Cyclists Touring Club
Newark On Trent
Section
|
|
Cyclists Touring Club |
|
|
[Home] |
NEWARK NOTES from the Secretary
August 2002
NEWARK CYCLE WEEK 2002And other rides of a rural persuasion Elsewhere on this site, you can read the 'ead'itter ranting about Bike weeks, amongst other things. I can see his point, but the publicity does seem to put cycling in people's eye and get a few of them on their bikes and into the country, even if only for a couple of days a year. I've yet to see a 'Road to Damascus' conversion whereby Clarkson thinkalikes dump their car keys for the pleasures of pedal power; it seems to me that the addiction takes time to build up. Several of our regulars did start on the Bike Week or Rural Rides programme, after all.. What's the difference between Bike Week and Rural rides? Not a lot, really, the first is a part of the second only more concentrated. Are you still with me? Good, To expand a bit, the Rural ride programme runs from about May to the end of the year, and is co-ordinated by Notts County Council, though the rides themselves are mostly led by urban terrorists and other sad misfits, sorry, volunteers from local cycling groups such as Pedals and the CTC. Within that programme, are some local events connected with National Bike week and its smaller and later cousin, Newark Cycle Week. Quite why we in Newark have our Bike week a month later than everybody else is lost in the mists of time (I have heard it suggested that it was to make it coincide with the Newark Music Festival,. yeah, good idea, given a choice of watching a band in the park or toiling away at the pedals on a real bike that has to be kept upright and is out in the open, not like one of those nice static ones in the fitness centre, for a couple of hours, what would you do? Now there's an idea, wouldn't it be fun if the thousands who turned up for the music and fireworks all hit the road on their bikes at the same time,.who needs urban terrorists?!) Stop waffling, Graham, and get on with the matter in hand! Very well, sir, Anyway, We do usually get better weather than the other Bike Week, which seems almost guaranteed to have crap weather.. If I was to suggest some of the other reasons that have come to mind, I'd probably get lynched by proud Newarkers. With co-ordination worthy of a privatised train company, Newark's rural rides didn't start 'til the middle of June, and then two came along on following days. Starship Captain James T. Reckless led his traditional Peripatetic Pub Pootle on Friday evening, and topped it by swapping roles with co-pilot Ray for a slightly longer run to Navenby on the Saturday. Both were well attended, particularly the Saturday ride. Newark Cycle Week itself started with the usual town centre events on Saturday and got into gear on Sunday when a large throng of riders headed for the Vale of Belvoir under the leadership of Klan-master Stuart (Well, you should see him in his white waterproofs, not that he needed them on this occasion). Monday had Stuart leading again for a short family ride out to Farndon. Hopefully, the building of the cycle track along the Old Great North Road will enable the very popular (too popular for the GNR) Muskham run to be reinstated next year. Tuesday had Nick Wort from Notts CC (that's County Council, not Cricket Club) lead us off into the sunset, only, as predicted, the clouds prevented said phenomenon from being seen. So a few of us went to the pub instead. Wednesday and Thursday saw Sustrans and Notts CC giving the lowdown on future plans for cycle facilities in Newark. and fielding questions and complaints about those already here. Two nights for the anoraks. Friday is by tradition the late night pub ride and is usually well supported. This year, a forecast for heavy rain probably reduced the numbers. If you were one of those who didn't turn up, you missed the leader (yes, yours truly) losing his way, not one but two lots of free food,.and a damned good soaking on the way back when that weather forecast finally turned out right after all! Saturday afternoon saw more showers, with a ride to Gunthorpe for tea by the locks. And finally Sunday, when I took a pleasingly large group along Lincoln Edge and to Temple Bruer. Sorry I stayed too long at the lunch stop, folks. Is there life after Bike week? To repeat the old chestnut, there is, but is it intelligent? Jim led another Pub Pootle on the first Friday in August, another well-supported ride, and a ride to Lincoln exploring the new cycle paths, on the Sunday of the following weekend. I wasn't able to make that one, but by all accounts much fun was had hauling the bikes up the embankment on the by-pass where the cycle path hasn't been built yet! 'Boldly going' comes to mind. The next Sunday I led a small group to the steam rally at Lincoln, losing a punk mountain biker in the process. (We obviously weren't going fast enough so he latched onto the back of the 'hard riders' as they overtook us) If you read this, hope you got back OK And there's more. There are 2 more rides to come, on the 8th and 21st September. For more details see the runs list elsewhere on this site or the Rural Rides leaflet (available from a bike shop near you - if they haven't chucked them out by now) Mike Graham Page updated 19/02/03 |