douglas.little – Page 11 – West Highland Wheelers

Laggan dam time trial 24/05/22

May 25, 2022August 11, 2022
by douglas.little

Well done to all the riders who took part in the Laggan Dam Time Trial. A great win for Cammie! Next race is the Loch Eil 10 on the 14th of June.

Results

Cam MacIntosh 36.49

Ewan Thorburn 38.20

Ed daynes 40.20

Jamie Gall 41.03

John Shirley 42.20

Scott Somerville 43.01

Marie Meldrum 43.03

Jamie MacDonald 44.49

Steve Gilbert 45.03

Charles Troman 46.37

Andy Rogers 51.40

Time Trials

Loch eil 10 time trial 03/05/22

May 4, 2022May 4, 2022
by douglas.little

Well done to all the riders who took part in the 2nd of this years Time Trials. Some great times and a special mention has to go to Cammie who is getting ever closer to Gary! Many thanks to all the organisers. Next race is Laggan Dam on the24th of May – meet at Roy Bridge square

Time Trials

COMMANDO MEMORIAL TIME TRIAL 12/04/22

April 15, 2022May 4, 2022
by douglas.little

2022 04 12 Commando TT results

Great to see 16 riders and a mixture of old and new faces taking part in the first of this year’s Time Trials. Gary once again came home fastest with Cammie in second place. Many thanks to Andy for doing the timing and to Dave, Alastair and Fergus for marshaling. The next TT is the Loch Eil 10 on the 3rd of May ( sign in by BSW

Time Trials

Final winter league standings

April 11, 2022April 11, 2022
by douglas.little

2022 04 05 Final Winter League points

Kid’s Winter League results

A huge thanks to everyone who took part in this years Winter League and to those who helped to make it all happen especially all the race organisers

Winter League

FINAL RACE OF THE WINTER LEAGUE – ENDURO AT…

April 11, 2022April 11, 2022
by douglas.little

A great social event with some very competitive racing saw a brilliant finish to this year Winter League Series. Many thanks to Steve for the huge amount of effort that he put in to running it and to Spook for doing the timing for us. A big thanks also to everyone else that helped with the marshalling/timekeeping/ cooking etc

winter league enduro 2022 results

Committee Minutes

Committee minutes 22/03/22

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022
by douglas.little

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting Tuesday the 22^nd of March 2022 – held on Microsoft Teams

Present– Doug Little, Gregor Muir, Steve Bradley, Marian Austin, Norma Gregory, Dave Parfitt, Jacqui Parfitt, Gill Barnes, Norman Clark.

Apologies– Ian and Ailsa Pooleman

Winter League–

The final race of this year’s Winter League will be an enduro at Nevis Range on Sunday the 3^rd of April. Steve has got 5 stages planned for the main race with the option of doing an “enduro Lite” with only 3 stages. There will also be a special power stage for e-bikers (this will be a stand-alone stage and will not count towards the overall race results)
There will be a kid’s version of the race with the kid’s departing at 11.15 after all the adults have gone out. The under 8’s will probably just do the first stage, the under 12’s might have the option of doing the enduro lite.
Sign on will be from 9.30 with the first riders potentially going out at 10.30. The aim would be to have the last stage closing at 1.00.
The numbers will be limited to 50 adults. Non members will need to pay £5.00.
The race will be followed by a BBQ and prizegiving. Doug will purchase the food for the BBQ and appeal for volunteers to do the cooking. Vegetarian and gluten free options will of course be available.
Spook has very kindly agreed to organize the timing. As a thank you for doing this it was agreed that the club would buy him a present(a bottle of whisky)
Steve will liaise with Carrie in the marketing department at Nevis Range re risk assessments etc.
Doug has ordered WHW branded buffs to present to anyone who has done at least 3 races. There is a slight possibility that these will not arrive in time. Cost of the buffs is £4 each + VAT.
The cost of the timing licence for the race will be £48 + VAT .
There was some discussion as to how best to include e bikes next year. Should they maybe go before the other racers or start after. This discussion needs to be revisited before next year’s races start.

Time Trials

Doug to check with Dave as to whether he is still keen to help to put together a TT schedule.
Gill is going to contact Emma Pearce to see if she would be willing to help put together a potential schedule. The aim would be to nominate specific people to organize each race rather than having one or two people organizing them all.

New Committee Members

We need to try to fill the following positions.

Minutes Secretary. Doug will just double check with Ian and Ailsa that they no longer wish to do this.
Website/social media coordinator. Hopefully this might be something that Jodie would be interested in. Doug to liaise with her about this.
A Junior rep.

Scottish Enduro Series Kid’s Races at Nevis Range on Sat 23^rd of April

The Kid’s Club are helping to organize these races – mainly by supplying marshalls. £5 from each entry will go towards the club.

