edinburgh rc cycling club

2006 Section Reports

President's Report

I’m delighted to report that 2006 has been another very thriving year for Edinburgh RC. As you will see from our Registrars Report our numbers now exceed 400, we keep growing and breaking records. Stephen Roy’s initiative to use EntryCentral has enabled many to join and rejoin online! ERC is now the second largest Cycling Club in the UK! We have achieved many of the targets set out in the 2005 – 2008 Three Year Plan earlier than anticipated. The numbers participating in competition and achieving high placing is greater than ever before. I have counted at least 21 National medals this year, our RTTT, Off Road and Multi-Sport Convener Reports provide details of the major individual performances. In addition to our regular club programme we have also successfully organised 13 open events including, this August, The Scottish TTT Champs.

The club is very grateful to our many sponsors, particularly our main sponsor, The Bicycle Works. The number of ERC members now wearing our updated new strip with the Bicycle Works logo on the road has made quite an impact. We were delighted to hear from Andrew Davies, at the club dinner, that his business wishes to continue the current arrangements beyond the existing three year contract. In addition Cycling Scotland has continued to provide much needed financial help with our Ingliston Race Series.

I will be reviewing the progress we have made against the current Three Year Plan at the AGM but I’m pleased to report that we have almost achieved in two years what we set out to do in three! One box not yet ‘ticked’ however, was the proposal to create supported teams. This will be our focus for 2007. The decision to devolve responsibility and money to four groups within the club, an idea now in its second year of operation, has proved to be particularly successful. The concept of a large seamless club with one subscription giving access to a myriad of activities has, surprisingly, also proved to be a winning formula.

I have decided to step down as Club President at this AGM. I have enjoyed my roles on the club management committee for 11 years. These have included, Newsletter Editor, Club Registrar, Coaching Coordinator, Vice President and President. I have been particularly involved with the drafting of three successive ‘Three Year Plans’ and the negotiation of the major sponsorship arrangements currently being enjoyed by the club.

Since 1993 I have been fortunate to see our organisation grow from a small Time Trial Club with less than 50 members to its present level of 400 with activities including road racing, time trials, mountain biking, track, trailquest, triathlon, duathlon and audax. While I would like to feel that I have played my part in this success I am conscious that this has really been achieved by successive, farsighted Committees and enthusiastic members. More members have volunteered to take responsibilities in 2006 than ever before and perhaps I could take this opportunity of thanking them all on your behalf.

Thank you also for the support you have given me.

Gareth George











Membership Services Report

Membership Services looks after all the ancillary services that go with a modern club - as you can see below that’s quite a few. Major changes this year include online registration and a new message board. Often running in the background, none of these services would happen without the person responsible putting in the work – thank them next time you meet them on a ride! Brief outlines of developments this year are described below, you can find out more by contacting the appropriate person on the MS team.
Cliff White (Membership Services)

Registrar – Steve Roy
As promised in 2005 you can now join ERC online through Entry Central. At the time of going to press membership stood at 409 which makes us the second biggest club in the UK.
Quartermaster – Dougie Miller / Ken Whitson / Steve Roy
ERC keeps a range of cycling equipment for members to borrow/hire (see Handbook for details). To spread the load Ken Whitson maintains the race kit, Steve Roy the camcorder and Dougie Miller looks after wheels, tri bars, heart rate monitors etc.
Website – Ken Russell / Jonny May
This year Ken Russell has revamped the message board and photo gallery, and added a Youth Members page which launches the new ERC Youth Policy. The What’s On page tells you what events are coming up and the Event Reports page tells you how they went. Latest news is courtesy of our man on the spot Jonny May.
Newsletter – Andrew Mylne
The newsletter is posted out around three times a year to all club members. The current editor has introduced regular "rider profiles" of club members and adds a lively editorial to each issue, but most of the articles (and pictures) are provided by members themselves, covering all aspects of cycling.
Club Clothing – Phil Darby / Ian Jackson
After successfully piloting the club to our new supplier Reartu and streamlining the ordering process Ian Jackson has handed over responsibility for club clothing to Phil Darby. Phil has recently put an order together and will in future be trying to bring the kit orders in line with the racing and winter seasons.
Many thanks to Ian for his splendid contribution and good luck to Phil.
Publicity – Neil Muir
Neil, along with Oliver Brookes, produced a new club publicity leaflet which was made available on cycle related stalls at events like the meadows festival. He also liaised with SC publicity officer Colin Renton regarding club events and issued press releases.
Club Handbook – Cliff White
Updated each year, the ERC Handbook is intended as a handy guide to ERC activities for both new and existing members. One of its main features is a database of contact details of members willing to be included.











