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Club News & Events

Club AGM

The Walkers Cycling Club Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday 27th October at the North West Area Centre, Western Road, Kilmarnock. 7.15 for a 7.30 pm start. All club members are requested to attend. Prospective members are also very welcome to attend.

Organised Club Rides

NB Conditions apply to all organised club rides. See Conditions - MTB, Road & Cyclo-cross Rides below for details. 

Evening MTB Ride - Wednesdays

The club holds MTB rides on Wednesday evenings, starting from a variety of locations in the Ayrshire area. Rides usually assemble at 7.15 pm for a 7.30 start and are of around 1 to 1.5 hours in duration. The pace set will accommodate the slowest in the group - no one gets left behind. Details of the current week's ride can be found on the Organised Club Rides section in the Club Forum.

We recommend that every rider carry an 'SOS Kit' on all off-road rides. The kit should include:
 
at least one spare inner tube; tyre levers; tube patching kit; frame fitting pump or mini-pump set to your type of valve; mini-tool for minor adjustments; a whistle; mobile phone with fully charged battery; identification - preferably with details of any medical conditions and regular medication. (All available to purchase at Walkers Cycling except the phone and identification)

Evening Road Rides - Tuesdays & Wednesdays

A road or hybrid style bike is recommended for these rides.
 
Tuesday evenings, 7.30pm start from Walkers shop. Approx 20 -30 miles.

Wednesday evenings, 7.30pm start from Walkers shop. Structured ride, newcomers welcome, mix of routes dependent on ability.

Cyclo-cross Rides

Thursday evenings, 7.30pm at the Big Idea car park, Harbourside, Irvine. Come and have a go! Off-road cycle required - MTB is fine.

Ladies' Road Rides

The ladies' rides will resume in spring 2009. Check back then for details.

SXC Series - 2008

The 2008 SXC Series has been a resounding success once again. Club members have been participating in all rounds. See the SXC Series web site for results and images.

Strathpuffer 2009

The club will once again be travelling north in January 2009 with a squad of riders and 'support crew'  to the Strathpuffer - the first major 24 hour endurance event of the new season. Find out more about this unique event on the Strathpuffer Event Web Site

Scottish Cycling/British Cycling Race Calendar

For details of competitive events organised under the auspices of SC and BC go to the Events Calendar on the British Cycling web site.

Leisure Cycling Events

For details of sportive and leisure cycling events go to the EverydayCycling web site.

'West Highland Way in a Day' Charity Ride

To raise funds for the Ayrshire Hospice, the club undertook a charity ride on the West Highland Way on Saturday 14th June when the aim was to complete the world famous long distance trail within 24 hours.

Thanks to Steve Lockhart for the following report:

West Highland Way in a Day

Six solo riders & three teams of two from Walkers Cycling Club lined up at Fort William at 5:30am in an attempt to cycle the whole of the West Highland Way in one day, in so doing, raising funds for the Ayrshire Hospice.

The whole event would see the cyclists ride over some of Scotland’s most rugged & beautiful scenery, involving 95 Miles of off-road biking, gaining 14,275 ft of hard earned climbing on the way. The group traveled to Fort William the night before & with early morning alarms set for 4 a.m., everybody knew it would be a tough day ahead. After checking bikes & equipment, the group headed out to their first checkpoint at Kinlochleven over some forestry roads & singletrack. The weather forecast had proved correct & although it was only 2C at the start, the sun was out & the first climb warmed all the cyclists up.

With good conditions, everybody kept the pace high & rolled into the checkpoints pretty much on schedule, with the hardest part of the day over the Devils Staircase & into Glencoe being achieved without one puncture – due mostly to everybody inflating their tyres to 40 PSI! Support crews were on hand at all the stops to make sure all the riders had plenty of food & water for the next sections of the challenge & after 8 hours cycling, the group stopped at Tyndrum for a 45 minute break for lunch.

After Tyndrum the group headed to Inveranan & the Drovers Inn, where they would leave the West Highland Way & ride to Inveruglass on the A82 & catch a ferry to the Inversnaid Hotel on the East bank of Loch Lomond. This allowed the riders to miss out the very top part of the route along the banks of Loch Lomond, which would have involved scrambling over some difficult rock sections, never mind lugging a bike as well. At this point the riders split into two groups for the ferry & the first group were in luck as their arrival at Inveruglass coincided with a ferry waiting to depart. The second group, only 20 minutes behind, suffered the agony of arriving to find the ferry would be tied up for an hour before it set off again to the Inversnaid Hotel, seriously denting their target of reaching Milngavie before the end of the day.

Both groups negotiated the remaining 37 Miles of track & road through Rowardennan, Balmaha & Drymen without major incident, although at this stage some tired legs were beginning to show – no wonder after 15 hours on the bike. Pretty soon the first group hit the outskirts of Glasgow & Mugdock Park, where a new lease of life saw them speed up & then kick off the party in Milngavie High Street at 9:45 p.m., some 16 and ¼ hours after the start at Fort William. After the initial elation, thoughts turned to the second group who were battling against the clock & dwindling daylight to make the finish on time. A big cheer went up, when just after 11:30 p.m., the lights of the second group came into view & some tired, but happy souls checked in to the finish on the High Street.

Plenty of people to thank for the event going so well, support crew of Andrea, Cathryn, Jane, Shelia & Hamish (Hamish was both support and rider – special mention to him!) and  Catherine for being there at all the stops to give encouragement & food, the boat crew at the Inversnaid Hotel for helping as much as they could, Walkers Cycling shop for the loan of their van for the weekend & finally all the club members for their brilliant effort on the day:-

Solo riders: Drew Thompson; Gavin Hanna; Peter Forsythe; Stuart McLean; David Belding & Martin Kuhn.

Pairs: Gavin Turnbull & Alex Craufurd; Russell Mowat & Gavin Young; Steven Lockhart & Scott Russell.

The event helped to raise money for the Ayrshire Hospice which was established in 1987 to enhance the quality of life of those who are suffering from advanced cancer or Motor Neurone Disease for whom cure is no longer possible, as well as support for families facing the loss of a loved one. You can find out more about their work at the Ayrshire Hospice web site.

Some Pictures from the Ride:

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See more images from the ride on our Flickr Gallery
 

Conditions - MTB, Road & Cyclo-cross Rides

All fitness levels are catered for but riders must be over 18 years of age (or under 18 and accompanied by an adult) and be competent cyclists.

Please come dresssed appropriately for the weather conditions and with your bike in good working order. Riders must wear a helmet and be self-sufficient carrying at least one spare tube, tyre levers, inflator, a mobile phone, personal ID (preferably with details of any medical conditions and regular medication) and contact details. Please Note: good lights are required on all evening rides.

It is recommended that riders also carry an emergency light set (front & rear LED), tube patching kit and a mini-tool for minor repairs.
 
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