Alton Cycling Club held their Annual Awards Dinner at Beech Village Hall on Friday 1st March.
We had a great turnout of club members and partners who enjoyed an excellent meal provided once again by Anne Moore from local company PlanB Catering. There was a good selection of drinks including great ales from our sponsor Triple fff Brewery. Many thanks to them!
Musical accompaniment for the evening was provided by ex-club member Kelvin Parker who definitely knows his way around the saxophone.
Club Chairman (Guy Henshaw) welcomed us to the event and thanked the
organising team, the Committee and our other sponsors Owens Cycles and Hi-Tech Heating.
Highlight of the evening was listening to an illustrated talk by one of our oldest (and most illustrious) club members Alan Jacob. Alan, who was born in 1936, chose to talk about his participation, and victory, in the 1963 London-Holyhead one-day elite road race. This 265 mile race, on open roads and not much in the way of team support, was run on just 9 occasions with the first event coinciding with the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Over the next ten years the race (100kms longer than its nearest rival Porto-Lisbon) achieved almost mythical status amongst the British cycling fraternity.
In a Q&A session after the talk, Alan was partnered by his contemporary (and Condor Mackeson team-mate) Doug Collins who, unbelievably, had attempted the same race on an early version of Moulton bicycle with 17” wheels. His memories of the race, and the bicycle, were not entirely happy ones!
‘Chapeau’ (as they say) to all involved!
Club champions for the 2023 season were presented their trophies with the following winners:
Ladies’ Hill Climb Cup, Ruth Stratford
Men’s Hill Climb Cup, James Allen
Ladies’ Strava Segment Challenge, Ruth Stratford
Men’s Segment Challenge, Shaun Blow
A special award for outstanding service to the Club was awarded to Becci May for her amazing work as publicity secretary.
Darren Lavender was voted Club Member of the Year for his fantastic efforts in organising rides and for being such a good bloke!
Owen Speake received a special mention for incredible endurance riding, including his recent completion of the Atlas Mountains Race in Morocco. Congratulations to all our winners!
