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Edinburgh RC Founded 1925

2014 Section Reports President's Report

Edinburgh Road Club has remained a successful club in 2014. Our membership hovers at around 600 and just about whatever branch of cycling/multisport you are interested in we can offer competitive and non-competitive opportunities. This is thanks to sponsorship (see Vice President’s report), membership fees and a lot of hard work from the committee, sub committees, parents and our club members.

Many of the things we have done this year we have done for many years:  excellent club handbook  training weekends (various) and Mallorca training camp  club dinner with guest speaker (Daniel Lloyd in 2014)  numerous races- Junior Cyclocross, Gifford Road race, Crit series for juniors and seniors, Tour of the Meldons, Lothian Flyer and Club hill climb.  unfortunately owing to problems with BC’s online entry system 2 of or established races failed to go ahead this year. The Spring Classic APR and Eastern Promise Road Race- both were regrettably cancelled at short notice. The committee have discussed this matter and unless BC’s system improves we propose to use Entry Central in 2015.  sports psychology and sports nutrition talks  Kirky 10 series (club weekly TT) became the Saltire 10 series with a new venue in the East (Tranent)

Other initiatives were new ones:  social events in local hostelry showing a stage of the Giro (May) and TDF (July)  Junior triathlon squad with regular training sessions, a week long summer camp and ERC organised junior triathlon race at Dalkeith High School at the end of August. Special mention must go to Jo Phillips who has been the driving force and main organiser of this initiative. I am sure it will go from strength to strength.  ERC took on the lease of the Meadowbank Velodrome for 2 years. Many people have worked hard (special thanks to Rob Bloor and Ken Whitson) to run training sessions and race programmes there. It has proved popular and shows that there is a need for cycling facilities with the city. To this end we are hopeful that the proposed Hunters Hall Cycling Hub will come to fruition and offer a variety of cycling services/opportunities.  Jarlath Flynn has made a short promotional film about the club. I understand it will premiere at the 2015 Club Dinner. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing it.  Ken Whitson was awarded Volunteer of the Year at the 2014 Edinburgh Sports Awards.

The club’s sporting successes will be mentioned in the relevant section reports. We continue to have Scottish, British and World champions racing in ERC colours. What a fantastic club to be a member of.

I am proud to have been given the opportunity to be club president for the last 3 years. I wish my successor good luck and much success in the role. I am stepping down from the committee this year but will continue to serve the club as a triathlon coach. Penny Rother

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Vice President's Report (Sponsorship)

In 2014 the key sponsors for ERC were as follows:

The Bicycle Works: As one of our original sponsors, the BicycleWorks has had a long-term association with ERC and their help over the years has been invaluable. They have consistently provided the club with a regular half yearly income and have always been ready to help us with our many individual promotions.

The Martin Currie Charitable Foundation and the Martin Currie Investment Management Company have supported our Youth section and Youth Race Team for five years. 2014 was the last year of this valuable commitment.

Field and Lawn Marquees: is our largest single sponsor and have now supported us for a number of years. Their help has been vital to our racing members. It has enabled them to compete in teams throughout Scotland and the UK by helping with transport, accommodation and race entries.

Bolland & Burke: Chartered Accountants based in the West End of Edinburgh, started their five year sponsorship arrangement last year. Like Field and Lawn they have supported our team members with transport, accommodation and race entries. In addition they have provided the club with an accountancy service.

Alpine Bikes: Joined our growing list of major sponsors in 2012 and have provided financial help for the Race Series at Ingliston. This event was initially named after this sponsor and we would have been in difficulty without this cash injection! In addition their shop at Stockbridge has provided our race team with free servicing and has also generously loaned expensive equipment to young racing members. They have also offered to provide free and secure storage space for club equipment beneath their Stockbridge shop.

This is not an exclusive list of this year’s sponsors. A lot more provide members with discounts – these are listed in the current club handbook. You should also remember that many organisations, too numerous to mention here, have also acted as event partners or provided goods and services to assist us with our promotions.

