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Graham perfecting his winner's salute
1998 Events
The 1998 club run open events are:
Confined Time Trials
The 1998 series of races starts in April. (See Diary
of Events) I will keep you up to date with developments for any new
courses etc. One change for next year will be the inclusion of the Ythan
CC 10 mile TT. This means that members taking part in this “open”
event will generate points for the series.
Winter Training
Winter
training starts in earnest on January 6th at the Castlepark community
house in Ellon. Kick off is at 18:30 hours. This will continue until the
summer arrives and we can once again emerge from our enforced captivity
indoors to the bright sunshine and warm light breezes for which the NE of
Scotland is so famous. hopefully we will all emerge a bit fitter than we
are at the moment.
Top five reasons to start racing
- Haven't thrown up for a while
- Read somewhere sweat was an aphrodisiac
- Waiting for someone to crash and see some blood
- Like being humiliated on a regular basis
- Pain - just can't get enough of it
Top four reasons to stop racing
- Throwing up ruins my shoes
- Discovered sweat was a turn off
- Someone crashed, I saw blood - it was mine
- Decided dating was humiliation enough
From Our Overseas Correspondent
No wrong again. It isn't Old Mother Riley. You could be forgiven for
not recognising him without his balaclava but in fact it's Charlie Allan
training for the new season - at altitude.
Dragged by Fiona away from his turbo for three weeks in Kenya, Charlie
bought himself this Simba bike (you're bound to have heard of the make)
and got in several hours of clanking round the grounds of the club at
which they were staying. The machine may not have been quite right, but at
five and a half thousand feet, the training should have done some good.
No sign of it at Garlogie for the Aberdeen area's first time trial of the
year though. Charlie recorded a 27:23, three seconds behind Mike Harper.
The race was won by Bill Hart in 23.18. The only other Ythan time was Sean
Monaghan who finished with a 28.25.
New Inn
The club is no longer sponsored by the New Inn. Money was
not forthcoming this year so we have decided to become independent again.
The bad news is that members who have the old tops with the New Inn logo
on it will not be able to wear these while competing in open events run by
the SCU. It has been decided to subsidise all tops for members by £10. It
is acceptable, if you are nifty with the needle, to wear a patch over the
New Inn logo. I will put a form out for anyone wishing to purchase new
tops shortly.
The good news is that we will now be able to enjoy our Christmas meals
somewhere else - any suggestions?
1998 Confined Events
At the last committee meeting a suggestion was put forward
that we try and vary the format and the venue of the confined time trials.
This could mean we do some of the runs at Peterhead or the Methlick course
or the Pitmedden course. In addition we could run the occasional 25-mile
time trial. I am all for trying to keep interest up by varying courses but
I am not sure how we would work the points system for league positions.
What do you think? Is this a viable option? Give me a
phone to discuss. No one has come up with anything since this was in the
last newsletter. Hopefully the questionnaire will get a better response.
Membership Fees
The good news is that the membership fees will remain the same as 1997.
The bad news they are payable now!!!
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Lorna & Mark's new Sprog
Some of you will have noticed that Lorna hasn't been training or out on
the Sunday morning runs much lately. the reason became clear last week as
Lorna gave birth to a baby girl. Kirsty Jane Adam arrived 3 weeks early
and weighed 7lb 10 oz.
Congratulations to Lorna and Mark and we look forward to seeing the three
of them out cycling soon.
A.G.M.
The 1998 Annual general meeting of the Ythan Cycle Club will be
held at the Tollbooth, Ellon on Thursday 26th March at 7.30 pm.
Keep up to date with the club activities and appoint the new committee.
Sarah Phillips will also be there to give a talk on cycling and racing, so
please lets have a good turnout for Sarah.
SCU
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The SCU is the union of the area districts in Scotland. Ythan CC is in
the Aberdeen & District Cycling Association, so we have a say in the
organisation of cycling at Aberdeen and district level, Scottish, British
and UCI (the International organisation). Most Cyclists are only
interested in the calendar of events. The SCU prepare a matrix of top
events and distribute this to the Districts. The District ask the clubs to
come to a date fixing meeting and after the allocation of the national
events the clubs submit their events. This is then taken to meetings of
the District and SCU.
It is a very complicated programme as the SCU have to cover all aspects of
cycling in Scotland.
The SCU hold an AGM on the first Sunday in December at which all clubs are
invited to attend. The number allowed to vote for each club is related to
the SCU membership in the club; YCC have over 20 members and are allowed 2
voting delegates. All the rules in the handbook are there to be changed at
the AGM - the fees, the BAR distances, the championships, advertising on
clothing, wearing hard hats at time trials, areas covered by the districts
etc.
Although there is day membership to the SCU for participating in events,
the advantage of joining is beneficial to most cyclists. You can get the
handbook of events, insurance cover, free legal advice, participation in
the type of event you would like and a say in how the organisation body of
cycling is run. Day membership is expensive you take part in quite a few
events and it is normally more cost effective to joint the SCU. The SCU
have a newsletter every two months and members are kept up to date with
current events in cycling. Any cycling club members who aspire to compete
should consider joining and take part in an organisation which is there
for the benefits of its members. Cyclist are the SCU in Scotland, we run
the SCU how we want it, so join now and help make it our organisation.
Club Runs
The Sunday morning club runs now start at the Ellon Community centre at
10am. These are usually quite popular depending on the
weather. Over the last few weeks the weather has not been too kind but I
have been assured that this is about to change. So instead of lying about
in your bed on Sunday morning get out there and get some fresh air in your
lungs. Details of club runs can be obtained from Abby McHardy (Club Run
Captain) on 01358 721007.
Spare Kit
We have some spare Ythan CC kit from the last order. If you want to
purchase a spare top or shorts please give me a call on (01358) 723909.
2 off short sleeve tops size 4
1 off short sleeve top size 3
1 off short sleeve top size 5
1 off pair shorts size 2
Please give me a phone if you want to purchase any of the above items.
1998 Races
See the diary for a list of all
forthcoming events over the next two months.
- Hilly 20 Mile time trial
- 10 Mile Time Trial
- 65 Mile Road Race.
It would be nice to go back to the days when we had a few more events
on our calendar but unfortunately the volunteers to organise races are few
and far between.
Other suggestions for races are:
- 40 Mile APR (perhaps in the Peterhead area like the one we used to
do ?)
- Duathlon
- 25 mile Time trial
- 2 Up Time Trial
- Mountain Bike Race
Organising the races does take up a lot of time, but at the end of the
race there is a tremendous sense of achievement and the feeling that you
have put something back into the sport.
If you are interested in organising a race please contact Graham
Gerrard before the end of August so that we can apply for the races
through the SCU.
Next Newsletter
The next newsletter will be the APRIL edition and your input is
desperately required. Any race reports, items for sale, tips, general chit
chat should be sent to:
Colin Allanach
25 Carolines Cres.
Ellon.
AB41 8BN
(01358) 723909
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