Hello Everyone, and a Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed the festive season.

Welcome to the new Stirling Bike Club Blog. In case you missed the AGM in November, I (Andy Chambers) am the new publicity officer. And this is the first post on our new blog. Since I’m relatively new to the the club, please allow me to introduce myself to those of you who might not have met me yet.

I got into cycling not long after moving to Stirling two years ago. On a beautifully sunny day, I rode out towards Dollar on a crusty old hybrid that had been sitting unused for years in storage. I continued on past Dollar to Glen Devon, admired the view while I free-wheeled down to the roundabout before Gleneagles, and then struggled slowly up Sheriffmuir and just about rolled back home from there. That was the day I caught the cycling bug.

After that, I went out on a few more rides myself before discovering Stirling Bike Club and joining the super friendly development group who over the next few weeks helped me learn everything you need to know when riding in a group on the road at a nice comfortable pace. Once I was ready, I moved into the “inters” where we would go a bit further and I learned about all these back-roads and connecting paths that it would likely have taken years for me to find on my own. Then winter came and I made it along to a few of Scoobie’s Spin sessions. Not a perfect attendance record I’ll admit but enough to shed a few pounds and be knocking on the door of the middle group by the next spring (2019).

By the end of summer 2019, I’d invested in a proper road bike, tried my hand at the club confined TT, toiled on the chain-gang, enjoyed a rainy away day in Cowal and became friends with a fantastic bunch of people. And by this time I was whizzing up Sheriffmuir and finding it just as pretty as the first time I rode up it. I suppose this is just a long-winded way of saying that I’m hugely grateful to the club and the people in it for being such a friendly and supportive organization.

So I’m really excited to have the opportunity to share the news about all the great things that go on at the club. I’m committed to publishing once a quarter and hopefully I’ll manage a bit more than that (this one doesn’t count). I’ll keep an eye on the forum and Facebook groups but I’m aware that some things in the club are organized in other spaces like WhatsApp so please do let me know what’s going on whether it’s news about races, away days, gossip/gripes etc and I’ll incorporate it into the next post.

I’ll close by wishing members all the best for 2020 and I hope to see you out on the road (or maybe even off-road if I pluck up the courage to get on a mountain bike this year).