VC Jubilee Prize Presentations Report for 2004

What another excellent year. VC Jubilee as the youth development section of Brighton Excelsior is only made possible by the kind donation of time volunteers make to the club. Many thanks to you, and to BECC for providing young people with some great opportunities and fun.

This evening gives us the opportunity to recognise the young riders that have achieved results in races, and their ability, but also to congratulate those that continue to just take part. They show enthusiasm, have fun, learn from others and improve their skills both on and off the road and give some commitment to the club and all its activities, proving they are true sportspeople - a well done and thank you must go to all of you.

Accreditations: Go-Ride/Clubmark
The club is continuing to provide excellent opportunities for fitness, skills and social interactions for young people. We continue to use the National Governing Body of cycling, “British Cycling” Go-Ride framework as it focuses our club activities. The highlight of 2004 was of course, in August when we were the first cycling club in Britain to achieve Sport England’s Club Mark status, this is a cross-sport recognition of sports clubs that are committed to providing a safe, effective and child friendly environment. Both of these schemes identify implementation of sound, safe and effective club structure and good working practices for its young members and there is a high standard of qualified coaching and support. The presentation in December of the award by the 2004 Track Team Pursuit Silver Olympic Medalist - Bryan Steel, Sport Englands SE Manager Julie Edwards and British Cycling’s Development Officer Eddie Allen was well received and attended. Many thanks to those who showed us their support on the night. Especially Dave Gerrey for producing our promotional video, which we will continue to use in schools to raise awareness of our club and activities. Sally Page was nominated by South East Division to receive a certificate on behalf of the club recognising VC Jubilee’s contribution to cycle sport at their annual gala in Alton Towers.

Go-For-Gold Open Day BECC/VC Jubilee
A fantastic sunny day on 4th September turned a rather daunting day for the organisers into a superb day for getting some new recruits - 10 just from this one event, plus more after the event, once they heard about it!  The combination of good weather, the ride to Bramber, coaching and skills sessions on the Adur Rec, Talent Team Stage 1 testing, virtual-reality riding to race against the Olympic Record for 1km achieved by the 2004 Gold Medalist Chris Hoy (although we only did 500m!), seemed to work really well. There maybe another opportunity to tie in with the Tour of Britain to run something similar in 2005…

Coaching/Volunteers
Welcome to Stewart Hunter (teacher from Brighton, who we’ve known for some time) whos started along with Dave Gerrey to gain their BC Activity Coach Award. Jen Frankish (another teacher…) and Deryck Arnold (a VCJ members dad) also help out, providing fantastic support and encouragement to the riding activities, we’d like to thank them all for their commitment. Sally Page, Ian Essex and Bob Harber both attended their coach qualification courses. BECC members also support racing activities which again is much appreciated for the technical experience, especially Keith Balcombe and Mike Murray.  
To abide by our accreditations, key roles and responsibilities are held by specific volunteers - Sally Page: club contact – to deal with enquiries into the club, membership and liasion with British Cycling and other partnerships.
Shelley Charlton - club welfare officer/accounts – and has undergone Good Practice and Child Protection Training, any member or parent/guardian within any concerns or issues relating to behaviour of coaches or other members, can contact her, also keeps our books in order. Dave Gerrey – chair and parent representative. Roy Page – coaching activities. 

Membership
Membership increased this year, 39 paid up during 2004, and I believe this is directly related to our promotional activities, and improved visibility at events. Not just from the new kit which has just arrived, which will be great to start 2005 in. Anyone wanting to buy their own, please see Sally Page. 

Training/Conferences
We have been working closely with the Sussex Sports Partnership, and Adur District Council and volunteers have attended conferences, workshops etc to find out what is available with regard to funding opportunities, or other coaching courses.

Grants
Unfortunately our Awards for All bid for cyclo-cross bikes and coaching courses to the value of £4670 was not successful in March 2004. However we were lucky to have benefitted from a week of Sallys time running BC’s school coaching sessions in West and East Sussex Schools and received £400. SE Cycling Forum also donated £512.29 for closing their accounts as they have wound up the forum.

