FFBC GENERAL MEETING MINUTES
Location: Fremont Adult Education School, Room N6, 4700 Calaveras Ave, Fremont, CA 94538
Date: June 14, 2016
Attendance:
| Luis Facha | President |
| Louis Friedenberg | Vice President |
| Trish Conklin | Director-at-Large |
| Chris Menicou | Race Team Representative |
| Bob Miller | Secretary |
| Julia Walker | Treasurer |
Call to Order:
Meeting called to order at 7:40 PM. Previous meeting minutes were approved.
SPECIAL NOTE: There will be NO July Meeting
Treasurer – Julia Walker:
Gave Club bank balance and Primavera profit
Membership update: 463 Members and 344 Memberships
Holiday Party will be at Massimo’s, 12/11/2016 – 5-6PM Happy Hour – 6PM Dinner
Race Team Report – Chris Menicou:
Our team has done very well over the last month. There were 17 top ten finishes. Andrew Conely got four 1st place finishes! Derrick Stedman got two first place finishes, one of which was the Mt Hamilton Road Race – very tough.
- Team Fremont Race Updates – Top Ten Rider Results (rider info = place/total riders)
Modesto Road Race
May 22
Mens 35+ Cat 4 /5
Michael Jones 10/20
Death Vallley Road Omnium
May 28
Mens Cat 4/5
Keith Strong 2/11
Mt. Hamilton Road Race
May 29
Mens 45+ Cat 3
Phill Mai 3/15
Mens Cat 4
Derek Stedman 1/35
Memorial Day Crit
May 30
Junior 1518 Cat 4 /5
Daniel Karpelevitch 5/35
Mens Cat 4/5
Andrew Conley 1/74
Matt Brantveyn 8/75
Mens Cat 3
Phill Mai 6/36
Mens 35+ Cat 4
Andrew Conley 1/15
Dominic Hollingdale 2/25
Mens 35+ Cat 3
Phill Mai 3/22
ICCC Dash for Cash – Team Target Event
June 4
Mens Cat 5
Keith Strong 1/4
Mens 55+ Cat 1/2/3/4/5
Garry Birch 9/16
Mens Cat 4
Andrew Conley 1/18
Matt Brantveyn 2/18
Mens 35+ 3/4
Andrew Conley 1/15
Dominic Hollingdale 2/15
Pescadero Coastal Classic
June 4
Mens Cat 4
Derek Stedman 1/38
- Training and Event Update
- Tuesday Night Training (TuNT): Meet at 6:15 PM at Genmark Automation (Warren and 46723 Lakeview) for a local ride and hill climbing workout.
- Wednesday Night Training (WNT): Meet at 6:15 PM on Eureka & Stevenson (parking lot) in Fremont for training and mentoring on the basics of racing.
- Thursday Night Training (TNT): Meet at 6:15 PM on Eureka & Stevenson (parking lot) in Fremont for 4-corner Criterium workouts.
- Annual Team Event
Calaveras Time Trial – Sunday, June 19th
- Team Target Events for 2016
- Red Kite Bump Circuit Race – July 24th
- Dunnigan Hills Road Race – August 13th
- Giro di San Francisco Criterium – September 5th
The race calendar can be found at – http://ncnca.org/
- Team Membership
- Current Roster 62 Members (and Freewheelers), including 9 Juniors, 6 female
- The Fremont Freewheeler Race Team website is at: http://fremontraceteam.org/
General Discussion:
This was a great night for presentations – there were two tonight. One was a slide show by Amy Neches on her two trips to Italy and the second by Maria and Dwight Powery talking about the Arthritis Foundation Coast Classic.
Amy went on two trips, one in 2012 with Great Explorations and a second one in 2016 managed by BackRoads. She gave a great slide show of both trips and then did a comparison between each groups strength’s. Finally she brought up points that everyone might consider in their choice of a bike trip.
2012 Great Explorations Trip: 6 nights in Piemonte region of Italy, inland from Genoa. Rough cost (2016 version) $2730. Most meals were included. Had two tour leaders and a backup van driver in case there were issues. Turned out to be a very small group (4 riders), so it made access to restaurants easy, convenient and flexible – more like a family going out to dinner versus a large tour group descending on a restaurant. Did 30-35 miles a day. The tour was focused on making it a cultural experience (and wine tasting!). Got to go to many interesting restaurants and wineries. The bikes offered by the group were “adequate” but nothing special. The area and routes were beautiful. Food was excellent – went to a recommended restaurant and could order whatever you wanted.
2016 BackRoads Trip: 6 nights in Tuscany, starting in Florence. Rough cost $3200. Most meals included. This trip was a much larger group: 22 people. It was immediately obvious that Backroads was a much bigger and more organized group with pickup at the train station, two vans for support and three leaders, one of which was a mechanic. Bikes were excellent. Titanium frames, great components, eBikes offered. A Garmin was provided with routes pre-loaded. Different ride options every day – max was 57 mi 5000 ft climbing. This was a large group so there was less wine tasting and meals were more often set group meals at a hotel (which weren’t as good). Had one day where the group was bussed into Sienna for a very interesting cultural experience.
In summary, Backroads seemed to be better organized and better setup, however didn’t have the flexibility and food options as the smaller Great Explorations group. In both cases Amy had to bring her own SPD pedals and shoes.
Items that Amy felt everyone might consider in choosing a tour group:
- Deal directly with the tour group not thru a third party. Minimize hassles and miscommunication.
- Itineraries – look closely at what typical days might be like to make sure it fits your abilities
- Bikes – Look at bike choices (sometimes can only be seen in pictures). Bikes choices also reflect the types of riders that would be on the trip – consider whether that is a good matchup as well. Some groups have eBikes and tandems.
- Level and Types of Riders in group – make sure that’s a fit
- Size of group – the two tours Amy took exemplify the impact of group sizes.
- Level of Service – Number of Guides, vans for support, etc.
- Hotel & Food – Quality and format
- Do Online research – Yelp, Trip-Advisor, etc.
Next presentation:
Maria and Dwight Powery talking about the Arthritis Foundation Coast Classic – an eight day ride from SF to Santa Monica, Sept 24-Oct 1, 2016, largely riding along Highway 1. A gorgeous ride with full food and support provided.
Note – As of this writing there are ONLY 10 places left for the 2016 ride.
This is a fundraising event where donations go to the Arthritis Foundation. As the nation’s largest private funder of research, public health programs and advocacy on behalf of the 50 million Americans with this painful disease, the Arthritis Foundation aims to reduce the number of people suffering from arthritis-related physical activity limitations by 20 percent by 2030. It’s a great cause and a beautiful ride.
See http://californiacoastclassic.org/ for full details.
