Sussex Cycle Racing LeagueAlas, the rain was too persistent and the track will most likely not dry in time. There is just too much water.
Any entries will be refunded automatically, but if you are in a hurry for it you can process this yourself on Rider HQ.
There is a post on our Facebook user group here to see who/how many will still be going for post-season drinks (NOT at the King and Queen, it’s the Crown and Anchor at the bottom of Preston Drove).
As its the last meet of the season the last race will be a marymoor crawl. This will be for fun and a few token prizes, no league points involved.
For those who don’t know, the Marymoor Crawl is what some people may know as a “slow race”.
Riders will form up on the track, at a predetermined point, (usually around 100 metres-ish) from the finish line. When the start whistle blows, riders may not:
At some point after two minutes, the bell will ring, and it is then a straight one lap dash all the way around for the finish line. Prizes usually only for first spot but its always worth sprinting for pride đ
Get some track-standing practice in!
Some people have mentioned that they would like to try judging but are too worried about getting it wrong. This is generally unfounded as we never rely on just one person and you would get a few weeks with other judges to get used to it.
So with that in mind, as the Marymoor Crawl does not involve any league points its the ideal race to try it out.
Have a word with the judges at some point in the evening to arrange.
The plan is to pop down the Crown and Anchor at the bottom of the road by the Traffic Lights for a couple of drinks after the racing finishes. Come one come all! (if it is rained off with the small threat of rain that is there at the moment perhaps we will start early!)
We are in the process of organising our end of year AGM where trophies and medals can be picked up. Keep an eye on our usual channels for information.
We intend to break out our league rollers for a short roller racing session too. This will be a short “taster” ahead of a planned roller racing evening once a month “out of season”. More info will follow.
Don’t forget to give back your number at the end! Numbers cost money!
Really sorry to have to do this but, along with there being only 2 volunteers stepping up for tomorrow as marshals, due to holidays and other demands on the “usual ssupects” time I am the only “official” available to do sign on, judging and be organiser. I’m afriad it isn’t going to happen. If it was needed, this is a stark reminder of how dependant the league is on just a few very active and ever willing volunteers. Something has to change.
I will attempt to get an email out to everyone who has booked and figure out how to move your bookings to another time. Please be patient as the booking system is not something I have first hand experience of.
Next week hopefully
As has been mentioned before, we have LOTS of regular volunteers away over the last few weeks. Red slots on the sheet MUST BE FILLED. There are currently (At time of writing) NO SLOTS FILLED BY ANYONE. NO WRITEY = NO RACEY!
Add your name to the list here.
If you want to contribute to the continuation of the league and its activities at Preston Park we need more organisers. The approximately one hour online course is on this Tuesday 6pm (August 2nd). Sign up will close at 6pm Monday 1st, but until then you can sign up here.
If you missed the numerous other posts about what an organiser is and what is involved, read this post.
It’s the second (first was rained off) chance for A riders to have a shot at the ten mile scratch this week (28 laps). If there are not at least ten riders for this, it will be a regular 8 lap scratch and As will race a dash later like everyone else. If you are an A that’s keen on it, encourage some more A riders to enter here.
The organiser training looks like it will be the evening of Tuesday the 12th July, over Zoom (or similar). Just three people have expressed a wish to attend so far. If no-one else is willing to be an organiser there is little chance of any racing at all next year. You can put your name down on the form here.
The original post, once again, with some info about organising is here.
In a similar vein, we need to fill the volunteer spreadsheet as usual. If you can marshal or judge or any other help, please put your name down here. Someone who can do sign-on this week would be useful while Dave is away.
We are just about ready to close the survey on this before we make a decision about whether there is enough interest or not. Last chance to have your say is here.
Lots to talk about, so grab a beverage of choice (make ours a cold one) and read on…. (or click a link to go straight to that part)
Event Organiser Training
Track League Volunteers
Moved or Transferred Entries
New Warm Up Protocol
Another new race!
Further to previous notices about the need for more event organisers, British Cycling South East have offered some times when the online training course will be available. Why do we need to do this?
