Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Vets

Dear members,

I’d like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. This year the Club ran over 70 racing events for members, i.e more than one per week. That is a huge effort and I’d like to thank the members of the Committee, in particular Phill Coulton for all his work on road approvals, Kirsti McVay for keeping us afloat as a club, Rob Langridge for all the efforts in ensuring appropriate grades for each rider, Jan Koehler for all the extra support she has provided both the Committee and the club, Paul Robey for stepping in a number of times to run races and be the First Aider and Kim Malcolm for his help in organising the gunning two day and ensuring medals are able to be presented to riders. Ian Morton has continued his fantastic work in publishing the Bleat every week and keeping us all up to date and I also thank Allan Bontjer for his work on the RMS. I also want to thank Graham Hendrie (the Van Man) for his support of the road race series and Graeme O’Neill and, in his absence, Michael Langdon for running the ever exciting Track series. Behind the scenes Ian Albrey has been of tremendous assistance to me this year dealing with both insurance and legal issues at the National Level. If you missed last night’s meet, a committee member was awarded club person of the year. That person is Ian McVay, the Vets Vice President. As you may be aware, a few year ago the Club went through a spate of cancelled races due to a number of issues. Ian’s hard work this year has ensured a minimum of issues with this year’s race program and I sincerely thank him for his efforts.

I’d like to offer a special thanks to all those that volunteered their time to marshal or direct races. Without your efforts there simply would be no races.

With the coming year the club is in for some challenges in the form of changes to our racing venues, in particular Stromlo. There is a current plan that will see “Collarbone Corner” replaced with a simple hot dog turn due to the development of several sports fields in the area east of the Crit track. The ACT Vets have been fighting this change throughout 2018 and intend to keep the pressure up in 2019. As always we have a perennial challenge of seeking road and venue approvals from separate State (NSW) and Territory (ACT) bodies. I am particularly proud that the club was able to race on some different venues this year in the form of Cooma and the Sutton Driver Training Centre. An additional challenge is to keep membership prices as low as possible whilst ensuring maximum insurance coverage for members and, thanks to Ian Albrey’s work, we have been able to get away with a small increase in membership prices for 2019. This is a good time to remind you all to RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP!!

A final thanks must be said to you, the member. I have thoroughly enjoyed racing with you in 2018 (except perhaps for that small stack earlier in the year). The club continues to thrive thanks to your membership. Members are engaging and always have a story to tell. All I ask is that if you get tapped on the shoulder to help out with a race, say YES. There are 70 more to compete in and you won’t miss out. Your assistance in running a race is extremely valued by the club.

All the best for 2019 and I hope that Santa brings you at least one pair of cycling socks and hopefully that always sought after n+1 bike!

Regards,

Dougal Torrance
President,
ACT Veterans Cycling Club.