I joined the committee at the last AGM because I wanted to give back to the club which has given me so much in the sport. I could see that volunteer numbers were decreasing and overall assistance by members in the running of races was diminishing. I turned up to the AGM just wanting to have my say, maybe join as a general committee member and contribute to the running of the club. There were nominations for a replacement for Nathan Edwardson and constitutionally, we required two vice presidents to continue running the club (or something of that nature), so I put my hand up for Vice President. After a couple of months, the committee had confidence in my ability to steer the ship and I was nominated for President. It has been challenging and I have been trying to do things incrementally.
It has not been the easiest year to steer the ship, and I am
honoured to have served the club for the last 9 months or so as your President.
I am putting my hand up to do it again for the next 12 months, however, in the
event that some else would like to steer the ship, I am very happy to remain on
the committee in some other capacity. I came in to the role not wanting to
dramatically change what we do. Instead, I wanted to ensure that we put on the
races we said we were going to put on and start a rebuilding phase in the clubs
history. This task has been made very difficult with recent events, but
nonetheless, I am very grateful to the 2019/2020 committee for all of their
work.
In particular, I would like to thank Ed Hall, who stepped down from his
position as Race Secretary following the Winter Crits. Ed’s dedication,
enthusiasm, organisational skills and proactivity were valued immensely by the
club and the committee. Ed put in lots of hours behind the scenes that people
were not aware of, in relation to obtaining road approvals, road marshalls and
volunteers to help at events. On behalf of the club, I thank Ed for his
contributions and look forward to seeing him on the bike.
I would also like to thank Steve Crispin (criterium coordinator) who has turned himself inside out to ensure that when we were able to hold criteriums on Wednesday evenings, everything and everyone was in place to do so. The summer crits would not have run as smoothly without your leadership and dedication, and for this, on behalf of the club, I thank you for your contributions.
I am not going to dwell too much on the disappointments that we have experienced as a club, as unfortunately there have been major setbacks in the last 6 months. However a couple need to be said: The first was the impact of the bushfires, which derailed our summer criterium races, and outdoor cycling itself. The second, and most recently is the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has derailed the start of the 2020 ACT Road Race Calendar. Obviously, there was little we could do to avoid this, and I would like to additionally thank James Jordan (Race Director) for all of his hard work, energy and persistence in navigating the necessary speed bumps (and unfortunately there were many), to get everything in place for the 2020 road race calendar. Let’s hope the world is better place for us cyclists post COVID-19.
I am optimistic that once the global pandemic is under control, we can return to riding our bikes as usual and hopefully restart the racing calendars. I imagine there will be a lot of zwifting taking place over the next 3 months.
However, putting this to one side, it is definitely worth noting that our members were kicking major goals during the 2019/2020 season. Some major accomplishments are below. Apologies if I missed a particular member’s accomplishment, these are the key highlights I am aware of. I apologise if I have missed any other key accomplishments.
2019/2020 highlights (in no particular order)
- Lauren Bates winning the U15 National Junior Track Series for 2019/2020
- Nathan Hart – Bronze in the team sprint in the recent World Track Championships in Germany and recently announced member of the Australian Olympic Team!
- Chloe Hosking winning a stage at the recent (and 2019) Santos Women’s Tour Down Under (2.Pro), the Tour of Guangxi Women’s WorldTour (1.WWT) and the WNT Madrid Challenge by la Vuelta (2.WWT)
- Jay Vine taking out 5th in the GC at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour (UCI 2.1) in early March 2020, as well as 3rd in the GC at the NZ Cycling Classic (UCI 2.2) in late January 2019. He also was 1st in the GC at 2019 Tour of the Tropics: NRS Men in August 2019 and 3rd in the GC at the 2019 Tour de Tweed: NRS Men.
- Ben Hill taking out the points classification at the Jayco Herald Sun Tour (UCI 2.1) in early March 2020; winning the Trofeo Alcide Degasperi (UCI 1.2) race in Italy in June 2019 and winning a stage at the 2019 Tour of Japan (UCI 2.1).
- Dylan Hopkins obtaining a contract with European continental team – Ljubljana Gusto Santic for the 2020 season
- Steve Crispin winning gold in the 2019 CA Masters Road National Championships Road Race in October 2019 in M4
- Anthony Murfett winning gold in the 2019 CA Masters Road National Championships Time Trial in October 2019 in M3
- Stephen Blackburn – winning silver in the 2019 CA Masters Road National Championships Road Race in October 2019 – M5
This club is traditionally known as a racing club and this is the strong foundation I have tried to focus on, however, we are moving into a time where less people are interesting in ‘traditional’ racing, and this is a challenge will be trying to traverse in the coming years. I will provide a separate report in relation to AUSCYCLING and the future of Cycling ACT.