Spring Newsletter – Cycling UK East Midlands Region
Welcome to the spring edition of our seasonal newsletter. One of our aims is to liaise with member and affiliated groups and other groups promoting cycling in all its aspects across the East Midlands Region. This newsletter should give a flavour of the huge number and wide range of activities happening this spring across the region and to help promote events such as organised rides, rallies and fundraising events for charity.
We would love to hear from you, we are your point of contact for the broader East Midlands Region. Cycling UK East Midlands Region committee meet several times a year and along with all of its six Member Groups will hold an AGM this spring.
This year we aim to encourage a wider audience and in particular younger riders and families to participate in rides and events. We hope to organise promotional events in 2023 to help achieve this aim.
Our member and affiliated groups in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire were of course busy with a full programme of rides and events throughout the winter, with the Mince Pie Run at Belton on 18th December a notable highlight. Although icy conditions prevented a large attendance, a praiseworthy £564.50 was raised from the tombola and generous donations to be donated to the Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People.
Looking forward to the spring season, our member and affiliated groups in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire have a full programme of rides and events.
The following are just a few examples:
ALFRETON
Alfreton CTC organise monthly Audax events and their spring series of rides of 200k in March, 300k in April and 400k in May are in the BRM category to help qualify for PBP. Tom Fox is organising a shorter 100k BP National Arboretum event on Saturday 2nd September, starting from Denby Pottery. See the Audax website for full details.
DERBYSHIRE
The Derby and Burton groups have a joint ride on Sunday 12th March to the historic mill village of Mayfield, beside the River Dove near to Ashbourne.
LEICESTERSHIRE and RUTLAND
The Sulley Rides (100k/70k/50k/32k) take place on Sunday 12th March. This annual event is held in memory of David and Doreen Sulley who were Cyclists' Touring Club members and the originators of the rides. The rides are open to everyone.
The start and finish will be at Lutterworth Town Hall, Market St, Lutterworth LE17 4AT, where refreshments will be provided. More details can be found on this link.
LINCOLNSHIRE
With the weather hopefully becoming more favourable, the Louth section are organising their ‘Spring Camp’ at Brook Meadow Campsite, Sibbertoft from 2nd to 4th May.
NORTHAMPTON
The spring season opener is a steady paced 45-mile ride to Culworh on Sunday 5th March.
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
At the time of writing, there were still a few places left on Nottinghamshire CTC’s Charnwood in the Spring Audax on Saturday 22nd April. All profits go to the Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance. The closing date is 17th April or earlier if the maximum of 200 entries is reached.
COMMUNITY CYCLE CLUBS
Community Cycle Clubs are at the heart of Cycling UK’s aim to bring about sustained change and to encourage more people to cycle. It’s great to see a number of such clubs flourishing in the East Midlands. For example, Brightwayz Community Cycle Club in Kettering continue to organise a monthly community cycle ride on the last Sunday morning of the month. These are short, local, slow rides to enable non-confident cyclists to have a go alongside more experienced rider.
Although nominations for the Leicester Cycling Awards have closed, voting opens on 1st March and closes 18th March with the awards ceremony on the 28th. To find out more, head over to Leicester Cycling Awards. These awards are being organised by community bike shop Northside Bikes. Award partners include Cycling UK, Sustrans East Midlands, Ride on Sistas, Leicester Cycling Campaign Group and Sustainable DMU.
Lauren Baker, Cycling UK’s Development Officer-East Midlands, has more details on Cycling UK East Midlands Facebook Page.
Looking further ahead into 2023, June 5th to 11th sees Cycling UK celebrate Bike Week’s 100th year birthday. This year Bike Week is all about cycling to work but it’s open to all. The York Rally also takes place in June and you can visit their website here.
To find out full details of all the rides and events that are being organised by member and affiliated groups across the Cycling UK East Midlands Region, click the link below:
