About the Medium Gear 25

Further to a question that has been asked:

During the year the Club runs a series of 10 and 25 mile events (and nominates a few open events to cover other distances and add extra 25s). Some of these 10s or 25s include special events, like the Medium Gear and Consolation 25s or the 2Up and Championship 10s.

In these special club events it is the special event and the riders adhering to the special conditions (like limited gear for the Medium Gear or riding a 2Up in the 2Up) that attract the club awards - the prizes that are credited to riders for handicap and placings. Any club member wishing to just ride a regular TT at the distance is welcome to do so and (if entered in advance) will be credited with 2 club event points for supporting the club event, but will not necessarily be entered in the handicap competition for the event.

Riders who enter any of the club events late or on the line - subject to there being enough space (we are allowed only a certain number of riders for each event) - will be riding only for a time, but the time will be recognised by the club for all of the other Club Trophies.

So the bottom line is that you can enter the Medium Gear 25 but choose not to ride the limited gear if you wish - just tell Frank.

Do I have to ride "fixed" in the Medium Gear?

No. You can use fixed, single free, or regular gears as long as you keep below the 72" limit.

If I ride gears do I have to stick to the one gear?

No. The 72" is a maximum, you can use lower gears.

Do I have to stop the mech off to prevent me using a higher gear?

No. We trust riders. Stop it off if you don't trust yourself! If you inadvertently change to a higher gear for a couple of pedal revs and immediately change back down you maintain the spirit of the event. If use the higher gear for any length of time we expect a confession at the finish!!!

What does 72" mean?

For a fixed wheel bike this is easy, for a geared bike you must roll the bike backwards so that the rear wheel pushes the pedals round. For one revolution of the pedals, the bike must travel no further than 18' 10 1/4" (which should be 5.8m, but I'm not guaranteeing that!).

Alternatively it is recognised as a chainring of 48 teeth and a rear sprocket of 18 teeth.

As most geared bikes don't come with a 48 chain ring, divide the chainring size by 2.66666667 (2 & 2/3) and round up. So for a 52 tooth chainring the rear sprocket needs to be 19.5, and as you can't get a sprocket with 19.5 teeth the answer is 20. With really light tyres you can get away with a slightly higher calculated gear, so we measure the gear out on the morning.

Do I have to ride on a limited gear?

No.

If you want to ride the Medium Gear Club Event and compete for the club awards - yes.

If you just want to ride a 25 on the same morning as everyone else - no, but tell Frank when you enter.

Can I ride Tandem?

If you want. You'll probably just be riding a 25 rather than the Medium Gear Club Event (we'll talk about it at the committee meeting - if we remember!) but yes you can ride tandem.

I bet this all just confuses things...

Lisa

British Cycling Organiser's Seminar

British Cycling - South East Region Organiser's Seminar

This course will be held at Handcross Parish Hall, High Street, Handcross, West Sussex RH17 6BJ starting at 09:45 and finishing at 16:00 on March 13, 2010.

This course is aimed at both informing new race organisers with regard to running a road/circuit event and keeping existing race organisers up to date with current practice

Road/Circuit event Organiser Training will be supported by qualified tutors, the Regional Road Race Organisers Handbook and a candidate pack.

This course is free to attend, but you will need to be a British Cycling member. Lunch tea/coffee will also be provided free of charge.

This course will be split into the following five modules:

Child and Vulnerable Person Protection.
The child protection training will cover good practice when dealing with young and vulnerable people with the added information on the responsibilities of the race organisers to protect the data that they have accrued.

Communication.
The communication module will deal with using various methods of communication to their best effect. It will also deal with recruiting volunteers, gathering materials and resources necessary to put on a road/circuit event. Candidates will also develop a project timeline keeping track of who they will need to communicate with and when. Consideration will also be given to checks on materials use in races.

Administration.
Administration will deal with budgets, licence checks, record keeping, and the various forms that are used by British Cycling to record events.

Technical.
The technical module will look at conducting and interpreting a generic course risk assessment. Candidates will learn about the differences between generic and specific risks and how to deal with these. They will also try to develop a traffic plan concerning a specific real life road racing circuit to give an idea of the signage and marshalling necessary to run a road race.

