When: Saturday March 13, 2010
Where: Gather @ the Civic Center @ 11:30a.m. Parade ride starts at noon. Oughta be wrapped up by 12:30.
Why: Because its fun, goofy (you can wear funny hats, beads and such), and its the right thing to do by supporting the community

What’s your reward for supporting the club and the community? Following the parade, plan on doing a club members only ride! More details on that to follow. Don’t be a “wheel-sucker” and just show-up for the ride…its bad form. The club will buy post ride food and refreshments at New Holland Brewery!

So what do you say? Your going to help fly the club colors in support of the community? That would be really cool don’t you think?
See you on the 13th.

Macatawa Cycling Club

Great News!

The club has a new jersey and short/bib design just in time for the upcoming season! For the first time we will offer a custom jersey and short/bib design for the 2010 season. Here are the details:
- Orders will be conducted directly with our vendor partner, Voler.
- Go to the web address below and access the MCC/Voler order page and make your selections
- A wide variety of short and long sleeve jerseys, jackets, and vests are available
- Bibs and shorts are available as well!
- Sizing information is available on the Voler website when ordering
IMPORTANT: Sizing fit-kits will be available at the next two club meetings only, so if you need to try on some sizes, you need to make it to the club’s March or April meeting

- Your orders are expected to arrive by Memorial Day!

FINAL DEADLINE FOR ORDERING IN APRIL 5TH SO PLACE YOUR ORDER AS SOON AS YOU CAN!

Click here to place your order today!

Time is running out! We have a few more time slots to fill if you are
interested in joining the MCC Ultimate Cycle Challenge Team. The UCC is a
24hour indoor cycling event to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Now
in it’s 5th year it has outgrown the original location and will be held this
year @ Evergreen Commons. Date is Feb 19/20. The cost to ride is a minimum
donation of $30 and you can ride for a hour or as long as you’d like. We’ll
have a trainer there for you, you’ll just need to bring your bike. If you’d
like to be on the Macatawa Cycling Club team contact Mike Clark at Velo City
Cycles @ (mike@velo-citycycles.com). If you have not participated in this
before, WOW - what fun and what a great charity!

Tomorrow is the last day to register. Don’t put it off……… Join the
TEAM!

More info @ www.ultimatecyclechallenge.com

Doug Spooner
Macatawa Cycling Club

We are getting a good start on the new year. There is a lot happening and we want to keep you informed, so here is just a bit of what up in 2010:

Club Member Only Events - Your new Board wants to make this a great year and give you reason to be a member of the Macatawa Cycling Club. We will be organizing more “Club Member Only” events. Rides, gatherings, etc. The first will be held on Sunday, January 31st at the New Holland Brewery in downtown Holland, from 4:00 to 7:00 PM. Members are asked to bring a non-perishable food item to be donated to the Community Action House Food Pantry. The club will provide free food and soft drinks. Beer will be available at “mug club” pricing. We will be raffling off club t-shirts, hats, socks, water bottles and jersey’s. Come on down and join us for the first 2010 “Club Member Only” event.

New Jersey Design - Yes, that’s right! The Board approved a new jersey design. Kirk Walter is taking the lead on this initiative and we should have them available to purchase by the end of May. Watch your e-mail and the club website for more details. They are pretty cool………………..

Ultimate Cycle Challenge - We are looking to see how many club members are interested in forming a team for the Ultimate Cycle Challenge. The UCC is a 24hour indoor cycling event to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Now in its 5th year it has outgrown the original location and will be held this year at Evergreen Commons. Date is Feb 19/20. The cost to ride is a minimum donation of $30 and you can ride for a hour or as long as you’d like. We’ll have a trainer there for you, you’ll just need to bring your bike. If you’d like to be on the Macatawa Cycling Club team contact Mike Clark at Velo City Cycles @ (mike@velo-citycycles.com). If you have not participated in this before, WOW - what fun and what a great charity!

