Eastern Bloc Cycling Club
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2017 Fresh Ride Ideas and March 11 Spring Kick Off Dinner!
Posting on behalf of the EBCC Board
Hi All,
Since winter made an extraordinary entrance this past week, and the days are becoming noticeably longer, it seems like an appropriate time to spark the interests of current, past and new EBCC members for 2017. It doesn’t seem like long ago that we were winding down a great year of weather and riding!
2016 lead to some great conversations about how we can provide more opportunities to EBCC members, offer more social opportunities, help develop junior cyclists and welcome racers of all disciplines, categories and ages. EBCC has a well-established ride calendar and a forum that can be a helpful resource throughout the spring and summer. That has been years in the making! Now we are seeking to offer a variety of ‘focused’ riding groups!
The key to these ‘focused’ groups is to have fun while achieving a particular shared cycling goal! Ultimately, people would ride together by coordinating specific rides in an effort to be best prepared for a specific event. An example may be having the D2R2 as a goal in August. That group would plan rides for members interested in preparing for that event. This experience will be fun, rewarding and offer an additional social component, while helping you achieve a particular cycling goal.
With that being said, some of the ideas are presented below. We ask that you think about your interests, consider if you would like to be a part of one of these groups, or become a group coordinator with your own cycling goal. There is a lot of excitement and we are devoting the Annual Spring Meeting on March 11th to the continued conversations that will make these rides and club goals a reality! We are looking forward to a year of renewed energy and safe riding within Eastern Bloc Cycling Club and Benidorm Bikes!
Hope you will read on and see what captures your interests. Please let Pat or Jan know of your questions and/or ideas. You will be hearing more from us, but this was just to get you thinking!
Looking forward to a safe and plentiful year of riding!
EBCC Officers and Board
Spring Kick Off Meeting
Saturday, March 11th, 2017 Berkshire Hall, Brodie Park, New Hartford
MARK YOUR CALENDARS and Let’s prepare for a year with shared cycling goals! Time will be confirmed in a separate email
2017 Eastern Bloc Cycling Club / Benidorm Bikes Ride Group Ideas
Gravel Grinder Group
Coordinator: Ron Beliveau
The ultimate ride will be The Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnee (D2R2) on August 19, 2017 (distance TBD) with several dirt road rides throughout the spring and summer. There are numerous opportunities in this growing discipline of cycling. If you are interested, Ron will be the person to connect with at the meeting. Rides will be coordinated for earlier dates and your group will decide where and when you’ll be riding. The communication will be a bit more personal and fun! Everyone is always welcomed on the regular ride calendar rides!
Gran Fondo Group
Coordinator: Brent, Brett, Walt???
Same concept as the Gravel Group…we have to confirm the group coordinator and determine Gran Fondo events that you may choose to participate in, or just planning your own. How about considering the Gran Fondo New England on September 30, 2017 at The KMC Cross Fest held in Thompson, CT?
Time Trial Series
Coordinator: Pat Cunnungham, Jan Tanner
The race against time will include a monthly time trial. The considered time trial efforts include East & West River Road, Mountain Road, Lost Acres, Sandy Brook or some other unidentified routes. We could even have Strava segments identified for a ‘leaderboard’ on a given day.
Bike Path Series
Coordinator: Bonnie & Mike Smith, Larry English, Don Myers???
With a growing interest of safe riding on the bike path, how about some coordinated efforts to seek new areas of bike paths locally, or in the state?
Junior Development
Coordinator: Peter Kiernan and Robert Newton
The goal is to encourage any level of junior cyclist to participate in our established group rides with the more skilled riders serving as mentors, helping to develop respectful, strong riders! Jan helped with 4 junior cyclists and their cyclocross skill development and we can work to help them and others as they become introduced to cycling. Let’s encourage juniors to ride with us.
Women’s Development
Coordinator: ???
Just like the juniors, we would like to encourage women to participate in any of the scheduled rides, and become a part of any of the organized group ride events. The more we can have women participate and attend these rides, the stronger the representation will be!
Winding Trails Tri Series
Who wants to race individually or as a team? Let’s have pizza and a beer after the Tuesday races if you’re not on the Tuesday ride.
Did someone say WELCOME BACK to racing EBCC and Benidorm Bikes?
It’s true! We want you to race if you have the desire!
EBCC / Benidorm Bikes is registered with USA Cycling which allows you the opportunity to have a club affiliation and race. Once upon a time, Benidorm Bikes and EBCC had a great presence at road, mountain and cyclocross races. The racing has served as a hobby for most, so we would like to encourage anyone to try racing and build the camaraderie amongst the club for those interested in testing the physical and mental challenges of racing a bike! Really…it is fun, exhilarating, challenging and rewarding…maybe we’ll see you there! The goal is to build the interests again for road, mountain, cyclocross and triathlon racing without the requirements of a loaded schedule…unless that is what you want!
Do you have additional ideas or want to be a group coordinator?
Please let Pat, Jan, Beth or Kris know! (Your EBCC Officers)
We hope you have been able to save the date for the 2017 EBCC Spring Meeting which is on Saturday, March 11th at Berkshire Hall, Brodie Park, in New Hartford, CT.
This year’s meeting is an opportunity to be a part of the developing ride experiences, beyond the weekly group ride calendar. We will be welcoming Collin and Caitlin from Kingdom Experiences of East Burke, VT to plan a Northeast Kingdom getaway where we could ride all kinds of roads and endless mountain bike trails! The kids could even be a part of an organized camp. There are so many exciting opportunities! You will be able to learn about specific ride experiences and chat with others interested in sharing the same goal! You just have to come to be able to learn more about the details…and we hope you will! Your participation is what contributes to the fun and development of EBCC, and we thank you…because, after all…we all like riding bikes!
The meeting will begin at 5:00 PM with schedule as follows: 4:15 - 5:00 Volunteers Set-up 5:00 - 6:00 Happy Hour (we can be talking about the ride ideas for 2017) 6:00 - 7:30 Dinner, Kingdom Experiences and more about club rides 7:30 - 8:00 Volunteer Clean-up
Beer, water & soda are available at Happy Hour, with some light snacks. Dinner will consist of a variety of lasagna, salad and antipasto. For dessert, we would like to have 6 - 8 volunteers bring desert.
If you can bring a dessert or can help with set-up or clean-up, please let Ron Beliveau know by emailing rbeliveau@cox.net .
Also, please confirm your attendance by emailing rbeliveau@cox.net by Wednesday, March 8th at 5PM.
Remember to renew your EBCC membership prior to the meeting. This is a 2017 event and is open to active EBCC members. Memberships can be done on the www.EasternBloc.net website.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Hope to see you there and on the rides this year!
Thanks, 2017 EBCC Officers and Board
Nice event. Thanks to all who made this happen. Looking forward to riding with EBCC.
