With a few weeks to go, April’s Wokingham Kidical Mass looked like it might not happen…
The April ride was planned to coincide with the national Safer Streets Now (SSN) action day on 20 April. This gave us the benefit of cycling in support of two great causes (Kidical Mass and SSN), but meant we couldn’t rely on our Reading KM neighbours for support as they were running their own ride on the same day.
This combined with the absence of several of our regular marshals, meant we considered cancelling the event. However, as is so often the way, we were lucky (thanks to Natalie and Danny) to find four volunteers who kindly stood in to marshal and allowed the ride to go ahead.
The weather was better than it had been over the previous week (no rain), although there was a cold wind and arriving at the traditional starting point in Elms Field at around 13:40 and finding no other cyclists in sight, I did wonder if we might not need those marshals after all!
Around 13:50 people started arriving; a recumbent cyclist who had come over from Bracknell was the first to arrive and after that the path along the park started to fill up.
We cycled the usual circular route with the highlight being the ride down Denmark Street through the town centre. Maybe it was just me, but it felt like the reception and waving we had this time around was the best I have ever seen and the noise from the bells was definitely louder than I remember!
We had about 30 riders on the main ride and about five minutes after we arrived back at the finish in Elms Field, we saw a family of four coming in. They had arrived a few minutes late and missed us at the start, but had been picked up by the partner and son of one of our regular marshals, who were also late and had gone round with them!
As is the tradition now, we had delicious home-made cake provided by Lyme and caught up with people who are now familiar faces as the Wokingham rides head towards their second anniversary.
So the April ride did happen, and cycling home I reflected on what makes these things a success. It’s the people – the marshals who give up their time (at the last minute in our case) and the attendees who prioritise coming even when the weather is bad. It’s all those people who waved and even cheered as we came down Denmark Street and it’s the 99% of car drivers who were lovely (and mostly always are…).
Thank you all for making Kidical Mass what it is.
Alex Cran
WoBC Campaigner for RCC
