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Ashwell Festival of Cycling, July 4th-6th, 2014
Dear All,
One year away from this event, I wanted to provide a slightly more complete explanation of the plan and the work completed to date.
Some of you may have heard about this from Tim at the AGM, but in short AFoC will run from July 4th - 6th, 2014, coinciding with the Grand Depart of next year's Tour de France in Yorkshire. Included will be a time trial, grass track racing, regular club and intro rides as well as criterium racing on the Sunday. The village recreation ground has been provided for our exclusive use as an event registration centre and Festival Village.
The Festival is designed to provide something of interest for all ages and abilities; a real chance for CCA to showcase our wide array of activities as Ashwell's largest club. This is also a great opportunity to give a little something back to the community that puts up with the blue train on local roads nearly every day of the week! We are looking to leverage the inevitable enthusiasm that Le Tour will bring to Britain again next year and to make a contribution towards the 2012 Olympics legacy programme.
I am pleased to say we now have a Steering Committee largely in place, although there will be countless jobs requiring countless other volunteers (more on this in a moment). In addition, RJM has worked hard alongside British Cycling to secure a successful risk assessment of the proposed criterium course, clearing a big hurdle that will allow AFoC to feature on the 2014 BC calendar and significantly boosting the profile of the criterium race in the racing scene.
As a result, we require a big show of hands from CCA members who feel they will be able to take on specific tasks as required in order to make the Festival as successful as possible. To that end, if you think you would like to either A) help with organising pre-Festival or B) help deliver a successful event next year, please email adam_challis@hotmail.com to let me know which (or both) you prefer, any special skills you may contribute and the best contact telephone to reach you.
I expect to have an open information session for Club members towards the end of the summer to ensure that as many people as possible have the chance to hear about the Festival and to ask any questions. Of course, feel free to contact me directly via email or on the Forum if you wish to throw out any ideas.
All whom I have talked to so far have shown great enthusiasm and I am convinced that CCA can pull off a fantastic event of which the Club and local community can be proud.
Many thanks in advance for your support,
Adam
One year away from this event, I wanted to provide a slightly more complete explanation of the plan and the work completed to date.
Some of you may have heard about this from Tim at the AGM, but in short AFoC will run from July 4th - 6th, 2014, coinciding with the Grand Depart of next year's Tour de France in Yorkshire. Included will be a time trial, grass track racing, regular club and intro rides as well as criterium racing on the Sunday. The village recreation ground has been provided for our exclusive use as an event registration centre and Festival Village.
The Festival is designed to provide something of interest for all ages and abilities; a real chance for CCA to showcase our wide array of activities as Ashwell's largest club. This is also a great opportunity to give a little something back to the community that puts up with the blue train on local roads nearly every day of the week! We are looking to leverage the inevitable enthusiasm that Le Tour will bring to Britain again next year and to make a contribution towards the 2012 Olympics legacy programme.
I am pleased to say we now have a Steering Committee largely in place, although there will be countless jobs requiring countless other volunteers (more on this in a moment). In addition, RJM has worked hard alongside British Cycling to secure a successful risk assessment of the proposed criterium course, clearing a big hurdle that will allow AFoC to feature on the 2014 BC calendar and significantly boosting the profile of the criterium race in the racing scene.
As a result, we require a big show of hands from CCA members who feel they will be able to take on specific tasks as required in order to make the Festival as successful as possible. To that end, if you think you would like to either A) help with organising pre-Festival or B) help deliver a successful event next year, please email adam_challis@hotmail.com to let me know which (or both) you prefer, any special skills you may contribute and the best contact telephone to reach you.
I expect to have an open information session for Club members towards the end of the summer to ensure that as many people as possible have the chance to hear about the Festival and to ask any questions. Of course, feel free to contact me directly via email or on the Forum if you wish to throw out any ideas.
All whom I have talked to so far have shown great enthusiasm and I am convinced that CCA can pull off a fantastic event of which the Club and local community can be proud.
Many thanks in advance for your support,
Adam
Comments
Fantastic idea
Sallie B
Appreciate that Yorkshire will be a draw for some and we have also have some early interest in racing the first ever Ashwell Crit. Our hope and expectation is that the blue train is well-represented on the day, so the focus for now is for willing additions to the organising committee.
Just to emphasise, the ethos is around providing something for all ages and abilities in the community - the majority will be caught up in Tour fever but not likely to stretch to a trip up the A1(M). AFoC will try to capture this enthusiasm - possibly generate a few new Club members along the way - and give a little something back to the village.
