Published 16 October 2026 · London Dynamo members’ newsletter
With Il Lombardia, the final “Monument” of the road-racing season, now behind us, the cycling calendar turns a corner. The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, and our focus shifts from summer miles and racing goals to building the foundations for next season.
For London Dynamo, that means adapting our training, embracing the turbo, incorporating strength and conditioning, and making the most of those precious dry-weather rides when they come along. It’s also a good time to recover, reset and think about what we want to achieve in 2027. Whatever your goals (racing, improving your fitness or simply enjoying great rides with fellow Dynamos) winter is an important part of the journey. Next season’s form starts here!
Our own racing season was brought to an end at our Club Championships at Hillingdon on 3rd October and it was great to see so many of you there. It was a great day of racing, and particularly encouraging to see everyone getting behind the mixed team time trial. Thanks to all who took part and helped make the event such a success.
And when we think of the year coming to an end, we can also take the opportunity to look back on what we have collectively achieved at our annual Awards Night scheduled for 6th November. Tickets have just gone on sale and I’d encourage you to attend as it’s a great opportunity to get together away from the bike and recognise the people who make London Dynamo such a special club.
Ride on, and ride safely,
Andy Taylor, Chair
Launch of London Dynamo Awards Night
2026 London Dynamo Annual Awards Night
Friday 6 November
Richmond Hill Hotel, TW10 6RW
Doors open from 7pm
This year’s awards are getting a new look: we’re moving from a three-course, sit-down dinner to a cocktail party style format.
Enjoy canapés, hot bowls and “dinky” desserts as you chat and mingle with members from across the Club.
There’s no seating plan for this year, but there will be lots of tables and chairs if you need one!
Stand, sit, wander, mingle - the choice is yours.
What You Get:
- A welcome drink on arrival
- Two drink tokens for the night
- Canapés, hot bowls and desserts from 8pm
Plus…
- Awards presentation + prizes for winners
- Sounds provided by a DJ [to be confirmed]
- Ticket Prices:
– Early Bird (until Sunday 18 October): £40
– General Admission: £50
– Students / Youth & Juniors: £30
– Helping Out Programme Tier 1 / Tier 2 Volunteers: 50% off (Note: voucher code required)
London Dynamo Bike Maintenance Workshop
Join us for a practical, hands-on bike maintenance workshop, run by a member of the Sigma Sports team, for members only.
Thursday 19 November 2026
7pm to 10pm
Canbury Pavilion, North Kingston
Cost: £25 per person (subsidised by the club). Minimum 10 people required. Sign up via RiderHQ.
Full Gas at Hillingdon!
It was full gas at Hillingdon for the 2026 London Dynamo Club Championships on Saturday 3rd October as another exciting edition went into the history books!
The Team Time Trial (TTT) came back with a bang, with fierce competition across the youth, masters’, women’s and men’s fields on a great day out.
Team George - featuring Anthony, Oscar, and George, alongside Jo Matthews - took first place, while Team Rodrigo podiumed in second and LD Confetti rounded up the top three.
Alissa Gray emerged victorious with an impressive win in the women’s championships, ahead of Lavinia Chiodi Daelli. Meanwhile, Nick Sturman soloed to masters’ gold, ahead of Arthur Chan and Mark Jenvey.
One of our juniors secured gold in the youth and juniors’ championships, with two more of our juniors taking second and third, while one of our junior girls won the junior girls’ shootout.
Ben Heap (pictured) rounded off a remarkable individual season to win the men’s championship ahead of Mitch Matthews and Jack Freeman.
You can see the standings below:
Team Time Trial Championships
- (Team George): George Baritsch, Anthony Baritsch, Jo Matthews, Oscar Baritsch
- (Team Rodrigo): Rodrigo Mattiuz, William Baker, Eliza Argyropoulos, Duncan Edwards
- (LD Confetti): Ben Heap, Marcos Hadley, Lavinia Chiodi, Rikki Cake
Women’s Championships
- Alissa Gray
- Lavinia Chiodi
- Charissa Turner
Masters’ Championships
- Nick Sturman
- Arthur Chan
- Mark Jenvey
Youth / Juniors Championships
- First, second and third places went to three of our juniors
Junior Girls Championships
- First and second places went to two of our junior girls
Men’s Championships
- Ben Heap
- Mitch Matthews
- Jack Freeman
Huge congratulations go out to all the newly crowned champions, and a massive thank you to all of our members who fully embraced the event - more than 70 of you turned out!
