As SomersetClive exclusively revealed in May, almost two months before Smalltown Media Tycoon Mike Maxman caught wind of the story, Smalltown has lost the annual ‘Boast the Most’ cycle race to Easton-under-Water.
The event, which sees middle-aged men clad in figure-hugging lycra, compete to be the first to cycle a very long way and still be able to walk afterwards, has seen the race end at the finish line in Smalltown since 2010.
Organisers of the race have now explained why they decided to move the finish line to Easton-under-Water. Steve Goggles said “We wrote to Smalltown and Dullbridge (SaD) Town Council last October to ask for some sort of incentive to continue finishing the event in Smalltown.
Smalltown’s transport links are dire and our competitors have struggled to get buses, taxis, or trains after 5pm. We were hoping that SaDTC could offer some support and assistance to enable our over 800 entrants to get back to their accommodation – perhaps utilising some of the Chernobyl-by-Sea white buses to take them to their accommodation in Bream.
However, we haven’t had a reply from SaD Town Council and as far as we know Councillors are still thinking about ways to help us. We really couldn’t wait any longer for them to come up with an idea, Easton-under-Water were really helpful and could see the value of having our riders finish in their Town.
Not everyone in Smalltown has been quite so unsupportive as the Town Council, the Town Shouter, Alan Curry, always helped us over the finish line, and the staff at Witherspoons kindly gave our participants a free cup of coffee, but some riders were taken aback when your Mayor, Dictator Dullard, pushed the winners out of the way to ensure she had centre stage for the photographs.
It is a great pity that SaD Town Council couldn’t think of a way to help us, or use some of their events budget to keep the event in Smalltown, because we are expecting over 1000 entrants this year, all of whom would have ended up in Smalltown, with most staying/eating/drinking and generally spending money in the town.
For some this would have been their first visit to Smalltown and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that they would have liked the area so much that they may have returned with their families for a holiday. Unlikely, but entirely possible.
Speaking during a Town Unimprovements Committee meeting at the end of last year, Chairman and SaD Town Council’s Person Responsible for Incouraging Cycling (PRIC) Cllr Banish Barracuda said “We’ve errrrm offered them the opportunity to errrm apply for a Town errrm Council grant, but they said our errrm rules exclude them from applying, as they errrrm aren’t a local group, so I don’t really know what errrrm else we can do.”
It had been suggested by residents that SaDTC could help out the organisers by arranging to keep the seafront toilets open, allowing free use of the car park, or even turning the finish line into a celebration with music and bunting, but Councillors felt that required quite a lot of effort and that it would be easier if they didn’t bother.