2015 and beyond:

The Bicycle Works, Field and Lawn Marquees and Bolland and Burke are expected to continue to support the club. In addition Martin Currie have expressed a willingness to enter into new arrangements to help fund our youth programme.

I am also delighted to announce that Pearl Red a Management Company based locally has agreed to become a major new sponsor for the next five year starting in 2015. As a new jersey sponsor they are particularly keen to support our youth and junior team initiatives.

Further contributions will also be applied for from Braveheart, Sports Match and Active City.

Sponsors provide a very significant part of our club income and enable the Committee to do a lot more to support the membership. In turn I would ask every member to remember this and in turn help to promote them at every opportunity. Gareth George Membership Services Report

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 My gratitude goes out once again to the dedicated group of individuals who volunteer their time freely in order to oil the wheels and make the club run smoothly. A few of these are mentioned in person in this report but my thanks go out to all those who have helped the club this year.

Clothing The basic lines of the club clothing were moved from the TriCentre to Biketrax at the end of 2013 and have continued to be stocked there since, with online ordering available through Impsport for made to measure items such as skin & Tri suits.

Scott Bell took over as clothing coordinator from Andrew Sinclair at the end of 2013. A huge vote of thanks goes to Scott for his work over the last year. Thanks also go to Kerry Ingram for the work she continues to do in coordinating the Tri specific clothing.

Neil Taylor continues on the design side of the clothing for which the club is most grateful.

Club Handbook & Marketing Material Thanks go to Chris Allen, Colin Reekie and Ben Vogelsang for the outstanding job done in producing this year’s club handbook with editorial input from myself.

Chris & Ben also provided ongoing support for club marketing materials.

Quartermaster The online booking of club equipment continues to be used.

Only one major piece of equipment has been added to the clubs inventory this year:  Trek Madone 56cm (as part payment for outstanding monies owed by the Tri Centre)

The most highly sought after pieces of equipment continue to be track wheels, with the 3 pairs of disc + 5-spoke’s in high demand at championship events.

Club Web Site Most members will no doubt be familiar with our club website. Huge thanks are due to Ken Russell who built and maintains the site. Ken has spent a great deal of time this year modernising the website and integrating social media along with making it more user friendly for mobile users.

A big thank you also goes out to the various club officials who keep the content up-to-date and the members who keep the event reports, forums, Facebook and Twitter pages a lively place to visit. Dougal Allan and Jonny May (along with Ken) deserve a special mention for their roles as moderators.

Committee Web site This continues to be used by committee members in the running of the club and I continue to maintain it.

Majorca Training Camp I once again organised the club’s annual Majorca training camp in April 2014, with more than 60 attending. Plans are already in place to return 17 – 31 March 2015.

Meadowbank The club decided earlier this year to take on the lease for the Meadowbank Velodrome. More details will be presented in the RTTT report. My involvement was to set up the online booking and payment systems on the club website and monitor payment transactions as they came in. I was also part of the management team for this project.

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Membership Select views of the membership database continue to be used to great effect in administering the various sections of the club. The most useful of these continues to be the one that shows members who indicated their willingness to volunteer for the club.

Each member this year received a membership pack containing a membership card (designed by Chris Allen), a membership handbook (designed by Chris Allen aided by Colin Reekie and Ben Vogelsang) and some ERC vinyl stickers (designed by Chris Allen).

Membership numbers have dipped slightly on last year, and at the time of writing are at 602 members.

ERC Members

0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Members 342 403 436 464 505 608 610 620 631 602 % Increase 27 18 8 6 9 20 0 2 2 -5

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925

ERC Age Categories 2014

Youth E (U8) Youth D (8-9)) Youth C (10-11) Youth B (12-13) Youth A (14-15) Junior (16-17) Espoir (18-23) Senior (24-39) Vet (40-49) Supervet (50+) Supersupervet(60+)

Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 Category No. % No. % No. % No. % Youth E (U8) 4 0.7 8 1.3 6 1.0 15 2.5 Youth D (8-9)) 17 2.8 24 3.9 30 4.8 31 5.1 Youth C (10-11) 17 2.8 20 3.2 27 4.3 23 3.8 Youth B (12-13) 18 3.0 15 2.4 14 2.2 22 3.7 Youth A (14-15) 18 3.0 22 3.5 24 3.8 9 1.5 Junior (16-17) 17 2.8 7 1.1 10 1.6 19 3.2 Espoir (18-23) 27 4.4 14 2.3 14 2.2 15 2.5 Senior (24-39) 199 32.6 189 30.5 181 28.7 162 26.9 Vet (40-49) 194 31.8 204 32.9 192 30.4 174 28.9 Supervet (50+) 76 12.5 88 14.2 104 16.5 103 17.1 Supersupervet(60+ 23 3.8 29 4.7 29 4.6 29 4.8 ) Male 476 78.0 475 76.6 477 75.6 454 75.4 Female 134 22.0 145 23.4 154 24.4 148 24.6 Compete 297 48.7 310 50.0 297 47.1 302 50.2 Total Membership 610 620 631 602

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Delving a little bit into the details and looking at the demographic, it can be seen the numbers for the younger and the older end of the membership spectrum are pretty much the same as last year with the youth numbers shuffling around between age bands and a healthy surge in the under 8’s. A drop of approximately 10% in the seniors and vets categories is double the decline seen the previous year. The split between the genders continues to swing back towards 1 in 4 being female. There are still roughly half the membership competing.

2014 1st Choice Activity

Duathlon MTB Road Track Triathlon TT Cyclocross

2014 2nd Choice Activity

Duathlon MTB Road Track Triathlon TT Cyclocross

2011 1st 2011 2012 1st 2012 2013 1st 2013 2014 1st 2014 Choice 2nd Choice 2nd Choice 2nd Choice 2nd % Choice % Choice % Choice % Choic Activity % % % e % Duathlon 0.7 18.9 1.5 17.5 1.0 14.3 0.9 13.2 MTB 10.9 20.3 8.5 23.6 9.1 23.8 7.8 20.4

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Road 50.5 25.4 51.8 25.0 53.7 26.0 54.3 24.5 Track 2.9 7.6 2.5 6.3 2.1 9.5 2.0 12.2 Triathlon 29.7 8.5 30.0 10.6 29.8 9.7 29.0 9.4 TT 5.3 19.2 5.6 17.0 4.3 16.7 4.0 15.3 Cyclocross 2.0 5.0

Note: those who did not express a preference when they joined are not included in the figures.

Cyclocross is introduced to the statistics for the first time this year. The club continues to be dominated by members who choose Road or Triathlon as their first discipline with a broader spread for a secondary discipline.

Length of Membership 2014

New 1 to 5 yrs Over 5 yrs

Year 2011 2012 2013 2014 Category No. % No. % No. % No. % New 86 14.1 143 23.1 161 25.5 163 27.1 1 to 5 yrs 377 61.8 305 49.2 307 48.7 280 46.5 Over 5 yrs 147 24.1 172 27.7 163 25.8 159 26.4 Total 610 620 631 602 Retention 86 78 76 73

Membership retention of the 1 to 5 year members has dipped this year in line with the reduction of Senior and Vet members indicated earlier. This may be as a result of the increased subs last year or something unrelated.

Membership Services Coordinator Role It has been a busy year for me wearing the hats of Membership Services Coordinator, Quartermaster, Registrar & member of the Meadowbank management team, but I am happy to continue in these roles if voted back in at the AGM.

Graham Jones

Coaching Convenor’s Report

It has been a busy year coaching wise within the club. Going back to last November, we held a very successful and well attended coaching day at Ingliston involving both youth and senior riders. We are very grateful to club member Andrew Kirkland from British Cycling who revealed the secret of making the best cup of coffee you can and by analogy being the best rider you can be. He also gave us the latest thinking from BC on preparing young riders through the “readiness criteria” also known as the peanut bar paradigm, The classroom sessions were followed by on-the –bike coaching which everyone seemed to enjoy.

