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Club Landmark – 200 active members

We’ve been approving the 2019 memberships since early December, and we’ve reached the monumental milestone of having 200 active members within our club. 

Some of you may remember, have heard of or indeed might have been one of the “original 8” members who decided we’d pop £10 into the pot for British Cycling affiliation and would “just see what happens” – that was 2013, I remember doing the Great North Bike Ride a week or two before “BCC 1” a gentle ride to Corbridge, meeting at Newburn Riverside, at that stage it was just a group of like-minded cyclists using social media to meet up. A few months later we had a little meeting and took the plunge into official affiliation, the rest as they say, is history 

One of the very first Club Rides

In the coming months we designed and had custom kit made, and the ‘club rides’ became a litre more regular and as people developed the groups got bigger and current members invited their friends and we slowly but surely began to grow in numbers and took the decision to formalise the club and have a committee structure and open it to all. 

We eventually formed a race team as a dip into The competitive side as we had been exclusively a ‘social ride’ club, after a period of bedding in and more interest flooding in we have formed a successful race team that’s regularly getting podium positions and as a club we’ve been lucky enough to host local and national level events. 

Race Team in action

We’re affiliated with both British Cycling and Cycling Time Trials so we can compete and host both Road Race and Time Trials, the fundamental social side of the club is still very much alive with our easy wheelers, development rides and club rides which have groups at all levels taking part. 

We’re opening our horizons to cycle cross and off road (MTB) riding and in the future wish to expand on our abilities to be a club for all. 

We’ve had members do many things, since our inception members past and present have took part in events both externally and organised by the club such as:

  • Spanish training camps/holidays 
  • 200/300/600km self reliant Audax rides 
  • Club “in a day” challenges, c2c in a day & Edinburgh to Newcastle. 
  • Kielder Chiller 24 endurance ride 
  • Hill night sessions 
  • Newburn ‘loops’
  • ‘Muddy Monday’ MTB/CX nights 
  • Countless sportives done as a club team
Audax Loaded bike – 600km ‘The border Raid’ 

And many more that I can’t think of! Many of these are created and organised via our very active Facebook ‘members chat’ page where our members are encouraged to play and active part helping out other members and organising their own weekday events according to their ability, schedule and availability. 

Everything that’s been done has not been possible without the hard work of both the committee and the clubs members, from the shortest of post-work rides right up the the organisation of national level events everyone’s desire to get stuck in and help, take part or volunteer is what makes the club what it is. 

Club meeting

We’re 200 strong and 2019 could be an amazing year. We look forward to seeing our regular riders back, our newest members and those making a return to the saddle. 

To join us if you’ve not already check out our 2019 membership information page. 

Join Now Button

On behalf of myself, the committee, all your other members and the local cycling community I want to say a huge thank you for being part of such a great club. 

Rob

Club Secretary 

#BlaydonCCWorks 

News: 2019 Ride Rota

Since The club was founded in 2013 we’ve adopted a ‘every other’ week schedule for the main club runs with the ‘Development Rides’ riding in the second week, Since our very humble beginnings we’ve grown in size and experience. 

From January 2019 we will be offering weekend  Club Runs every week on alternative Saturday and Sunday Mornings.  
The week that contains a Saturday Club Run will be the week with the Development Ride on The Sunday

New format of club rides

We hope that this will enable more people to attend club runs, we will have a ‘development ride’ pace on all of our club runs so everyone is included in the new plan. 

Club Run Photo

We are also dedicating 4 of the club run to “Away Days”  to go and experience new roads. These will be in the Lakes, North York moors and Yorkshire dales to name just a few, details of these rides will be published through the usual channels. 

Info: Winter Cycling Update – Winter 2018

Winter Rides: *Updated October 2018*

Please Read the below so you fully understand our intentions for winter club events.

It might only be October but we’ve already had a light dusting of snow (a little more substantial on higher ground) and the daily ritual of scraping the car windscreen clear has started, below is our winter rides information and policy, we want to run club activities as much as possible but we must ensure it’s safe to do so. Most importantly if you have any questions please read this and ask away.

General info.

Unfortunately living in the North of England we are at the mercy of mother nature. We just wish to to re-address the issue of winter rides.

We try our best to keep club activity to as near to as full time as we can, we were lucky in previous winters as we never really had any severe weather but we can’t promise this season will be the same. The newspapers have prophesied the ‘coldest winter in 5 years’ again! That may have us all saying  “they said that last year, and the year before that, and the one before that!”  but we have to prepare for all eventualities and have contingencies for the winter months.

Alterations to club activities.

Our club rides will be shorter than the summer months to ensure we are back to base before it gets too dark or the temperature drops during the hours of darkness.

Our development and easy wheeler rides may be altered to run into a merged ‘loop’ system where ‘loop 1’ will be the Easy Wheeler ride followed by the ‘loop 2’ being development ride. You are welcome to attend both but it is essential to remember you are asked to help the newer or less experienced riders on these rides, they are designed to develop members and gain experience and these rides will always be only as fast as the last rider.

