This year’s Beacon AGM will take place at 18:30 on Thursday 12 December 2024, via Zoom.
Please see the AGM notice sent out to all members by email for the Zoom link. Please check your spam folder if you haven’t received the AGM notice. If you can’t find it there, it’s likely we don’t have your email address on record, so please drop a line to membership@beaconrcc.org.uk so we can add it.
The agenda and committee members’ reports will be posted on the message board in due course.
Please give thought to how you can help the club continue to serve its members, and the sport of cycling in general.
This year’s Beacon AGM will take place at 18:30 on Thursday 7 December 2023, via Zoom.
Please see the AGM notice sent out to all members by email for the Zoom link. Please check your spam folder if you haven’t received the AGM notice. If you can’t find it there, it’s likely we don’t have your email address on record, so please drop a line to membership@beaconrcc.org.uk so we can add it.
The agenda and committee members’ reports will be posted on the message board in due course.
Please give thought to how you can help the club continue to serve its members, and the sport of cycling in general.
On Sunday 8 December, we’re co-organising a round of the West Midlands Cyclo-Cross League at Walsall Arboretum. Volunteers are required to help make the event a success, both on the day and the day before to help with preparations If you’re able to volunteer, please put you name down here. A volunteer briefing is available here and the rota is here.
For those keen to race, online entries are now closed, but entry on the day will be possible. The rider briefing can be downloaded here.
Update 6 December: Unfortunately, due to the field being waterlogged and having significant amounts of standing water even before Storm Darragh arrives, a decision has been made to cancel this event. Entrants should look out for a message being sent out via RiderHQ.
On Sunday 26 November, we’re again going to be co-organising a round of the West Midlands Cyclo-Cross League at Walsall Arboretum. Volunteers are required to help make the event a success, both on the day and the day before to help build the course. If you’re able to volunteer, please put you name down here. A volunteer briefing is available here, a rota here and a map here.
For those keen to race, online entries are now closed, but entry on the day will be possible. The rider briefing can be downloaded here.
The 2024 edition of the Beacon RCC’s flagship time trial event, the Little Mountain Time Trial, forming part of the CTT Merlin Cycles Classic Series, took place on 21 April on the K22/39 course, with the event headquarters at Great Witley Village Hall.
Congratulations to overall men’s and women’s winners Ben Goodwin and Kelly Murphy, road bike winners James Pearce and Louise Hart, fastest vet Mark Lovatt, junior winners Sophie Heighton and Jacob Bradbury, and paracyclist winner Mark Valentine.
Full results including category breakdowns are available via the links below.
Everyone is warmly invited to our annual celebration of everything we’ve achieved as a club in the last 12 months. This year, in line with feedback, we’ve pulled out all the stops to make the event more affordable and easier to get to for most of our members and their partners.
It’s coming home!
The Awards Night is getting back to its roots. For 2024, we’re using the grand mock-Tudor upstairs dining hall at the Black Horse, Northfield. It’s a fabulous, atmospheric setting that’s close enough for most members to get to by bike, or a short hop in an Uber. There’s parking on site and our ‘own’ private bar, which will be open for the duration. What’s not to like?
He’s one of our own!
Usually, we invite a guest speaker: someone from outside who has done extraordinary things and has amazing stories to tell. But why invite an outsider, when we’ve got someone like that right here amongst us? Pete Warwick isn’t just the solid clubman we know so well from Sunday runs. He’s also an adventurer, recently returned from exploring the length and breadth of New Zealand on byways and off-road tracks. And he’s a flippin’ good photographer to boot. Pete’s illustrated talk is guaranteed to fire your wanderlust!
There’s only one DJ Vince!
Our very own DJ Vince will be providing musical entertainment throughout the mingling parts of the evening, and a dance set at the end of the night to round off proceedings.
You’re gonna win f*** all?
