from group 4 and are encouraged to work together to prevent them getting caught, which sometimes sees group 1 stay out front and take the win!

2023 Race fees

£150 for 8 races

Entry on the line is £25 so a large discount is given to book the series.

New this year

For novices with limited race experience who would like to try the league but costs and the risk of getting dropped quickly put them off. So new for 2023 any rider with limited race experience will be allowed to enter with the fee being £10 which pays for a 1 day licence per race.

This rider must be nominated by the club they are a member of.

How to enter

Visit British Cycling www.britishcycling.org road racing events calendar

 

2023 Calendar Course Club  
Round 1 – 11th May Charlton Newport  
Round 2 – 18th May Enville Fish Face / Black Country CC  
Round 3 – 25th May Swynnerton (subject to changeD due to HS2) Pro Vison / HUUB  
Round 4 – 1st June Charlton Clee Cycles / Bridgnorth CC  
Round 5 – 8th June Enville Stourbridge CC  
Round 6 – 15th June Leighton MSW  
Round 7 – 29th June Huntington WW / Brerton CC  
Round 8 – 6th July Stourport circuit Halesowen CC  
Round 9 – 13th July Charlton Wrekin Sport / Evo Velo

Competitive Cycling For Life

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National Champions

I recently attended the VTTA National AGM where its always a pleasure to listen to the incredible performances at the awards presentation. Among the outstanding performances, Conrad Moss rode 46:12 for a 25 at age 47, Richard Oakes rode 18:10 for a 10 at age 53, Andy Grant rode 1:48:39 for a 50 at age 69, and Graham Mann at age 73 completed 348.07 miles in a 24 hour! Angela Carpenter at 53 has a new 10 mile record of 20:24, faster than any younger women vet.  Rachael Elliott and Ian Greenstreet continue to blitz the mixed tandem records with a combined age of 102. They set a 25 mile record of 48:45, a 50 mile record of 1:39:57 and a 100 mile record of 3:40:26.  Our trike members have also been busy this year with Mark Vowells, age 69, setting 3 new records (10,15 and 25 miles) and Mary Corbett, age 64, twice breaking the 10 mile record. But the standout record breakers of the season must be Norman Harvey (age 89) who with Mary set new records on their tandem trike at 10, 15, 25, 30, 50, 100 miles and yes 12 hours as well.

A local legend you may spot in the photo of the 2022 winners is Ian Holbrook (Stone Wheelers) far right

Veteran Time Trial Association (VTTA)

The Veterans Time Trials Association promotes time trialling for those aged 40 and over.  The VTTA provides events and competitions that allows those over 40 to compete on a’ level playing field’ through its unique handicapping system.  Age is no limiter when it comes to cycling but the VTTA allows us all to enjoy Competitive Cycling for Life.  We all still race for our club, but by being a member of the VTTA there are a whole range of challenges and achievements to strive for each year.  VTTA website

Wed  8th February at 11:30 – An invitation to come together to celebrate Don Picken

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Don’s family would like to extend an invitation to all of Don’s friends to come together on Wed  8th February at 11:30 in Oddfellows Hall Stafford to celebrate Dons life and afterwards in the Sun Inn were a buffett will be served.  This will take place after a private family forest burial service earlier that morning.

For anyone not familiar with the venues the Oddfellows Hall is 17 Greengate St, Stafford ST16 2HP and The Sun Inn  7 Lichfield Rd, ST17 4JX just a few minutes walk away from each other

Today we say goodbye to a dear friend – Don Picken

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Yesterday our good friend and active member of Stafford Road Club Don Picken passed away quietly at home.

Don has been a member of Stafford Road Club for decades and anyone who rode Time Trial events would know Don well as from the late 90’s Don ran a full racing calendar of events from March to September each year and his wife and daughter were often there help him with the timekeeping.

I myself met Don in 2002 when I attended my first committee meeting and was encouraged by him to ride the club TT’s, and thanks to Don I found the Race of Truth to be the most thrilling (and demanding) cycling discipline which I am still passionate about today and love to race, thanks Don.