Budget
The Membership Services allocation of £500 from the Bicycleworks sponsorship has been spent as shown below:

Membership Services Budget 2006
Item Cost
Newsletter - October 06 £120
Club equipment – stopwatches, race kit etc £60
ERC Handbooks - Photocopying £110.60
Web Domain Registration £23.49
ERC Membership cards £102.66
Total £433.39


Cliff White



Registrar’s Report

The growth in ERC membership is truly amazing. We now have more than doubled our membership in the past five years. 2006 has seen further healthy growth. We have now exceeded 400 members with an increase of 18% on 2005.

2006 saw the introduction of EntryCentral to process memberships electronically. This has proved to be very successful and popular with the membership. The administration of membership renewals is greatly simplified. We will hopefully see more use of EntryCentral for event entries next year.

Overall Membership




Year 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
Members 403 342 270 232 190
% Increase 18% 26% 16% 22%

Analysis of Members



Category 2006 2005 2004 2003
Youth (under 16) 5.5% 5% 9% 6%
Junior (16-17) 2.0% 2% 1% 3%
Espoir (18-23) 2.5% 3% 5% 4%
Adult (24-39) 56.0% 53% 55% 54%
Vet (40-49) 26.0% 29% 20% 22%
Supervet (50+) 8.0% 8% 9% 8%
Male 77% 79% 82% 80%
Female 23% 21% 19% 20%
Compete 58% 51% 50%


Member Activities





Activity 2006 1st Choice 2006 2nd Choice 2005 1st Choice 2005 2nd Choice 2004 1st Choice 2004 2nd Choice
Duathlon 3.7% 15.2% 2% 18% 4% 31%
MTB 14.4% 39.9% 18% 28% 21% 21%
Road 48.1% 18.3% 43% 31% 45% 25%
Track 3.0% 1.8% 2% 4% 2% 12%
Triathlon 24.6% 7.9% 31% 11% 27% 10%
TT 6.2% 16.8% 4% 9% Incl in road figures Incl in road figures



Stephen Roy

Coaching Convenor’s Report

2006 has been very busy for our growing band of coaches. Paul Newnham has been organising structured tutoring of our mtb section at beginners, intermediate and advanced levels. His classes held at Glentress have been very popular and successful.

We had a nutrition talk from Ruth McKean which was well received in April.

On the road, there have been many time trial practice sessions with lots of riders attending those aimed at the TTT3 and TTT4. This paid off handsomely when ERC women came home with bronze, silver and gold medals in the TTT4.

We held some practical sessions at Ingliston to improve bike handling skills and develop road race team tactics. These sessions were quite intense and everyone picked up lots of new skills.

Another try the track day was held at the start of the season which certainly encouraged many ERCs to take to the boards this season.

We've continued to encourage more people to become coaches and for our established coaches to develop their skills and improve their qualifications.
Many ERCs recently took part in a Scottish Cycling Level 2 course held in September.

Our coached swim sessions continue to be very well attended and are a great attraction for potential new members.

As well as group coaching sessions, ERC offer 1:1 coaching and the highly specific Joe Friel software package, Training Peaks, which we have the use of. Coachees using this package are asked for a small contribution towards its cost.

Our fleet of five club bikes have all been getting well used this year and this has helped to encourage many of their riders to obtain bikes of their own.

Another series of Cycle Maintenance classes are now underway and proving very popular. Many thanks to Andy Barlow at The Bike Chain for running these on our behalf.

ERC will pay for 75% of coaches training fees on the understanding that they'll put an appropriate amount of coaching into the club. We will pay for all first aid and child protection related fees.

Many thanks to everyone who has helped with coaching in ERC in 2006.