At our Awards Night, we recognise all kinds of achievements. Race winners in a variety of disciplines, of course. But also hardy tourists, mile-eating audaxers, and those who make the Beacon tick by leading club runs and turning up to ride Sunday after Sunday. There are also prizes for the budding stars of the future, so ably nurtured by our Academy. All these people deserve their moment in the spotlight. So please come along to show your appreciation. And maybe get inspired to be standing with them next year.
You won’t be broke in the morning!
This year’s tickets are an absolute snip at £21 per head, or £15 for under-16s. And the price includes a drink at the bar! Plus, of course, an extensive buffet, with pizza slices, chicken nibbles, chips, salads, samosas and panini, including vegetarian options. Not to mention all the entertainment.
Sadly, the venue has no lift, and the staircase represents a challenge for anyone with mobility problems. We very much regret disadvantaging members with disabilities by our choice of venue. However, the alternative was to disadvantage the much greater number of members for whom soaring ticket prices represented a problem, and those who struggled with transport to and from our previous, out-of-town venue. Our venue choice is reviewed annually, and we won’t hesitate to move future Awards Nights to a more disability-friendly venue if one can be identified that keeps the event both affordable and reachable.
In the closing weeks of each year, we get together to recognise the achievements of our members during the season just ended. This year’s Annual Dinner and Prize Presentation will be held on Saturday 18 November, starting at 18:00.
In line with feedback from the survey we did earlier in the year, this year’s event is going to be a little different. Here’s what we’ve got lined up:
A great venue
To make sure the event stays affordable and accessible, we’re using Kings Norton Golf Club again this year. There’s a spacious function room and a cosy bar, both with wheelchair access, in a leafy setting on the edge of town.
Reception
You’ll be served with Prosecco or a non-alcoholic alternative on arrival.
Buffet meal
We’ll still have tables where you can sit and eat sociably with your friends. But instead of a three-course meal brought to you, you’ll select from a delicious buffet that caters for a range of preferences and dietary needs.
Guest speaker
We’re delighted to have Bristol University’s Dr Fiona Spotswood as our guest speaker this year. Fiona is an avid mountain-biker whose specialist field is fostering inclusive action sports. She’ll be giving a lively and an inspiring half-hour talk on bringing more young people and women into the sport we all love. Don’t miss it!
Award presentation
Medals and trophies will be presented to club members who have excelled in a wide variety of competitive and non-competitive fields. Come along to hear what your club-mates have been doing, and show your appreciation.
Music and dancing, led by our very own cycling DJ Vince!
There’ll be quiet areas where you can chat and drink, if you prefer.
Ample opportunity for mingling
One of the main things to come out of the survey was that people wanted the formalities kept short, leaving more time for catching up with friends. We’ve therefore opted for a buffet format, without any cross-toasting, enabling us to move on to the guest speaker and awards earlier in the evening. The duration of those slots will also be limited, so that the whole of the second half of the evening is free for mingling and chatting.
All-in price of £35
Catering costs and venue hire prices have shot up in the last couple of years. Continuing with the traditional event format would have meant either an eye-watering ticket price, or a whopping subsidy from the club’s reserves. However, by making the changes described and securing a modest subsidy from central funds, we’ve been able to reduce the ticket price this year to £35.
We really hope you can make it on 18 November for a great evening celebrating the Beacon, and everything our members do. Current, former and prospective Beacon members and friends of the club are all welcome, as are their partners, family and guests.
The Beacon Cycling Academy hosted the 2024 British Schools Cycling Association West Midlands Regional Grass Track Championships on 20 July, serving also as the National Championships. The provisional results from the day are now available here; if you spot any errors, please contact academy@beaconrcc.org.uk!
The Beacon Cycling Academy hosted the 2023 British Schools Cycling Association West Midlands Regional Grass Track Championships on 19 August, which this year also served as the National Championships for school years 1 to 8. The full results from the day are now available here. Photos of the event are available here.
My interest in audaxes really first began in 2021, the first year when I started cycling. In nothing less than my usual style I threw myself in at the deep end, my first audax being a 200km. I’d never ridden 200km in my life, so to choose the Kidderminster Killer as my first audax was nothing short of a little bonkers!
