Thank You to Club Runners and our Club President

We often seem to be asking for “volunteers” to help marshal our club events, Of course, it’s not really volunteering because assisting at club events is a condition of membership and as we have over 300 members it really shouldn’t be too difficult to get enough help.

I’m going to be really positive and thank all our “club runners” first of all. We have a wonderful group of members who are very actively involved in the club but don’t (yet?!) take part in any racing. They have been truly stupendous at “volunteering” to help run all our time trials and races etc. They’ve often reported back to say they enjoyed themselves more than they expected, that it was good to meet club members they’d not met before and that the experience had given them insight into a different aspect of cycling. So, a huge thank you to all these people who have helped despite not racing themselves.

Now to racers, including time triallists. You have a lot to live up to here! Understandably, since you benefit so much, you are expected to “volunteer” your services at club events at least twice a year. As things stand at present, you are well behind in the volunteering stakes so please take the hint and get yourself signed up to help if you haven’t already.

It’s obvious that races and time trials etc can’t run without a lot of people putting in a lot of work. The recent Duncan Murray road race required the services of 48 folk to allow 143 riders to race. Those folk did a fantastic job. The most fantastic helper of all is George Barnett our club president. He’s at every race, setting up the course, timekeeping and taking all the signs down again after the event. He’s the first to arrive and the last to leave and, because he’s out on the course for so long, he’s rarely seen in the HQ. But gosh would we miss him if he wasn’t there. So please go out of your way to thank him when you next get the opportunity, he surely deserves it. What an example he is!

There are many “volunteers” still needed at time trials and cyclocross events this year. So if you haven’t yet pulled your weight yet, please sign up now via this link: Welland Valley Cycling Club: Marshalling Rota 2023 (signupgenius.com)