Sunday Runs Staggered Ride Starts - Trial 24th Nov 2013

Hi Everyone,

With swelling numbers attending the Sunday rides it has become necessary for the safety of all to review the way these rides are organised.

We are going to trial staggered Sunday run starts over the next few weeks starting this weekend from the Light Railway Cafe. The first ride will leave at 9am approx as normal.

Of the 3 runs that happen every Sunday morning, the intermediate run is the most popular, attracting up to 60 riders. As you all know we impose a limit of 15 - 20 riders per group on the road :).

The 3 current Sundays-runs are:

• Fast group, Championed by Danny Frost, Captained by Bob Sanders. (10-20 Riders). This group will be the first to leave the cafe car park.
• Intermediate group run by Eric / Trevor. (50+ Riders) This group is the second to leave the  cafe car park.
• The mid-way Cafe Stop group run by John laker. (8+ Riders) This is the last group to leave the cafe car park. (This can be a 50+ mile steady paced ride)

New Sunday Ride Group Sizes 

We need to break up the intermediate's run into sub-groups of 15 - 20 riders and set them off from the Cafe at intervals of  3 -5 mins (depending how cold it is).

Please note these pointers for you to follow.

• On arriving at cafe start to congregate into groups, with the riders you want to ride with;
• These groups to then join up with others to form a club run with a max 20 riders; (this may need to be intially facilitated)
• Set off at 3 minute intervals from the cafe;
• Travel at the slowest rider's speed;
• Two abreast maximum;
• On the return leg, the sub-groups can split by mutual consent.

All the sub-groups of the intermediate run will follow the same route for this trial. Trevor and Eric will be ride captains, if there is a need for a third group, a leader will be appointed on the morning of the ride. If no one volunteers there will be a need for at least a couple of riders to be familiar with the day's chosen route.

Each group should normally stay together throughout the ride. However, if they do need to stop due to punctures/'mechanicals'/calls of nature they should endeavour to stay as one (as is at the moment) and if they come together with another group because of the delay then they shouldn’t merge and try to remain two groups for safety so that cars etc can pass easily.

A suggested group gap being 2 minutes minimum.

The last sub-group will act as a sweeper group if necessary and be responsible for any stranded riders which can unfortunately happen sometimes. For this reason the last sub-group leaving the Cafe car park will be the smallest.

The runs captains will make themselves known this Sunday morning to try and help everyone get organised into the sub-groups (Hopefully!)



There may be updates to this message; pop back Saturday to check.


Gordon, Eric, Trevor, Don.