Friday 15 June 2012

Palefish Cycle Club is born

Just over 14 months ago I started riding with the Wirral Mamils, who were meeting at Vita cycles in Irby. It was the first time I had ridden with a club or in a group.
4 months ago I competed in my first Time Trial, and I didn't do too bad.
In 8 days time I will have had my new bike for a year and ridden over 4600 miles (it must be time for a new bike soon?)
In the last year I have lost over 2 stone, and I gave up alcohol for 100 days! I do need to get back on the weight loss though as I have plateaued.

What  am trying to show is that my cycling adventure has had some significant milestones in the last year, and my journey is about meet another one.

In recent weeks you may have noticed that I have not been riding with the Team and Club at Vita. I decided I needed to take a step back and put the brakes on the speed at which my cycling journey was moving at.
I had a great time riding, and leading the Club rides on a Saturday morning, and have made many new friends along the way.

Since January, I have been out most Tuesday and Thursday nights with Paul Tim and Dave. As the nights have got lighter and the weather a little better (at least we are not in minus degree temperatures) the number of riders has increased. This week on Tuesday night there were 10 of us spinning through the lanes in the sun.


It has been during these rides, in the last couple of weeks, that the plan to develop our own club has grown. We have discussed why we ride our bikes, what we want to get out of being in a club, and what we can put into a club. 
The overriding motivation for us to ride is for fun and camaraderie, rather than competition and speed. We have all made huge improvements in our own fitness and capabilities on a bike, and we don't want to stop improving. What we do want to do is ride more Sportives and other organised rides, and then share our experiences here! We also want to welcome new riders, who may be nervous of joining a mainstream club, and getting them to a level where they are comfortable riding in a group, and have a good level of bike skills and then feel able to either ride Sportives with us, or go on and join a club with a race team. 

Another important thing that we all want is a way to keep the cost of our hobby at a reasonable level. To achieve this, I have been having discussions with some of our local bike shops, and I am happy to say that as a member of Palefish CC you will be able to benefit from discounts and support at Cheshire Oaks Cycles, The Bike shop at Moreton and Formby cycles


When I launched the Palefish Logo earlier in the year, I was asked frequently if there would be any jerseys with the logo on. Well, I am happy to say that I have had conversations with a Jersey producer, who is happy to work with me in designing a club jersey, and the guys who have been riding with me have all said they would like to ride in Palefish CC jerseys. 
Watch this blog for details on how the process is progressing.

If you are interested in joining us on an evening ride on a Tuesday or Thursday, we normally meet at the Twelfth Man on Greasby Road at 7.30. We are also hoping to do some longer rides at the weekend, on either day, whichever suits the majority. This week we are riding on Sunday and heading out to Delamere for a Dads day treat!

To communicate all our activities I have set up a Facebook Group  and a Facebook Page where I will post ride details and can send invites to rides to group members.
I have also created a group page on Wheelsuckers, a social network site for Road Cyclists. All you have to do is sign up to the site and then you can join the page. I will also post Ride details here and send invites too.
Finally there is Twitter. All details about the evening rides will have the hash tag #730atthe12th in the message. If you search for the tag you should find the details!

So, Palefish CC is born. The club is an inclusive club with the emphasis on riding our bikes for pleasure,and fun, and then as the Wirral Mamil lads say, when we get back talk about it as if we have just completed a stage of the Tour De France! We are not planning on taking over the world (yet) and there are some really great clubs available on Wirral already, but it is always good to have a choice.







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