The 2022 road season has just wrapped up.

In the first year of full racing since the you-know-what, it has seen Gala represented in dozens of races across the country, and one international event.

A small niche of riders within the club have been getting noticed at events, bringing attention to our much-loved club, and put us back on the map of Scottish Cycling, and made everyone aware that we aren’t just in the peloton to make up numbers.

We started the season with a 1-2-3-4 (!!) at the Scottish Student TT champs, in the non-championship race.

Arran led us home, showing his unwavering commitment to training and racing, despite having to leave the shores every other 3 weeks to keep our power running!

We followed a great start to the season with strong performances at the Tour of the Meldons, despite one of the slowest events in its history, due to the unforgiving wind that battered us for most of the course.

The Border Trophy TT’s were a great success for us, despite illness/injuries meaning we fell just short of nabbing the overall win.

A 2nd from Arran in the first round and a 3rd from Joe in the final round bolstering our little squad’s valiant attempts at taking the fight to the other teams.

Through the summer, we were scattered around different races and events.

Joe took the club kit with him up the Alpes in the Marmotte Granfondo, leaving him 138thth overall in his age category, despite stomach issues wearing him down from just before halfway.

Neil and Duncan were TTing all over the place, with strong showings at national 10’s and 25’s.

They eventually combined forces to take victory in the 2 up TTT in Humbie, against some quality opposition.

We also had Joe step up to the big distances, finishing 8th in the 100 mile championships at his first attempt, in a time of 4 hours 19 minutes.

The Scottish road race championships saw new comer Jack finish fantastically in the lead bunch, after being caught mere metres before the line with a last-gasp attack for the win.

He also took the Stow hill climb record, becoming the first rider to achieve this since the great Alan Kennedy himself.

He then solidified his amazing season with 4th overall at the Scottish hill climb championships, coming agonisingly close to the podium.

A return to road racing saw Joe take our best result of the season with a 4th at the Muckle CC road race, coming within a few bike lengths of the win.

That was quickly followed by Neil contesting the bunch sprint at the John Davies Memorial road race to finish 8th.

There was also brilliant finishes from Duncan and Neil in the Lothian Flyer, with Joe acting as lead out man for them up the final climb to the line.

As I mentioned, the season ended last weekend with the hill climbs. As I’m writing this, and I hope everyone at the AGM feels the same way,

I get a shiver of pride thinking about how badly we wanted to win the team prize, and when Gala CC was called, it was the culmination of a year of hard-work, dedication, and passion for the sport. To have our little club at the top of Scottish Cycling at a national championships race is something that shows that we have talented riders, and we haven’t relied on fancy teams or big sponsors supporting us.

It excites me to think what we can achieve together with more of the same drive we showed this year.