The club continues to provide financial support for members who wish to become coaches within the club. Several members gained BC or TriathlonScotland awards during the year. The club’s regular and extensive programme of swimming, running and cycling sessions need a continuing commitment from qualified coaches so we are always looking for more volunteer coaches to share the workload.

Recognising the need to have qualified leaders to take youth and inexperienced riders off road, as reported last year, we organised a Trail Cycle Leader course in Glentress. It has proved problematic finding a suitable date for the assessment but we soon hope to have four members qualified. Many thanks are due to club member, and MBLA Tutor, Cliff White for delivering and assessing this course for us.

On behalf of all club members I would like to thank all those qualified coaches who freely put in hours of work to help riders within the club at all levels improve their performance. In addition to the coaches, we should not forget the leaders of the Saturday development ride and the other club rides which take place. This is one of the big advantages of being in a club like ERC where novice riders can learn from more experienced people. We continued to offer advice to all club members through the ERC consultancy service which receives a steady flow of enquiries.

Our BC club coaches provided 1:1 performance coaching support to three of our younger riders who achieved excellent performances and results over the course of the season. We have a good crop of junior riders coming through, or joining, the club and we look forward to providing excellent coaching support for them as they progress.

Neil H Muir

1 Road, Track and Time Trial

A very successful year again, over all disciplines, with notable highlights being:  Sean Noon achieving 1st cat Licence, winning Tom Simpson GP Junior national Series RR, 11th overall Junior Tour of Wales and some excellent write ups on the forum.  Ali Chisholm’s double Masters World Champion in the 35-39 age group for the 500m TT & Team Sprint again and again. Gold for team sprint at Scottish Track Champs  Ellie Richardson representing Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in the 500m TT on the Track. Gold for sprint & team sprint at Scottish Track Champs  Pippa Handley 1st women Transcontinental Race London to Istanbul  Sean Noon, Ken Russell, Lauri Peil & Ross Crook Silver Scottish TTT Champs  Meadowbank Velodrome: The club took over management of the velodrome with great success achieving a vast increase in usage from elite riders, beginners, youth and accreditation sessions. Thanks to the management team of Ken Whitson, Phil Darby, Neil Muir, Andrew Bothwell, Graham Jones & Rob Bloor.

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Road Racing This was the first year of a Junior (U18s) squad who were committed to racing at the highest level. The Road Racing Squad for Senior & Junior Men and Women were been very active during the year. A number of coaching and skills sessions were run over the year and many squad training rides. Big thanks to Jarlath Flynn for leading the senior squad in both social and racing activities along with coaches Neil Muir and Gareth George. Thanks also to Alastair Webb for organising the Junior Race Team Squad.

Congratulations to Walter Hamilton, Rhys Donnelly and Jonathan Davey for achieving their 2nd cat licenses.

Junior Race Team - Notable results in the following races:

Sean Noon - Gained 1st Cat Velo29 Winder Series Round 3 (E/1/2/3/4) 5th Dick Longdragon (E/1/2/3) 6th Gifford Road Race (E/1/2/3) 19th Junior Tour of Mendips 18th British Eagle (2/3/4) 2nd (also first Junior, first KOM) Scottish Junior Road Race Champs 3rd Dunfermline City Centre Crit (E/1/2/3) 6th Tom Simpson Memorial Junior Grand Prix 1st Garleton Trophy 4th Junior Tour of Ireland (overall) 9th NFTO Junior Tour of Wales 5th stage 7th NFTO Junior Tour of Wales Overall 11th (leading Scottish Junior) Joibar Trophy (2/3/4) 4th

Andrew Gourlay Gifford Road Race (3/4) 2nd

Francis Webb Ballater Falling Leaves Race Stage 1 (2/3) 1st Lothian Flyer (3/4) 7th

Rhys Donnelley - Gained 2nd Cat For the Shirt Trophy (E/1/2/3/4) 7th Glasgow Road Club Evening Race (3/4) 5th Zandovoorde - Zonnebeke (W) 1.14.3 Juniores - Open Omloop 21st GGCC Evening Road Race (3/4) 5th Fat Lads Fat Chance (3/4) 3rd South Lanarkshire Classic (2/3/4) 5th Scottish Junior Kieran Champs 2nd