Affiliations 
We are still looking at completing the WSCC Youth Service affiliation process, as this will enable us to apply for additional funding for club activities.
We continue to be affiliated to the following bodies/organisations: British Cycling (BC), British Schools Cycling Association (BSCA).  We have decided not to affiliate to the Cycling Time Trials (CTT) this year, as it was not cost worthy as not many of our members enter these predominately on-the-road races. If any member wishes to race time-trials, who is over 12, they can, but under BECC’s name.

Social
Wednesday evenings continue to be a success and create positive relationships amongst members and volunteers. BECC’s Annual Picnic proved to be an enjoyable, relaxed ride, followed by a fun BBQ and we look forward to this coming years. We hope to attend more events around the country, eg Tour of Britain, Manchester Velodrome, Calshot Velodrome to either watch or take part in different events.

Racing
Our members have attended numerous events this year and our prize presentation indicates the successes of all our riders. The efforts of some have been recognised and Peter Mitchell was selected to ride in the Talent Team. Matt Howard unfortunately didn’t get in this year, but has also been recognised for his ability and has been asked to attend most of the Talent Academy and training sessions, which is a great opportunity. We look forward to another season of activity at Preston Park Track and Hove Park, where members can experience Track and Road racing and learn the different skills of each. 

Incidents/Accidents
Only 1 recorded in last 12 months – Bob Harber – coach

Please remember we look forward to hearing your comments on the activities we run at the club, and of course volunteer support, so we can do more! If you are interested in volunteering or coaching, please get in touch with Sally Page, Tel: 01273 843859, Mob: 07769 588915, email: salandroy@supanet.com

On Saturday 4th September Brighton Excelsior BECC and VC Jubilee youth development cycling club held their Open Day to celebrate Great Britain’s cycling success at the Athens Olympics where we were the 2nd best cycling nation at the track, and 3rd best cycling nation at cycling overall. The open day was a national programme of coaching activities organised in partnership with British Cycling (national governing body) who provided commemorative souvenirs for all participants and provided an opportunity to try some of the various Olympic disciplines. 4 girls and 16 boys 9 years and older of mixed abilities attended the day, which was a great turn out, we hope to see some join the club, and more in the future.

The day started with fantastic sunshine and a mountain bike ride towards Bramber Castle. On our return we then put to the test the Go for Gold challenge to race against Chris Hoy on the I-magic virtual reality computer trainers that the club received from a Sport England Awards for All application. Chris Hoy did 500m of the 1k in 31:414 seconds (1:00:711 for 1km), the fastest on the open day was Adam Gent (PPYCC) with 33:00 seconds, which is fantastic, however another 500m and we don’t think he could have kept up the rate he was turning those pedals…!

We then went out on to Adur Recreation ground and ran a skills challenge, which helps with riders balance, coordination, speed control, cornering, braking etc, part of the Go-Ride skills programme. All the grass root level skill development that all cyclists, future stars and Olympiads will require. The fastest time around the circuit was by Lyon Dixon. And the British Cycling Stage 1 Talent Tests, which is an identification process of raw cycling talent. This hopefully leads to being on the Talent Team and having a support and coaching structure, which could lead to being a future star and Olympiad. We have sent their times off to headquarters and hope to receive a positive response soon. Roy Page, British Cycling’s South East Regional Club and Coaching Development Officer who was present ran the British Cycling’s Talent Tests said, “the standard of the riders participating in Stage 1 of the tests was extremely high and I hope that some get chosen for the next level of testing by the BC Regional Talent Unit.” The finale was an Olympic Team Pursuit, around an oval course, head to head against another team, to experience the excitement and speed involved in this discipline. All attendees received a gold medal (of course), Go-Ride tee-shirt, and other British Cycling souvenirs.

