Greetings Baltimore Bicycle Club Members,

Normally in early November we gather for our end-of-year Awards Banquet and Elections. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year we were not able to hold our end of year event safely.

We held our election via internet voting software and our new Board of Directors is listed in our program. In recognition of all of our volunteers including ride leaders, event coordinators, and club organizers as well as prior years’ recipients of the Wayne Rodgers, Barbara Parks, and Hall of Fame awards, we have prepared the usual event program. The 2020 Awards Banquet program has been posted on our website.

Patrick Lapensee

Goodbye 2020

Last year, 2020, was a year of many surprises.  We started the year out strong with a well-attended planning meeting to come up with ideas for increasing rider participation on our club rides.  In spite of the meeting being held on what was to become the only snow day in the winter of 2020, over 35 hardy members showed up for the meeting.

Barely 6 weeks later we faced difficult decisions confronting our club due to the arrival of the covid-19 pandemic.  We made the difficult decision to suspend all bike rides effective March 28, 2020 and we realized that we had to cancel our annual Memorial Day Weekend event, Kent County Spring Fling.  Eventually each of our monthly events was cancelled:

-- April: Season Opener

-- April: Spring Social

-- May: Kent County Spring Fling

-- June: Greencastle Great Escape

-- June: Flatlands Tour

-- July: Picnic

-- August: Corn Roast Ride

-- September: Civil War Century

-- September: Washington County Getaway

-- September: Lancaster Weekend

-- November: Annual Awards Dinner

Although the events were cancelled, members of our club spent many hours in the planning process for these events and we greatly appreciate the effort that was made in planning, but not implementing, these events. 

In addition to the event coordinators and their direct assistants, many of our members participate in activities which keep our club running from the giving committee, to our legal advisor, to our web site designer, and many others. And, of course our ride leaders.  Although for four months of 2020, we did not have rides posted to our web site, many members volunteered to be ride leaders in the first three months of the year and then after our ride calendar was re-opened in August.

Hello 2021

With the roll-out of vaccinations for covid-19, we hope that we will eventually be able to safely return to the group activities that our bike club normally organizes.  Rides are being scheduled through our calendar and must follow guidelines for safe riding during this pandemic period. 

One of our goals for 2021 is to help members become more comfortable using Ride with GPS and we hope to offer training to those who request it.

We realize that although a small percentage of Americans have been vaccinated, it may take several months before all of us have received a vaccine.  We will patiently hold off on putting our large events on the calendar for 2021.  We hope that we will be able to gather later this year and when we can hold these events, we will celebrate in the friendship we have with our fellow bike riders. 

We invite members to stay in touch with each other and to contact any board members about ideas for our future activities.

-- President of the Baltimore Bicycling Club