G'day All,
It's that time of year again… time to dust off the road bike, increase the heart rate and lose some of that internal insulation you gained over winter.
We've got a few changes happening this summer. Here's a rundown on some of them.
Tail lights
From now on in an MMBCC road race, all racers MUST have a tail light on their bike. Here's the policy from Cycling Victoria:
"For all open road events (i.e. events not run under a rolling road closure or closed road conditions) sanctioned by Cycling Victoria, competitors must have a red light operating on either the seat post or right rear seat stay of their bike. The light must be operational during the entire event and must visible from 200 metres to the rear."
MMBCC races are sanctioned by CV so you need a red tail light on your seat post or right rear seat stay to race. Sorry, a light on a rear jersey pocket or helmet won't do.
No light - no start.
Bunch Rides
Once Daylight Savings starts, ALL bunch rides will leave from the Botanic Park - not the roundabout car park!
Parking is easier, there are still toilets available and it's a bit more aesthetically pleasing than the roundabout car park. But mainly it's about keeping all the road riders together. We can have two bunches and you can choose which speed you'd prefer to ride at (depending on who you talk to, the speeds of the two groups are "slow" and "a bit slower"!)
As of Saturday 4 October, all bunch rides will leave the Botanic Park at 8am.
(Where you go for coffee afterwards is up to you. Speaking personally, I'll go to the Produce Store to support Dean and Gil who have been strong supporters of the club for a long time. Besides, my hearing is so bad I can't hear a thing at the Coffee Merchant!)
We're also going to try to include a few rides out of town - drive somewhere else for a bit first, then ride. Destinations might include Jamieson, Swanpool and Strathbogie.
Memberships
To race (or ride regularly) on the road you need a Cycling Australia membership of the MMBCC. This is a calendar year membership but is available from Oct 1 each year. (No, memberships for 2015 aren't' available yet - I'm just giving you plenty of warning.)
AND… if you join CA after Oct 1, you'll get the rest of 2014 included in your 2015 membership fee.
Fees vary, depending on your age and the type of riding you want to do. And without any doubt, the easiest way to join or renew is online.
Information on memberships, including fees, can be found here:
http://www.cycling.org.au/Membership/Join-or-Renew-today
and make sure you select Mansfield Mt Buller Cycling Club as the club you want to join.
If you prefer, you can still fill in a form and do this manually. However, it will cost $5 more to do it this way now. For the moment, see Bruce at All Terrain Cycles or AFTER a Thursday night race to get a form. (Don't ask him about joining just before a Thursday night race, get organised and sort it out earlier!) To download your own copy of the membership form go to http://www.cycling.org.au/Membership/Member-Forms - make sure you select the 2015 membership form.
Cycling Victoria have very generously offered us the Regional Discount membership again, which are a little bit cheaper. If you don't think you'll race with another club, you can take one of these memberships - which used to be known as Club Only, as they're to be used only for your own clubs' races. These memberships can only be done via a manual form and will still incur an extra $5 admin fee.
Speaking of memberships, we're looking for a club volunteer to help co-ordinate road memberships. Please contact Bruce for more details - bruce@bikevents.com.au - if you'd like to help out.
Race Marshals
We're going to try a new roster system for this summer. Instead of me putting your name on the roster, you get to choose which race you do.
Each Thursday night race will now have a head marshal who is an experienced club member. Six of us will take turns to organise the Thursday night race. And we'll still be able to race… as long as there are enough others to help out.
That's where you come in!
At the first couple of races of the summer (Thu 9 Oct on the Whitfield Rd and Thu 16 Oct on the Benalla Rd) we'll have a list of all the races until Christmas with space for two marshals to be filled in. You need to put your name on at least one race between now and Christmas.
Don't be shy - everyone will get a go! The sooner you add your name, the sooner you get your race duty out of the way. Remember: no marshals, no race!
Racing in Wangaratta
WCC are again hosting a Spring Series and their calendar looks impressive. There'll likely be a few of us head over to Wang to race every now and again. Let me know if you're interested. And as we're an invited club, a Regional Discount membership is still valid - so you have no excuse to only race in Mansfield!
Cheers,
Bruce Halket.