Winter Cycle Chat & Yuletide Events 2022

Strange to think that it all began so informally on a wet Sunday CTC run over 20 years ago - Christmas Eve 1978, when Jessie and Ian Hay invited the half dozen bedraggled cyclists home to Long Whatton for hot mince pies and coffee. Then their son Nigel turned up with some equally sodden Loughborough RC members - and the idea for the Mince Pie Run was born!

The following year, Howard Naylor having presented the section with some handsome trophies, we decided to hire Long Whatton School hall, lay on tea, coffee and goodies, and ask local cyclists to come along for our first prize presentation.

We sent out invitations to all sections, neighbouring DAs, and clubs listed in the RTTC and BCF handbooks. And they certainly came! It was an immediate success.

By 1982, it was no longer necessary to send out invitations. Loughborough Mince Pie Run had already become an institution: all East Midlands cyclists knew THE place to be on the last Sunday before Christmas - and there was a good chance of meeting people you hadn't seen for months.

Of course, over the years there have inevitably been some changes. After the first Christmas, Long Whatton school hall was no longer available and John Williams' initiative found us Belton village hall for 1980. We've been there ever since, though it's many years since we last used the occasion for presenting our prizes.

Sadly, Jessie and Ian are no longer with us, but years before they died they had seen their hospitable get-together for a few friends on tha long ago Christmas Eve develop into a major event on the cycling scene.

It is now so well established that the Mince Pie Run appears in the "Cycle Touring" calendar with national events like the Meriden Service and York Rally. Jessie and Ian would be proud to see it reach its 21st this year.

Based on a piece in the President's column by Peter Hopkins in Cycle Chat March 2000