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Berwick Wheelers
Season Preview 2015
Hello all and welcome to the season preview
for 2015. We’ll be trying here to give you as
much information about the club as you’ll need
to successfully navigate yourselves through
this season.
If you read nothing else in
this whole preview please
refer to our club racing
calendar on the last page
for all our club time trial
and border trophy dates.
If you are planning to race
with us one item you
really do need to read is about the registration
procedures for ALL club time trials (see Racing
2015)
Membership
Many of you have already joined for the season.
For those that haven’t, please ensure you do so
as soon as possible (see payment details later
on this page), if you are racing in early season
events under the Wheelers name we do really
need to have had a membership sub from you
BEFORE you take part in events. At just £16 it
really does give excellent value for money. The
club racing calendar is now up on the website
and your Berwick Wheelers membership
entitles you to enter all of these races for the
princely sum of £2 per event (more on the time
trials later).
Please be advised that if you wish to enter any
other events north of the border or road races
and crits in England you will probably need at
least a Silver British Cycling (BC) membership
and a racing licence, I do have discount
vouchers worth £18 if you have not previously
been a member of BC. You are able to enter
‘Open’ Cycling Times Trials (CTT) events in
England without a BC racing licence, but not
any events affiliated to British Cycling. If you
require any further clarification please give me
a shout on the contact details at the end of this
document.
How do I join?
There are two ways you can pay, the easy way,
by internet banking, just set up to pay a bill
through your internet banking account using
the following details;
Account name; Berwick Wheelers Cycling Club
Sort code; 12-12-57
a/c number; 00163828
Please reference your payment with your name
and ‘subs’ and then let Gill know by e-mail
[email protected] that the payment is on its
way.
or the slow way, print off the application form
on the wheelers website home page and send it
along with a cheque for £16 payable to
‘Berwick Wheelers Cycling Club’ to;
Neil Wilson
Berwick Wheelers Club Secretary
7 Felkington Farm
Berwick upon Tweed
TD15 2NR
Racing 2015
Club Time Trials
This year we’ve got some new additions to the
TT programme. First off we have a 5 mile race
to give new or interested members an
opportunity to have a try at time trials without
the pressure/pain of a full 10 miler first time,
all are welcome and it’ll be free to ride. Just
turn up at 6.30 pm Hutton crossroads ready to
go, sign up and we’ll sort the rest.
The Championships are now spread out a little
more over the season, with the 10 mile race
coming in mid-May and the hilly time trial now
becoming a championship event in mid-July (a
chance for all our more lightweight riders to be
in with a shout of a medal perhaps)
*PLEASE NOTE* There continues to be a prebooked registration procedure for all club time
trials this season with the exception of the 5
mile event on 2nd April. Due to the large fields
we have had in the last few years and the often
late starts we ask for riders to pre-register for
each weeks race. To do this you must register
to race each week NO LATER than 6pm on the
Weds, there are three options for you to do this
you can either;



Register with Ian or Bruce immediately
following the release of the results on
each Thursday after the time trial.
E-mail Ian
[email protected] before
6pm on the day before the next event to
confirm you will be racing
Phone Ian on 01289 330248 or 07891
182380 and either speak to him to
confirm your registration or leave a
message if there is no-one home.
Ian and Bruce will be setting the field on the
Wednesday night so we are able to have rider
seedings at each event, you will then turn up,
no later than 6.40pm please, pay your £2 and
be given your number, this will enable Bruce
to have the race underway for the allotted 7pm
start time. We have arranged to have some
slots available for new members who may not
be aware of the new registration procedures,
just in case some people turn up on spec.
All riders not pre registering for events and
just turning up on the night will still get a
ride but they may be slotted in at the back
of the field.
As mentioned earlier the club confined time
trials calendar is now up on the website, these
races are for club members only, there is
however an option for taster races for potential
new members, a maximum of two events can
be ridden before we require riders to become
full members.
We do require that all riders in club time
trials have a red rear flashing light attached
to their machine at all times whilst racing
The Club Time Trial league should be a cracker
this year with eight events scattered across the
season, Gary Smith will be looking to keep hold
of the title he won in the last race last year,
from the sounds of it there has been plenty of
training going on this winter, he’ll have plenty
of riders after that crown.
Border Trophy
We will again be entering a team in the Border
Trophy this year, we’ll be hosting the first
round on Thursday 4th June (please note there
will not be a club race on this night, but we
could do with some willing volunteers to help
run the event) the other rounds are Weds 10th
June, Gala, Monday 14th June, Kelso and new
for this year round 4 at Hawick on Tues 23rd
June (all races in the series have a £5 entry fee).
We need 10 racing members to get a full
scoring complement in each race or we will be
given time penalties, racers will need a BC
racing licence to take part or there is a single
event licence fee of a further £10 each. Please
let Neil Wilson know if you are keen to be part
of the team or, heavens forbid, you just want to
help out at out at our event on Thursday 4th
June.
Open Time Trials
Plenty of club riders participate in ‘open’ time
trials throughout Southern Scotland and
Northern England, mainly at weekends
throughout the season. On most weekends
there is usually someone riding somewhere
and often there are chances to share lifts etc…if
you are interested in riding some of these
events you’ll need to shout out at club events,
Steve, Doug S and Chris amongst others, are the
usual protagonists, just ask!
Quite a few members ride the Barnesbury 10
nr at Cramlington on Wednesday evenings, it’s
on a very quick 2 lap circuit and often has fields
of up to 60 riders. It can be very popular and on
some nights you’ll need to turn up early to get a
ride. Ask on club time trial nights to find out
who might be going each week.
There are two other local events on the
calendar this year that don’t require a BC
licence. Dom Blyth is organising a ‘straight
back’ 10 mile TT in aid of McMillan Cancer
Research on Sunday 29th March (TBC), see our
facebook page for more details nearer the time.
Kelso Wheelers organise a circuit time trial in
July as part of Kelso Civic week, it uses an
undulating course stating at Kelso – Birgham –
Eccles – Kelso, it’s a cracking course and we
often have a good turnout, 10 club riders made
it last year, more details soon
Road Racing
Last year saw the club take big strides towards
having a ‘good go’ at road racing for the first
time in many years. Andrew Scorey won the
East of Scotland series and we will again be
hosting a round on Saturday 21st March. As we
are organising an event our riders get priority
to race at all events in the series. Tim Caine is
our man organising the road race, drop him a
line of you are keen to get involved as a
volunteer on the day, we certainly need a few
of you [email protected] .
There looks like being quite a contingent of BW
members looking to road race this year, a
number are taking part in the winter series at
Croft until the end of Feb and many have
already been planning to enter criteriums and
road races all over the place. If you’d like to get
involved a good starter would be the road
racing group out of Norham on an Saturday
morning, Norham RR Training Group
(facebook), generally a no holds barred ride for
those looking to go at speed for a couple of
hours, 9.30am at Norham Village Hall each
week.
There’s also the Borders Chain Gang (facebook)
that goes out of Swinton each Tuesday from 7th
April.
morning from the Eyemouth area and the
‘Sunday Social’ on the first Sunday of each
month meeting at Norham Village Hall for a
10am start. See our facebook page for more
info
Sportives
There are plenty of sportive events quite local
to us differing in length from 60 to a huge
200km, many club riders participate in these
during May to October. Three local events run
through the very successful Wooler Wheel
project see this link to find out more
www.woolerwheel.com
For our press releases speak to Neil W. If you
do have any weekend results it would be good
if you could e-mail them Neil by the Monday
morning at the latest, so he’s able to get
something into the locals, along with your
time/position. It would be great if you could let
Neil have a bit of text and even a photo along
with the result to help give articles a bit more
interest to the random reader.
For all racing in general please observe the
racing cyclists code, use it or lose it, especially
the local events. We really do need to keep
entering these to make sure they continue to
give us great racing opportunities on our
doorstep
Training
We have three training/social rides currently
running through the club. The Norham Road
Race Group has been mentioned already. We
then have the ‘Saturday Steady’ on a Saturday
Website & Media, including Social
We’ve got a pretty substantial presence on the
web. Feel free to look at the website
www.berwick-wheelers.com , there is a wealth
of information including our time trial
calendar, time trial league tables, forum,
weekly results and weekly write ups, which
also go into the local press. If you do have
anything interesting to say we’ve got plenty of
places for you to say it in.
Our facebook page is pretty busy with riders
discussing anything from training ride options,
what the weathers doing, that fancy new pair of
wheels someone bought and more.
Neil Wilson
Berwick Wheelers Club Secretary
[email protected]
01289 387203
07511 553050
Cheers, and hopefully see you on 2nd April for
our first club time trial of the season, 6.30 for a
7pm prompt start, Hutton Crossroads.
Time Trial Calendar on next page
Time Trial calendar 2015
(all events on Thursday evenings, 6.30pm meet 7pm start, with the exception of Gala,
Kelso and Hawick Border Trophy events)
Date
Distance
Details
TTL Races
Course
2nd April
5
Introduction to TT
9th April
10
Pistols
16th April
10
Pistols
23rd April
10
30th April
15
BW15
7th May
25
BW25
14th May
10
21st May
16
Cleugh
28th May
25
BW25
4th June
10
BORDER TROPHY - Berwick
Pistols
10th June
10
BORDER TROPHY - Gala
Melrose
11th June
15
15th June
10
18th June
10
23rd June
10
BORDER TROPHY - Hawick
25th June
25
Championship
2nd July
10
9th July
15
Championship
BW15
16th July
16
Championship
Cleugh
23rd July
10
5
Pistols
30th July
10
6
Pistols
6th Aug
15
13th Aug
10
7
Pistols
20th Aug
10
8
Pistols
27th Aug
10
3rd Sept
H/C
1
Championship
2
Pistols
Pistols
Pistols
BORDER TROPHY - Kelso
Birgham
3
Pistols
A7 South
4
Pistols
BW15
Pistols
Championship
Burnmouth