Roy Page, also said, “I felt the day was really successful and it was encouraging to see so many riders and volunteers participate in VC Jubilee and in the activities organised by this highly accredited youth development club.“

This was an excellent day and Sally Page, VC Jubilee club contact would like to thank all those who took part, and to all the volunteers who helped run and supported the day, especially: Shelley Charlton, Roy Page, Ian Essex, Dave Gerrey, Andy Hall, Ian Mitchell, Su and Keith Balcombe, Mike Murray, and the AOAC. Anyone who wasn’t able to attend the day can still come and join in with the activities of the club. This has been excellent for the club, as we have 10 new members from the day, which includes 2 girls, we need more of them too, and of course more members would be nice, so if you know anyone who is interested…

Continuing with our very interesting and successful sport psychology evening kindly presented by Christina Jacklin MSc, she has kindly prepared the next follow-on paper, which is attached to this month’s newsletter. Please see “Cycling and Mental Skills Training - Concentration”. This one discusses the important factors of focusing to maintain concentration. This is the fifth a series of articles that she has offered to prepare for us, to help cyclist improve. Many thanks to Christina, and if anyone wishes to pursue this important aspect of cycling, she would be pleased to hear from you.

It’s the start of the cyclo-cross season, so please find enclosed the list of our areas events. I hope to see a good participation of members especially at the local Sussex League events. We’ll be discussing this more on Wednesday evenings, and Saturday rides will be the chance to practice cross-skills.

What a great season for VC Jubilee members at Preston Park Track, Hove Park. Well done to all those who took part and put who put real effort and mental skills in to it. The skills you have learnt and fitness you have gained will serve you well. We passed our thanks to the Preston Park and Hove Park organisers for another terrific year. Apparently fifteen races took place, with only two being rained off. No fewer than eighty riders of all ages took part, of which 47 were youngsters. There will be a presentation probably around October/November. A results Newsletter will follow in due course, and we’ll be able to see how active and very successful our members have been, locally and nationally in these and other events, road race, time trials etc - some very excellent results indeed.

The next season to look forward to is the cyclo-cross events, usually very muddy! And of course we continue our Saturday rides and Wednesday evening social events to help continue your fitness and preparation through the following season.

What a fantastic turnout of members and new members at the start of the Preston Park Track season. Well done to you all, we are already seeing vast improvements in skill and fitness. It takes great courage and self-confidence to ride in large groups, and so far, everyone has done this in a very safe manner and are learning the tactics of this particular cyclesport first hand. Please continue to be SAFE and keep a look out. Of utmost importance is that its great to see everyone supporting each other before and during the races, a real team spirit is evolving and friendships with other cycling club members too.

Could all parents/helpers and those who are not riding a particular event be prepared to hold riders at the start of races so that the officials can ensure races start on time, and help with litter pick up at the end of the evening – many thanks.

We’ve had a few trips through May. The first was for the first May bank holiday to visit Herne Hill Velodrome to take part in their Youth Cycle Festival, but it had to be cancelled unfortunately due to rain – lots of it just as we got there, but we still managed to have loads of fun by visiting Stretham Ice Rink, which turned out to be more dangerous for some than racing at a wet track might have been - loads of bruises!! Some members artistic impressions could do with more work... So when the event was rescheduled, for the next bank holiday everyone was looking forward to another ice staking trip! This trip included: Josh, Andrew, Matt and Pete. We also had the chance to use Preston Park on a Saturday to use the track bikes there and do some track coaching skills, instilling the words – “keep pedalling”. This helped prepare for the bank holiday at Herne Hill again, and this time no ice staking as the sun shone - a lot, and we all took part in track training skills and races, “keep pedalling” shouts resounded around the velodrome. The afternoon racing was part of the “British Cycling Youth Clubs League for London and the South East”, and VC Jubilee riders did really well in all of their 4 events. Overall: Ben Gerrey – 7th in Youth C, in Youth B Andrew Dunn 4th and Peter Mitchell 1st, in Youth A Daniel Gerrey 4th and Matthew Howard 2nd . And it turns out that VC Jubilee won the overall event with 79 points. Well done to you all – for not only staying upright, but enjoying the day and representing VC Jubilee so fantastically. Even Sally had a close call with the steep banking and pedals touching!!

