Articles from the Newsletter July/August 2006

CTC National AGM and Dinner by Keith Wawman

The CTC National AGM and dinner was held in Cardiff on 22nd April 2006. The AGM was chaired by Pat Strauss (Vice President) as President Phil Liggett was working in America full report will be in the next issue of Cycle. The main speaker at the dinner was David Duffield who gave us lots of anecdotes in his speech - bet you can guess who made the most cross toasts! I sat with our friends from SW London DA who had come to support Clive Oxx - he received an award for CTC Volunteer of 2005 runner up, Regional Winner for London, as well as the Arthur Moss Medallion I’m sure he was very pleased! The Sunday run (pictures) followed the Taff Trail supported by members who had attended the AGM and dinner - but not Neville as parts of the route were unmade ..... There was a route for cyclists and walkers Cardiff Bay to Brecon Beacons, a total of 55 miles. A good guide and map was available from the Tourist Office but it turned out to be hillier than expected, although it followed the gorge. Of course we didn’t have time to do it all. We stopped for elevenses and a look round the Castle (Castell Coch), then lunch at Abereyon five miles on from Pontpridd. It was a good ride but spoilt by the gates and the hoops at pedal level (to deter motor cyclists). The scenery would have been better if we had not had the low cloud. I stopped on an extra day to meet up with my Welsh cousins at St. Fagans Welsh National History Museum a reconstructed complete Welsh village with church and castle lots of exhibitions in progress. Well worth the visit and it’s free.

600,000 not out by Neville Chanin

It all began when Uncle Arthur took me to see the Olympic cycle events at Herne Hill track Reg Harris became my hero and I took to cycling at once! Uncle Arthur fixed a Trix cyclometer to my black Hercules roadster, gave me a mileage chart and recording began. A few months later my parents bought me a Rudge Aero Clubman with alloy rims and mudguards, plus Sturmey Archer hub gear and I had all I needed every spare moment and school holiday was spent awheel. Uncle Grahame put me in the CTC for my birthday and then I joined the YHA and was soon hostelling with schoolmates. I well remember my first hostel at Overton Hall in Derbyshire en route to Scotland, and returning from Edinburgh two of us rode all the way to London on the A1 a pleasant single carriageway, unworried by traffic. By 1957 I had the urge to go abroad and joined a party organised by Cycling at a big track meeting with Reg Harris riding which preceeded the finish of Le Tour at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Super now I needed to cycle abroad, but how to go about it? I chose the most difficult tour organised by the CTC (there weren't many in those years) to the Alps of Switzerland, Italy and Austria a tour led by Barbara Bolton from HQ (most were led by HQ staff) with two ladies and 12 lads. My first “col” was the Klausen Pass from Altdorf and we also crossed the Gavie and Stelvio with its 47 hairpin bends. Germany and Yugoslavia came next, but the mountains were calling again and the Pyrenees was the chosen range this time by tandem. Uncle Arthur had given me his Claud Butler short wheel base machine and my girl friend was invited to stoke it. Ferry from Newhaven Dieppe, train to Biarritz and we were off, taking in the major passes Aubisque Tourmalet Aspin and Peyresourde, en route to Carcassone. There was no holding back now, and “home” riding was supported by four to seven annual trips abroad during the sixties, riding to watch various races including the Giro and all the European “Sixes”. My first trip outside Europe came in 1964 when four of us toured Morocco riding through the Atlas mountains from Tangier to Marrakesh. Then a 68 hour train journey aboard the original Orient Express found us in Turkey for a spin there. When I toured Lebanon with Vincent, we learned we were the first to take cycles on the national airline MEA and were amused to find an official photographer at Heathrow to photo us, with an MEA hostess, on our cycles. The scene was repeated at Beirut on arrival before we set off to the the Cedars of Lebanon and out to Damascus. Any country celebrating an anniversary was considered for a tour, thus the 25th year of Israel in 1973 found four lads pedalling through the pages of the Bible with the trip being prolonged by three days as the Yom Kippur war began before we had finished. My boss at Walls Ice Cream once asked me if I was sure I wasn't blurring the edges of my holiday allowance! But this was an unavoidable extension. Uncle Sam's 200th in 1976 saw six of us riding from Portland in Oregon to Denver in Colorado through the Rockies, including a ride up Mount Evans at 14,264 feet, the highest surfaced road in US. Of course, by now 1 had joined the OCD, the cyclists' mountain climbing club, along with the 300,000 miles club. Australia became 200 in Jan 1988 so Dave and I were there riding 3006 miles in 35 days. The highlight was sharing afternoon tea with Sir Hubert Opperman and Lady Mavys on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary. A lap of Tasmania followed. The highest pass in Venezuela's Andes, the Pic Aguila at 4007 metres gave its name to my bungalow when the first of five crossings was made in 1975. The friendliness of people has encouraged my wheels to turn in four more South American countries on several occasions taking in the pancake flat Pampas of Argentina and the 3300 metres Los Cumbres pass over to Chile. Trisha was a key companion and route plotter in the early 1980s and together we rode the tea plantations of Sri Lanka, rice paddies and mountains of South India along with my first of three trips to Mexico. Since that first trip in 1957 to see Le Tour, this has always been a reason for a few days in the Alpes, Pyrenees or other regions with 46 editions of Le Tour having enjoyed my presence. In 1985 1 rode to Tilff in the Ardennes for my first of seven Tilff Bastoigne Tilff cyclo sportifs with others in Alpes Pyenees Brittany following, along with three Etapes du Tour. A camera is always packed in my saddlebag and a collection of over 22,000 colour transparencies exists recording miles in 44 countries to date covering 339 foreign excursions. As I climbed the lower slopes of Mallorca's col Sa Batalla on 19th March this year I noted the 600,000 was reached, allowing me a celebratory drink at the 579 metre summit, with time to reflect.