Author: yorkshirecyclocrossassociation

Welcome to round 2 of the Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross winter 2022 series. As host club, Bronte Tykes CC would like to thank you for supporting our event and we hope you have a fun and successful day of racing.

There are a couple of points to draw to everyone’s attention. Firstly, as you know Myrtle Park is a long-standing fixture in the cross season and a number of riders know the venue well.

Parking at the park is restricted to small area by the town council buildings and street parking near the park entrance, please ensure that you park responsibly on the day and respect our neighbours. We will be opening the gates at 9am, so please don’t arrive any earlier.

Gazebos and warm-up area can be set up in the main event field, which is grass, but we won’t be allowing awnings and other space-eating set-ups in the car park. Please plan your warm-ups etc accordingly

Location:

Location of the park and limited parking.

Myrtle Park Bingley, Myrtle Grove, Bingley, BD16 2LQ

Additional street parking can be found on Beech Street, Sycamore Ave and adjoining street see map below.

Please remember no parking at Lidl

Please remember to not bare all to our neighbours after your race.

Road Closures In Bradford

he Epilepsy Action 10k running race is taking place in Bradford on the morning of our event. Roads in central Bradford and between Bradford and Shipley are going to be closed. If you are coming to our event from this direction, please have a look at their road closures info sheet – paste this link into your browser:

https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/sites/epilepsy/files/content-admin-uploads/Epilepsy%20Action%20Bradford%2010k%20-%20road%20closure%20information.pdf

Dear Rider,

As you might expect, the events of the last 24 hours have cast a shadow over this weekend’s opening event of our 2022-23 Cyclo-Cross Championships. Below are several important messages, all of which need to be read very carefully and given equal attention.

WE’RE GOING AHEAD

Following the death of the Queen, we have been in touch with British Cycling, who have given grass-roots events the green light to go ahead this weekend. We will be continuing to follow their guidance. Please keep an eye on your email in-boxes and our social media. We will let you know by these means if we have any updates. But, for the time being, please assume the event is ON.

As a mark of respect, we will not be running any podiums on Sunday and plan to hold a minute’s silence at the start of the races.

IMPORTANT – WE HAVE A CHANGE OF VENUE

Entirely coincidentally, we have been forced to move this weekend’s event from the intended venue – Bishop Burton College, near Beverley. The landowners have been concerned following recent rainfall at the venue and decided that the risk to their future equine events was too great and have cancelled our booking. We’re grateful to VC Beverley for all their efforts in putting the event together and we share their disappointment at the decision, which was entirely out of their hands.

Rather than cancel completely, we have been able to move the event to an alternative venue, the Hunsworth Showground, Hunsworth Lane, Bradford, BD4 6RN, just off the M62 Junction 26 Cleckheaton. You might recall that Shibden CC were able to use this venue when all others were unavailable to us during the covid restrictions, and we used this venue for a couple of summer races this year. Once again, Shibden CC have stepped in in our hour of need. They promise us a fresh course and have even moved in machinery to create some new challenges for us! The event schedule will remain the same and the event’s listing on the British Cycling website will be updated to reflect the change in venue.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IF YOU CAN’T/DON’T WANT TO RACE

We realise that Hunsworth is many miles from the original venue and that some riders may not wish to make the journey. We also understand that riders may not wish to race for other reasons.

We are therefore offering two options for all riders who decide not to race:

1/ A refund of your entry fee. Simply email ycca@hotmail.co.uk with your full name, race category, date of birth and British Cycling number and put the word “refund” in the subject line of your email. We will organise the refunds during next week. Deadline – please let us know by 9pm on Saturday 10^th September.

2/ Transfer your entry to a later event in the series. This option is slightly more complicated, given the uncertainty surrounding next week’s event at Bingley and its proximity to the Queen’s funeral. So we’d ask that you nominate to have you entry transferred to a later event from Round 3 onwards (full list of events is on our website homepage).

Again, please email us at ycca@hotmail.co.uk with your full name, race category, date of birth and British Cycling number and put the word “transfer” in the subject line of your email. Then simply let us know the date and round number of the event you want to have your entry transferred to. Deadline – please let us know by 9pm on Saturday 10^th September.

We will compile a full list of transfers and add them to the appropriate events as the events go live for entries. You will receive a confirmation email once this has happened. This may take a couple of weeks.

NO PRESSURE WASHERS AT EVENTS

As if things weren’t complicated enough, we’re also asking everyone not to use any kind of pressure washers at our events during the hosepipe ban in Yorkshire. Aside from the obvious need to do our bit to support the water-saving sacrifices we are all making, the bad PR likely to come from a public park full of jet-washers running at full blast doesn’t bear thinking about.