Colin Russell





Road, Track and Time Trial


Overview:
I reported at the AGM last year that 2005 had been a very successful period for the club; however I think we have excelled that in 2006. Please read on and you’ll find out why.

1. Medals gained.
In 2006 we amassed 28 medals in RTTT Events. Breakdown as follows:

Scottish Cycling Events – 10 Golds, 7 Silvers and 4 Bronze = 21 medals
ESCA Events - 5 Golds, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze = 7 medals

2. Star performances-

• Track:
Many riders would agree that Bruce Croall had a superb season on the track. Unfortunately Bruce left the club halfway through the season but by that time he had excelled in the ESCA Championships with Gold medals in the Kilo, Sprint & 4km Pursuit and Silver in the 10 K. Bruce then rode one of the fastest times seen at Meadowbank to win the kilo at the Scottish Track Championships where he also won a bronze medal in the sprint. In addition to this medal haul, Bruce also won Bronze in the Scottish 15km Champs where Ross Crook also finished 4th.
We wish Bruce well in his Cycling Career and I’m sure that Bruce will not forget the early part of his career with our club.
Pippa Handley gave the track a go for the first time and won Bronze at the ESCA pursuit Champs and then went onto win Gold in the same event at the Scottish Track Champs.
Our Men’s team [Colin Crawford, Nick Yates and Colin McKenzie] won silver in the Team sprint at the Scottish track Champs.
Other Riders who performed well on the track this season were Oli Del Corto who finished as the highest placed ERC rider in the Track league with 6th position overall. Ollie Young was very unfortunate to miss out on medals at the Scottish and British track Champs but I’m sure Ollie will win medals next year as he great potential and has already shown that in all cycling disciplines in 2006.
Ross Crook did very well at the World Masters and British Track and finished in very respectable positions against very tough opposition.

• Road Race:
Our Club riders didn’t fair too well in the Division 1 RR series although Ricky Allen finished 9th overall in the Div 2 series.
Lee Whitelaw, Ross Crook and Dave Moran put in a very brave effort in the Girvan 3 day RR event. Well done to Ross who was our only rider to finish in what was a very tough event. Let’s hope for a team finish in 2007.
Gareth George rode well to finish the Scottish Vet’s Champs this season with a Silver medal.
Our main Road success for our Men came at the Ingliston Crit Series which were once again superbly organised and run by our Club. Ken Russell rode very well in the Premier event and finished 2nd overall.
Cameron Wood was well supported by his team mates and thanks to their superb team tactics he won the support race series. Rob Vranjkovic finished in 3rd place overall, with quite a few other ERC riders finishing in the top 10.
Blair Fraser finished 2nd Junior and John Duncan 3rd Junior in the junior novice category. Oliver Young finished 3rd in the Youth category.
Callum Wilkinson also did very well to finish top Scottish rider at the very tough British Junior RR champs in Wales. Callum had a pretty good season and rode well throughout the season against experienced riders in senior events. John Duncan finished the season on a high note by finishing first Junior in the Scottish Hill climb Champs.
Ollie Young was cheered on by a large contingent of ERC supporters at the Glasgow GP future stars crit at the end of August. He rode very well and finished an excellent 2nd. Oliver is indeed a “star” for the future.
One of our brightest “stars” Pippa Handley excelled on the rode as well and also won the Scottish Women’s RR Championship Series and also got Silver at the Scottish Women’s RR Champs.

• Time Trial:
Our Women riders were simply fantastic in TTs this season.
Pippa Handley had a superb season and won a Gold medal at the Scottish 25 mile TT champs, Olympic TT, as well as team gold along with Jenny Wright and Hazel Sutherland at the TTT3 Champs. Pippa also won gold at the ESCA 25 Champs and Silver at the Scottish 10 and 50 mile Champs.
Perhaps Pippa’s greatest achievement in the season was finishing 7th in the British TT Champs. Pippa also finished 9th in the national 10 Champs and a fine 10th place in the Elite Women’s competition at the Chrono des Nations behind top Internationals inc Kathy Watt and Jeannie Longo.
Jessica Wilson Young another one of our “stars” also had another superb season by retaining the Women’s BAR and just “pipping” Pippa who finished second. Jessica also won Gold at the Scottish 50 Champs, ESCA 10 Champs and Silver at the Scottish TTT3 Champs along with Claire Thomas and Karen Breneman. Jessica also won Bronze at the Scottish 10 champs.
Claire Thomas had a terrific first racing season by finishing first at the Scottish Hill climb champs as well as her Team silver in the TTT3 Champs, Team gold at the Olympic TT with Pippa Handley. Claire also did very well in various TTs and APRs towards the end of the season. Just wait until she get’s a new TT bike for next season.
Our Women took a full sweep of the medals at the TTT3 champs with Gaynor Hamilton, Pat Robertson and Sandra Murdoch taking Bronze. Fantastic results by our women.