Kids Club

Kid’s club will restart on Saturday the 30^th of April. At the present time it is looking that we may well have a slight shortage of leaders available.
Mark is running a number of Level1 and Level 2 courses in the near future. Once the club gets up and running again, we shall look at getting more people on these courses and qualified.

Bike Festival Week

It was decided that with a lot of things already potentially going on with the club this Spring that we would not hold a bike festival week this year. We shall however have a push to increase riders coming out on Wednesday evenings.

Wednesday Evenings

Numbers have gone down recently. Covid and some bad weather (until recently!) has not helped this. In a push to encourage more people out Gregor has proposed an introductory evening at Nevis Range on the 4^th of May. The aim would be to have four distinct groups of differing levels, each going out with a leader.
It was agreed that Nevis Range would be the venue on the first and 3^rd Wed of every month as this is the best place to be enable differing levels to be catered for.
Jacqui is going to be away for quite a few Saturdays this Spring, so will not be able to help out much with Saturday Social rides. She is however keen to introduce a block of ladies only beginner sessions on Wednesday evenings.
It would be good to put a poster advertising these in the local bike shops etc. If anyone wishes to design a poster that would be much appreciated.

Lochaber Trail Association

The Trail Association have got 6 dig days planned this year with The Fort William Foxes running a women’s specific one as well. The first of these will be at Torlundy on the 10^th of April. Facebook events for these will go live at the end of March.
There may well be the opportunity to organize a Wheelers specific dig day in the future.

Moving the Wheelers Shed

We have been given a new position to place the shed over by the High wires.
The aim is to move the shed on Friday the 1^st and Sat 2^nd of April. Mark Clark is going to very kindly take the lead on this, but other offers of help would be appreciated.
Nevis Range have offered to help transfer everything over once it has been dismantled.

Membership

We are very soon going to get to the date when rolling memberships come up for renewal. It was agreed that we would move to a direct debit system for membership payments
Doug is going to organise a meeting with Shaun, Jacqui, and Evelyn about setting this up and to discuss other membership issues.
Gill is going to look into how best to resolve issues with Stripe.

Pumptrack

All looking promising. £480,000 has now been raised and an invite to the main contractors will go out on the 7^th of May.
The Viridor application failed on a technicality so the club will not need to act as a third party and provide £2500.

British Cycling stuff

The offer from British Cycling for free membership to new club members is still available.
Before Kid’s Club restarts, Marian, Gregor and Doug need to get together to look at updating all the coaches necessary qualifications.
Doug has contacted Neil Wilson to say that the club would be interested in hosting a round of a Dirt Crit Series later in the year.
Marian is currently the only committee member receiving British Cycling e mails. It was suggested that it would be good for all committee members to receive them.

Next Meeting

Tuesday the 10^th of May at 7.30 at Marian’s house.

Winter League

Round 7 of the winter league – WOLFTRAX 20/03/22

March 29, 2022March 29, 2022
by douglas.little

Many thanks to Ian and Ailsa for organising some great races on Sunday and laying on some great weather ( despite the initial cloudy start!) A big thanks to Christian for opening the cafe specially for us and providing some lovely spicy tomato soup. The next and final race is the enduro at Nevis Range on the 3rd of April. Full results are as follows;

Race results from Laggan Wolftrax 20/3/22

Men’s race

1) Gary Macdonald 36:41 (2 laps 75:40)

2) Campbell Mackintosh 42:31

3) Daniel Partfitt 45:32

4) Robbie Cant 47:05

5) Aidan Webster 48:09

6) Scott Rodger 51:44

7) Gregor Muir 54:14

Doug Little 1h 40m

Ladie’s Race

1) Sam Potter 57:00

2) Gill Barnes 69:50

3) Marian Austin 1h 14

4) Lorraine Wheelan 1h 40m

E-bike

1) AJ Macdonald 34:14

2) Stewart Macmillan 38:50

3) Leon Sims 39:22

4) Lance Marshal 44:15

Short Course E-bike

1) Lindsay Jarrett 1h 1m

U12 Boys

Aaron 8:40

Archie 10:41

Fraser 12:17

U12 Girls

Isla 9:29

Lily 10:09

U8 Boys (shorter course)

Kai 9:08

Alistair 9:24

Kaiden 10:14

Cian 11:30

U8 Girls (shorter course)

Charley 10:01

Committee Minutes

Minutes of the committee meeting 08/02/22

March 17, 2022March 17, 2022
by douglas.little

West Highland Wheelers Committee Meeting – Tuesday the 8^th of February on Zoom.

Present – Doug Little, Gill Barnes, Gregor Muir, Jacqui Parfitt, Dave Parfitt, Steve Bradley, Norma Marshall.

