The Rough Draft
A Monthly Update from The Fresno Cycling Club  - November 2017

The Prez Sez...

For some bicyclists, the cycling season is coming to a close as many cyclists are fair weather and warmer weather bicyclists. It has been a great year for bicycling: we have enjoyed many great cycling events this year here on our own turf. Starting off with the Annual New Year’s day ride, the Brevet series, the Time Trial Series, the Blossom Trail ride, the California Classic, Kirch Flat, Hungry Buzzard Century, Climb to Kaiser, Tour de Lakes, the Goathead Century, the Tandem/Recumbent Rally, Tour de Fresno, and the Bass Lake Powerhouse Double Century. This year also saw the addition of some great gravel grinder rides led by Henry Pretzer and others.

Now for those of us that ride all year, be sure to check out all the rides on this month’s ride calendar. There will be the Veteran’s Ride, the American River Ride, a Turkey Day ride, a gravel grinder and a Time Trial up the Four lane. So get your cold weather gear out and keep on riding. When you at least keep a base conditioning it makes it so much easier to get into longer riding next season.

Check out the full November Prez Sez on the website. This contains more info on:

  • The 2018 Board Member Election
  • Bass Lake Powerhouse Double Century
  • Honoring Our Veterans, Nov 10th and Nov 11th
  • Rough Draft switching to email-only
  • Website updates and upgrades
  • The Double Century Gang

Upcoming Club Meetings

November Board Meeting:  Wednesday, Nov 1st, 6:30 PM 
Where:  Sequoia Brewery North
November General Club Meeting:  Wednesday, November 8th, 7:00 PM
Where:  The Bike Shop at Woodward Park.  (Friant & Ft Washington)
What:  Roehl Caragao and Ron Quitoriano, and their Silver State 508 race adventures.

2018 Board Member Election

Well, it is that time of year again: time to exercise our Corporation’s responsibility of nominating and electing our Club Board members.The nominations occurred during the month of October and have closed. The ballot is set and the election will occur early in November. We will be conducting an "all-electronic" election via email. Watch your email in the next week or so for your ballot. 



October Club Meeting

The October FCC General Membership meeting was held on October 11th at Steven's Bicycles in Clovis. Nancy Dooley and Priscilla Hansen talked about their tour of Minnesota and Wisconsin with Adventure Cycling.  Trips such as these are often the result of wanting to re-visit certain parts of the country that mean something to us.  But, the unexpected events that occurred for Nancy and Priscilla make more life-long memories!  We thank Devin and the Steven's staff for allowing us to invade their showroom!  

Be sure to check out future Member's Meetings, which will include information on a variety of topics!  

Veterans' Day Weekend

SAVE THESE DATES - VETERAN’S DAY WEEKEND

On Friday, November 10th: FCC Killer Bees and FACT invite you to join a ride to honor our Veterans in the Honor Flight. Central Valley Honor Flight is committed to honoring local WWII Veterans and Korean War Veterans by sending them to see their memorials in Washington D.C.

Route: The Honor Route is 15 1/2 miles, from the church to the Friant gas station and back for breakfast.
Menu: Eggs, Potatoes, Sausage, Pancakes, Coffee, OJ, Milk until 11:30 am

Veterans Appreciation Ride Registration: $25 + any extra donations appreciated.


On Saturday, November 11th: we have been invited to participate in the Veterans Day Parade riding our bikes. The Parade occurs on November 11th at 11:11 am in front of Fresno City Hall, Fresno, CA.  The Fresno Veterans Day Parade is currently the largest on the West Coast and broadcast live locally and worldwide via satellite to all of our service men and women on bases around the world! Our goal is to honor all of our service men and women in a huge show of appreciation each year.

Let us all make plans to be a part of this two day event. It will be EPIC!
UNITED WE RIDE

American River Ride
Ken Herrington is planning this year's American River Bike Ride for the weekend of November 10th through 12th.  A nice autumn ride along the American River near Sacramento, with some great company!  See the FCC Calendar for more information.
School House to Badger Populaire

The Fresno Cycling Club will wrap up the 2017 Brevet season with a ride called a Populaire (less miles than a typical brevet but in the same style). On Saturday, November 4 come out and beat those legs into shape for one more long climbing ride. This ride is 87 miles long with 7,700 ft elevation gain. But there are a lot of ways to modify the ride if you want to come out for part of it but not do all that climbing.



