Limit on Saturday bankparty sizes

[Mark Jacobs]

Dear All,

As you will have seen, the towpath is extremely overgrown, especially between the Plough and Grassy.

Our hope had been that the weeds would be beaten back by three days of traffic, but sadly they have proven too dense for our cyclists.

Today we had multiple difficulties at Grassy Corner in the later divisions, with umpires, spectators and members of the public all competing for limited space. While we have a right to be on the towpath that is not an exclusive right. With crowds likely to be bigger tomorrow, we have a duty to consider the risks involved in running races as normal.

We have decided that bank parties for O3, W3, O2, W2, O1 and W1 will be limited to 2 cyclists per crew. We know that this will be unwelcome news for many captains, coaches and alumni, for which we apologise.

Those who had planned to be in bank parties are welcome to cycle down to the start and to watch their crews set off, but we can only accommodate 2 supporting cyclists per crew.

Regards,

The CUCBC Senior Committee and Chief Umpires