I remember that day vividly. Mariana was volunteering that morning, serving out hot drinks. She took one confused look at me and asked: “You’re doing this?!” That morning eight of us started out and by the end, 11:30 pm, way past the cut-off line, a mere four of us rode into Belbroughton having barely survived! Following the traumatic experience of that ride I kind of gave up audaxes!
Following the Kidderminster Killer, I completed Ride Across Britain and still did the occasional 100 miler and last year I even did my first 300km. That in itself was a story to tell, one where myself and Cédric were riding through Birmingham exhausted at 1 am, determined to get our cycling computers to 200 miles!
At the age of six, my dad asked me what I wanted to do when I was older. I told him that I wanted to be an explorer! That passion for adventure never left and instead grew. In my twenties, I travelled extensively, backpacking for six months around Asia taking in the culture, history and breathtaking scenery in places like Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam and Laos. I once road-tripped in the USA with 10 people in a minivan for six weeks and during that time saw 40 states. I always felt at home on the road.
I’m finding that audaxes are a great way to do a ton of miles, get fit, switch off from the stressors of life and most importantly to me, see new places. Over the last 12 months my lifestyle has changed considerably. At present I live half the month in the Lake District and the other half in Bromsgrove. This means that northern adventures to wild places in Scotland have suddenly become accessible!
In February this year, I wanted a new challenge, and with a mixture of excitement and nervousness I signed up to complete the calendar event Efengyl (Gospel) 200. This ride commenced the Randonneur Round the Year (RRtY) for me.
I wish I could say completing 200km rides every month has been easy with a tailwind always on my back. Sadly, the reality is that that is just the Instagram story! The first 200km I did this year was the Efengyl through Bristol Audax Club in February. All weather conditions were thrown at us that day! I remember being at the top of Gospel Pass thinking that I was going to be blown off my bike! I was amazed by the grit and determination of some of the older cyclists. As I stood at the side of the road in the dark in pain, they soldiered on at a steady but consistent pace.
Brum 200 was challenging mentally. The route predicted the elevation was going to be 4,000ft; a nice flat 200km, so I thought! (So much so that I’d planned for my parents to come round for a BBQ at 6 pm!) One hour late for my folks and after 8,000ft of climbing, I’d completed the ride, very ready to throw my bike in a bush! I promptly wrote to Audax UK the following day telling them I felt lied to and that I wanted some AAA points! Instead, they sent me a Brum 200 badge!
Facing adversity taught me the importance of adaptability, grit, and maintaining a positive mindset. One thing I hate doing is quitting. The hardest thing I’ve ever done is LEJOG in nine days. At that point I’d been cycling for nine months. I’d never really been into fitness or even going to the gym, so it was hard going. Anytime I’m having a hard day on the bike I remind myself of the tough things I have previously done and what I am capable of.
I go back to my ‘why’. For me, cycling gives me such a buzz, the sort where you’ve had the hardest, most challenging day and all of sudden you get on your bike and smile because you feel alive. There have been times when, being a children’s social worker, I’ve had such a stressful day worried about a child’s welfare. Previous habits would have turned me to a glass of wine to help me relax. These days, riding long miles are that replacement, providing mental clarity, being in the present and appreciating the simple joys of solitude, the beauty of nature, and the power of perseverance.
My dream is to explore more remote, wild and unexplored places by bike; the sort where you have to take a satellite phone as backup. For me, true beauty lies in exploring wilderness and cultures and in my view, that is best done on a bike.
I’ll sign off with a quote, one I read for the first time a few months ago. Reading it sent shivers down my spine as to me it sums up everything about my ‘why’:
They say cycling sets you free, and it’s true. Take your hands off the bar, sit up and look around. You’re free as a bird. Or, as one popular Spanish saying puts it, you have birds in the mind. For as well as setting us free physically, cycling has the power to help us switch off. On the map and in our minds, where we end up is up to us. Tener pájaros en la cabeza.
This is the second in a new series of audax reports. You can read the first, by John Williams, here.
