[Dougie]

sorry – that was rude not to reply! I didn’t want to affect the outcome as wasn’t sure whether I could make it or not – thanks for posting the update!

[Dougie]

wouldn’t make it every Tuesday but would be keen to join in

[Dougie]

I agree with the general feeling here that it is disappointing that members such as Gordon are not planning to renew membership. I don’t know Gordon well enough to ask him why he won’t be renewing – it’s possible that he has given his reasons and they remain private (which is entirely fair enough) however if he is leaving because of a perceived dissatisfaction with FWCC then, if only to protect against this sort of thing happening in the future, would it not be appropriate to address any issues? If there are no issues then the club does not need to give any consideration to changes. My experience with running clubs (in the last century!) was that athletes tended to stay club members for life though often non competing officials (aka unpaid helpers, stewards, timekeepers, etc.) were honorary life members in recognition of the service they had given the club. Again, my experience of FWCC and the cycling scene in general is not sufficient to offer anything other than superfifial observation.

[Dougie]

I’ve got experience in education and may still have some contacts at sqa but the key to it is a traffic free circuit of some description – being relatively new to the area I don’t have contacts or knowledge of how to make this come about. Being retired I would be available to put some time into a working group but it would need someone with more experience of the club and what has been tried in the past to drive a project like this forward.

[Dougie]

I don’t know much about how the club is involved with young riders but I think the best place to start development is with schools. There’s a (not entirely unfounded) perception that road cycling is risky so in order to counter this I think it is worth looking at some sort of closed road circuit. Is there any potential for this on the Ardeer peninsula site? If looking at secondary school age then it’s probably worth doing some work at matching cycling with SQA frameworks for educational outcomes, this might also work for FE students doing sports related courses. Working at primary school level could be hampered by the availability of junior sized road bikes though with creative thinking and possible grant money this shouldn’t be insurmountable. Using closed groups on strava (like the FWCC group) should allow inter school competition and there’s the obvious attraction of leaderboards (which could be age group adjusted) for different segments within the safe area. I think once competitive people are introduced to something like strava they will be self motivated to improve and it is up to the club to persuade potential members that being a club member is the best environment for development.

[Dougie]

sorry I missed this – would have been keen – next time!

[Dougie]

cool – I’d really like to join in – I’ll keep an eye out for more details

[Dougie]

I tried to post a link to the great tour website but I think the site protection perhaps prevents links being displayed. There’s a facebook page at @TheGreatTourUK that gives details. Essentially a charity ride round the coast of UK riders welcome to join in – I’m thinking the Dumbarton – Ayr stage will come past my house so thought about doing Saltcoats – Ayr at least. I think Mark Beaumont joined them yesterday but Pippa Yorke is (I think) doing all of Scotland – tbh I don’t know much about it either!

[Author]

Posts