Fresno Cycling Club - November 2023
 

Rough Draft 

November 2023

Greetings to all you great bicycling people. Happy November to you all and Happy Thanksgiving! 

   October was a big bicycling month for us. We started out with the Grizzly Gravel and Century rides in North Fork. Ride Director Tony Inderbitzen put together a fabulous event. With 5 different routes there were plenty of options available, there were two gravel options and 3 road options. The North Fork Community and the Sierra Scenic Byway are the beneficiaries of this Charitable ride. The Grizzly committee was able to solicit over $10,000 in sponsorships to help offset the costs of putting on the ride and garner a good amount of money to go toward the support and maintenance of the Scenic Byway. Our club over the past 5 years has been a key partner in helping this event continue with its 28-year history of putting on a great event. There were riders from all over California and neighboring states that attended this year. In the past this ride has had as many as 650 riders pre-covid. Of course, that was back when there weren’t as many rides to choose from. All our rides are experiencing less ridership as the number of gravel and road rides has increased over the years. Overall, the Grizzly ride was a big success, the great groups of riders were treated to some great weather and great rider support. Great job Tony and crew. 

   Next up was the 18th Annual Bass Lake Powerhouse Double Century on Oct 14th. Ride Director Gia Parker, her crew and our great Volunteers treated the riders to a special event. Watching the double century riders do their ride is inspiring. Talk about being in shape. Do you know what it takes to do a double century ride? Just think about what it takes to do a century ride and then double it and then some. One thing that was an exciting part of this DC was that our very own former Bass Lake DC Director Richard Hoff completed his 200th Double Century. Think of that, 40,000 miles just doing the double Centuries, that doesn’t include all the training and long-distance rides and races such as the Nevada 508. Congratulations Richard for your legendary accomplishment.

Bass Lake PDC - Richard Hoff 200th DC

Photo of all BLPDC Ride Directors, Past and Present

   You may have noticed over this year that there has been a decline in the number of road rides that are showing up on the Club calendar. Some of it has to do with the increased popularity of Gravel riding, which has become very popular over the past few years. Another possibility that I have noticed is the Covid effect. One of the results of the Covid lockdowns was that we found that we could still get out and ride our bikes, in fact it was good to do so. Since it was discouraged to ride in big groups, many of us formed smaller groups that we trusted we wouldn’t be exposed to Covid. We got used to riding in our small groups and we made good friends as a result. After Covid was over most of us stayed in our small groups as we were comfortable riding together. Once you get accustomed to riding with people you know and have good relationships with you tend to continue to ride together and really don’t feel the need or desire to have others join you. In this case you don’t put your rides on the calendar because you don’t want to be responsible to look out for others. Our rides over this past weekend indicated to me that there are bicyclists that want to ride, they just need to be told where to show up and where to ride. I want to encourage our ride leaders to get out and lead some rides. 

As always ride safe out there. 

The Prez
Dennis Ball

FCC BOARD MEETING

Wednesday, Nov 1st, 2023   

6:30 PM

Me N Eds Victory Grill

4010 N Cedar Ave

MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Your Membership Renewal Date:

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FRESNO'S FIRST EVER INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT AND FESTIVAL 

   For the first time ever, Fresno has conducted a Fresno International Transportation Innovations Summit Pedal 2023.  The Fresno International Transportation Innovations Summit / PEDAL 2023 was a regional and international conference aimed at gathering transportation professionals, policymakers, and other active and multi-modal transportation proponents around the world to promote safe and sustainable transportation design, planning, and policy through urban diplomacy and continued partnership.

PEDAL 2023 Summit is sponsored by the City of Fresno, the Fresno State Transportation Institute, and the Fresno Sister Cities project in collaboration with the City of Münster (the “bicycle capital” of Germany) and other local community-based organizations such as the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition, the Fresno Cycling Club and US Green Building Council. "PEDAL" was dubbed as this year's focus, representing the region and international partners' advancement of active transportation development through Planning, Education, Design, Advocacy, and Lifestyle (P.E.D.A.L.). 

