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CM:
Did you ever think that the Yorkies would become as big as it is now? I mean, over the last year you’ve ended up with over 250 members who are associated with the club through Facebook.
AB:
What happened next blew my mind. I’ve been involved with pubs for twenty years and have seen pool teams, football teams and many more, but never anything quite like the this. Through the pub and Jays contacts, we started inviting people to join the group and after a few rides people started bringing friends along, inviting friends onto the group and that's when the snowball started to really roll. The social media side of it was a revelation - once a ride is posted, the banter starts and carries on to the ride and then back to the pub afterwards.
CM:
Obviously you guys love your cycling (just like we do), So in addition to being a prominent playing in the social side of cycling throughout Norfolk, what do you offer as a club in the way of events, rides and social activities?
AB:
We have our main group rides which we try to keep pretty consistent from week to week with around three groups going out on the road. My wife, Jo takes the ‘easy’ group (16+mph), I take the medium paced (18+mph) and if the quick guys are out, there'll be a fast group (19+ group) for them. This has become a firm base and from here people now organise there own rides and post on the group, so there's always something going on at different times.
CM:
Talk to me about ‘The York to York’.
AB:
As this year saw me hit 50, I decided I wanted to do five challenges (one for each decade) and seeing that the second day of the tour was starting in York, it seemed only right to ride from one York, to the other. One of the guys in the club, Ollie Blackmore is doing a world record attempt, solo ride of Vancouver Island. I decided that we could use the five events as fund raisers to support his chosen charity; ‘The Big C’ in Norwich and that was where the idea for the ‘York to York’ initiated from. As for people involved, 20 people going with 18 riders and 2 drivers. We’ll be spreading the riding over 3 days, finishing in York on the Saturday in time to see the start of the second day of this years le Tour… For most of the group, this will be the biggest ride they’ve ever done, which is an amazing thing to be a part of. >>>