After much deliberation and research into COVID 19 cycling protocol and practice, your Executive is pleased to announce the opening of the 2020 cycling season.

Our first official ride will be led by Brian Hedney this Friday, July 3 at 5:30 from Kings Field in Port Hope. We’ll send out a separate post with more details, but for now, read on for important start-of-the-season updates.

How we’ll roll in 2020

Safety in 2020 has taken on a whole new meaning. In addition to reminding members to read up on cycling safety and club risk management expectations, we need to emphasize with you a number of COVID-19 related cautions, precautions and realities.

1. For the month of July, we’re asking that all rides start from an outdoor public venue, not from members’ homes. We’ll revisit this in August, as opening rules in the province evolve and health outcomes become clear.
2. All riders must be members – no guests are allowed until further notice.
3. All riders must before their first ride sign the GFW COVID 19 Waiver and agree to follow the rules set out in the GFW Response to COVID 19 that you can download from our member forms page. Bring your signed copy to the first ride and give it to one of the Execs or the Ride Leader. We’ll also have paper copies available. We’ll keep Ride Leaders apprised week to week of which members still need to sign their waiver.
4. Happily, we will ride together, but must keep to riding groups of 10 or less – peleton no more, instead, the peletite will be our norm.
5. We can have more than one peletite. If more than 10 riders show up, you’ll need to decide amongst yourselves how best to divide up the group.
6. Those not in the same household must adhere to the province’s social distancing guidelines before, during and after the rides.
7. For insurance compliance reasons, we also must maintain a log of riders for each ride and will rely on the Ride Leader to confirm this in writing through the comment feature after each ride. To help Ride Leaders better anticipate group needs, and prepare their log after each ride, we need everyone to make it a habit of commenting on each ride’s post their intention to join.
8. Though we can assure you our rides will offer great friendship and fitness, great food will be hit and miss, as the restriction on indoor potlucks is still in force. Outdoor patios are allowed, if they’re willing and able to accommodate us. And we strongly encourage a socially distanced Bring-Your-Own-Picnic (BYOP) event following the ride, if the weather allows.
9. Toilets are tricky. For each ride, we’re asking members to use their ingenuity and resourcefulness to take care of their basic needs, before, during and after! And of course, please share any insider information you have about open facilities near the ride start.

Ride Calendar & Password

Tuesday and Friday rides are now in the 2020 calendar, starting at the same time as always – 10:00 am on Tuesdays and 5:30 on Fridays. Coordinators are lined up and eagerly awaiting your ride lead orders. Rides without a ride lead will default from either Port Hope or Cobourg. We’ll assign a map from the site according to the season plan Brian H. put together a couple years ago.

Your Ride Coordinators for July await your bookings:

• Brian H. for Fridays
• Sue for Tuesdays

You can find their email address in the preamble to the 2020 ride calendar. We’re still sorting out who will take on Ride Coordination from August to end October, so will update you as soon as we know.

The 2020 password to the member pages, including the 2020 ride calendar, has just been updated. Please check your email – you should have a message from ganaraskafreewheelers@gmail.com containing this post as well as the 2020 password. If not, send an email to the above address requesting the password.

We look forward to reuniting with our amazing GFW cycling community.