Well, Summer has almost gone but there is still some warm weather around so make the most of those late Summer days in bare legs and short sleeves.

The club is rapidly coming towards the AGM and you may have noticed Martin has put up an advertising banner on our SNCC homepage. Put the date in your diary and try to come along for the AGM, Fri 15th Nov 1900 in the St Neots Rowing Club, and the Presentation part of the evening. We've still to secure the guest speaker but we are working on it.

Whilst talking about it, please consider joining the committee and give something back to the Club. It is a rewarding role, please look out for more details. All prospective committee members (both current and those wanting to come on board) have to be voted in.

Being injured at this time of year is painful, especially if you normally get out 4 to 6 times a week. I am told I was intolerable to live with and my wife is so pleased I am back out (as am I to be fair). I have managed a Chain Gang, a club TT and am looking at 2 more long rides in September.

Our thanks go out to all the volunteers who helped out at the Abbo TT (Flo, George, Mandy, Mike, Alastair, Shaun and Norman) and of course Nic for pulling it all together. It is nice to have a pool of volunteers. Nick Green won the Leon Bradford Shield on the last evening, well deserved as he broke 30 minutes consistently after never having broken it before this season.

This Saturday (Sept 7th) sees the start of the Saturday morning rides starting at 9am in the Market Place organised by Justin Lomas. See the Website for full details. It is essentially a training ride using the "through and off" technique and up to 50Km. Please do support this ride. As you know Justin organised the Chain Gang on Tues evenings and i for one rode them twice, the last one being a slightly different, warm and very enjoyable Tuesday evening. 

Social rides have finished and thanks to Simon and Norman for organising the courses (road and off-road), we had a small following for these. Let us know what you'd like to see next year. In addition talking of the social side we hope to have an Indian organised before the AGM.

Next week we will be putting an update into the recent trip to Uganda from Martin Taylor about how it went with some videos and a write up.

SNCC long ride this year was to Cafe Ventoux this year and half a dozen riders took part over two weekends, making their annual cycling century pilgrimage to Cafe Ventoux. Rolling terrain and a strong breeze made for a tough day out. But all riders had "Class A" fun.  

As you will know the clubs first trip to the Peaks is coming up and Adam currently has 6 members are riding in the Peak District from Fri 13th Sept to Sun 15th Sept for a weekend of cycling.

A reminder that the Pub Social is the last Thursday of each month starting at 1930.

You may have noticed that we have been invited to the Great Chishill ride on Sun Sept 22nd in support of the Windmill Trust see the Website for full details. Should be a great day out and there should be a number of other local clubs there cycling and eating coffee and cake.

Finally we have co-opted Tina Dankwart (as previously announced in a WB) as a non-voting member of the committee to ensure we have full representation within the club.

We put in her feedback in full, as it's useful to get both a newbies, female non-committee feedback.

Tina's feedback - Women's Wednesday evening ride was a success - we started out as 2 and now have 4 regulars, and a lot of activity going on on the WhatsApp group, with a fair few women gearing up for next year - TTs in particular! 

TTs - I know you didn't ask - but I just have to say again that the TTs for me were a real revelation - so much fun, and such a great addition to any training. I didn't understand the rules at first, and it seems others also don't LOL - it would definitely be worth re-stating how the handicap works (Chairman's Note we do publish in advance of the TT Season but will review if we need to make more clearer). And to think even though I basically came stone dead last in 4 out of the 6 rides, and still came 3rd overall just goes to show. Everyone was really welcoming and helpful. It can be daunting for a newbie like me (I practiced the starting 'being held' a fair few times before going!' for example) but everyone was so encouraging and supportive, I very quickly forgot my nerves.

I also would say that the volunteering for the TT was great and inspiring - again from a newbie perspective, so interesting to see how these events work, and how much effort goes into them. I would highly encourage everyone who has never done it to do it, you might learn a thing or two! Not that the marshalling itself requires any particular skill. if you can stand for a couple of hours and lift your left arm regularly - you qualify.

Finally - last but not least - the club runs, and the club in general. Again, for a newbie like me, turning up for a club run was daunting at first - I was worried about a whole load of things - would I be quick enough?, or - in my case - how to even ride in a group! (there seemed to be a lot of signals to learn, and half the time not sure I'd want to take my hands of the handlebars to signal with potholes etc, but - everyone was so welcoming and helpful, and forgiving when I didn't signal on time or rode in the wrong position - I never got dropped, or someone would come and help me ride back on - and I learnt a huge amount from the wealth of experience of the other riders. Not to mention that it hugely improved my fitness to go for longer and eventually faster rides regularly!