Bass Lake Double Century

The 2017 Bass Lake Powerhouse Double Century is a wrap. This year’s event was orchestrated by the FCC FACT (Filipino American Cycling Team) lead by Ride Director Angelo Quitorio and his assistant Steve Maquiso. For years the FACT have been assisting with the BLPDC putting on a fabulous reststop at the Millerton Store. This year, Angelo volunteered to take on the Directorship and he did a fabulous job. New features of this year’s event were using the Hampton Inn as the event venue, and reversing the route direction. Both of which were well received and praised by the riders. Many riders commented that this is one of the best, if not the best supported Double Century ride, with lots of SAG support, radio support and well stocked Rest Stops. Kudos to Angelo and all our great volunteers who made this event successful. 


For details on the results, as well as a link to pictures: www.basslakedouble.com.  

Website Updates

We hope you all are enjoying using the new FCC Website. Our Webmaster, William Ewy, has done a great job of getting it up and running in the new format. We can now handle all our club business on the website. Our memberships, new member signups and renewals are all handled at the FCC website. You can even indicate that you want auto-renewal which takes the guess work out of keeping your dues current. We can conduct all our event registrations on the website, which makes it easy for members. When they log in, the registration gets populated with all their member information, making the registration process a breeze. This also does away with the on-line event fees, saving our members and event participants money. We are barely scratching the surface as to the capabilities of this new site, so we look forward to making other aspects of the site available in the future. 

If you have not checked it out lately:  www.fresnocycling.com

Looking to find some Biking Buddies?

FCC is making every effort to provide riding options for riders of all abilities, interests, and time commitments.  Some members already have their "group" that they ride with, but many others may not, and don't know where to look.  Here's a current list of some of our groups.  Please check out www.fresnocycling.com for more information!!!

The A-Train. (A-level rides).  The A-Train focuses on new riders.  Matching up these new riders with more experienced members of FCC, everyone's a winner!  Why not increase your skills and enjoyment at the same time?
The Killer Bees. (B-level rides).  The Killer Bees calls themselves a "transitional" group.  Those that have mastered A-level rides can "move up," but more experienced riders also ride along for the camaraderie.  While some riders may at times go faster than typical B-level rides, The Killer Bees make sure to watch out for the needs of all their riders.  (Please note, these Bees tend to eat well after rides!)
All-Roads Riders (road/gravel/dirt).  Following a growing trend of exploring beyond the paved road, these folks will generally ride off in areas where traffic is not a concern, and the scenery is great!
    Ride Calendar
    The most up-to-date Ride Calendar for FCC is always available at the FCC website.  If you'd like a version to stick up on the refrigerator, here are PDFs of this month's rides (be sure to check website for updates!):
    Cyclocross
     That "other" bike club in Fresno, the Central California Off-Road Cyclists ("CCORC") is putting on their annual Woodward Park Homegrown Cyclocross Series this fall.  Have you ever experienced cyclocross?  If you don't think you can race it, go out and watch!  Bring your cowbell and have a blast.
    The first race was held October 29th, with others on Sunday, November 12th, and Sunday, December 3rd.  Please check out the CCORC Facebook Page for more information.

    Construction Notices - Recharge Fresno
    As we are all aware, Fresno roads have been impacted significantly by ReCharge Fresno, which will improve water supply conditions and groundwater recharging in the future.
    Fortunately, the City of Fresno has made efforts to keep us well informed of where and when the roads will be impacted by this construction.

    For the latest on impacted roads, here's a link to the ReCharge Fresno website. http://www.rechargefresno.com/construction-notices/. 

    Bicycle Shops and Other Supporters

    For many of us, eating and riding are the two major things in life.  We all rely on, and support our local bike shops.  These are the people dedicated to making sure that we can all safely enjoy what we do.  A few local restaurants go out of their way to accomodate cyclists.  Please be sure to support these folks, and tell them you are a FCC Member!


    Other Items:
    Click Link Below, or go to www.fresnocycling.com
    The Fresno Cycling Club is a group of some 800+ cyclists who enjoy bicycling as recreation and sport. As a club we seek to offer cycling events and activities that span a spectrum of cycling interests. Club rides are scheduled year round and range from novice level to 200-mile expert rides. We protect the rights of cyclists by following local, state, and national affairs as they concern cycling. Club members receive a monthly newsletter listing ride schedules and other information of interest to cyclists.  Don't wait another minute! Join now! Welcome to the Fresno Cycling Club.