I will post details of the funeral arrangements once they have been confirmed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A familiar figure to many Don Picken signing on riders as the Stafford RC time trials

 

Go-Ride Races – October 2022

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On the 15th October, the British Cycling Community Coach at Cannock Chase and SRC Go-Ride, put on a Go-Ride Race, which are for riders to get a taster of racing, in a more relaxed atmosphere.

It was a great event attended by over 40 riders (with a number of riders from the club), split across three categories, with courses to suit each category. Go-Ride courses tend to be less technical, but can still be demanding for novice racers, especially where riding on grass is involved.

All the riders enjoyed the mornings racing and had great weather, although a little breezy at times.

Well done to all the riders and thank you to the parents for bringing along the riders, cheering on all the riders and making it a memorable event for them.

Results are as follows:

Under 7s Girls
1st Edith Delicompagni (SRC)
2nd Olivia Shephard (SRC)

Under 7s Boys
1st Leo Lawrence
2nd Frankie Jones
3rd Rufus Honeyford (SRC)

Under 9s Girls
1st Isabel Stringer
2nd Rosie Anthony (SRC)
3rd Lily Emerson

Under 9s Boys
1st Luca Hodgkinson
2nd Calum McCausland (SRC)
3rd Teddy Jones

Under 12s Girls
1st Anna Hallchurch
2nd Martha Honeyford (SRC)

Under 12s Boys
1st Harry Donald
2nd Oliver Howard
3rd Cody Hodgkinson

Under 16 Girls
1st Mia Lewis (SRC)
2nd Sophie Anthony (SRC)

Under 16 Boys
1st Joseph Laidler (SRC)
2nd Aidan Walters
3rd Archie Williams

To see what is happening with British Cycling at Birches Valley, see their Facebook page here.

Keep an eye out on our Facebook page, as hopefully we will be putting on more of this next year and maybe something a little different for us in the Autumn!

2022 WMCCL CycloCross League – Halfway Stage

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We have now arrived at the halfway stage for the West Midlands Cyclocross League 2022.

For the 6th race in the series, we had 12 riders attending (unfortunately one had to leave before we could herd everyone together for the photo), all wearing club colours. We now also have an honouree member of the club called BOB. BOB is our new “Big Orange Box”, where we can gather, chill and relax before and after a race and if the weather does turn, allow some respite from the elements if needed and allow a swift change of clothes for the journey home. We also have a new bike stand to save having the bike lying on the floor and risking them getting stood on, but if the numbers keep going up, we are going to have to get another few!!

All the riders did brilliantly today and our newer racers, have grown in confidence and are now not daunted by the race starts, as they were 6 races ago, and all showed lots of desire and determination during the race. We even had a 1st and two 3rd places riders this week with another just missing out!

As coaches, we could not ask for any more from yourselves, from racing, to cheering your fellow racers on, to being great ambassadors for the club.

Every week we have comments [all good :-)] from other clubs and race officials, which makes us all extremely proud.

Keep doing what you are doing, as you are all doing brilliantly

Stafford RC 2022-23 winter training classes lead by @AlastairSempleCoaching

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Starting on the 19th October 2022 on a Wednesday evening at 18:30 I will be hosting classes for Stafford Road Club members and any of our cycling friends who may wish to join us.

The training classes will be organised on Zwift (Zwift VR cycling app ) as a group ride where all the riders will stay together and follow the same training schedule based on your own personal levels, so we ride and complete the sessions together as a team.

To make things more sociable we will also use the free Discord phone app so we can use this to talk to each other while riding.

These Zwift group rides we have run this year have proved really successful and the software is very simple to get to grips with.  So please let me know if you are interested in taking part by emailing me at ascoaching@outlook.com.  You are welcome to join the classes at any point this winter so do not worry if you miss the start on 19th Nov.  If you need any more info again please get in touch.