Forge certainly know how to have festive fun at the club’s first Christmas party and annual awards. The roaring success was hosted at The Lion, Teddington in front of more than 35 Forge folk, who witnessed Rachel G being crowned Forge Rider of the Year 2021.
Voted by the members, Rachel’s amazing and tireless work on the website, social media, kit committee and as Ride Captain, saw her poll nearly 20% of the votes. A class act.
In addition, Tom B was cheered from the rafters after picking up the Inspiration of the Year award for his ability to bounce back from challenging health issues to not only get back up to F4 speed but even race. Awesome. And always with a smile on his face.
Welcomed with Forge-coloured cocktails, the evening kicked off with Sue E dishing out lots of fun accolades for the Rookie of the Year, the Maratona Award (for most KMs ridden), the Mr Bump and Little Miss Whoops Award (for our slightly more incident prone), The Green Flag Award (for most breakdowns), the Voltarol Award (for most minor ailments) the Ordnance Survey Award (for services against navigation) and the Most Improved Rider.
Then it was over to Alex B to don the sparkly quizmaster jacket for the Forge Quiz of the Year. A cycling-themed conundrum that somehow ended up with a challenge to balance an After Eight on foreheads, and without using hands, move it into your mouth. I know!
Maximum kudos for Forge +1 and now honorary member Laura for winning it, quite literally hands down.
What a night – and neatly summed up by our Club Captain Chris S paraphrasing the crazy-haired boffin of boffins: “as Einstein states in his famous equation – Enjoyment = Mates times Cycling Squared”.
We’ll all drink to that.
