Hello Exeter Wheelers members,
When is a shop not shut ? When’s it’s a Shutt shop – the deadline for ordering EWCC clothing from Shutt has been extended until Friday 7th of March. It’s very good kit at reasonable prices – £55 for a short sleeved EWCC top, or £67.50 for long sleeved. You can order it here.
And when is a deadline not dead ? When it’s the EWCC Club Awards & Social Night – the venue has said it is ok for us to accept ‘late entries’ for the remaining three places available Andrew Feather, four times National Hill Climb Champion, and an ex-EWCC rider, will be there to present the various awards, and there will be a Q&A session with him afterwards. It should be a good night, a chance to meet/spend time with fellow club members, and all for only a tenner inc hot sit down meal ! Full details, and payment link for grabbing one of the three remaining places is at https://www.exeterwheelers.co.uk/awards-social-night-is-8th-march/
When February begins it seems like winter will never pass, but come the end of the month we start to see the first glad signs of spring, and the evenings getting steadily lighter. March has started with frosty mornings followed by some warmth in the sun later in the day. The sunshine and dry roads of late have encouraged a good turn-out for club rides. Don’t forget you can see all our planned club rides at https://www.exeterwheelers.co.uk/rides/ . New Wheelers’ member David Binding has been enjoying the Saturday Socials, and being a member of our club – he tells us “My wife, Rita, and I moved from Horsham, West Sussex, to the lovely village of Exton in October last year to be closer to the grandchildren, who live in Exmouth. I was a member of Horsham Cycle Club where we cycled in the Surrey/Sussex North and South Downs and on moving I looked to join a friendly cycle club in Devon. The Exeter Wheelers base from Exeter Count Hall seemed ideal as a central point for a variety of rides. I did take the opportunity of riding with the Exeter Wheelers Social Group on a couple of Saturday mornings, and I was then keen to join the club as they proved to be a great bunch of like-minded friendly cyclists that rode at a comfortable pace that I could keep up with – they didn’t have to wait for me too often even on your steep Devon hills! Having moved to the hilly but lovely Devon countryside, I am looking forward joining in with as many of the Exeter Wheelers activities as possible.”
During the month of February other new members who have joined the club are Trudy Clist, Nathan Field, Kane Herbert and Xingsan Kan – a warm welcome to all of you. Our membership secretary Rob Masterson also says thanks to all existing members who have paid their annual club subs this month.
The next Saturday Social is the ‘Mid-Devon Lanes (home via Shobrook) with usual 9am start at County Hall in Topsham Road. Café visit afterwards !
If you are looking to ride longer miles than Saturday Socials then there are our Sunday club runs, or our next club Audax event is the ‘Mad March: Budeful Day’ 200km event, on the 23rd of March. If you’re wanting a lesser Audax ride we also have the 100km ‘Mad March: Up and Blackdown’ Audax on the same day, with the same starting point of Cranbrook. Full details can be found by clicking on the link. Organiser for both is Sarah Britton, who will be at the club do next weekend and no doubt will be pleased to answer any questions you may have on the subject etc.
On the competitive front, with spring just about upon us there will be the usual ‘Hilly Time Trials’ taking place up and down the land, and we are pleased to be once again holding our long-running annual Four Firs event, 15 miles of up hill and down dale in East Devon in mid-April. In contrast to standard flatter courses, hillier terrains limit or sometimes completely negate the advantage of time trial machines over road bikes, and indeed it was a road bike that won last year, ridden by Eliot Colyer of Exeter University CC. Mike Rose is the Wheeler’s race organiser and you can enter it at https://www.cyclingtimetrials.org.uk/events/30136-exeter-whs-cc-sporting-17
Other clubs in the area running ‘Hillies’ include Mid-Devon CC, and Tavistock Wheelers, the latter’s 25 mile hilly on the north-west edge of Dartmoor always being particularly popular. No doubt Tavy Whs. members will doing their club proud as usual with their excellent post-race spread of food, bless them. Sadly, the North Devon Velo Hilly 22 miler has been cancelled – possibly the demon A377 roadworks the showstopper there.
Already active on their TT bikes have been club member’s James Greenaway and Aaron Lawrence, who rode the Castle Combe circuit-based TT in mid-Feb.
Aaron said afterwards “As a season opener, I took on the chance to open the taps at a very fresh and breezy Castle Combe Winter 10 TT hosted by DB Max and Pronto Bikes. Whilst the dreamy smooth surface of the race track was a delight to ride, the wind proved a real challenge for pacing! Overall, happy with the position and power for this stage of the season clocking a 25:05 with a fellow Exeter Wheeler nudging faster! (I’ll let James give the bonus pointers). Happy with this for the opener and looking forward to finding some form on the TT bike this season!”
James was 24th of the 91 riders, on 24mins 29 secs, and Aaron just over half a minute slower for 31st place.
On the 11th of May we hold our prestigious Tom Hawkins Memorial Road Race, a highly-regarded event that draws in a top quality field of riders from near and far. It’s a 2/3/4 race, featuring 110km of racing, with the course taking in a mix of technical Devon lanes, fast downhills and a long climb out of Somerset on the A38. In previous years this race has seen a bit of everything; small breaks, groups up and down the roads and even bunch sprints.
Such an event, however, is demanding for the club in terms of the number of volunteers required. We are desperately looking for a couple of ‘First Responder’-trained First Aiders. We can offer an ex-gratia payment of £50 each to any two of you out there who may been trained to this level, in addition to a couple of basic static First Aiders (ex-gratia payment £25). If you are able to help, or know someone who may be able to help, then please please get in touch a.s.a.p. via the ‘contact’ info at bottom left of any www.exeterwheelers.co.uk web page. In addition we are needing car drivers for the race convoy – you need to be a BC member to do this, you’ll be able to claim petrol allowance at 23p per mile. We are also needing to find well as other helpers for other less specific roles. We can’t run races and remain a vibrant club without your help. Help ! Pleeeeeeease !!!
Don’t forget also that Exeter Wheelers races such as the forthcoming Four Firs and the Tom Hawkins are FREE ENTRY for EWCC members (though you will need to get yourself a BC race licence to enter the Tom Hawkins).
The CX season now seems a distant memory, though EWCC Escot CX organiser Jon Hare and club secretary Pete Bishop did manage to squeeze one of the last CX events of the UK season into their diaries at the start of February, taking part in the London and SE League CX at Preston Park in Brighton, Sussex, in their respective 40+ and 60+ categories. They enjoyed themselves and whilst not finishing anywhere near podium places did the club proud on a town centre’ish park style event.
As a complete contrast to CX our Club Sec. Pete is planning to ride the National 24 Hour Time Trial Championships at the end of July. He’s hoping that other EWCC riders might join him in this endeavour – it’d be great if we could muster up an EWCC team (three riders). Pete says “Totally amazing event, once ridden never forgotten, I’ve ridden five times, finished four times. Last time I rode, 2023, I had to abandon – I can’t go out on that note! Each time you do finish you think ‘never again’ but a week later you’re thinking . . . . ‘next time what I am going to do is . . . etc etc ‘ The feeling you get when you arrive on the finishing circuit is awesome, and the camaraderie amongst riders and support teams fantastic.”. If you want to get a flavour of the event check out this race report from last year’s event. Get in touch with Pete at .
Next club committee meeting is 7.30pm at The Cuckoo Bar in Paris Street, Monday eve 9th of March, all club members are welcome to attend.
Safe riding one and all, and if anyone has any newsy items for the next (April) Newsletter then do get in touch.