This damned wind can only mean one thing, spring!!  But spring brings daylight savings, which means that warmer weather is on the way (hopefully!) and Tuesday nights are about to get more exciting!!

We're pleased to announce the calendar for the new season of Tuesday night racing.  We're schedulling 19 events over the summer season, plus Club championship events that will be held in April & May.  Races before Christmas will have a team and fun focus, with the (more) serious Sealetech Summer Series starting in January, with points accruing with graded races towards the Summer Series trophies.

Big thanks to Searletech (and Mike Searle) who is again sponsoring the summer season with prizes of discount vouchers for each night winners.  Mike also offers all Club members 10% of bike servicing, so contact Mike when your steed needs TLC on 027 226 4599 or mike@searletech.co.nz.

We're going to kick things off with a new concept (thanks Euan).  We're going to try Team Pursuit-style races at Southwards on 17 October as a season-opening event, and then if you like it, we will roll it out for the next two nights.  We're calling it Hot Pursuit (though only those who remember Roscoe P Cultrane will know how to say it properly...) and the hilly 900m Southwards circuit is likely to make this quite a workout!

The whisky wasn't flowing at the last Committee meeting but the creative juices were, so next up we will try another first, handicap races on the Camelot Course, so that's what the next three races will be. 

So, the Hot Pursuit will be raced in reverse order, with lower grades (E, D, etc) first away, from 6.15 pm. Trackies will know there are generally 4 riders in a team, but our race manager will allocate teams based on grade, so numbers will vary.   So please encourage your fellow-grade riders to come along!!  This promises to be fun to watch too, so encourage you to come early/stay on and plot your tactics.  

The Calendar has been updated with all the race locations and times, but in summary, the season looks like this:

Southwards Hot Pursuit 17 Oct, 24 Oct, 31 Oct, 7 Nov. 

Camelot Loop Course (with gravel section) handicap graded racing 14 Nov, 21 November 28 Nov

Nga Manu Course handicap racing 5 Dec, 12 Dec 

Nga Manu Course, Snowball Christmas novelty event 19 Dec

Summer Series starts 23 Jan

Southwards Course graded racing 23 Jan, 30 Jan, 6 Feb, 13 Feb, 20 Feb

Camelot Loop Course,graded racing 27 Feb, 5 Mar, 12 March

Nga Manu Course graded racing 19 Mar, (final race of the Summer Series) 26 Mar,

Nga Manu Course, Novelty Event to finish the season

Then the Club championship events that have yet to be confirmed in April & May.

Prices - Tuseday night races will again be FREE ENTRY for MEMBERS - please show your membership card when registering (if you need a card, please see Gary).  Everyone is welcome, so non-members are just $10 (seniors), and $5 for juniors.

And speaking of calendars, we've also added some of the Fun rides, Sportifs, PNP and Masters events that may interest members to our club Calendar.  https://www.kapiticyclingclub.co.nz/Calendar-1/Calendar-1 

Finally, if you tend to do most of your training indoors, you might find this recent article from FastCat Training saying why you should do more of your workouts outdoors.  

Here’s a short list of benefits to training outside:

• Bike handling and a better understanding of tire pressure
• Pack riding skills
• Improved pacing
• Feedback on your bike fit: handling and aerodynamics 
• Better tolerance of high and low cadences
• You can generate higher power
• You get to be outside
• It's more fun!

Article added: Tuesday 03 October 2023