The ban includes all pressurised petrol or electric/battery powered washers and hand-pump pressurised units. This ban extends to all parts of our venues, including car parking areas. Please keep it simple and don’t bring them with you. We will disqualify riders who ignore this request.

Pitting and bike wash areas will be provided at events as usual and you will be very welcome to use water, buckets, sponges and brushes, plus spare bikes.

The ban will remain in place until the hosepipe ban in Yorkshire is lifted.

We have a stand-alone race for women at all our 2022-23 season series events (see story below for dates).

To support this, we’re planning four FREE women’s coaching sessions to help you prepare for the season and to get to grips with the sport.

There are 4 dates.

• Saturday 20th August – Yorksport (YO10 5FG)
• Saturday 27th August – Yorksport (YO10 5FG)
• Saturday 3rd September – Leeds Urban Bike Park  (LS10 3TN)
• Saturday 10th September – Leeds Urban Bike Park (LS10 3TN)

We plan to assemble a mix of female and male coaches plus some more experienced female racers to chat to, demo riding for you and to answer questions etc  and have a coffee with. The aim is to de-mystify the sport for newcomers and provide the inside knowledge that is often hard to pick up as a newcomer. Plus link you up with some friendly faces who you’ll be racing with/against.

All sessions are 10am – 1pm. But the times can be a little more flexible depending on feedback.  They will be mainly focused on technique, what happens on a race day etc, so riders shouldn’t be put off by the timings. We aren’t there to do a 3 hour ride. There will be a visit to the cafe in that time, lots of chance to practice new skills and time to ask lots of questions. 

These are all before the season starts so you can carry the skills straight into a race. 

Register* by dropping us an email to – yccacoaching@outlook.com

*Please give name and contact phone plus email along with the session(s) you are registering for (you can ride as many as you want). If you need childcare in order to attend then please add this in to the registration email and we will look to provide a crèche type facility. We can’t cater for very young children. 

You should be aged 16 or above on 1 September. There is no upper age limit.

The 2022 Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross AGM took place on Thursday 31 March.

This was the first AGM for 2 years and a good turnout saw over 20 riders, organisers and committee members working through a packed agenda, with Andy Whitworth chairing.

The key outcomes are as follows:

After countless years of dedicated volunteer work for Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross, Fred Rothwell announced that he will stand down as secretary with immediate effect. Fred’s contribution to Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross has been immense. No one has given so much and been so influential as the sport has grown and developed in Yorkshire. The meeting attendees gave Fred a massive hand, showing their appreciation for everything he has done.

Treasurer, Pete Sutton, also gave notice that he intends to step back from his role, though he will remain on hand during a transitional period over the coming months. He too has given selflessly to the sport for many years and his influence will be missed when he finally hands over the reins.

Yorkshire Cyclo-Cross are looking for a volunteer to become Treasurer. If you are interested, please contact the Committee, via ycca@hotmail.co.uk.

The plans for Fred Rothwell’s replacement are, in themselves, a mark of how much Fred has had on his plate in recent years. After some discussion, it was decided to divide the role into four:

1/ Secretary – fulfilling the traditional administrational role at the heart of the organisation, in particular at meetings. YCC regular and established Committee member (and British Cycling Cyclo-Cross commission member) Ted Sarmiento will take on this role.

2/ Event Co-ordinator – looking after the event organisers and the race calendar, including advice on course layout and design and the provision of course building materials. Shibden CC’s Ian Spencer will take this role, his credentials as an innovative event organiser well established within the sport.

3/ Communications Co-ordinator – looking after the organisation’s website, social media and providing support to the online event process and results systems. Phil Ingham, who has helped Fred and YCC with comms on and off for over 15 years, will take up this role.

4/ Commissaire Co-ordinator – ensuring that commissaires are booked for events in the region. YCC President Richard Fenn will be taking on this role, which should dovetail with his own contributions as an active commissaire at many races.

The AGM also saw discussion of the upcoming summer series, with the first event, hosted by Shibden CC at their Hunsworth training venue on Wednesday 27 April. A provisional calendar is on our homepage.

Following the discussions at the 2020 AGM that centred on rewarding clubs for hosting events, the end of season 2021-2022 surplus was divided equally between all the clubs who ran Yorkshire Points Events during the season. The aim being to reward those clubs for running events and to help them develop coaching and events.

There were also significant donations from the same source to the Mike Scott and John Rawnsley Funds, both of which support young riders as they progress towards racing nationally and internationally.

Following the cancellation of the 2021-22 season awards evening, it was decided to aim to combine the presentation of outstanding awards from the season at the end of summer presentation, at the conclusion of the summer CX series. More details to follow.

Finally, discussion of the detail of future event schedules, category combinations and other event-specific decisions were deferred to the next Committee Meeting, which is expected to be in the very near future.