Sitwell Cycling Club is delighted to welcome back local cycling journalist, author and friend of the club Chris Sidwells talks about his latest book; Cycling Legends 02 TI-Raleigh.

The TI-Raleigh professional cycling team, sponsored by the iconic Nottingham bike manufacturer, is one of the most famous teams in the sport. It was the first superteam, a team like the best teams are today; well-funded, well-equipped, a team that could shape-shift with leaders becoming helpers and helpers winning races. The story of TI-Raleigh is one of ambition, larger than life characters, vision, determination and relentless drive to deliver success. A story of heroes and villains, sadness and glory. A story of endeavour and testing the limits of what was possible. It is told in English for the first time in Chris Sidwells’ book, which follows the team from its creation in 1971 as a marketing tool to sell Raleigh bikes in Europe, to winning the world’s biggest bikes races, including the 1980 Tour de France. Raleigh is still the only British bike manufacturer to have done that.

Cycling Legends 02 TI-Raleigh is the second of Chris’s illustrated book series. He visited us back in in 2019 to talk about his first, Cycling Legends 01 Tom Simpson, and like that book this is lavishly illustrated with more than 150 photographs, many of which have never been published before, and the story told with the help of TI-Raleigh riders, its manager, and by others who played a part in it.

Chris has worked as a cycling journalist for over 15 years now, writing thousands of articles for newspapers, magazines and websites worldwide, as well as 25 other books. Cycling Legends is his sports media business, comprising of book publishing, event promotion and his podcast 

, a monthly cycling magazine you listen to with features, interviews, tech, fitness, news, opinion and history shows.

Please come along and join us for what promises to be a fantastic event. Entry is £5 with all profits from the evening going to our club charity partner, Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice.

Chris is coming back to talk to us about his new book: Cycling Legends 02: TI-Raleigh – Cycling’s First Superteam. Tickets on sale now.

An Evening with Chris Sidwells

Beginning Sunday 6th November we'll be adding our 10th ride of the week to the schedule with Sunday morning gravel rides.

They'll follow the same format as our weekend rides with a planned cafe stop and the route published in advance. 

There'll be a mix of distances but they'll follow the WiW speeds of around 10-12mph. 

Beginning Sunday 6th November we'll be adding our 10th ride of the week to the schedule with Sunday morning gravel rides. 

Sunday GRAVEL Rides

As the weather starts to turn here's a reminder that you'll need to fit mudguards to your bike.

It's an essential piece of winter kit. It'll not only protect your bike and yourself from road spray, but if fitted properly and with a proper flap, it'll protect the rider behind you.

Fitting a mudguard means we can still ride as a group through the winter, after all, nobody wants to be covered in road dirt. It'll also help to keep your kit nice and clean.

If your bike has mudguard fixing eyelets then we recommend the SKS Bluemels as these provide the best coverage.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-narrow-road-mudguard-set

If you only have a 'race' bike that doesn't have fixing eyelets, then your best option is the Crud Roadracers. You'll need to check the tolerances on these before purchasing though

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/crud-roadracer-mk3-mudguard-set-1

If you can't fit either of the above then you'll have to go for clip-on mudguards. Something like the SKS Raceblades or these Lifeline clip-on ones.

https://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-narrow-road-clip-on-mudguard

Mudflaps can make a huge difference to your winter group cycle rides. Most mudguards finish half way down the back wheel, which means you stay dry but spray still hits the rider behind.

Adding a mudflap catches that spray and everyone gets home (relatively) clean. All that expensive winter kit doesn't need washing each time, therefore extending its life. More importantly, you don't have a face covered in road dirt, which can only be a good thing. 

Flaps can be made form something as simple as a plastic bottle, but we recommend club branded flaps from 

Mudguards are your way of being courteous to your fellow club members. After all we're here to enjoy the ride.

We're heading into mudguard season and no better way to add a little pizzazz to your bike than with our club branded flaps.

Mudguards

Adding further to our ranks, Claire Wardle has joined our Welfare & Safeguarding team as a Welfare Officer after passing the necessery checks from British Cycling. 

Claire has done a bit of coaching in the past so will be used to how our Go-Ride set-up works and will be complementing the work David Hush is doing.

More information about our Welfare & Safeguarding policies or team can be found here

We've added a new Welfare Officer to our team.

Announcements

An Evening with Chris Sidwells

Don't miss this

Sunday GRAVEL Rides

Mudguards

Claire Wardle

Club rides

We're here for the smiles, not the miles.

Charity work

We raise vital funds for local charities

Races

We host races.
We support races.
We race.

Go-ride coaching

We're coaching the next generation.

Announcements

An Evening with Chris Sidwells

Don't miss this

Sunday GRAVEL Rides

Mudguards

Claire Wardle

Club rides

We're here for the smiles, not the miles.

Charity work

We raise vital funds for local charities

Races

We host races.We support races.We race.

Go-ride coaching

We're coaching the next generation.

We host races.
We support races.
We race.