SMBC NOVEMBER Newsletter

From Our President

Our club’s 49th CycleFest was just days ago! I want to take this opportunity to thank all the many SMBC members who made this event possible. From planning the routes, managing the months-long registration process, creating and implementing effective marketing plans, designing

and ordering jerseys and giveaways, planning and staging rest stops and the main street arena, and keeping our riders safe with road markings, signs, SAG and nourishment, it truly takes a community to host a ride of this scope.

If you weren't able to volunteer to help with this year’s event, please step forward for next year. Planning will begin in January for the 2025 event. We will be seeking a coordinator(s) for the event. If you have experience with event planning or logistics, your services would be valuable to the club!

Thank you everyone! I hope you had a great time on Sunday and know that your hard work truly is appreciated! We couldn’t do it without our volunteers!

Sponsors' Corner

We're very appreciative of our sponsors' generosity and want to tell you about them in our newsletters.

We hope you enjoyed your pre-ride breakfast from First Watch and will use the coupons they gave you soon. Here’s a bit about them from their website.

"The First Watch menu uses a seasonal menu featuring ingredients and flavors inspired by the position of the sun.

We start bright and early each morning preparing exceptional ingredients to deliver an experience that feels good and tastes even better.

For our signature drip coffee, we wanted a truly special roast, so we started Project Sunrise, venturing to Colombia to find the richest beans and to personally meet the female farmers who grow them.

It takes time to uncover the best ingredients, to build relationships with bakers, makers and growers, and to explore the most delicious way to feature these ingredients on our menu.

We believe that our attention to detail translates into your oozing egg yolk moment, brunch cheers and a million-dollar morning."

As you finalize your travel plans for 2025, we are excited to share that we are partnering with Sojourn Bicycling Vacations to offer our members an exceptional travel option. Sojourn is a premier sponsor of our SMBC events and is renowned for their luxury bike tours and multi-adventure trips around the globe.

Some of their most popular destinations include bike and boat trips in Europe, National Parks and Warm Winter Getaways in the United States, Canadian Rockies, and Nova Scotia in Canada, and a collection of Wine Country trips.

They are currently offering an Early Booking Savings of $350 per person for five nights or longer trips, available until December 16.

We encourage you to explore their trips at your convenience.

Become a Cycling Educator!

Why? Empower the next generation of bike riders!

We're looking for one more participant in our December LCI class.

Please contact Eugene Rider right away at ridersridersgroup@outlook.com or 941-730-0201.

Keep up with SMBC on FaceBook and Instagram. Get the latest news on our CycleFest Event page.

There are lots of CycleFest 24 pix up.

Rider Responsibilities

We asked our ride leaders what they would like to see riders do differently to improve safety. Here are a few more of their comments pertaining to responsibility:

I would like the riders to improve their communication. Make sure you are passing information up and down the line and speak loudly. Some of our riders don’t hear well so if you notice the info was not passed along then repeat it.
We are safer when we communicate with riders and drivers. We use hand signals and call out debris and other details to other riders. But we also need to communicate with drivers by using hand signals.