Finally our men should not be forgotten for their hard effort and commitment throughout the season. Graham Jones secured 7th in the Senior BAR. Paul Black was our best performer at TT’s and was consistently fast. Paul broke many of his long standing PBs, course PBs and once again won the Kirky 10 TT series. Many other riders took part in TT’s and performed well inc Ken Russell, Lee Whitelaw , Timmy May , John MacDowall and Calum Wilkinson who just missed out on being First junior in the Olympic TT by an agonising 8s after unshipping his chain at the foot of the Duke's Pass

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Ken Whitson [Track coordinator] and Rob Vranjkovic [Road Coordinator] and Sandra Murdoch [Women’s coordinator] for their hard work and commitment in their roles this season.

Apologies for the length of the above but each of the above named riders deserve credit for superb performances in 2006.


3. RTTT Support Fund
In 2006 the Group was allocated £1470 for rider support and I’m pleased to report that £1433 was spent on a wide range of riders with various abilities.
A breakdown of the spend is as follows:
Race Licences £62
Race Entry Fees £22
Travel costs £940
Equipment £210
Prize money £120
Kirky 10 Marshall/TK raffle prizes £25
Misc [try the track day, massage fees, etc £54
Total £1433


4. RTTT Meetings.
Meetings were held on 31/1, 18/4, 19/6 and 25/9.Thanks to all who attended any of the meetings. They have been very useful in providing a platform to discuss a wide range of issues and your contributions at these meetings have been welcome. They also allow me to take the views of the group forward to the ERC Committee meetings.

5. Kirky 10 TT Series.

74 riders and 21 different Timekeepers and Marshals helped towards another successful season at Kirkliston.
Special thanks to those riders who volunteered their services as Marshals and Timekeepers .The new format worked well and will continue again next year.
Unfortunately Paul Black will move north to Elgin soon but will fortunately continue to ride for the Club. Therefore we will have a new winner of the Kirky 10 series next year, which should be very interesting indeed.

6. ERC Open Events.
Colin Russell did a superb job in organising the Scottish TTT Champs in August. This task was made more difficult by a late change in date but the club rallied round and it was a fantastic event for the Club. We had 9 out of the 33 teams that took part and our women took the first four places in their competition.

Thanks to all organisers of all our other Open events in 2006, i.e. Ken Whitson [Meldons and Duathlon], Stephen Roy [Eastern Promise RR], Jonny May [McCulloch TT], Colin Russell [Spring APR] and the Ingliston “team” Colin Russell, Gareth George, Neil Muir and Kevin Tait..
Ingliston is our flagship event and we are grateful to the large group of helpers and sponsors who make this popular event happen every year.

All the above events were very well organised and ERC riders turned out in huge numbers once again. It is very rewarding for organisers to see the level of participation by our club riders in the events that we organise. Well done to all who took part, marshalled, sign on, refreshments, first aid [especially Pat Robertson], judges, officials, timekeepers, etc, etc.

7. 2007 and beyond.

Exciting times lie ahead for our club and in particular the RTTT Group. We have done superbly well in 2006 and we can do even better next season by developing, supporting and encouraging our talented riders to take part in top quality events around the Country. By doing this we will hopefully retain our talented riders and become a major player in competitive cycling events. This may even encourage other riders from other club to consider joining ERC.

Finally it has been very rewarding for me and I’m sure everyone in the club to see that so many riders took part in competitive cycling events in 2006.We will continue to build on this and encourage new riders into competition at all levels.