Also in May we had the Crawley Criteriums, part of the national series, where we had Ryan, Rebecca, Pete and Matt race around a very tight closed circuit in the high street, including cobbles!! Good attendance and a high calibre of riders meant a very tough race in each of the age categories. Luckily everyone finished in excellent positions – well done.

Continuing with our very interesting and successful sport psychology evening kindly presented by Christina Jacklin MSc, she has kindly prepared the next follow-on paper, which is attached to this month’s newsletter. Please see “Cycling and Mental Skills Training – Confidence”. This one discusses self-confidence and the skills to promote it, including imagery and self-talk. This is the third in a series of articles that she has offered to prepare for us, to help cyclist improve. Many thanks to Christina, and if anyone wishes to pursue this important aspect of cycling, she would be pleased to hear from you.

East Sussex Cycle Festival Saturday and Sunday June 12-13th 2004

At Firle Place, near Lewes – we will be attending this to promote Brighton Excelsior CC and VC Jubilee. British Cycling Talent testing will be running too. The festival will include: guided rides, workshops, presentations, stunt shows, bike traders, live music, skills development workshops, A FREE BIKE AND PARTS JUMBLE SALE on Sunday at 10am, etc. Overnight camping is available.

As part of Club Mark, club members will be expected to maintain the high standards that they have already set. Therefore, we have produced a VC Jubilee Handbook, which records the current codes of conduct for members and parents/guardians, activities, membership details, etc. We also have an Operational Information document for coaches/officials etc, which details our operational practice, emergency procedures, risk assessments, data protection policy, officials roles and responsibilities, etc. Contact Sally Page for copies.

Dates:

Tues 8th June – Come and Try It - 3.5m Time Trial accompanied race for 12years+ Wiston Pond, Steyning - 7.15pm

Sat/Sun 12th 13th June – East Sussex Cycle Festival, Firle Place, near Lewes from 10am – so no riding at AOAC on 12th

Fri 9th, 23rdJuly 6th, 13th Aug – SCRL – Hove Park Circuit

Here are some training and racing events in May, which would be great to get some members representing VC Jubilee at, in addition to Preston Park which starts 5th May.

MONDAY 3rd MAY Youth Cycling Festival - Herne Hill Velodrome

An opportunity for youngsters to learn how to ride and race on the track. The event is to be included in the British Cycling S-E Regions Youth Events Series.

MORNING 10:00am -1:00pm
Track Novices Coaching by Russell Williams & the Herne Hill Coaching Team
No previous track experience needed
Novice adults also welcome!
PLUS Off-road mountain-biking for younger children
AFTERNOON 1:00pm -5:00pm
A varied programme of youth track racing for youngsters between 8 and 16
PLUS Parent's handicap race!

See attached BCYCLLSE newsletter - let Sally know if you are interested in attending so we can sort out transport in shared cars, no bikes needed to be transported.

SUNDAY 16th MAY S.East BAA Crawley Town Centre Criteriums - Circuit Road Race
U16, U14 or U12 circuit races. The circuit is fully closed of to traffic. It is 960 meters. There will be a loud speaker system with a professional commentator, safety barriers all round the circuit, top quality changing facilities, trade stands, lots of prizes for all, big crowds and a superb atmosphere.
Start time is 17:30. Adult racings starts at 18:30. Entry fee is £4.00 - BC Entry form to be completed.
Let Sally know asap (before 2nd May) if you are interested in attending so we can sort out transport in shared cars.

SUNDAY 23rd MAY Eastern Sutton CC Circuit Races - Lee Valley Cycle Circuit - “National Youth Circuit Race Series 4”

We hope everyone had a good Easter break, and are ready for the start of the racing season, some lovely spring rides, without too many April showers perhaps! and some skills training sessions.