Thanks again.
Adam
I have received the rather frank feedback below from a club member and would be grateful to learn if these are widely held views. Personally, and I'll leave the rest of the committee to provide their own perspective, I feel the balance of Club members and the vast majority of non-Club members in the Ashwell community will be excited by next year's Tour, but will not necessarily venture up to Yorkshire. We have spent time debating this point within the committee, but on balance feel there is more to gain from leveraging the energy of that weekend.
However....I'm not keen to waste anyone's time if we are wildly off-base and in fact Ashwell will be empty next July 5th and 6th.
A quick electronic show of hands would be gratefully received.
Regards,
Adam
Who do you expect to be riding the races? Every single cyclist I have asked where they plan to be next 5-6 July has replied Yorkshire. In case you hadnt noticed the biggest cycle race in the entire world will be coming to race in the hills of our country. This is a near unique chance to see it up close and I assure you many cyclists, including those from CC Ashwell, will be taking this chance. So looking at your plan right now your resources to run the event and market to participate in it are absent. Look at the facts: All of the replies (100%) to your announcement post on the forum say the same thing I like the idea but I will not be there.
*** ADAM, YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE WRONG DATE TO RUN AN OPEN COMPETITIVE CYCLE EVENT ***
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. I do support an Ashwell village centred cycle event, but your concept is nailed to the wrong date. These are the facts, deal with it.
I think the weekend prior would be better, in the lead up to the tour.
I disagree that the date is a stumbling block - yes some of the CCA riders/ racers will be in Yorkshire but there are plenty of people who are not going to go.
I would think we can capture the excitement in our growing youth section and see if we can get some of those parents involved in what for many will be their first experience of a day of racing. No excuse about having to travel long distances for a 20 minute race when it is on your doorstep...
I have spoken with a number of friends in the village who are non cyclists and already they are offering to help in any way they can - from car parking, to putting up signs, taking part in the non cyclists race , marshalling etc.
In addition some of our cycling friends who are members of other local clubs have all said they would come to Ashwell as they have no plans to go to Yorkshire.
The date may mean that some of the seasoned club racers will not be around to take part in the racing but I am sure that we will have plenty of others wanting to enter whether it be the time trial, grass track or crit.
It's a great idea to capture the excitement of the Grand Depart weekend.
Lindsey
Lee
I am willing to help out anyway I can, personally I am tiring of the small number of vociferous members on here who clearly have too much time on their hands and nowhere positive to channel it!
*** ADAM, THIS IS A FANTASTIC IDEA THAT WILL BE A GREAT SUCCESS, GO CCA***
Mark
Great idea Adam.
The Fields
Richard
So yes I understand the concern that we lose some people to watching the Tour in Yorkshire, but hope and believe that we will gain more from the local community. As a family we are available to help in anyway before and during the event, and if indeed all the regular racers are missing I may even have a crack at some of the racing ...
Richard
Sounds like it's coming together beautifully!!
Sallie
Well done for getting it off the ground Adam.
Iain
Adult racers pay a higher entry fee than children so I would expect that a good sized field of adult racers (as Richard shows in his photo from 2012) is essential to make the race viable financially and furthermore to be taken seriously as an event in the future BC race calendar.
Adams post challenges us to throw out ideas. I suggest we throw out the idea of holding the criterium on Sunday July 6th on the basis that we can already identify the risk of a reduced field. Instead I suggest the criterium is run on Sunday 13th. Of course the other events could still run on the day of the grand depart. I think the Tour de France will still be in the public perception and those who were interested and inspired by that race on one weekend will remember it still by the next.
The womens race at this years Ixworth race was fully subscribed. I would like to suggest that we especially promote the womens race leveraging on the growing interest in this sector of the sport.
I have both raced and spectated at the Ixworth Criterium; indeed it is a fantastic event and the whole village is buzzing with energy. I am certain that with great planning, enthusiasm and determination the same can be done in Ashwell.
Daniel
Our proper Open TT should be run afterwards, probably in August, because I think you'll find all weekends prior and after will be particularly busy with racing and TT events. I can't vouch for what other clubs are planning to do, but I can imagine they will be planning their usual annual events to avoid that weekend.
Ixworth is great fun
What a fantastic day it will be !
Put me down for the Non cat Ashwell High st resident race :-)
and of course lots of helping out
and George too
and probably two sons TBC
It captures what we are about
PS ice creams will be sold from No 27 :-)