Additional thanks to race events organiser Gerard O’Connell, the volunteers who made it happen, and photographer Markovich James for capturing all those great images! Photos can be downloaded from the Markovich James Photography website. Please follow Mark and also tag him if you use any photos in your social media: @markovichjames
London Dynamo Hill Climb
Join us for another thrilling edition of the London Dynamo Hill Climb Championships on Sunday 25th October. Test yourself on the Denbies Wine Estate climb - 2km in length and 121m of elevation gain - and see if you can take one of the prizes up for grabs.
Category prizes
First place: £30 cash prize OR club kit (men: club hoodie; women: Le Col winter jacket)
Second place: £20 cash prize OR a pair of London Dynamo club socks
Third prize: A pair of London Dynamo club socks
Everyone will be able to get a free hot drink at the start and finish, whether you are participating or coming along to support, and there will be fruit, biscuits and other snacks available.
Places are limited to 50 total rides and most are already filled up, so don’t miss out and avoid disappointment!
Location: Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking (RH5 6AA)
Registration: Sign-on from 8am, first rider departs from 9am
A photographer will be there to capture your best pain faces!
Race Team Report
By Jim Northway
September traditionally spells the end of the main season but try telling a Dynamo to slow down - our racers continue to show they have the minerals!
Freddy Bettam proved this in the best way possible. He had toiled for most of the season, trying basalt hard without reaping the rewards, but then he hit a seam of form that saw him progress from zero points to 42 in a three-week period.
That was enough to secure him his Cat 2 licence!
A fully oxygenated Daniel Jones defied gravity to take fourth place in the Box Hill Hill Climb, and struck gold at the Ranmore Hill Hill Climb by taking the win in record time.
“Dime a dozen” Duncan Edwards switched on his nitrous oxide throughout the summer to win the Full Gas summer series. His incredible 238-point haul easily secured him his Cat 1 licence too!
To B or not Nat B? Easy choice - do it!
Ben Heap claimed 14th in the Nick Clayton Memorial Road Race in Worcestershire, having nearly bridged the gap to the main break.
This eight-lap, 124km race took place on an undulating course around Leighton and ran at an average speed of just under 45kph. Alex Mutter - one of our 2026 Rising Stars - narrowly missed out on the top 20 and Tom Guccione got around well.
Alex was our sole representative in the Riders Collective Grand Prix in Leicestershire, taking place on a 4.6-kilometre kermesse-style circuit that is built for plenty of attacking racing. He took the bunch sprint to clinch 18th place and a few points for his efforts.
Fellow Rising Star for this year Cece Liu and Anna Wignall were 20th and 21st respectively in the KLM Taxis National B race on the same course that day in Walton.
Tungsten performances all around!
When we do them, Dynamos prove themselves to be adept against the quartz clock in TTs. Eliza Argyropoulos and William Baker took respective wins in the road bike category at the Kingston Phoenix 10-Mile Time Trial, with Chantal Dyble securing second place in the women’s TT bike category.
The final Sunday of the month saw two more gems, with Vicky Wallace winning at Hillingdon ahead of fellow teammate Lavinia Chiodi Daelli in third. That was enough for Lavinia to secure her Cat 2 licence.
Meanwhile, our ruby Ruth Taylor was confirmed as the overall winner of this year’s Oxfordshire Road Race League series, with our steely women racers also securing victory in the team rankings.
As the seasons change, so does the racing.
Anna Streule and Owain Williams both messed with the silt, muck and mire to take podiums in their respective cyclocross races towards the end of the month.
Well, that’s it for this periodical. See you all next time!
Girona: Sun, Sea, Cycling & a Seriously Big Climb!
A group of Dynamos have just returned from another fantastic annual Club Sportive trip - and this time we headed to one of cycling’s great destinations: Girona.
Organised by our very own Laura Maestre in conjunction with local cycling specialists Eat Sleep Cycle, the trip delivered pretty much everything you could want from a cycling getaway: great riding, spectacular scenery, plenty of sunshine, excellent food and drink - and, of course, a healthy dose of suffering along the way.
Four days of riding - with plenty of choice
Eat Sleep Cycle put together a brilliant four-day itinerary, based around our stay at a local hotel, with breakfast and evening meals included. And, on more than one occasion, there seemed to be a remarkably generous interpretation of what was included when it came to the drinks!
Each day offered a choice of routes, with shorter and longer options available. So whether you fancied a big day in the saddle or something a little more relaxed, there was always a ride to suit your legs and your ambitions.
