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Champion! He came home with the rainbow jersey in the Junior category, in
which older brother Dan won a silver medal last year. It’s so rewarding to see
people you know rising to the top. Herne Hill Youth CC was just a springboard
though – we were much more about just having fun, though we did push them
a bit in our Saturday morning sessions. Abi and Ben and Dan all did their
serious training elsewhere as they got older so I can’t claim much credit for
their success, just bask in their reflected glory.
I have had a whinge for years now – that in winter, the clocks go back on the
last Sunday in October, which is 7 weeks before the winter solstice, depriving
us of evening training time. Then they don’t go forward again until the last
Sunday in March, which is 13 weeks after the solstice – so that we don’t get
our training time back, or get to cycle home from work in daylight until 6
weeks after we could have.

Not that I’ve been particularly good at motivating myself to train much in
the winter for a while, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Still, we’re here now. The evenings are now lighter and the temperature is
starting to creep above 10 degrees and we can now look forward to another
cycling season. It’s a pity that the Good Friday meeting is no longer going
to be our perennial season opener. The SCCU has had to make the difficult
but wise decision not to risk thousands of quid on promoting such a huge
show at the start of the year, since it hasn’t worked out very well for them
for a few years. We’re all sad about this, but looking at the Velodrome
calendar, (see www.hernehillvelodrome.com) there’s lots happening, and a
really busy track schedule, with Open track meetings on the first Saturday
of every month, starting on Saturday 7 th April with the 5 th Floor Open Season
meeting.

Other major events for your calendars are our AGM on the 23 rd starting at
7.30pm at the Velodrome, and our Open 10 on the 28 th on the Isle of Grain.
Please see elsewhere in this issue for more details of these, I’m looking
forward to seeing you all there.

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