News

This Sunday is the last chance to volunteer this calendar year for an LFCC event (see below). We’re up to 75+ different members volunteering this year which is great to see. All members are reminded that when you join the club there is an expectation that you will volunteer for at least one event. If you have club kit, been on a club ride or looked at the website, your are benefiting from the work of your club mates - please help share the workload.

Following the recent communication on committee members, prospective members are invited to attend the November committee meeting. If you’ve thought about joining the committee but haven’t been in touch yet, please contact rob.jones@leicesterforest.org.uk to find out details.

Upcoming Events

1. Cyclocross Race, 17th Nov. This Sunday is our cyclocross race at Beaumont Leys. More volunteers are always welcome (https://www.leicesterforest.com/volunteering). Good luck to all the LFCC riders racing. See you there bright and early.

2. Club Dinner, 25th Jan. Don’t forget our LFCC annual dinner, provisionally scheduled for 25th January 2020 - more details to follow.

3. Winter Audax, 9th Feb. Details of the LFCC Winter Audax, “Rutland and Beyond” are up on AUK (http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/18-40/), the ride always serves as a good reason to get out in February.

Other Events & Requests

From time to time other clubs and organisers approach us to promote their events which may be of interest and they generally reciprocate in return for us. In the least possible spamy way we could come up with:

1. The Bradwell HillBilly cycle sportive is local(ish), 28th June 2020, 78km and lots of climbing set in the peak district. For further information, please see www.bradwellhillbilly.co.uk, or the facebook page @BraddaHillBilly.

2. Not an event, but a survey on your experience of cycling. This one is for psychology researchers at Royal Holloway Uni (and a chance to win some amazon vouchers) see https://rhulpsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0eVzgyshJfjsXM9

3. John Wilton is helping to organise local Mountain Bike Orienteering - Sun 1st December, Gaddesby. See https://www.bmbo.org.uk/calendar/details.php?event_id=1163

Well done to four of our riders who competed in the Red Bull Time Laps 25 hour race to take 10th place in the women’s team category. A really tough event riding through the night and taking turns as a relay to ride as many laps of Windsor Park as possible. The team of Lucy Crookston, Lucy Sturgess, Anna Bertram and Victoria Kozlowski battled awful weather conditions with heavy rain and 20mph winds but managed to hold onto their top 10 position through the race.

Lucy Sturgess who organised the team entry commented:

‘I’m so proud of the girls for pulling together like we did, it really was a test of weather, lack of sleep, fatigue, endurance and mental strength. There were some real low points, but many highs and It was well worth the effort too! We ride and train together quite frequently already, but nothing could have prepared us fully for this tough event. Never again came to mind during, but somehow were already discussing what we could do better next time! We were really lucky to have team support from Stefan Kozlowski who was there helping throughout every transition and keeping us organised with timings and making sure we had everything we needed. Overall an excellent team performance so were thrilled to come 10th out of 32 women’s teams in a competitive field. Podium next year!’

Following positive feedback on the new summer routes and to provide a bit more variety, we’re looking to refresh the Saturday ride winter routes.

We’d be grateful if regulars from our B and C groups could have a think about potential routes (and cafe stops, naturally), plot a suggestion out on Strava or RWGPS and send the link to rob.jones@leicesterforest.org.uk.

A ride planning seems to be gathering momentum on Facebook so we’ll look to incorporate the A ride routes on to the website as they get posted on Facebook.

For winter routes, we’d suggest they’re about 10 miles shorter than our summer routes, or alternatively have the option to bail back in Leicester mid-route, should it turn out we are in fact made of sugar.

We’ve also resurrected the LFCC Cafe Map that our former President Ian Nutt started a few years ago. You can find this at https://www.leicesterforest.com/cafe-map which may a useful resource in route planning. New suggestions of cycling friendly cafes are always welcome.

Congratulations to Lucy Crookston who came 6th in yesterday’s 2 / 3 / 4 race at Abingdon and now has enough points to move up to Cat 3!

For any female senior members looking to get into racing, we have an LFCC women’s facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1637181726579780/ where you can connect with other members;

In addition, this October / November there is also women’s cyclocross training a new college, see here for further information and sign up.

