Month: July 2019

Mike Shows True NWV Spirit by Facing His Fears

Mike “The Bollard” Hornsby made his comeback ride on the club’s Tuesday night ride. He had been off the bike for 4 weeks after a collision with a particularly aggressive bollard on the Burton Marsh Greenway (BMG).

To mark the occasion, and as a special treat for him, the ride took to the BMG so the club could remember the “fell-offen” with a minutes silence at the memorial bollard.

Mike makes his peace with the bollard

In a moving speech, Mike thanked the club and his long suffering partner Paula for their support though a very painful episode in his cycling career. Despite the shock of meeting his nemesis face to face again, Mike held his composure and spoke with confidence about the future, and his hopes for being able to ride passed this and all other bollards without being drawn in to photograph them at speed before ploughing head long into them. He also thanked Cheshire County Council for erecting the plaque in his honour.

The boys, along with Mike, remember that terrible day and give thanks for not being as daft as him.

The sombre mood was further lifted by the usual stop at the “Thatch” on the way back for a round bought by Mike himself. He really is a team player.

Chapeau Mike, and hope the bruising clears up soon (but not the swelling) and you can launch your Speedos modelling career.

Ride safe!

Scott

Ps Send us your selfie with the memorial bollard on the BMG to be entered into our competition, “Who’s the biggest bollard on the road”. First prize will get two tickets to the NWV annual club dinner and prize presentation in November. Remember to use the #mikethebollard hashtag and follow @nwvcc to qualify.

The touching tribute from the Cheshire CC

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Meanwhile, in France

After the recent spell of fantastically hot weather in the UK, the weekend, for the North West at least, was a wash out. Some of the braver members of the club got an early ride in on Saturday, missing the worst of the weather. The rest (and yours truly included) wimped out in case we melted.

Many will have used the free time to watch the Tour De France closing stages and marvel at the cycling talent seen on our TV screens competing in the biggest and arguably toughest race in the world.

What a lot of people won’t have been aware of is that a group of women, called the Internationelles, completed the entire 3,400 kms tour route one day ahead of the race to promote equality in sport. They wanted to, and indeed did, show the world that women deserve such multi stage grand tours and deserve equality in race coverage and prize money.

The Internationelles

One of those brilliantly talented cyclists was Helen Bridgman, honorary NWV member and married to Will who flies the NWV flag down south in that there London.

Helen and Will on top of the legendary climb of the Galibier pass

Will was lucky enough to be able to go out to France to support his wife and the rest of the ladies for their last few days in the Alps and triumphant ride into Paris.

The end of a grueling three weeks for Helen

On behalf of the North Wirral Velo (and many, many others I’m sure) we would like to say a massive WELL DONE!! A tremendous achievement for a very worthy cause.

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Two Years On…

It was on this day two years ago when a dozen or so people met above a pub in West Kirby. They were there in response to a few posts on various social media platforms about the crazy idea of reforming the North Wirral Velo. I have to confess that it was a nervous first step. I had no idea at that time if there was any real enthusiasm for such an idea.

Well, after a slowish start, and managing to get through the winter of 2017/2018 (when a lot of prospective members may be less visible) the idea and the club started to grow. Now, two years on, it makes me very proud to see the numbers up around the 50 members mark.

We have a big cross section of abilities and back grounds and I’m proud to say we have gotten people new to cycling involved in their first cycling club and also introduced quite a few to the racing side of the sport.

During this year, we have had 11 members compete in times trials, road races,criteriums, duathlons and triathlons, five of those had never raced before joining the NWV. But this is only the beginning. The club is still growing at a rate of knots, 4 new members in as many weeks just gone by.

We have regular meetings, club runs, social events and the annual club dinner and prize presentation. These events are what bonds us as a club and makes its members more than just a group of cyclist who happen to ride together.

I want to thank everyone who has been involved in the club so far, it has far exceeded my expectation when I first started on this road two years ago. Long may it continue!