Apologies – Marian Austin, Norman Clark, Jodie Standen

Winter League;

All good to go for Strontian (organised by Joseph Tait) and Wolftrax (organised by Ian and Ailsa Pooleman)
The last race in the series is currently down for Nevis Range on the 24^th of April as an enduro. This is not possible as the Scottish Enduro series is on that weekend at Nevis Range. Nevis Range have said that an enduro style race is not feasible for them at any time in April as they have events going on. Doug needs to check if it would however be possible to run a XC event up there during April.
If we do not use Nevis Range , then it is an option to have the final race and BBQ at Glen Loy on the 24^th of April. This would need to be an XC type race rather than an enduro.
It was agreed that the final standings for the Winter League would be based on the final number of races run minus 2 (ie riders can discard their worst 2 races).
It was agreed that only riders who are members of the Wheelers can score points in the Winter League races.
There is a new visitor services ranger in Torlundy who now asks for a form to be filled in for all the rounds.

Festival;

It would be good for the last Winter League race to be incorporated into the festival. If need be, however, it could be separate.
Lochaber Wheeled Sports Society are keen to run a couple of events to help raise funds and also encourage the feeling of community involvement in the pump track. One of these would possibly be a pumpathon type event on one of the blues at Nevis Range. It would be good to incorporate this into a festival week. They are also keen to hold a film night/raffle/bingo night at the Highland Soap Factory Café. Again, it would be good to incorporate this into the festival week.
The date for the festival week will obviously depend on possible dates for the above events. Doug to make further enquiries with Nevis Range and Mandy Watson to confirm dates ASAP.
It would be good to obviously have a road based event during the week (possibly the first of this years time trials!)
It would be good if we could hold a dual slalom race at Corpach. Gill says that the original course has been fenced off, but there is a different course higher up. We need to clarify what permissions might be necessary for this. Gill has very kindly offered for everyone to come back to her house for refreshments afterwards.
All ideas for other events are welcome.

Scottish Enduro Series race at Nevis Range on the 23^rd and 24^th of April.

We have been asked to help with organising junior races for this event. These would be held on the Saturday. Doug, Gregor and Ruari have a meeting with Kerry from The Scottish Enduro Series to discuss this further on Thursday.

The Wheelers Shed at Nevis Range.

Due to all the new developments at Nevis Range, we have been asked to move the shed elsewhere. We are not sure exactly where to yet. Nevis Range have offered help in moving it (with the proviso that they are not held responsible if it should fall apart!)
Doug will try to have a meeting with Eliza at NR in the next few days to discuss the logistics involved.

Involvement with the pump track.

Things are progressing quite rapidly with the pump track, with work hopefully due to start in the Spring.
More funding is needed, and the pump track Committee have been busy putting in multiple funding applications. Two of these are with Waste Management companies who will give out grants, provided that a third party pays them 10% of what they donate. The Committee agreed by email that the Wheelers would be happy to act as this third party. The pump track committee have said that they would reimburse the Wheelers for the whole of these payments if that is what the club decides to ask for. It is by no means certain that the pump track will even be successful with these applications , but in the event that they do then the club need to agree as to what long term contribution the club wishes to make towards the funding ( i.e what percentage of the third party money that we put forward do we ask to be reimbursed). It was agreed that we need to come up with a consensus for this at committee level and then get consensus from the general club. It was agreed that, due to a potential conflict of interests,Gregor should not be present at the Committee Meeting to decide any amount donated.

Wednesday Night Rides.

Numbers are down at the moment, but it is fair to say that the weather has been pretty bad so far this year, and numbers will hopefully improve once the lighter nights come back.
It would perhaps be good to have a push for Wednesday night rides during festival week. Possibly a café night at NR?
Gregor is going to re add Invergarry to the venues list. He is keen to hear about any other suggestions.

AOB

James Brasher from Scottish Cycling is keen to come along and do some filming of Jacqui with her ladies group. He is keen to use it as an example for other clubs. No date has been set for this
There is currently a grant of £9800 in the Wheelers account to get the electric trishaw project underway. At the present time the lady who initially wanted to run the project has pulled back a bit, so we need to possibly start looking for someone else willing to spearhead the project, or in the worst case scenario return the cash .
It was agreed that virtual meetings still have an important part to play for the committee. Rather than paying for a zoom account we shall try to use Microsoft office or google meet.

Next Meeting– Tuesday the 22^nd of March at 7.00

Winter League

Round 6 of the winter league – strontian 27/02/22

March 9, 2022March 9, 2022
by douglas.little

Many thanks to Joseph Tait for organising such a great race at Strontian. A lot of effort and organisation had clearly gone into running it and as such everything went extremely well (apart from the odd “minor” injury). Many thanks to everyone who helped with the marshalling and provided the delicious soups. The next race is at Wolftrax on the 20th of March. See below for the results;

Winter League

WINTER lEAGUE ROUND 5 INVERGARRY 6/02/22

February 7, 2022March 9, 2022
by douglas.little

Fair to say that ” Winter” was definitely on show for round 5 of the Winter League. Well done to all the riders who braved the wind and snow. Many thanks to Vince for organising such a great race and for getting Invergarry back on to the Winter League map!