Please could I remind those that haven’t returned their VC Jubilee membership forms to do so as soon as possible. And if you intend to race this coming season, you’ll also need your BC membership and racing licence. If you have any problems paying, please let us know, we can work something out. If anyone needs additional membership forms please contact one of the coaches.

If you intend to race at Preston Park Track on Wednesdays, which starts on 5th May at 6.30-7pm, you’ll also need to complete one of their race series entry forms. There is one attached with this newsletter. To race the series costs £15, this includes entry for all 14 meetings. Entry for single meetings is £3, plus BC license if applicable (see above note).

Continuing with our very interesting and successful sport psychology evening kindly presented by Christina Jacklin MSc, she has kindly prepared the next follow-on paper, which is attached to this month’s newsletter. Please see "Cycling and Mental Skills Training - Concentration is being in the present". This one discusses concentration and skills to keep you focused. This is the second in a series of articles that she has offered to prepare for us, to help cyclist improve. Many thanks to Christina, and if anyone wishes to pursue this important aspect of cycling, she would be pleased to hear from you.

Please remember that when the Wednesday race evenings start (5th May) we will no longer meet at the AOAC, until the end of the track meetings and after summer holidays, probably September. If you don’t want to race, please still come along, and your parents too, to help the other riders prepare, work on some bike maintenance, holding riders at the start, judging riders across the line, lap counter board, selling of brochures etc. Refreshments are available at the track-side. This will ensure that the track league continues to grow through commitment from others rather than the usual contributors.

We hope to hear very soon that VC Jubilee have been successful in achieving Club Mark status - safe, effective and child friendly. We also hope to be the first cycling club in England, and the first sports club in Adur. Here is some more info on what its all about:

Feb 2004

Hopefully everyone had a good Christmas/New Year break, and its back to planning this years events and cycling fun as well as publicising the club as much as possible. Our numbers are slightly down, (tends to happens at this time of year) but we plan to run various campaigns and promotions. We would appreciate everyone's support and encourage your young friends to join (9yrs+), to experience fun, skills, qualified coaching, competitions, and of course the health and fitness benefits cycling provides, oh and the possibility of getting a little muddy!!

As it's the beginning of the year, it means that membership fees are due. Please complete and return the attached forms with appropriate payment. If you have any problems paying, please let us know, we can work something out. This may also mean that your BC membership may expire soon too, (most of the members expire March/April time) please ensure your insurance is continuous by extending this as soon as possible. BC Membership is also required to enter various events (eg Preston Park Track and Hove Park), and the racing license part runs from Jan-Dec so may have already expired. An up to date BC form is attached.

Thanks must go to the continued kind contributions from many of our parents and volunteers at the track, other events, riding sessions, etc, we all really appreciate your assistance and experience, thank you so much. If any adults are interested in becoming a qualified coach to assist with the development of the club, please contact Roy.

Further to the very interesting and successful sport psychology evening kindly presented by Christina Jacklin BSc, she has kindly prepared a follow-on paper, which is attached to this month's newsletter. Please see "Cycling and Mental Skills Training" which will be the first in a series of articles that she has offered to prepare for us, to help cyclist improve. Many thanks to Christina, and if anyone wishes to pursue this important aspect of cycling, she would be pleased to hear from you.

Please remember that Wednesday evenings now run from 7.00pm to 8.30pm at the AOAC for 30p per evening. Could we ask for occasional contributions of ping-pong balls/bats, as we seem to get through quite a few of these J. We are planning to run a club Virtual Reality i-Magic racing league on the last Wednesday in every month, so please come prepared to get hot! Prizes will be awarded at the end of the league.

We are progressing well with the British Cycling GO-RIDE scheme and ClubMark and the infrastructure it requires. Policies on equity and child protection have to be in place, which Shelley and Sally have been attending various courses to ensure we do this correctly. We also now have Ian Essex from our adult club BECC come and join in with the fun at the club, he wants to start on his BC Activity Coach Course, and Dave Gerrey (Ben and Daniels dad) will be attending the Off Road Cycling Leaders course (WSCC), all under the guidance of our coach, Roy.