The first two members have submitted results for the 4444 Challenge and these can be seen on the Results page.

Congratulations to both riders. Lee Messenger’s 6 hours 28 for the full 4444 looks like an especially hard challenge for the As and Bs to beat!

Further results will be published weekly on the Results page.

Les Archer, member of Stourbridge Velo and long-time LVRC member and organiser, has sadly died at the age of 85. He will be missed by many fellow riders and friends in the LVRC/BMCR. His son Nick has asked for this obituary to be posted.

Most people have heard of the Everesting Challenge. Some of you may have completed it either on ZWIFT or on real roads. Contador recently set a new world record for the Everest challenge of about 7.5 hours for 8848 meters of climbing. As of writing Irishman Ronan McLaughlin has broken the Contador record by about 20 minutes! Average power 263 watts on Mamore Gap County Donegal. He raised a lot of money for his chosen charity the Community Rescue Service. BMCR announce its own version as something to focus on during these days without racing.

We ran the first BMCR event since lockdown yesterday – a road bike Time Trial on a sporting 16 mile course in Worcestershire – and tested out the BMCR Covid precautions.

As the organiser, it’s not really up to me to say how successful or enjoyable the event was, but the extensive comments on the BMCR FaceBook page should give some idea.

We had a field of 49, which was good as it meant that we didn’t strain the parking capacity or the space at the HQ. We had a one-way system through the village hall and separate entrance and exit doors. Signing-on was in the hall but with riders queuing sensibly, disposable numbers and minimum contact. Refreshments were served outside at the back of the hall, where there’s a patio area with well-spaced benches. There was no result board, but our resident IT expert sent out results by email in 3 batches to all riders during the course of the event, which was very well received (‘I can never read them on the results board anyway’).

Riders said they felt much more Covid-secure than in the supermarket or pub, and the good weather (fine but not too hot) encouraged riders to linger and chat afterwards (sensibly distanced) and catch up with friends not seen since last season.

The format of a time trial with solo rides but team awards seemed to go down well, and I think encouraged riders to persuade their club/team-mates to enter.

We have 2 more road bike TTs, that I know of, in the planning stage, one near Solihull and the other in Derbyshire.  If this feedback reassures you about the safety and logistics of putting on a race in current circumstances, please speak to me or your Regional Events Co-ordinator and we’ll be happy to support you.

Mike Amery

National Events Co-ordinator  mikeamery58@gmail.com

We’ve been asked by a Cambridge veteran racing cyclist and BMCR member Jose Vicente Garcia to circulate a questionnaire which he is using to gauge interest in a Social Enterprise business to sell high quality cycling kit for clubs and individuals. The purpose of the enterprise is both to ‘encourage people into cycling to enjoy the benefits of a healthy lifestyle’ and to raise money for charities ‘to help researchers develop new medicines or support cancer patient advocacy groups’.

The link to the questionnaire is

https://forms.gle/hESLNzRJgFGRLGjE9

The questionnaire is anonymous and does NOT collect any personal and confidential information.