Euan Smith Junior Tour of Ireland Lantern Rouge (noteworthy for most determination of any result here!) Team Junior Tour of Wales 8th overall Junior Tour of Ireland 5th overall Musselburgh 3-up TTT 1st Juniors

Senior Race Team - Notable results in the following races:

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Ross Crook 2nd cat Bronze – Scottish Vets RR Champs

Walter Hamilton 2nd cat 2nd – Eddie Morgan RR 1st – Lothian Flyer

Jonathan Davey 2nd cat 1st - Race of the Falling Leaves 4th overall - Dundee Thistle Stage Race

Kris Lindsay 3rd Cat 2nd - PCC RR 6th overall - Dundee Thistle Stage Race leaving to VC Edinburgh

Lauri Peil 3rd Cat 2nd - Crit on Campus

Alan Dean 3rd Cat 10th overall - Dundee Thistle Stage Race

Evgenia Ilyinskaya 2nd cat 4th National Masters RR Champs Leaving to join Bonito Squadra Corse Womens team

Alexa Mair 2nd cat 1st - Kilmarnock Crit 3rd – North of Scotland Crit Champs 1st - Bute Women's RR Bute Leaving to join Deeside Thistle

Peigi Series 2nd cat 1st- MFCC Women’s RR Leaving to join Thomson Cycles

Juli Rourke 2nd Cat 3rd Scottish Hill Climb Champs 3rd Kilmarnock Crit 6th MFCC Women’s RR

Time Trials The ERC Club Confined Saltire 10TT, a new course, has been very well attended throughout the season, with many new and familiar faces. Thanks must go to Dougal Allan for ensuring enough volunteers were available for each week. Many members also took part in other time trials with the most noteworthy being:

Saltire 10 TT Overall Winners: Graeme Scott - Men, Rae Captieux – Women Ian McCulloch 10: 1st Lauri Peil – Men, 1st Jane Stevenson – Women, 1st Sean Noon – Junior, 1st Cameron Greatorex – Youth, 1st Emma Borthwick – Youth

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 ERC team (Ken Russell, Sean Noon, Ross Crook, Lauri Peil) – Silver Scottish TTT ERC team (Ken Russell, Sean Noon, Lauri Peil) - 1st Kinross CC TTT Aero Men ERC team (Jo Merritt, Ola & Terri) – 1st Kinross CC TTT Women

Track Hong Kong UCI International Bronze - Ellie Richardson Sprint 2014 Masters World Championships Manchester Cat.35-39 500m TT Gold - Ali Chisholm World Champion Cat.35-39 Team Sprint Gold - Ali Chisholm & Janet Birkmyre Bronze – Peigi Series Cat 40-44 Scratch race 2013 British Track Championships 500m TT 6th – Ellie Richardson Team Sprint 4th - Ellie Richardson & Kayleigh Brogan 2013 Scottish Track Championships Womens Sprint Gold – Ellie Richardson Womens 500m TT Gold – Ellie Richardson Silver - Ali Chisholm Womens Team Sprint Gold – Ellie Richardson & Ali Chisholm Junior Men’s Keirin Silver – Rhys Donnelly Veterans 20km Bronze – Ross Crook Vets Pursuit Gold – Peigi Series

Meadowbank Velodrome: The management team, following our successful bid, was appointed in April. We have achieved the following numbers: Meadowbank Usage 2014  Youth Sessions: 32 sessions total riders: 640 riders  Schools (Ross Crook & Keith Stocker sessions) 7 sessions Total riders: 105 riders  National Track League youths & seniors: 13 sessions: 110 riders  University: 2 Sessions: 30 riders  Scottish Youth Track Championships: 100 riders.  Drop In sessions: 280 riders  Taster Sessions (beginners): 82 riders  Accreditation: 63 riders Total rider usage 21 weeks from May 2014- September 2014 = 1410 riders Average: 67 riders per week

We will be continuing management of the track next year 2015, after which we expect the velodrome to be demolished.

