Topic Title

Within the "where do we want to go" discussions I've mentioned the idea of trying to balance the sports pages coverage we get in the Evening Press with some coverage elsewhere in the paper - more at the fitness / health / leisure / lifestyle / travel end of things. Partly this is to counter any perception that we're just a racing club, and partly, well... ...people get into cycling for all sorts of reasons.

I'm trying to drum up some interest with YEP's features editor and it occurred to me that having some ideas about "angles" would be a good start, so I'm asking for suggestions. To get the ball rolling, my initial ideas were...

-Cycle commuting as a way of getting fit
-Moving a family around in a zero-carbon way
-Fighting back against the ageing process (stop tittering at the back..)

Okay.. over to you..

Phil

Coverage of the non competitive events we do;

Getting on without a car
A riders perspective of
Sportives
Audax
Recovery from illness acheivements
Get a reporter out on a ride, on or off road

Also along those lines - we should invite Cycle Heaven Staff along on our Sat A.M. - Wednesday MTB rides has anyone personally invited them to Ripon?

Whatever we do it would be worth putting in some planning so that we space any major articles out through the winter and match the subject matter with the time of year. For instance an article about cycle commuting would hit the audience far better in the spring. Following somebody's preparation for the Etap should start soon, before the anouncement of the route; so that can be put in as a bit of extra interest.....

Etape route has been announced

I'd suggest going with the etape and follow one persons build up as a good story

Is anyone planning on doing it this year?

The announcement of route and how to enter would be a good hook for the first installment

If the training for the etape involved regular club runs and say an early season reliability ride and a local 158km audax event on 22/4/2007 then all the better

I think spring/summer would be a better time for a family oriented cycling piece. One thing i thought of was a "getting around york" article where we might try to cycle from point a to point b and take photos, document good and bad points of cycling provision en route etc. We cycled from the Groves to Heslington the other day and whilst there were a few challenges we made it safely enough and more importantly enjoyed it.

MA

We might get some coverage on how to commute safely in the winter - clothing, lighting, routes, types of bike. Encourage people to think of cycling as a year-round activity.

Also how to enjoy an hour's ride safely even in pretty nasty weather.

I would be happy to write something on the benefits of cycling with older children as opposed to being their taxi driver. I see benefits to the child, the parent and their mutual relationship.

Build up to the etape is great but may not go far enough in breaking the public's perception of us as a hardcore club for elite athletes.

Nick

Nick makes a great point about the limitations of an Etap article or series. To partially overcome those problems we'd need to emphasise that the Etap is a big deal even to a club rider, and make all the preparation rides appear accessible - not too much talk of pain and suffering / nails and crosses (1)

1. Kevin Scully, somewhere in the Moors, 2001.

Why are Kevin's quotes always so memorable?

I agree with Nick. The Etape is interesting to Joe Public because they've all seen an article in some daily paper about someone who's done it, and it's a link between "normal people" and the sporting superheroes who race in the Tour. But... ...it's still very much at the serious end of the sport. Most people who don't know what serious cyclists get up to would assume that the Etape is the only big challenge (in the same way as non-motorcyclists always ask motorcyclists "ooooh.. are you going to get a Harley one day?"). Having said all that, there's merit in putting a local focus to it...

...AND...

...making sure we get lots more coverage about how to make "ordinary" cycling more fun, and get more people out, riding further.

Shall I chase up the YEP Features Ed now we've got a few possible ideas for features?

Phil,

Defo time to discuss with YEP.
I know of 2 members riding the Etap - Willy and Keith - there may be more.
Guess we should do something after the club dinner - we can do a nice balance of the competitive v non-competitive, though even the non-competitive awards are for pretty challenging stuff so need to pitch it carefully.

R

"Its not a fluffy, fury world you know!", Kevin Scully, 2002, Bransdale

A thing i would like to publicise is the Beryl Welburn Trophy
Seems to tick a few boxes in our campaign to present a broader set of activities - awarded for "merit" and to a deserving woman etc
If we could get a snap of it being presented it would also be nice for Harold to see as he said he was unlikely to make it
Do we have anyone coming to the dinner with a decent camera who is a dab hand at getting piccies?

Photos at the dinner would be a good thing. Harold used to do them a few years back. I'll start a new thread about it.

I was planning to take some photos for the cliftonite - but might not be good enough for press.

See how they turn out! We can always pick the best ones.

Many thanks for the suggestions, folks. The Evening Press' features editor is coming out on a Saturday ride in early Jan. He's only got a crap mountain bike so I've sorted out for Cycle Heaven to lend him one of their Scott CR1 test bikes and Bikefit him. Exact date to be confirmed, but he sounds dead keen - quote: "Really looking forward to it - and I suspect I might well want to go out for fairly regular Saturday jaunts". So, practice that welcoming demeanour, people!

I've suggested running with some of the suggested feature ideas meantime but he's not bitten - I'm sure though once we get talking to him we can get some of these used.