Competition.
The competition module will look at the more practical things that an organiser will be involved with when setting up the course. This will include the fitting of radios, placement of signage and equipping race marshals.

Please let me know if you wish to attend this course as I will need to organise training material and lunch for you. RSVP glyn@surreyleague.co.uk

Please pass this invitation on to anyone you know who is already a road/circuit event organiser or is thinking of organising a road/circuit event in the future.


Glyn

Glyn Durrant
British Cycling - South East Region
& Surrey Cycle Racing League
Competition Administrator

glyn@surreyleague.co.uk
07852 167477
Skype: surreyglyn

www.surreyleague.co.uk
www.southeastcycling.co.uk
www.britishcycling.org.uk

Club Dinner - again!

Our treasurer has done the sums and the bottom line seems to be a £500 loss on the 2010 Club Dinner. I found the venue to be an excellent one and would be happy to go there again - costs permitting. I have put three polls on the right of the blog --> to get a feel for what others think about the evening and what we do for 2011. The next committee meeting is on Friday (12th) and we will discuss this and almost certainly make a decision to try to go back to the Burford Bridge, or to go somewhere else. Going back to the Burford Bridge, or not, will depend both on the charge for the hall hire for 2011 and what we think members are prepared to pay for the tickets, so I think the final decision on venue for 2011 could well skip to the following meeting in around 6 weeks' time.

As a thought the 1952 dinner cost 12/6, which Pete has checked out as equating to £38 now on a "then and now" price comparison website...

Finally: a vote of thanks to Brian P for all the hard work in both sorting out the dinner and chasing everyone up to come along. From what I have seen, he put in more work for this dinner than has been done by any of our organisers in recent years (and they didn't exactly slouch!).

Lisa

I know that not everyone can see this blog, but it is an easy way to get a quick idea of what a number of members think.

P.S. Click on the yes/no button and then click "vote" for each poll. If you want to see the result without voting (again), click on the "show results" link.

P.P.S I have no way of knowing who has voted (or what you voted), so please only vote the once - it looks to me as if the poll allows you to keep voting ;~) Thanks. And if you have any comments on the polls, please add a comment to this post.

C&M hilly 50 March 6th

Ed and I need your help next Saturday (March 6) from 0900 till as late as you can stay. 70+ (1 CM, 1 MW) riders have signed up so far and if the weather's fine, hopefully there'll be a lot more on the day. Anyone used to handling money (possibly dirty) should apply. As neither of us has a car, drivers are especially welcome as we'd like to use the display thingie and/or Ed's pasting table. If you can pretend you know what's going on or just want to soak up the atmosphere, do come along. I recced the route very slowly last Wednesday, a wet feet jobbie especially where the Tilling Bourne had overflowed into Raikes Lane near A25. Surrey's highway engineers still havent located Longmore, Sheephouse and Hoe Lanes so the spirit of the ride is intact though hidden under several unavoidable pools of water. I've had printed routesheets/maps (B/W) and will produce laminated/coloured versions of same for display on the day. But if you want to make your own contribution (use up those old printer cartridges or whatever), please do so. Let me know if you can help (preferably this weekend as I'm for Stirling and back before Wednesday's dinner). Graham Hill 0208 549 0366

Hilly 50 - Course Report

I rode the Hilly 50 this morning, principally to see what conditions are like, and I am pleased to be able to report that they are pretty good. The roads are mostly dry and clear. There is still some water running off the fields here and there, but it's not much and there is no standing water. In one or two places there is some gravel - but then there usually is. In two places - Hound House Road at the back of Pitch Hill and at the bottom of Raikes Lane - part of the bank has fallen, but each of these is well marked with cones and tape and should cause no problems.

If the weather matches the forecast we should have a good ride.

Mark

Prize Winners

Club Dinner 2010

Well what a great night , only just got over the hangover ! Congratulations to Brian on finding this venue and getting the cost down . He worked hard phoning people up and getting numbers up from 75 last year to 113. An evening to remember. Lots of cross toasting .Lots raffle prizes and loads of dancing to the brilliant new disco , time just wizzed by then it was midnight. People rose to the club colour challenge and lots of colourful ties , waistcoats , sparkly frocks. My best moment was air guitaring with Rachel and Jackie to Rocking all over the world Status Quo. oh and collecting my shiney trophies.
Jake