More details are in the original post here, but in brief, the organiser role is essentially the person running the event at the venue on the day.
Remember, the more organisers we have, the easier it is, the less likely there will be cancelled events.
If you are interested please fill out the form here and we will contact you closer to the time. For reference, the available evenings are:
It’s great that we now have so many parents involved in the racing. The downside of this is that we are now very tight on volunteers to fill the required marshal spots of an evening.
With that, we see the return of the volunteer spreadsheet. We need to see this filled by Wednesday 3pm (when entries close) every week, otherwise racing may well not happen. For those who have not used it before, the spreadsheet is public so just add your name to slots you can fill.
The marshal points are a non-negotiable part of our risk assessment, so they MUST be present in the numbers required.
From next season, we will be looking at some alternate methods of ensuring that volunteer spots are filled and that racing goes ahead.
There seems to be a bit of confusion about how transferred entries work, so we should make it clear.
In the interest of safety, we are going to try a new warm up protocol from this week.
We would also like to remind all riders of the basic warm up etiquette, in particular.
This week we will be introducing another new race – the course de points!
This is similar to the tempo race, in that one point every specified number of laps (every lap for youth minor, every other lap for everyone else) is used not to decide a winner, but is added directly to the riders league total. For the last lap, the usual points for 1st through 6th place are awarded, so even if one or two break off the front, there is still something to play for on the last lap.
Just as a quick example:
Rider 1 gets 5 points for the second place plus two points from the points laps so 7 points are added to their league total.
Rider 2 gets 4 points for the third place plus one point from the points lap, so 5 points are added to their league total.
Rider 3 gets the 6 points from first place added to their league total.
Regardless of what I said last week, this is actually the halfway point of the season. Looks to be a scorcher! No rain in sight!
This week we will have a new race: The Snowball.
This is like a tempo race but with increasing points. So first over the line on lap one gets one point. First over the line on lap two gets two points, and so on. Tied points are decided on final lap placings.
See the schedule here.
Week #10 will be sprint champs week. We can’t publish the schedule in advance until we know how many riders we have for the competition, but sign up is now open here.
There is information on the event in RiderHQ, but for those who have not raced our Sprint Championships before, here’s a quick rundown:
We have another accreditation session this Friday. We always need some experienced riders to give the new riders a proper feel of riding in a bunch, so please come along and have some free pedal time!
If you know anyone who might want to join the accreditation, they can still enter here.
Hi, hopefully you wonât mind me hijacking the track league post to place an advert on behalf of a friend who has just emigrated but was unable to take her brand-new electric bike with her so is looking to sell it. Specifically, it is a 23 inch âBabymakerâ, still in its box and currently residing at her parentâs home in Uxbridge. She is looking for ÂŁ1,000 for it and collected by the buyer but both are negotiable. If you or someone you know is looking for a little E-Help to offset the rising fuel prices (or just fancy a bit of easier pedalling) then email me at results@scrl.co.uk and I will put you in contact with them. Happy Riding! Ben (your chief judge).
Not the way we wanted to reach the halfway point of the season, but I’m afraid the weather was against us once again. The track is sopping wet, and more is forecast for later anyway. So lets call it now and we can sit on the turbo for a bit or go out and get wet if that’s your thing…
This weeks entries will be rolled over to next week. If you can’t make next week send an email to promoter@scrl.co.uk and I’ll move it to our holding event until you want it moved back (or you can do it yourself via Rider HQ).
Thanks for the response from a few people last week to cover the spots needed, even if it didn’t happen!
This week (#8) we have a different set of regulars away, and so will need more people there from 6pm once again. If you can be there to help please email volunteer@scrl.co.uk
This was to be the second time we would have run a 10 mile scratch for the seniors but with such low A level attendance this will probably not pan out. If we get at least 15 senior A riders entered then we will run it if desired, otherwise the schedule will be altered accordingly.
Again, there will also be an alternate mixed senior A/B schedule in the event of low senior A or B entry.
This also needs a few volunteers to make the session safe and successful, please again email volunteer@scrl.co.uk