I see that from information published at The Cycling Ireland AGM recently our club placed 51st of the the 177 registered cycling clubs with 41 licenced members. We have had some additions since then and also it doesn't count our members which ride on an IVCA licence. This is pretty impressive for a club only in its 2nd year. Our challenge now is to grow this and to develop our young riders and help them move to the next level and indeed to encourage them to move into other aspects of cycling also. We are delighted that many of our riders consider themselves 'trackies' but other disciplines will compliment their skills and longer track events aren't won without stamina and those sprint skills can be put to good use on the road! It is also inevitable that some of our younger riders may be infrequent over the winter, but we will keep in touch and encourage them back when the weather improves come spring.
As an aside I was awarded Honorary Life Membership by my previous club, Swords CC for my contibution to them down the years and in recognition of our work in the promotion of track racing. This was indeed a big deal to me as as it showed great support for what we do and it is quite unusual to be bestowed this at such a 'relatively' young age. I told them that this might come back to bite them in the ass as I believe I haven't quite peaked yet! I also told them that they would always be welcome at Sundrive should they want to have a go at some 'real' racing! Sticking with Sundrive though as I believe that our club with a huge force in track racing and beyond..................and our kit is definitely cooler! (Hugh)