The objective is to promote and encourage sustainable transportation in the greater Fresno region and beyond, which suffers greatly given its geography, and the health burdens of air pollution generated by fossil-fuel-based transportation and agricultural systems, as well as climate-related wildfire smoke. Through a regional and international effort of shared best practices in a variety of cities throughout the United States, Germany, and other countries, the PEDAL 2023 Summit hopes to foster newfound relations within the industry of city planning and transportation. 

  The Fresno Cycling Club assisted the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition in hosting two events for the Pedal Summit. On Saturday the 28th, we did a ride in the downtown area to view many of the Downtown Murals. We had approximately 70 riders participate. Most if not all the Munster Delegation participated in the ride. It is amazing all the beautiful murals that adorn the building walls of the Downtown area. After the ride riders enjoyed some pizza and brews at the South of Shaw Brewery.

Mural Ride Photo

   After the mural ride, several of the group continued on another ride which was a tour of new Bicycle Lanes or as they are called “Cycle Tracks”. They feature a bike lane separated from traffic with the use of bollards. They are located on Van Ness in the Tower District going to City College, on Palm Ave by Fresno High, on Wishon from Clinton to Belmont, and on Barstow between Blackstone and Cedar. Keep this in mind when you're looking for safer streets to travel on when you’re riding around town. 

   On Sunday the 29th we hosted the Great Central Valley Bicycle Route highlighting the Fresno and Clovis Spurs. It was a 34-mile loop from Woodward Park to downtown Fresno, then east from Downtown, then north to Clovis and through Downtown Clovis, out the Clovis trail and back to Woodward Park. It was a fun ride, which highlighted many of Fresno and Clovis’ attributes. We started out with a large group of 60+ riders. We were joined by the Route creator, Michael Smiley, who said it took 4 years to develop the route which starts at Shasta Dam and goes through the Central Valley all the way to Bakersfield for a total of 750 miles. It is now included in the Adventure Cycling's List of United States Bicycle Routes. If anyone would be interested in doing this ride over a period of time let the Board know. It would be a fun adventure.

ANNUAL BOARD NOMINALTIONS AND OPEN POSITIONS 

The current Board members have indicated their desire to continue to serve in their current positions, however any Club member is welcome to run for any position that they would like to challenge. We currently have the following open positions that need to be filled.  

  • Newsletter Editor - an elected position,  
  • A&B Ride Coordinator - an elected position,  
  • Volunteer Coordinator - an appointed Board member position. 

You can have someone nominate you or you can nominate yourself by contacting the Club Secretary Mary Stubblefield at Secretary@fresnocycling.com. 

Nominations will be open until the end of November. The election will open on December 1st and close on Dec 10th. All members will receive a Ballot by email. Results will be announced at the Annual Christmas Party. 

LOOKING FOR FCC RIDES??

The following is a list of FCC ride groups and locations to find FCC Rides.

Groups in Facebook Messenger

  • FCC Mountain Men and Women/Velominati – C/D rides, foothill & mountain routes 50 – 80+ mile rides
  • FCC Spinoffs Cycling - C rides, 30 - 60-mile rides
  • FCC Gang Rides – C/D rides, 20 – 60-mile rides

Facebook

EMAIL

FCC Website

  • FCC Ride Calendar: https://fresnocycling.com/Ride-Calendar
  • Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday Riders – Herndon/Armstrong
  • ROG’s – Retired Old Guys
  • Tuesday Taco Rides – 6 pm at Enzo’s Willow - Shepherd
  • “A” Train rides – Monday’s 6 pm from Enzo’s Willow-Shepherd

Club Ride Calendar

For the Latest Information on the daily, weekly, and event rides for Fresno Cycling Club, please be sure to check out the Ride Calendar!! 
FCC Ride Calendar

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FCC - P.O. Box 27571, Fresno, CA 93729-7571 

www.fresnocycling.com