Cycle Club App for Tour Leaders
The Cycle Club App has now been updated to include a new category of member called a “Ride Leader”.
As a “Ride Leader” you will now have the ability to assign yourself as the Event Host for any ride setup in our Cycle Club ride schedule.
Below is an example of what a “Ride Leader” will see when they select a ride in Cycle Club and then click on the top right + sign box for that ride.
If you then select the “Going as Event Host” option you will be registered for the ride as the Event Host and can then edit the Event to post ride details … pretty simple! Note Cycle Club Events/rides can have multiple Hosts. So check that someone else hasn’t already made themselves the Host before making yourself an additional Host, unless the two of you plan to co-host the ride, which is fine. Or also if it looks like more than 12 members will likely be registered for the ride requiring the group to be split and an additional Tour leader needed.
So now you are the Event Host there are a number of things you can do when you open the Event and click on the 3 vertical dots in the top right of the Event. As you can see in the next screenshot your options are:
When you select the Edit Event option you’ll get an “EDIT CLUB EVENT” screen that you can scroll through to view and edit the detailed options. The screenshot image included below shows the single full length “Edit Event” scroll screen in two side-by-side images that is cut and pasted together for the example ride.
1. “Event Name” and the “Event Date” Do not change
Note the first two items in the Edit Event screen are the “Event Name” and the “Event Date”. Although you technically can edit these fields under no circumstances should you do so!
2. Start and End times Do not change without permission
The next items are the ride Start and End times. There are a few circumstances where you can change a ride start time but you should always first get approval from the VP Touring. Generally we want all our Saturday morning rides to start at the same time so if a time change is appropriate we’ll make the same change to all the Saturday ride start times, with at least 90 minutes notice.
3. Event Hosts
The next field “Event Hosts” will allow you to add and/or delete Hosts (i.e. Tour Leaders) for your ride.
4. Location Do not change without permission
Next is the “Location” field which you should not change unless you’re planning a special ride from a different location. I’ll mention more about this later. Note if you activate the “”Allow Custom Location” button you can type in your own details for the location field. Otherwise you’ll have to use the Cycle Club search feature to find an exact Google Maps valid location/address for the Location field.
5. Limit Participant Numbers Not Required
Next is a “Limit Participant Numbers” button which you do not need to activate. But remember that you’ll have to split into separate groups if more than 12 members show up for your ride since our BCC Group Riding guidelines allow for a maximum group size of 12.
6. Enable “Ticket Link” and “Enable Link
The next two buttons, “Enable Ticket Link” and “Enable Link” can be activated to post Route Names and Route URL’s. If you want to post two route options for your ride (which is sometimes useful) you can activate both of these buttons. In most cases however Tour Leaders only post one route so just activate the “Enable Link” button which, as you can see in the example ride above. Once I activated the “Enable Link” button I could then enter the name of my route in the “Link Name” field. And then I copied the URL for my route to the “Website URL field”.
Note that for this example ride I used our BCC Route Library to search for a route starting from the Southfields CC, which is the pre-assigned start location for this April 6th ride in our 2024 Cycle Club ride schedule. I believe most of our Tour Leaders already know how to use our RidewithGPS BCC Route Library to search for routes by start location, destination and route length. Anyone with questions about the BCC Route Library is welcome to contact the VP of touring for further information.
After entering a description in the “ABOUT” section, the screenshot below shows what my example ride looks like in Cycle Club after selecting the SUBMIT option at the bottom of the “Enter Club Event” box. Of course as the Event Host you can always go back and edit the Event again if you want to make further changes.
- Take Attendance is something you can (optionally) do in the parking lot at the start of the ride assuming you have your phone with the Cycle Club APP. This function is most useful to ensure no one joins your ride who is not a BCC member (or pre-approved guest rider). Only BCC members can sign up for the ride on Cycle Club so if someone you don’t know is there you can use Take Attendance to see if they are registered for the ride.
- If a person you don’t know says they are a BCC member but did not register for your ride you can use the Add Members option to search and add them to the ride. If you can’t find their name in the Cycle Club App that indicates that they are NOT a BCC member and can’t ride with us.