We’ve almost arrived at the last big LFCC event of the calendar year and the last big push for volunteers - the cyclocross race at Beaumont Leys.

This year Andreas Quansah has taken over the event organisation from Alan Bontoft. To avoid adding any more stress to his plate, Andreas would be really grateful if you can help, to sign up as soon as possible…to avoid that sinking feeling of only 2 volunteers, 30 empty slots, 2 weeks to go and a million other things to arrange!

• If you’re looking to race, then it would be great if you could help with setup and take down;

• If you’re not racing, we need another army of LFCC marshalls for the event itself, helpers to set up and take down;

• If you can only make part of the day, we’d still appreciate your help - just let Andreas know in the sign up form.

Whilst it may seem we are often calling for more volunteers for events, this year we’ve had over 70 unique volunteers (excluding rockets events) - room for improvement, but actually doing okay.

We’d love to get more people in the club helping out to share the workload, so if you’ve not done so this year, this is your last chance to take part!

Volunteer sign up here: www.leicesterforest.com/volunteering

Events

Whilst the mornings are a little cooler and the evenings a little darker, we still have a number of upcoming events to put in your calendars:

1. Saturday 28th September - The Leicester Triangle Audax - https://www.leicesterforest.com/audax

2. Wednesday 23rd October - Roller Racing begins, The Parcel Yard, every 2 weeks - https://www.leicesterforest.com/lfcc-roller-racing

3. Sunday 17th November - LXCL Cyclocross Race (hosted by LFCC), Beaumont Leys - look out for the upcoming volunteer requests

4. Saturday 25th January (provisional date) - Club Dinner & Awards Evening

All our upcoming events are list on the events calendar on the website site here https://www.leicesterforest.com/calendar

News

2020 Timetrials

In other news, we now have organisers for the 2020 Open 10, and the Open 50. We are still looking for:

• Open 25 organiser;

• Evening 10 co-ordinator.

If this is something you might take on, please see https://www.leicesterforest.com/news/2019/8/23/2020-timetrial-events-opens-amp-club-10s for further information and contact rob.jones@leicesterforest.org.uk.

Committee Treasurer Role

After many years of looking after the books, Paul Turner will be standing down as treasurer and as such the club is starting the process of looking for a new treasurer.

If you are good with a spreadsheet or know someone in the club that is and would consider taking on the role, please contact rob.jones@leicesterforest.org.uk. A formal accounting background is not a pre-requisite as support will be available to get up to speed with the role.

Whilst you would be right in thinking we’ve only just finished the 2019 events, the early stages of planing for 2020 are underway.

If you might be interested in serving the club by managing an event or helping to co-ordinate events (there’s no commitment at this stage), it would be great to hear from you.

Willingness trumps experience, and the club will support for anyone running or co-coordinating an event for the first time.

Please get in touch via: rob.jones@leicesterforest.org.uk.

Fingers crossed the weather will be kinder in 2020 than it was in 2019!

Just a quick reminder that the club kit ordering window will close this Friday at 23.59.

You can still make orders until the window closes using the portal: https://shuttcustom.com/collect…/leicester-forest-cycle-club.

Club Kit queries should be directed to kit@leicesterforest.com.

Club runs on Saturday 14th September have been cancelled - this decision has been taken to allow all members to help setup, run and spectate at the LFCC Road Race. For this one Saturday of the year, the club’s focus is the road race and not club runs.

If you’d like to help at the race, please visit: https://www.leicesterforest.com/volunteering

For more information on the race, please visit: https://www.leicesterforest.com/lfcc-road-race

On Saturday 14th September the club holds its annual road race, this is the final round of the East Midlands Road Race League (EMRRL) and the only event promoted at British Cycling National B level. This means we have entries from Elite category riders, the only other event at this level or above locally is the Cicle Classic.

However to be able to promote such an event we need volunteers from the club to support the event throughout the day, preparing, marshalling etc... you don’t have to volunteer all day, but any time given to one of the many roles would be greatly appreciated. At present we do not have enough volunteers to continue with the event safely, if this is not rectified soon it will leave us no option but to cancel the race, which would be of great disappointment to those who have entered, the EMRRL and the club as a whole.

We would like to ask that if you have some time on the 14th, that you offer to support your club to promote another excellent event, this race has always received great feedback from those who participate and those that watch it. This only happens because of the club members supporting it.