More info @ www.ultimatecyclechallenge.com

Club Web Site - We will be creating a new website for MCC in 2010. So stay tuned for this…………….

Holland Hundred - The HH is our signature event for the Club and our only fund raising event. Yes, and our goal is to grow it even larger than last year’s. It takes a lot of work to put on one of the premier tour rides in West Michigan. This year’s event will be July 17th. This year we are looking to begin to make the Friday evening registration gathering a signature event. Lots of planning to do, but we are extremely excited with this great idea. Again this year we are aligning ourselves with JDRFas the primary beneficiary as well as other local charities. John Wood and Mike McKay have already volunteered to be members of the HH Committee. How about you? Step up, volunteer to be a part of the Committee for this great event!

LMB and MMBA - Don’t know if you are aware, but the Macatawa Cycling Club is a member of both the League of Michigan Bicyclist and Michigan Mountain Bike Association. In fact the Club is a life member of the LMB. Visit their website and see all they have to offer. While on the LMB website, check out the link to this year’s Holland Hundred.
The 2010 LMB ride calendar is being printed, as we speak, and we’ll have a number of copies to share with our members (hope to have them available to pass out at the February 1st general club membership meeting). We have a half page add in the calendar for the HH.

Club Meetings - General club membership meetings are held the first Monday of each month, October through April. These meeting start at 8:00 PM and are generally held at the New Holland Brewery - upstairs conference room. We provide an overview of the Board of Directors meeting (held just prior to the general membership meeting) and host a variety of guest speakers. At the February 1st meeting we will have presenters on “Tri-Athlons”, what it takes to prepare for one of these challenging events. March is currently open, but assure you we will have a great guest speaker. In April we will be visited by Rich Moeller Executive Director for the League of Michigan Bicyclists. Rich will provide background on the LMB and what legislative activities the LMB supports. LMB is a great organization, you don’t want to miss this one.

Doug Spooner - Club President

Let’s breakup the Winter doldrums…………….

The club is hosting a “Club Members Only” Winter Party January 31st, 4:00 - 7:00 PM at the New Holland Brewery. Club members are asked to bring a non-perishable food item (as entry fee) which will be donated to the Community Action House Food Pantry.

The club will be providing free food and soft drinks. Beer will be available at “mug club” pricing.

Come on down and join us! You will get the opportunity to meet your new Board of Directors.

We will be raffling off club t-shirts, hats, socks, water bottles, and jerseys. Don’t miss out on this event!

Doug
President, MCC

So - here we are @ the end of another great year of riding, racing and general bike-related goings-on! I hope that your Christmas was awesome and that your New Year’s will be as well.

It’s time once again for a club meeting and I wanted to fill you in on the details. As always there’s lots going on and we’re thinkin’ that you wanna be in the loop.

Monday 1/4/10 8:00pm

New Holland Brewery Conference Room.

Program - We’ll introduce the newly elected Board Members and announce the new officers for 2010. The folks from the Ultimate Cycle Challenge will give a very brief presentation on the event and stay around for questions afterward and Elisa Hoekwater from the Macatawa Area Co-ordinating Council will present the Master Plan of proposed bikeways in the area. She’ll be answering your questions and looking for feedback on the plan so here’s your chance to affect the future of cycling in our region! Don’t miss out!

Looking ahead there are a few dates that you might wanna put on your calendars -

Sun 1/31 will be the club’s Annual Winter Party @ New Holland from 4-7pm. We’ll have food and beverages and just hang out, enjoy each others company and maybe have a drawing or two. The club will cover the tab for food and soft drinks and there will be a special price on beers. All club members and familys are more than welcome! More details soon.

Sat 1/16 is the Versluis SnowCross for those of you that didn’t get enough ‘cross racing in.

Fri-Sat 2/19-20 is the Ultimate Cycle Challenge. We will have a MCC Team for sure.

Also -if I may be forgiven for “hijacking” this note - we’re hosting our traditional New Year’s Day Ride from Velo City @ 1:00pm. 20-25 miles and lotsa food and drink afterwards!

