Walter Rixon dedicated a lot of his life to the sport of cycling. He has been involved with development of predominantly youth riders at all levels for many decades. He worked with many great British riders, and was very proud of the stepping-stone he provided for them to move on to bigger and better things. Walter passed away on 19th July 2005 and a great many people will sadly miss him.

Some of Walter’s happiest moments were whilst he was riding his bike and he loved the social environment of club run’s and café stops. At his request there will be a ride in celebration of all that he contributed to the sport, to give people an opportunity to get on their bike, have a cup of tea and have a good chat, remembering the times spent in the company of like minded people.

All are welcome on this ride, one of Walter’s life long missions was to get new comers and youngsters in to the sport and he loved to meet new people, so even if you did not know Walter please come along and join in. The ride will start at Ilchester (near Yeovil) Car park at 9.30am heading through the villages to Glastonbury and then on to Westhay and the Willow’s Café and Garden Centre for a cup of tea and a piece of their excellent home made cake. We are aiming to be at the Willows from around 11am and it would fantastic to see as many local clubs as possible take their club runs to the Willows so that they can join in this celebration of the life of one of our sports great ambassadors.

Over his life Walter has lived and cycled in many areas of the country, I know he has been based around the Southampton area, around Malvern, Gloucestershire and Bristol as well as more recently Somerset and I am sure there are many other places I can not list, on top of this through his work with English (now British) School Cycling he has worked with people from the whole of the United Kingdom. Please pass this on to any cyclists that you think may have come across Walter and may wish to be part of this event.

If you think that you may be able to attend this ride, or would like further information please contact the club on e-mail or see the website www.tor2000.co.uk, where greater details of the ride will be displayed from mid-week. It would be useful to have some idea of numbers so that we can ensure that the cafe have enough cake for everyone!

Yours in Sport, Andrew