We will also be running CX rides whilst the weather comes in, check our events for further details.

Safety of all members is our top concern and it may get to the point where for these reasons we call off a ride. If you don’t feel confident riding in the weather that has been forecast, there is no shame in dropping out of the ride if you think you won’t be to manage for whatever reason. If you have any doubts or question ask us, we have many seasoned riders in the club. The chat page and the event page itself are ideal for this.
However, the final decision to go out on your bike is down to you and any ride undertaken is at your own risk.

Safety & Legal Stuff.

We recommend lights for all rides during the winter months due to visibility being lower than the brighter summer months, especially for the ride to and from the club rides. For our week night training sessions they are mandatory (these rides take place in the hours of darkness, it’s also a legal requirement to be lit up at night (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations)) – as a minimum, on a club ride a flashing rear light is suggested in daylight hours. (just think if there was an insurance claim, have you took reasonable precautions to aid your visibility) It is your responsibility to make yourself visible to others.

Please dress suitably for the conditions and temperature, we often ride in rural and isolated locations, especially on higher ground conditions can change within seconds. Please ensure you’re dressed for the weather (for example winter specific clothing,foul weather gear,  jackets, neckwear. gloves, thermal layers). On some rides you may be required to wait for others (especially development rides and easy wheelers) so bear this ‘waiting time’ in mind, equally if you have a mechanical issue you may need to stop to fix it or wait to be picked up.

Ride alterations and cancellations.

Regarding club rides and events, the decision to cancel or alter a ride will be made where we can, the evening before so during the winter please make sure for our events you check the social media channels.

On the occasion of a ride cancellation or alteration We will post a message on the main facebook page (facebook.com/blaydoncycling)

This decision will be made amongst the committee and/or a group of our regular riders from observing the current conditions, forecast and any weather warnings in place. Rides may be also subject to delay, cancellation or alteration (generally meaning cut short (by a ride leader)) on the day if we feel that it may not be safe to continue due to sudden weather or forecasts received. Please check the individual events and main page for any relevant messages before you leave the house that morning.

In the case of a ride cancellation the clubs decision is final.

New: Club Events page

after a long absence the Blaydon Cycle Club events feed is live again, we are aware that not all of our members are on facebook so may not be able to see all of our events easily, for this we’ve enabled the export of all events to our new events page, you can bookmark this for easy reference.

Our facebook page is still facebook.com/blaydoncycling and you don’t have to be a member to view the page or posts but we want to make things as accessible as possible for all.

Below is a preview of our next events which is a direct copy of the feed from the new page.

[fts_facebook type=events id=blaydoncycling posts=10 height=5000px]

 

The Hills Have Eyes

Very recently on our members chat page the subject of hill nights and what hills we have in the area came up, perfect time for a blog. If you have any suggestions please add and link us to them and we may put them on the list. By local we mean around 20 miles or less from Blaydon.

click the name of the climb to see it on strava. The Strava links are for reference only, some hills have many segments some considered part of the climbs, some the ‘official’ ones. 

 

Durham:

Busty BankRight on the Gateshead Border, this one takes you from Rowlands Gill right up into Burnopfield. 0.9 miles, 9% average, 448ft gain

Peth Bank: One in the 100 UK top climbs, just out of Lanchester with a steep first ramp this one will get your legs going. 1 mile long, 8% average and with a gain of 448ft

Ebchester Bank: Another one mile climb averaging 8% with a 445ft gain, takes you from Ebchester to Medomsley.

Gateshead:

Lady ParkLeading up from the team valley this one is 1 mile long, 7% average and climbs 354ft, there’s a few variations on this climb within strava depending on what road you enter the main climb from.

Chopwell: one of the longer climbs at 1.4 miles this one will test your legs, after the ramp down into Blackhall Mill it’s all uphill until you reach either the golf course or the turn off for Hedley on the Hill. 6% and 428ft greets you if you take the shorter (linked) route that ends at Clayton Terrace Road.

 

Newcastle:

Hospital Lane: Just up the road from our sponsors KB Cycles this is a short 0.6 mile climb which is perfect for trying repeats and it’s one of the closest climbs to Blaydon. it’s got a 6% average gradient and you’ll notch up 225ft of climbing which is one of the least on our list.

Station Road: Leading up from the Keelmans way, and the old Heddon On The Wall Railway Station the only accsses to this one is via the shared keelmans way and through a farm right of way, or to do the descent from Heddon and start at the bottom, you’ll take on a challenging 10% climb over 0.8 miles gaining 406ft making this possibly one of the big hitters on our list. Take care on the road as it’s part of access to a farm so the appropriate traffic may be using it.

Northumberland:

Aydon Road: Climbing out of Corbridge towards matfen this hill is one mile long, 6% and gains around 299ft.

