Willesden Cycling Club

Anne and Marianne take in the view from Taeppa’s Mound.

Actually getting out on the road for a ride on a Wednesday has been a bit hit and miss over the past few months. This has been largely thanks to weeks and weeks of wet weather, plus the club’s annual expedition to the Semaine Fèderale in eastern France in the second half of July. Well, we are all back and it looks as though the summer has arrived, albeit fashionably late.

Yesterday we had a group of nine “WoWzer” riders out for a spin to the Grange Chocolate Cafe at the Holme Grange Craft village. We did 70km and had a leisurely stop at this excellent cafe. We were back at the Beaconsfield start for 3pm, with a short stop at Taeppa’s Mound at Taplow Court to admire the view and to soak in some history.

“Miles Back”

Refueling for the return leg….

Brief stop for a history lesson and a group photo at Taplow Court

Here is our provisional list for the next few weeks

All club runs start 9.00 promptly.

Rides 40-50 miles.

30-40 minute café stop.

Return to start at 13:30

All ride info will be issued via the Sunday Run WhatsApp group including GPX files of routes.

20^th August – PE Mead Farm Shop, Wilstone

Meet at Snells Wood Car Park, Little Chalfont. Junction of Cokes Lane and A404 HP7 9QA

Run leader  – Julie

Route map

27^th August – Farm Café, Nr Wokingham – 43 Miles

Meet at Windsor End, Beaconsfield Old Town

Run leader –  Gerry

3^rd September – H’artisan- Wargrave

Run  leader – Anne 

Route Map

10^th September – Windsor

Run leader – Ian O

Meet at Beaconsfield Old Town, Windsor End

17^th September – St Albans

Meet at Car Park at Rickmansworth Aquadrome

24th September – TBA

Run leader – Marianne 

1st October – TBA

Run leader TBA

8th October – TBA

Run leader TBA

15th October TBA

Run leader – Liam 

Some members may have noticed a few changes to the website with revised text and a few new photographs over the last 6 months or so.

The front page has been recently edited to include info about how we are successfully using WhatsApp to communicate our group rides information.

We believe the site reflects the clubs status as accurately as possible.

We hope to see you all at the club night on Friday 11th August at 19.00 for 19.30. Or get there earlier for a ride on the circuit?

Unfortunately there was not enough interest from members to ride the planned  time trial next Friday 11th August ahead of our club meeting / social event sat the Hillingdon Circuit.

The circuit is still hired, so why not bring your bike and have a ride and chat with other members from 6pm onwards. Don’t forget to RSVP for the evening kulvinder@barongrey.co.uk so we can organise catering.

Walter’s daughter Cathy has let us know that Walter Severn, who was a member of Willesden CC for many years, passed away on Tuesday 1st Aug, aged 93. His funeral will be held on Monday 21st Aug at West Herts Crematorium, Garston at 3.40pm and then afterwards at his home in St Albans. Anyone welcome.

Dr Norman Lazarus is a bit of an Audax legend in the Willesden CC, having ridden the Paris-Brest-Paris, Easter Arrows and countless 200km audax rides.

In his professional life, Norman is an expert on the human ageing process at Kings College, London.  As part of his research work he has recruited several WCC members to be case studies for his projects.

On Monday Morning, Norman was interviewed by Dr Michael Mosley, the celebrated TV Doctor, on Radio 4″s programme “Just One Thing” about what we can do to reduce the effects of the ageing process. The answer will be music to are ears – it’s simply to ride our bikes.

To listen to the full 15 minute programme click on the link below,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001npnr

Ok…… so the weather forecast (BBC) is looking a bit mixed for tomorrow, but we have a 50-50 chance of staying dry, when the rain arrives around noon.

I’m going to give it a go. I suggest a ride heading over to Velolife (Warren Row),. If the weather  looks promising when we get there, then we can push on to Wargrave.

If you are interested in a ride, then meet me at 10am in Windsor End, Beaconsfield tomorrow (Wed 12th Jul).

Miles Back

It’s a bit of a late shout-out, but if you fancy a social paced ride of about 60-70km tomorrow, then meet up at Windsor End, Beaconsfield at around 10am tomorrow.

The forecast looks reasonable for tomorrow as the today’s rain showers should have passed over by the end of this evening.

“Miles Back”

This well established event run by LCC is open for entries. The website at https://lcc.org.uk/events/urban-hill-climb-2023/ tells you all you ned to know. The page has only one pair of riders grovelling up a hill: I wonder if that’s enough to tempt entries.

At the moment blog posts are only sent out as MailChimp emails once a week on a Thursday. This means that often posts are out of date by the time you see them, especially with rides being advertised at short notice.
With immediate effect, a post will be sent out within 24 hours of it being written. The sending time will be 7pm sharp, so that is the deadline if you write a post and want it to go that day.
You will get a few more emails, but the same number of posts. But the posts will be more relevant. Let’s give the new arrangement a go and see if we are happy with it after a period of operation.

A club run shout out from Gill Reynolds.

“A small group is meeting at 9am on Sunday at the roundabout outside Rickmansworth by the playground, aiming for chiltern velo. Gill”

For meeting point map see here