Club Update - December '21 

Congratulations to the hardy riders still going out for group rides as the winter sets in. We still have the 'attendance shield' to award to the club rider who completes the most club rides this year... so if you're close, do keep going!

But for anyone who isn't feeling quite as hardy, have you considered our Zwift club rides? We ride on a Thursday evening at 6.30pm and Sunday morning at 9am for an hour. Anyone from SFACC can join - and we have a 'rubber banded' ride so everyone sticks together despite your level. For details on how to join check out the Zwift forum on our website.

Some other updates for you...

Membership renewal. Our membership year runs until the end of December, so you will shortly be getting a renewal notice. We really hope you'll stay a club member for another year! To say 'thank you' to our loyal members we are discounting our standard renewal membership for another year to just £30. Standard membership for new joiners will stay flat at £35 plus £5 registration fee.

Racing. You may think you can't race during the colder months but the 1st January is the traditional date for the first race of the year. The Southborough Wheelers are hosting their event on the Q10/1 on Saturday 1st January with entries via CTT. This is always a fun and sociable event as well as an opportunity to test the lungs, so why not enter and get the new year off to a flying start?

Tandems for hire (and more). Being part of a cycling club should help and encourage us to expand our cycling horizons. We can do this in many ways, but something that we would like to develop is the lending of club equipment and bikes for the use by our members. We want to start with making our Thorne tandem more available for club members to hire and use. It will be fully serviced and looked after by us, ready for club members to enjoy the experience of tandem riding. We have developed a booking system which should enable you to do most of the process online including booking your dates, paying a small fee to cover servicing and completing your hire details. We can then arrange for you to pick the bike up at your convenience from Maidstone. Please give it a go and let us know how you get on. The hire form is on our website in the CLUB STORE section. If you have any questions on this new service please contact Duncan Edwards.

Our digital milestone. We hope you're enjoying the latest edition of The Milestone, which dropped through letterboxes last week. For those of you who prefer a digital edition, it's now on our website through this link.

Get involved! It's good for the soul (and the club)... This club runs on volunteers, and some of our long serving volunteers have decided to step down. Would you be up for helping out? None of these roles are a huge time commitment (most of the current Board work full time, and these are less onerous roles), and the more people who are up for helping, the more we can all share the load. There is also a ton of research showing that volunteering in sport raises mood and wellbeing! Details of where we need people to get involved are in the Milestone on page 4, but the key roles we need to fill are a Welfare Officer, a Membership Secretary, an Assistant Time Trial Secretary, a Club Kit officer, Events officers, and campaigners. If you want to chat about them, please drop me a note or reply to this email and the relevant Board member will get back to you.

Guide for ride leaders. Many of us will have had the experience in our club group of being asked to lead rides - and approaching with some trepidation what that actually means, other than designing a route! And some of us have done it for years, without any specific advice. So, with the support of British Cycling, a group of SFACC Ride Coordinators came together a few months ago to discuss what 'leading rides' really meant, and to come up with a guide on one side of A4, for everyone to have access to. It will be in the next Milestone, but in the meantime, if you want to be a great ride leader (or just get a bit more confident at what's expected), this might help you.

Wishing you all the best for the remainder of the year... and please stay safe (and keep cycling).