Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2016 is drawing to a close and VeloUK wishes all its readers a very Happy Christmas and Merry New year and an even better 2017!

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

VeloUK, as many of you will know, is not just my obsession to serve the domestic sport of cycling in Britain but it’s the collective help of everyone in the sport who help make VeloUK the special magazine website it is.

First and foremost, the website would not exist without all the support we get from the sponsors advertising on the website, businesses putting back into the sport, and for that I thank them because I truly appreciate that help which allows me to travel to races around the country week in, week out.

There is little doubt that VeloUK is truly unique in supporting the sport the way it does. An example of that are the 78 feature interviews we have published since October from World Tour pros to young riders entering the junior ranks, men and women. It makes me very proud of the website when the likes of the two winners from National Trophy CX Series, Ian Field (Hargroves Cycles Ridley) and Hannah Payton (Kinesis) take the time to do the Q & A along with all the others, professionals and club riders alike.

It is quite humbling to see the racers who I respect so much, take the trouble to do the Q & A’s sent to them and I thank everyone of those who have sent their’s back (we have a few left to publish) and happy to have more if you’re up to the challenge!

As well as all the people who send me content whether it be results, reports, news and so on, I must also thank you the readers too. The readership of VeloUK continues to grow, slower than it did in the formative years but the views of the site which number many thousands a day, show just how important the website is along with the Twitter feeds and Facebook page.

It has been some year in cycling here which has finished with some pros finding themselves teamless as one UCI team folds, another replaces another than has scaled down its operation and another comes back into the scene here downgrading from ProConti level.

The racing has been as hard fought as ever with selection for the Tour of Britain dominating the racing all season. The Women’s racing scene has continued to grow with more races than the mens in many respects and for the first time, I’ve also seen the entry for some major women’s events bigger than the entry for the mens! There are also more women’s teams looking to go UCI showing the ambition that lies in that side of the sport.

On one hand, there are challenges in both the men’s and women’s racing especially at the top end of the category system, but one thing that comes out of the interviews is that all the riders love their sport as all you do and as long as organisers continue to put on races, we hope riders continue to support them.
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It’s only eight weekends until the first early season classic, the Perfs with plenty of Winter Series Circuit Racing on at the moment as well as the British Cyclo-Cross Championships in a few weeks and some of the regional cyclo-cross leagues and special events keeping the off roaders busy.

There’s also the track championships in January which has moved to a new date and I wonder how well received that has been because whilst its internationally the track season, for domestic riders doing summer track leagues and so on, the National Champs in January is way out of season? Perhaps. Correct me if I’m wrong…

The year has also seen some great time trialling with comp records going over and over in both the men’s and women’s categories and no one rider has dominated the racing making it quite exciting from the outside.

But for me, for all the great performances during the season, it is the camaraderie in the sport, the extended family as I like to think of them, that makes this sport so very very special and I’d like to wish everyone of them a really great and special Christmas and merry New Year and hope that all the ambitions the racers have are fulfilled during 2017 …

See you on the road in 2017….

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