We were also accompanied by experienced guides, providing reassurance if anything went wrong. Fortunately, despite four days of riding, only one minor incident was recorded - which, given the number of bikes and kilometres involved, has to count as a pretty impressive result.
The big one: La Ciclobrava
The highlight for many was Sunday and the La Ciclobrava sportive.
With three distances to choose from, there was something for everyone, although most of the Dynamos decided that if we were going to do it, we might as well do it properly and signed up for the 142km route, featuring around 1,500m of climbing.
And what a route it was.
Leaving Girona, the route headed towards the Mediterranean before reaching the spectacular Costa Brava coastline. From there, we turned left and followed the coast for kilometre after kilometre, with stunning views, beautiful roads and the sort of scenery that makes you briefly forget about the accumulating elevation.
Eventually the route turned inland and headed back towards Girona. By this point the heat was really beginning to make its presence felt, and the legs were starting to wonder why we’d thought 140km was such a good idea.
Then came the sting in the tail.
Just when everyone was beginning to contemplate the finish, there was one final, brutally challenging climb (Montjuic) before the road finally delivered us back to Girona.
There were plenty of tired legs and some colourful language, but importantly all the Dynamos made it round safely. And that made the evening gathering all the more enjoyable, as we swapped stories over food and drinks and relived the highlights - and lowlights - of the previous few days.
One important point for anyone considering joining the trip in future: La Ciclobrava is not a closed-road sportive. However, the event organisers, marshals and local police did a great job of managing junctions and traffic through the towns and villages, helping the event run as smoothly as possible.
And then there was Sea Otter
As if the cycling wasn’t enough, our trip coincided with the Sea Otter Europe cycling festival, giving us another very good reason to spend time exploring Girona.
The festival featured a huge cycling exhibition, with more than 500 exhibitors and pretty much every major name in cycling represented. Naturally, this meant that considerable time was spent doing the important work of inspecting the latest bikes, kit, components and gadgets.
There was also the opportunity to test ride a whole range of bikes, from road bikes to gravel bikes and mountain bikes.
Whether you actually needed another bike was, of course, completely irrelevant.
Same time next year?
All in all, it was a brilliant Dynamo trip - a great combination of challenging riding, spectacular scenery, good food, excellent company and just enough time spent looking at expensive cycling equipment to make the credit cards nervous.
And judging by the conversations on the final evening, quite a few Dynamos were already wondering about doing it all again next year.
If you’ve never been to Girona or on a Dynamo trip, it’s definitely one to put on your radar. And if you did come this year, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll see you there again.
Introducing the London Dynamo KnowledgeBase
Our new KnowledgeBase is now live on the club website under Members.
It transforms our riding guides into an interactive learning tool, with step-by-step modules, quick-reference cards and self-checks to help members get the most from our club resources.
You can explore it here: London Dynamo KnowledgeBase. Built using Claude AI, the project demonstrates how technology can help volunteers deliver meaningful website improvements at minimal cost, while making the club’s knowledge easier to maintain and pass on.
We’ll be developing further modules covering areas such as new-member induction, club kit, the Helping Out Programme, welfare and racing, so suggestions and contributions are very welcome!
From London Dynamo to Team Canada
There was a touch of international class to our new kit supplier, Jakroo, at last month’s UCI Road World Championships in Montréal, where the Canadian national team raced in Jakroo kit on home soil. Cycling Canada appointed Jakroo as its official clothing supplier in 2025, in a four-year partnership covering the national team across multiple cycling disciplines.
It’s great to see our own kit supplier operating at the very highest level of the sport!
The news comes hot on the heels of our recent launch of London Dynamo’s new winter kit range, the latest phase in our move to Jakroo. So, as you wrap up against the colder weather, you can take a little extra pride in knowing that our club kit comes from a supplier trusted to outfit riders representing their country on the world stage.
Tech Talk: Wax on, gunk off!
Wax or wet lube? It’s the great chain debate. Wax keeps your drivetrain clean, quiet and efficient, with less wear when properly maintained. The downside? A thorough initial degrease, a melting pot and re-waxing every 200-400 km. It can also struggle in persistent rain.
Wet lube is cheap, easy to apply and a solid choice for filthy winter roads, but it attracts dirt and needs regular cleaning. Many riders use wax on their summer or race bike and wet lube for winter duties. Whichever you choose, keep your chain clean and lubricated - because the only thing that should be grinding on a club ride is your legs up a Surrey hill!
To help you decide, there’s an interesting article from Cycling Weekly. We have also published a guide to hot waxing your chain on our own blog: Chain Waxing Guide for Cyclists: How to Hot Wax Your Chain.
