THE PREZ SAYS.....
Greetings cycling club family, happy August. Hope you have been having a great time riding this season. July treated us to some nice weather this year with only a few days over 100 degrees compared to a whole month of triple digits last year. Hopefully August will be merciful as well this year, although the first week of August gets into the triple digits.
This year we teamed up with the Southern Sierra Cycling Club to put on a weekend event on the Central Coast. The event is taking place this weekend, which is perfect timing as the weather projects into the 100's this weekend. This is the first event where we teamed up with another club to host a ride and I look forward to joining other FCC and SSC members for cool weather and nice rides along the central coast.
A treat for us passionate bicyclists in the month of July is the Tour de France and Tour de France Femme. This year was awesome with three weeks of amazing racing of the men and women's races. It is so awesome to see the best cyclists in the world show their skills in this competition. It's cool to see all the new bikes and gear. So many of the improvements to bicycles and gear come as a result of it being developed and used in the Tour. The rivalry between Tadej PogaCar and Jonas Vingegaard continues with Tadej the victor this year for his 4th win. It's great to see the number of American riders and the American teams involved. If you didn't see it, you can catch it on Peacock or YouTube.
I am happy to announce that our Club has been given the status of a 501(c)(3) charitable organization effective immediately. This means that donations to our club and our events and activities are tax deductible. This will help us with getting sponsors for our events which in the past has been difficult due to not being a 501(c)(3). This is something I have been wanting for the club for some time. Thanks to the combined efforts of Gia Parker, Laura Moore and Elida Gonzalez and especially the help of Laura's accountant friend Pam Gallemore who helped guide us through the process.
I want to thank Mary Stubblefield (Coordinator/SAG) and Gia Parker (rest stop leader) for putting together the Tour de Lakes this year. With the help of some great volunteers, they treated the riders to great support and mother nature provided some awesome weather. Although we had less than half the normal number of riders, it was a great event. The only mishap was a broken chain.
I look forward to seeing everyone on this month’s Birthday Ride on Aug 9th. Details below.
As always "Ride Safe and Ride Legal"!
Cheers,
The Prez
Dennis Ball