I REALLY hope we have the pleasure of your company next Monday! This is your club & what it is depends on who shows up and speaks up, y’know?

Ride on!

Mike C, Prez
MCC

As we slip and slide towards the end of another great year of cycling in West Michigan there’s plenty happening with your bike club! Check it out:

We hosted (for the 4th year in a row) the season finale of the KissCross cyclo-cross race series 2 weekends ago. We used the Stadium/Smallenburg Park venue again and throw a post-race party @ New Holland and the day was a big success.

Our December meeting earlier this week featured Jess and Mike Luepke of Valeo Personal Training and their presentation on nutrition and “surviving the holidays”. We had a good turnout and we all learned something.

The results of the election for the 2010 club board are in and final. Elected to serve on the board for next year were Tom Ayres, John Wood, Kirk Walters, Lori Bush, Mike McKay, Doug Spooner and myself. We’d like to thank Marshall Michmerhuizen for his years of service on the Board but never fear - he’ll be around, especially on Monday Night!

The next meeting will be Monday 1/4 @ 8:00pm. Find us upstairs in th econference room @ New Holland. Our guest presenter will be Elisa from the Macatawa Area Co-ordinating Council and she’ll be seeking our feedback on the Bicycle Master Plan so if you wanna have some input on cycling in the city do not miss this chance! She’ll be here w/ open ears and ready to take notes!

That’s it for now - I hope you are finding the time and opportunity to ride (indoors or out) as we head into the dark and cold for a spell. Lotsa chances to ride w/ folks around here - you just hafta keep your eyes and ears open!

Be safe, ride some and have a great Holiday!

Mike Clark, MCC Prez (for the rest of the year anyways

It’s December and that means it’s time yet again for a MCC meeting! Come on down to the New Holland Brewery this comin’ Monday @ 8:00pm to touch base w/ your club, find out what’s going on and to enjoy this month’s seminar!

This month we have Jessica and Mike Luepke of Valeo Personal Training & they are going to talk about nutrition in general and avoiding the pitfalls of all those holiday meals in particular. (You might still know Jess by her maiden name – Oosting). As usual the presentation will start right after a brief report on what the Board’s been up to so hopefully we’ll see you there @ 8:00!

Keep riding!

Mike Clark, Prez
M.C.C.

This weekend our club once again holds the high honor of hosting the Grand Finale’ of the KissCross Race Series! As has been the case for 3-4 seasons now we’ve been offered the last race of the season due to our reputation for putting on the best event and throwing the best party!
I know what’cher thinkin’ – “Awesome! How can I help?” Right?
Here’s the deal – we could use some help on Saturday morning as we design, layout, prep and mark the race course. W/out the 6-10 inches of heavy snow we had to deal w/ last year we’re looking at some raking, running ribbon, etc. Anyone that would like to get involved should show up around 9:30-9:45 and see what’s shaking. The location is the football stadium @ Smallenburg Park on Fairbanks Ave.
The race itself is on Sunday (the 29th) and we could really use a couple of folks to help w/ registration. It’s a piece of cake and we’d only need you from 10:00 – 1:00 or so.
The races run from 11:00 ‘til about 2:00. There are 3 in total, w’ the “C” race @ 11:00, the “B” race @ noon and the “A” race @ 1:00. After the A race there will be a short prize raffle and we need to clean the course of markers, tape, etc. With enough hands that won’t take but 20 minutes or so.
Afterwards we’ll all head to New Holland for the Big Post-Race Bash! There’ll be an all-you-can-eat soup and chili bar w/ snacks and fixin’s and mug club pricing on beer. The club is covering the cost of everything but beer and wine. The buffet will run from 1:30 - ??????
If you’ve not ever seen a cyclo-cross race now’s the time! It’s a very spectator-friendly even and quite something to see! C’mon down!

Mike Clark, Prez
Macatawa Cycling Club