Kevin Tait

Off-road Group Report

The off road section is one of the smaller groups in the club with 14% of members indicating it is their first activity and 40% as their second. This does not put us off however and we have a range of rides from Saturday mornings in the Pentlands to day and weekend epics.

Day Rides

The Saturday morning run in the Pentlands is our “leisure ride” and is open to all comers with a mountain bike. This is often the first experience people have with the club and it’s surprising how many people don’t appreciate what they have on their doorstep. It’s a good stepping stone to the other rides we do on a Sunday. These are generally further afield and we have been to most of the 7Stanes man made trail centres and also kept it “natural” riding trails in Perthshire and the Borders.

Night Rides

Just because it gets dark, we don’t get put off. We have weekly night rides, usually to Glentress but also to the Pentlands, Innerleithen and Cloish Forest.

Weekends Away

Sometimes, it’s just too far to justify one days riding so we make a weekend of it. This year we had weekends in the Cairngorms, Dumfriesshire, the Lake District, Glen Feshie and Bridge of Orchy, to name but a few. These are a great chance to do something different that’s a bit further away and there’s also the extra social aspect.

Races and Events

It’s not all sociable and fun though! This year has seen riders represent ERC in National and International events and we even had a rider chosen to represent Great Britain.

Result of the year goes to Ken Russell with his amazing result at a 10 hour race. More about that later.

At home we had a good showing in the Scottish Cross Country Series with the club coming second overall in the teams competition and getting some good placings in the Scottish championships.

SXC Series Overall: 2nd for Lawrence Tring, male masters
3rd for Greig Walker, male masters
2nd for Fiona Donaldson, female masters
9th for Oliver Young, male youth

SXC Champs: Rob Waller, 1st male vet
Lawrence Tring, 4th male masters
Ken Russell, 8th male masters
Hazel Sutherland, 2nd female masters
Fiona Donaldson, 6th female masters
Fiona Reddick, 10th female masters
Chris Boustred, 9th male sport
Cliff White, 2nd male supervet
Oliver Young, 9th male youth

Several ERC members took part in the Merida Marathon at Selkirk in both the medium and long distances. One brave ERC rider took part in the long distance event in Austria as well.

The club also holds a Trailquest event in Glentress in May. In a trailquest event, a series of controls with different values are distributed across the event area. Using a map provided by the organisers, you must plan a route to visit as many controls as possible and maximise your points total within the time allowed. Trailquest events test your stamina, off-road riding ability and orienteering skills. Probably because it was a National event the entry this year increased to 102 making it our biggest ever. ERC riders did well with Janine Hensman winning the B class.

2006 was the second year of 10 under the Ben which is held in Fort William. Solos and teams battle it out so see how many laps they can do of the course in 10 hours. The solo category was won by our own Ken Russell with 11 laps in 10 hours 49 mins. Many teams didn’t even manage that! There were various other solos, pairs and teams.

2006 was also the first year of Relentless 24 which was held in October in Fort William. ERC won the mixed pairs with Alison Chisholm and Paul Newnham (25 laps in 24 hours). This was more than the ERC men’s team who clocked up 19 laps in 24 hours! We had a brave soloist, Jonathan Chisholm, who did 13 laps in 19 hours and had to retire with a blown shock.

Once again, we headed down to Catton Park for Sleepless in the Saddle, one of the original 24 hour events in the UK. The weather got the better of us with heavy rain turning the course from dry and dusty singletrack to a greasy and slippy nightmare. The ERC ladies team came 6th out of 9 and the mens team came 52nd out of 148.

On a more international note, Ken Russell and Lawrence Tring finished 14th (out of a total field of 173 teams) in the Bike Challenge 2006 mtb 6 day stage race through the Polish & Czech mountains. As if this wasn’t enough, Lawrence Tring also went to Poland as part of the GB team for the European Mountain Bike Orienteering Championships and Janine Hensman represented the UK at the MTBO World Champs. ERC were represented in this year's CristAlp Challenge by Ken Russell (150th MS), Rob Waller (82nd MV) and Jonny May (128th MV). This is probably one of the toughest one day mountain bike enduros in the Alps and the three were very highly placed in each of their categories.

