Popular Fun Tour cycle series starts this Saturday

Ballymena Road Club – Chain Reaction Cycles – are scheduled to commence their Autumn and Winter series of fun cycle tours this Saturday 5th September, from Rex Bonar House at 9.30am.
By The Newsroom
Published 4th Sep 2015, 20:00 BST
FLASHBACK: Ballymena Road Club - Chain Reaction - Fun Tour cyclists presented a cheque for £1089 to The Chernobyl Children's Appeal NI at a Town Hall reception last week. Included are (from left): Audrey Wales (Mayor of Ballymena); Patsy McGurk (BRC touring section chairman); Eleanor Duffin (CCA); and Pius McKernan (BRC tourning committee). Submitted picture.FLASHBACK: Ballymena Road Club - Chain Reaction - Fun Tour cyclists presented a cheque for £1089 to The Chernobyl Children's Appeal NI at a Town Hall reception last week. Included are (from left): Audrey Wales (Mayor of Ballymena); Patsy McGurk (BRC touring section chairman); Eleanor Duffin (CCA); and Pius McKernan (BRC tourning committee). Submitted picture.
FLASHBACK: Ballymena Road Club - Chain Reaction - Fun Tour cyclists presented a cheque for £1089 to The Chernobyl Children's Appeal NI at a Town Hall reception last week. Included are (from left): Audrey Wales (Mayor of Ballymena); Patsy McGurk (BRC touring section chairman); Eleanor Duffin (CCA); and Pius McKernan (BRC tourning committee). Submitted picture.

The normal well tried and tested format will continue for this year’s series.

The participants will be divided into at least three groups with the more experienced riders scheduled to cover about 50 miles on their tour.

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Club members will welcome newcomers to the touring section’s group where the average speed will be kept to around 15mph.

This speed isn’t exactly slow for novices so anyone who turns up needs to have been doing some training in preparation for the event. The minimum age of the participants is set at 13 years and all those under 16 must be accompanied by a parent, guardian or other nominated adult.

Experienced club members are asked to make themselves available as “travelling marshals”. They need to be fit to do this job as it means riding ahead of the group, to cover junctions and corners and then staying in position until everyone goes past, and then cycling back up to the front again ready for the next turn. This will certainly be good training for those volunteers!

Certificates and medals will be awarded to the successful participants with five tours earning bronze, eight for silver while eleven wins gold.

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Participants are advised that crash helmets must be worn. They are also advised to dress appropriately for the weather conditions and to bring a rain jacket, spare tube, food and money. It goes without saying that bikes must be fully road worthy.

There is a minimum one off entry fee of £5 to cover the fun tour series with the donations going to the Chernobyl children’s appeal NI.

The 2014 series attracted a record total participation of 943 over the 13 weeks (average 73 per week) during which 163 different cyclists completed at least one tour.

Related topics:AutumnWinterParticipants