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From the CCC’s Presidents Desk – August 2014

Dear All

I hope you are staying warm and managing to keep some sort of training going through this cold snap.  The late night’s watching the Tour made getting out of bed early in the morning quite challenging.  Congratulations to former CCC member (he’ll always be a CCC member) Michael Rogers on his well deserved stage win.

Road racing at the local level is in full swing and it was great to see so many out at the Iron Mike on Saturday.  The racing continues right through until November with the club champs being held on October 25th.

There was a great response to the traffic marshal training and we now have 8 fully qualified club members!  The willingness of club members to undertake the training has been outstanding and I am really grateful for those who have put their hand up.  Training continues in September & October with the courses filling up fast.  If you are interested in taking part you can still register here here.

I attended the launch of the Phoenix Cycling Collective last week ahead of their debut at the Tour of the Murray.  It’s great to see a new team offering local riders the chance to compete at the highest level.  The team has a great attitude and includes riders from all ACT clubs, including CCC members Nathan Booth, Aaron Coles and Hayden Campbell.

The club is running a new junior series which kicks off on August 31st and we are keen to see a lot of new kids come out and give racing a go.  There will be a Come n Try category which will allow the kids to race without needing to sign up for a licence.  Any bike will be fine, the emphasis is on having fun and giving it a go.  If you know of any youngsters keen to try cycling then let them know.  Full details are on the club website.

While on the subject of juniors, 3 of our younger members recently got a taste of racing in Europe at the week long Assen Junior Tour.  Joe and Sebastian Beitzel and Oscar Chamberlain had a great week of racing, with Oscar winning a stage and finishing 3rd overall.

You may have seen information on social media or in the press over the last day or so on Capital Cycling, the new Alliance formed between all the cycling organisations in the ACT – Cycling ACT, CORC, Pedal Power ACT and BMX ACT.  The new website has just launched and contains more information about the initiative and the Festival of Cycling coming our way in Spring.

Plenty of racing across NSW over the coming weekends.  Good luck to all those competing in the Goulburn Great Divide race this weekend, and also to our Juniors competing in the NSW champs in  Wagga Wagga next weekend.

Excitement is building for the Spring Ball.  Well done to those who braved arctic conditions for the photo shoot!  The photos so far have been amazing.  Put November 14th in the diary and stay tuned for full details!

Cheers

Stuart Jones
President
Canberra Cycling Club