A big thanks to the Management team, the grass cutters and track coaches Phil Darby & Ken Whitson

Road Races Promoted: The club promoted the following races during the year (more than any other club in Scotland). A big thank you to all our organisers and volunteers for making this possible. Gifford RR, Youth Early Season Opener Series, Ingliston Crit Series, Tour of Meldons TT, Ian McCulloch TT, Lothian Flyer, Youth Cyclocross Race and Club Hill Climb. Glenkinchie 2 Up TTT, Eastern Promise & Spring Classic not held.

Saturday Development Ride This ride continues every Saturday bringing new riders into the sport. Thanks to Stephen Roy and all development run leaders for making this possible.

Rob Bloor

2 Triathlon Section Report

First of all, I must give thanks to everyone who has supported the running of the Tri Section this year: the committee members, the coaches, the swim subs collectors, the race organisers and the race volunteers – without you giving up your time to help, we wouldn’t be able to do all the things we do.

Training sessions and weekends

We continue to run five coached swim sessions and one coached run session each week. The number of club members at these sessions has been up and down over the year with some sessions even having only a coach. With new Triathlon Scotland rules around coaches and how many sessions can be coached at certain levels, we will need to carefully consider how many swim sessions we can run (although Edinburgh Leisure may take that decision out of hands if some of their proposed cuts happen). The cost of the swim sessions is subsidised by the club (and reduced for volunteers in the preceding year) so you could swim five times a week for the whole year for only £80 – a bargain!

The annual spring training weekend was reasonably well attended but the autumn training weekend had to be cancelled due to a lack of numbers. A lot of work goes into organising these weekends and again they are financially supported by the club so I would urge you to support them – they are great fun, excellent training and a good way to meet your fellow club members.

Juniors

This year we started junior training sessions and a summer triathlon training camp at Dalkeith High School. Jo Phillips has been the driving force behind this and has made a huge success of it which we hope will continue to grow in strength in the coming years.

This year we took the first step in organising our own races. Following on from the success of the junior training sessions, Jo Phillips took the lead role in organising the Dalkeith Junior Triathlon. It was a very successful race which we are aiming to continue in the coming years. In addition, we are looking at the options for organising an adult race in the future.

Club members also volunteered at Loch Ore Sprint Triathlon organising by Edinburgh Racing.

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 Competitions

Once again, we were 2nd in the Triathlon Scotland club rankings – beaten by the size of Fusion Triathlon Club. If you are not already, then please consider joining Triathlon Scotland – everyone’s result really does count.

Anne Peat won our handicap competition – congratulations!

Club members have raced far and wide this year and achieved podium positions at World, British and Scottish level (with apologies if I have missed anyone’s results):

World Standard

Penny Rother – 2nd Female 55-59

British Standard

Ewan Brown – 1st Male 25-29 and overall Hazel Smith – 1st Female 25-29 and 3rd overall Jo Phillips – 2nd Female 40-44

British Sprint

Hazel Smith – 1st Female 25-29 and 2nd overall

Scottish Duathlon

Jo Phillips – 3rd Female Veteran

Scottish Standard

Brad Gilbert – 3rd Male Super Veteran Paul Saddler – 1st Male Vintage Jo Phillips – 2nd Female Veteran

Scottish Sprint

Paul Saddler – 1st Male Vintage Penny Rother – 2nd Female Super Veteran

Scottish Middle Distance

Izzy Joiner – 3rd Female Senior

Scottish Cross

Rory Downie – 1st Male Senior

Scottish Youth

Alice Phillips – 2nd Female 11-12 Sean Flynn – 2nd Male 13-14

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 2015 and beyond

I hope that we will be able to continue the successes of this year and build on the progress we have made. For that to happen, we need club members to get involved: coming along to training sessions and social events, attend the training weekends, get involved in running the club and help in organising and volunteering at races. If there is any way in which you think you could help then please get in touch with me. Chris Godfree