To help, please sign up at https://www.leicesterforest.com/volunteering

Great representation at the New College today with 7 Senior LFCC riders and 6 Juniors taking part.

A special congratulations to Anna Bertram who secured her Cat 2 licence, and Hazel Le Cornu who secured her Cat 3 licence.

In the juniors we had 3 podiums, Tyler 3rd, Megan 1st and Bethany 1st (both lapping their competitors).

Full results to follow.

Four LFCC riders will be enduring the 2019 PBP - the 1200 km Audax starting Sunday 18th August.

You can track our riders using the PBP tracker page at https://track.rtrt.me/e/pbp-2019#/tracker and entering the rider number (or alternatively search for Leicester Forest CC).

Our intrepid riders are:

• John Wilton (H015)

• Mike Sheldrake (I117)

• Paul Alinejad (J136)

• Martyn Wheeler (J142)

First rider off is John Wilton at about 5 AM.

For more info on PBP take a look at:

https://www.apidura.com/journal/paris-brest-paris-everything-you-need-to-know/

The ordering window is now open for Autumn / Winter kit and Women’s kit.

The order window will close on 2/9/19 at 11.59pm.

Please go to: https://shuttcustom.com/collect…/leicester-forest-cycle-club.

All members have been emailed the password for this window. For any queries please contact kit@leicesterforest.com.

At the start of this round of orders, please can all members remember that organising club kit is a thankless task, undertaken by members for other members - it's not wiggle. We've had three different people looking after kit over the last 18 months which reflects the hassle involved. Please be polite, show up when you say you will, and bear with us when things aren't perfect.

We’ve added an LFCC instagram account to the fold @leicester_forest_cc . If you’re not an instagram user you can access the photos from www.leicesterforest.com using the icon in the top right hand corner.

Please tag your LFCC instagram photos (not the post) with @leicester_forest_cc so we can pick them all up on our account.

Just in case any of our senior members have missed it, LFCC rockets are top of the Mallory Junior League, with their nearest rival trailing by 829 points (click here) .

In the individual league, LFCC girls lead in every category (click here).

A big congratulations to all our junior members, their coaches and all the parents helping to make Rockets such a success.

For further information see http://malloryparkrrleague.co.uk/home-page

We’ve had a request from John Bird at Loughborough Uni if any of our members would be interested in participating in his research study. He’s looking for participants that:

• Aged between 18 and 35

• Spend 5 hours a week cycling

• Participate in 3 lab sessions.

Further details can be found here.

This week we’re diverting the C ride to Billesdon Pop Up Cafe raising money for Scouts and the Harambee for Kenya (other groups are more than welcome to make us of the route).

Details of the route can be found on the Saturday club run page or here https://ridewithgps.com/routes/30705430

Remember to bring cash!

With a re-organiser for the open 25 TT not forthcoming, unfortunately we have taken the decision not to reschedule the cancelled event.

As a consequence, the Club 25 TT Trophy will be awarded based on results in the local Melton Olympic CC 25 TT which takes place on the 1st September. Many thanks to MOCC who have agreed to us using their TT.

For further detail please see: http://meltonolympic.co.uk/events/late-summerbelvoir-hcp-25-tt-2/.

Good Luck!

This year’s Let’s ride (formerly Sky Ride) takes place on the 25th August, with a closed road circuit around the city centre. LFCC will have a stand in Bede Park again this year with roller bikes/watt bikes and plenty of promotional material. We’re looking for members to help man the stand in short 2 hours slots, so it can be combined with riding the circuit yourself.

As always, if you like to help at the stand please sign up at https://www.leicesterforest.com/volunteering

For more details on Let’s Ride Leicester visit: https://www.letsride.co.uk/events/leicester

Hi all,

Regrettably, we have made the tough decision to cancel tonight’s Evening 10, as the weather forecasts are looking increasingly wet, with a risk of thunderstorms on top.

Whilst of course we only have a forecast to go on, and we might get lucky, the A46 is no place to be riding when it’s wet, and we feel that’s too big a risk to take; plus we need to make a call early enough to stop people making unnecessary journeys where possible.

Many thanks to all who’d intended to ride tonight, and to our merry band of marshals.