Ride safe
Scott

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A Grand Day Out

The North Wirral Velo turned out on mass for the recent Sigma Sports West Coast Classic, in the lanes of Lancashire.

A motley crew at the start. Not the Motley Crue (as in the 80’s rock group)

Fourteen from the club made the trip to the start in Preston for a very well organised event. The course was a scenic 97 miles through the Lancashire countryside taking in a couple of tough climbs in the first half of the event.

A line out on a narrow section of the course

With only one puncture to deal with (even though it took 4 punctures worth of time to fix) and a couple of feed stops the ride time was a very respectable 5 and half hours. Official times where in the region of 6 hours 42 minutes which was good enough for the Silver award.

One fixing it, many observers…

Overall it was a great day and the NWV train devoured all in it’s wake, despite missing two of the clubs key rouleurs (one through injury, one through beer)

Cruising through Lancashire

The next big day out at an organised event for the NWV is the Tour De Mon in Angelsey on Sunday 18th August, although there will be a lot of miles put in by the guys before then!

The NWV meet every Sunday at 8am at the Glegg Arms and every Tuesday at 7pm at the Red Cat. If you are looking for a friendly group to ride with, then please come along and join us!

Ride safe!

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Emotional Tributes to Mike and his Bollard

Following on from last week’s post about the traumatic bollard related incident involving one of members, tributes have been pouring in from around the cycling world.

The Wirral section of the VCUK cycling club made a stop at “Mike’s Bollard” as it’s now formally known to show their support for such a good cause.

VCUK members moved by at the sight of the incident involving Mike’s left bollard

Other members of the cycling community simply left anonymous tributes on social media, some with flowers

A touching tribute of some weeds at Mike’s bollard.

The NWV had it’s usual Sunday club run last week, and even though Mike is well on the road to recovery, he was not well enough to participate. So the club paid it’s own tribute. It was an emotional moment, some of the lads moved to tears when they thought of how close Mike was to losing a boll**k on the bollard.

Members of the NWV remember their idiotic friend and his bollard

The biggest suprise came from the Grand Depart in this years Tour De France. At the start of the opening stage the great Eddy Merckx appeared out of the roof of the lead car to start the race and produced a replica of Mike’s Bollard to stick on the roof in a show of solidarity.

Eddy Merckx along with Mikes bollard start the 2019 Tour De France.

Hopefully Mike will be out again next week and be back to steering AROUND bollards and other stationary objects.

Ride safe!

#mikethebollard

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A Ride in the Hills Ends in a Pain in the Bollards

There was a great turn out for last Sundays NWV club run into North Wales. The group set off for a spin over a few local climbs including the “easy” side of Penbarras and the long steady climb of the Nant-y-Garth out of Rhuthin.

Top of Penbarras before the impending disaster

After a stop at the Fisheries for a spot of lunch it was back home via the well used Burton Marsh Greenway to the Wirral.

Unfortunately one of our Mikes had forgotten about the set of bollards in the middle of the path, despite having passed by them at least 3,500 times.

Whilst trying to get a shot for NWV cycling photographer of the year, Mike had a complete breakdown in common sense and decided to ride headlong into the bollard. If you have ever wondered what the answer to the age old question of “what happens when an unmovable object meets an unstoppable force?” well, now we know. The answer is Mike lands on the deck in a pool of his own blood worrying about how his bike is.

The last photo taken by Mike before his close up with the bollard

Good news is that the club did have another three Mikes out that day, so we could afford to lose one without much disruption. Other good news is that Mike is ok and after a check up at A&E is allowed back into the mental asylum from which he had escaped from for the day.

The local council have commissioned a plaque for this bollard that will commemorate the level of stupidity that occured on this day.

Plaque to commemorate Mike’s disaster.

So if any of our readers are thinking of riding along the Burton Marsh Greenway, stop and take a selfie with the plaque and remember to use the hashtag #mikethebollard and post it to our social media channels on @nwvcc

And finally,

Ride safe!

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