- Remove Members – If you take attendance anyone not checked as present gets removed from the ride anyway. Maybe use this for someone who’s registered but contacts you before the ride saying they can’t may it to the ride.
- Cancel Event – this one is important, primarily for rides that must be cancelled because of weather conditions. Generally cancellations should be done at least 90 minutes before the scheduled start time, and you can provide an explanation for the cancellation that registered ride members will see.
Early Tour Leader registration and postings in Cycle Club
Feedback from BCC members last season, and at the year-end AGM, was that member ride attendance and ride experience could be improved if more rides had a Tour Leader signed up with route & ride info posted at least five days in advance of the scheduled ride dates (the farther in advance the better). This was deemed to be particularly important for our Saturday morning rides when members have multiple ride options.
The new “Ride Leader” Member category in Cycle Club allows our Tour Leaders to easily register as the Event Host and post ride details for any upcoming ride. This season we will be encouraging Tour Leaders to start registering & posting ride details by the beginning of the week, or earlier, for hopefully most of our scheduled Saturday group rides. I’m sure we’ll be discussing this issue further as we get into the 2024 cycling season.
Adding New Rides & Editing Existing Rides
For the 2024 season Ontario Cycling has changed their club membership structure. As a recreational cycling club the BCC is registered as a “Community” club member with the OC.
An advantage of this new membership status is that we do NOT have to provide the OC with details of our official club ride schedule, or notify them of any changes we make to the schedule. In the past we had to provide at least 5 days’ notice to the OC for a new ride added to our schedule, or for a change (other than start time) to a current ride on our official ride schedule.
With this change we can add new rides or make changes to scheduled rides at any time we want without notifying the OC. As long as the rides are included in the BCC’s official ride schedule (i.e. Cycle Club) and we follow proper BCC ride guidelines, any new or modified rides will still be considered fully official OC sanctioned & insured club rides.
As mentioned a BCC Tour Leader with “Ride Leader” member status in Cycle Club you can modify any ride in the schedule once you’ve made yourself the Event Host for that ride. However, only a Cycle Club “Admin” account member can add a NEW ride to the Cycle Club schedule. In either case Tour Leaders should check with a Cycle Club Admin for authorization (Steve J, Geoff, Percival or Doug R) before modifying the Start Time or Start Location for a current ride, or to have a new ride added to the schedule.
Group Rides Average Speed and Distance
Below is a table showing average ride speed and distances for our BCC cycling groups. In addition to ensuring all group members adhere to safe group riding practices, keeping our group rides within these speed and distance ranges is a key responsibility of our Tour Leaders. Note Tour Leaders should also try to keep their groups together as much as possible.
Training for BCC Tour Leaders
Most of the information you need to know to be a BCC Tour Leader is included in the following BCC documents, which you’ve probably read before:
Any member asked about becoming a new BCC tour leader is always an experienced cyclist who’s likely already acted as an “unofficial” tour leader on some of our club rides. And for anyone who would like some practical training as a tour leader I strongly recommend you join one of our Group Riding Clinics which we will schedule and run early in the season for new BCC members. The things we review and then practice on the road in these clinics are exactly what you should know, and practice, as a Tour Leader.
A Final important point regarding “Communication”
“We have Tour Leaders who are there to try to maintain the quality of the ride but the best way to keep us all at our best is when we all communicate best ride practices. So if you see someone riding inappropriately (e.g. overlapping wheels, surging off the front, failing to stay tight to the rider beside them and riding towards the centre line, etc.) we all should say something. Be polite but make it known that that was not proper. We all own these rides and if someone does something dangerous it’s in everyone’s best interest to correct it. So don’t let bad habits go unaddressed. Say something before it’s too late. We all have a responsibility to the riders around us. When we are at the front we are responsible to the riders behind to provide a smooth and steady pull and to point out hazards. When we are at the back we are responsible to call out cars coming from the back and to maintain the integrity of the group by not allowing gaps. So don’t wait for the Tour Leader to say something, we all own the ride equally.”