Skills Sessions

To improve all levels of riders, four skills sessions were run by our new coach, Paul Newnham. There were three different levels to cater for all abilities and the sessions were held at Glentress.

Spending the budget

We used our devolved money to pay entry fees for ERC riders in the Scottish Cross Country Championships at Glentress and the Downhill championship at Dunkeld. We also funded the 10 Under the Ben entry fees for all club members who took part.

Fiona Donaldson

Triathlon and Duathlon Sub-group Report


• Sub Group Co-ordinators
Committee Rep – Peter Ness
Results Co-ordinator – Martin Gore
Swim Session Co-ordinator – Martin Gore / Jim Leach
Winter Duathlon Series Organiser – Ken Whitson
Tri Kit Co-ordinator – Peter Ness
Tri Email Group Moderator – Martin Farrell
Social Sec – Angela Kidd / Glyn Quensell

• Tri Coaching Team
Angela Kidd and Beth Saddler arranged a meal at La Tasca in the Omni centre on Saturday the 21st of October to thank the following tri coaches for their contributions throughout the year:-

Bruce Kidd STA Level 2 & SASA Level 1
Mark Cooper STA Level 2
Linda Maclean STA Level 2
Martin Gore STA Level 1 & SASA Level 1
Niall Baxter STA Level 1
Jim Leach STA Level 1
Dave Jibb STA Level 1
Cameron Wood STA Level 1
Geoff Earl STA Level 1

2 Coaches are now present for the Tuesday swim session at the Commonwealth Pool with up to 50 members regularly attending. Thanks also go to Alastair Russell who has made a significant contribution to the ERC coached sessions.

• Competition
The ERC Triathlon and Duathlon Handicap Competition included 55 ERC members this year won by Andreas Schaefer in his first year of competition. Paul Ewing came in second place and last years winner Martin Farrell took third.
Once again ERC competed well at Scottish Championship level and a number of members represented their country at European and World Championship level. Most noticeable performances are as follows:-

Penny Rother SILVER in age group at World Triathlon Championships Lausanne.
Richard Morton SCOTTISH DUATHLON CHAMPION – Edinburgh Duathlon
16th in age group World Duathlon Championships, Canada
Martin Gore 22nd in age group World Duathlon Championships, Canada
Adam Rouse 10th in age group World Duathlon Championships, Canada
Peter Ness 27th in age group World Duathlon Championships, Canada
18th in age group European Duathlon Championships, Italy

• Training
Every week ERC has 3 coached swim lanes at the Commonwealth pool and at Next Generation and 1 Open Water swim session during the summer / autumn at Portobello. Numbers remain high on Tuesdays at the Commonwealth Pool and Open water sessions are still growing in popularity a hardy few organising further Open water sessions on a Wednesday am during the summer or on Sunday mornings during the Winter.

The organised club rides from the Commonwealth pool are regularly attended by the tri section members and good links remain with the City of Edinburgh who are happy for ERC members to run with them on Thursday evenings in the meadows and Tuesday evenings at Meadowbank on the track. This also gives access to the XC running series during the winter.

ERC held a Christmas swim gala at the Commonwealth Pool in December last year and aim to do the same again in 2006.

Club members were involved in organising several high profile Triathlons and Duathlons this year. Many members volunteered to help put on these races and they couldn’t have gone ahead without their help:-

Edinburgh Triathlon and Duathlon
Firth of Forth Triathlon
Portobello Triathlon
Portobello Aquathon

• European Duathlon Championships June 16 /17 - 2007

Bruce Kidd and his team have won the bid to hold the European Duathlon Championships for Edinburgh in 2007. A Championship committee has been meeting regularly which includes a number of ERC members. This can be seen as an excellent opportunity to not only raise the profile of ERC members but to host a successful European Championship event in Edinburgh and raise further public awareness of the growing popularity of Triathlon and Duathlon as a competitive sport.

• Tri Section Budget

Triathlon Scotland race licenses £380 (38 members)
World Championship Polo Shirts £125 (5 members)
Other:-
Club swimming equipment (Floats) £100 (Swim sessions)

Peter Ness