3 ERC Juniors Report Again a youth rider from ERC has won the U16 British Youth Circuit championship. Congratulations to Matthias Barnet for providing us with this unbelievable outcome. Last year I thought ‘This will never happen again’ so perhaps I should have more faith in our riders? This could not have been achieved without the many efforts of riders, parents, coaches, helpers, ERC with the support of team sponsor Martin Currie, and the Braveheart fund. The club assisted him financially with a small proportion of the costs incurred in travelling the length and breadth of the UK, including an appearance in the latest London Revolution race meeting. The Martin Currie Youth Race team had another successful year with riders selected to represent Scotland at Inter Regional championships and producing Scottish champions in mountain biking, road and cyclocross. 60% of the club’s points scores were from the Youth section. Full details of the results will be given in the MCRT annual report. Furthermore team members publicised their own experiences through Braveheart postings and personal blogs which were followed and appreciated by our sponsors. Matthias was awarded the City of Edinburgh’s Sir Chris Hoy award for the most promising track rider. Through the year riders collected many placings in Scottish championship events and rode in the Glasgow track league to further their abilities. Other members again took advantage of summer weather by training at Meadowbank which was enhanced by the club taking control of the facility. Access to the Chris Hoy Velodrome was improved through ESCA sessions. The road racing season began with our two event season starter series and continued through the summer with 5 Ingliston crits. A number of riders continued to gain valuable experience racing at the National Series Youth Circuit events – Anna Flynn making the podium regularly in the U12s. Anna also took 3rd spot at the British Champs upstaged only by Matthias’ fabulous result in the U16 race! They competed in multistage youth tour events in Perthshire (Youth Tour of Scotland), Blackpool (Youth Tour of the North West), Isle of Man and Ireland (Errigal International Youth Tour). We have been a major participant in the cluster sessions held to progress the better riders in the East and Central SC region. We also have a number of youth riders competing at mountain biking from local to national level. Sean Flynn made the podium at a national series event and finished 4th in the British National Series overall. We would benefit from additional mountain bike coach support to encourage more riders to participate in this discipline. The Go-Ride sessions based in Inch Park have continued to be well attended. Here we emphasise participation as much as performance. Riders from ages 8 to 16 continue to learn basic skills and put them to use in Craigmillar Country Park. Demand for places became such that we now hold regular taster sessions. The club added a further bike to its fleet. It is encouraging to see how many riders from these sessions are also starting to race. Our growing membership means that further coaches are needed to cope with numbers and the various disciplines. The lack of suitably qualified coaches has meant that we run a waiting list. Hugh Thomas and Andrew Bothwell qualified as coaches and we supported Jarlath Flynn in gaining L2 to develop the U18 squad. Fraser Moore, Iain McLeod and Andy Strathdee qualified as R&TT coaches over the last year, while we will be sad to lose our favourite Estonian and coach, Lauri Peil, without whom we would have been the poorer. Rider retention remains an issue as we have lost our last two British champions Ben Forsyth and Matthias Barnett as they moved from the youth to junior category.

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland Edinburgh RC Founded 1925 And finally…… I would personally like to thank everyone involved with ERC Juniors for making it a fun, rewarding and successful youth cycling club. My involvement over the summer has dipped owing to my involvement at Meadowbank and the pressing completion of my studies. The baton was not dropped in my absence.

Phil Darby

4 MTB Section Report Saturday rides continue to be well attended and offer a good opportunity for new people to learn about Edinburgh mountain biking and ERC. However despite a lot of members on the FB page there is limited interest in organising other rides and only a very small number of people who contribute. Some members have participated in enduro races this year. While there are ambitions to set up a club Strava challenge, organise more rides, and be more organised in supporting races, we are simply short of people with the time to contribute in this way. Anyone who wants to get involved would be welcomed. Kathryn Goodenough

Affiliated to the British Cycling, CTC, East of Scotland Cycling Association, Road Records Association, Scottish Cycling & Triathlon Scotland