Langley Castle: After leaving Haydon Bridge you can take in the Climb to Langley Castle, at 2.4 miles it’s possibly the longest one we’ve got on our featured list, you’ll take on an average gradient of 4% and climb 490ft mostly under trees and taking in a winding sweeping road.

Hedley on the hill: HOTH or MH11 as it’s known in some circles is right on the Northumberland border, and is a official national hill climb event. You’ll take in 1 mile, 8% average and 421ft on this hill, it’s got it’s share of ramps and twists and is a great climb.

Prospect Hill: Just as you leave corbridge heading on the A695 towards Stocksfield you’ll have a right turn up here, it’s twisty and quite long, once you get to the top you’ve a playground behind it with many more local climbs. It’s just under a mile coming in at 0.9 miles, with a 7% average and a 383ft gain.

Ryal: One of the ‘feared’ climbs you’ll have heard about, don’t let that put you off! after a steep first of two hills you get a great little run up the second ‘Ryal’ – The Ryals feature in the Cyclone Sportives as well as the Beaumont Trophy and Curlew cup. It’s another one that has multiple strava segments, right from ‘offical’ ryals, one’s named ‘Bin to Ryal’ (what bin it means, we’ll never know!) take your pick at a segment in the area, but we’ll pick just the one that’s linked. In the 1 mile climb featured you’ll have an average climb of 6% and add around 320ft of climbing on your legs.

 

 

 

Website – Club Events

** EDIT: Please note this does not affect facebook just the website displaying information **

Unfortunately the software that we use to publish events is broken, what this used to do is extract the information from facebook onto here, please bear with us if you rely on the website to get club event information.

 

for now they can be seen at bit.ly/blaydonevents you do not have to be a facebook member to view our pages.

Hopefully soon we can have something up and running!

Event Entry – £5 towards event entry fees

BCC KB Logos

As part of our KB Cycles sponsorship we are able to offer 1st claim members who participate in any BC Race, CTT Time trial, official sportive or Audax £5 towards entry costs! This is limited to 15 races or 5 sportives/Audax per member. We will keep this running till the pot runs dry. Once you have entered and paid for your event click on the below link which will take you to our website to fill out the form. All monies will be paid out at our MASSIVE end of year party/awards night!

All we ask in return is you wear your Blaydon jersey at the events and pop into KB to have a look round and say hello, buy some new kit with your exclusive club discount or book your bike in for a service ahead of the big day!

to submit your entry please visit bit.ly/enter_it

 

Blaydon Cycle Club announces new sponsor – KB Cycles

We are proud to announce that we are now sponsored by KB Cycles in Newburn. KB Cycles will be helping us grow the club moving forward as we look to gain new members from ALL abilities. As part of this deal all 1st claim members who enter a Race, Sportive or Audax will get money back if you ride these events in a Blaydon Jersey. More details of how this works soon.

We will be recommending our members to use the services of KB cycles and several of us already use and trust them for servicing our bikes and many have bought bikes form there recently with exceptional service. We will get a discount of 10% off throughout the store and also have special club events in store.

So a big warm welcome to KB cycles to the Blaydon Gang, Visit them in-store The Old Fire Station, High Street, Newburn, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE15 8LN), call 0191 2645215 or visit http://www.kbcycles.com/

500 – Almost there

We’re almost at 500 facebook likes, please spread the word visit us at facebook.com/blaydoncycling.

Here you will find the clubs main social media presence, we offer rides for riders just starting off right up to budding racers, we have over 100 members and counting and we’re making noise with some great achievements over the season in various disciplines.  We’re very laid back and have a thriving and active membership both on rides and on our members on-line chat areas.

If you or someone you know is into cycling, or would like that little push to get into it, come and join us for a ride and see what we do. We’ve grown from an initial 9 members in 2013 to 100+ with people of all abilities, all interests and all with a wealth of things to share.

as the traditional ‘off season’ starts we’ll still be here building up to the start of the 2016 season where we have big plans in the making. There’s never been a better time to become a part of a North East club that’s getting bigger, and better every time a new member signs up. You can be a part of it and we look forward to seeing you. We’re going places.

We meet at multiple times through the week check bit.ly/blaydonevents for a full list of club activity within the coming weeks.

[contact_bank form_id=4 show_title=true ]

Facebook: Race HQ

Just a quick line to let everyone know our ‘Blaydon Race HQ’ page has been removed, Originally this was a place for the race team to discuss and plan TT and race events, Through time and through some deliberation, we have decided to remove this group and all race planning will be done via the members chat forum, this helps everyone in long long run by making all club activity more inclusive and giving you less places to have to check to keep up to date with the latest happening within the club.

Members chat is open to subscribed members of the club if you are not a member of that page please ask us how to get access, if you’re not a member of the club, please refer to the main profile at facebook.com/blaydoncycling for all our latest news, to race you must be a British Cycling member (race license needed) as well as be a club member.