The Honorary Club President

The Club President is chosen at the Annual General Meeting and is a member who has been riding with the Club for some years and has gained the respect of the membership. The honorary post of President is for four years in the first instance and our current President is Anne Hutchinson.

Previous Honorary Presidents of Lancaster and South Lakes CTC

Mike Hutchinson

Mike joined his first cycling club, the Lincoln Clarion, in 1956. Despite enthusiasm for cycle racing the first few seasons gave ample evidence that he was never likely to make the grade as a racing cyclist. In 1962, whilst living in London’s bedsitterland, he was introduced to the Edgware CTC. This proved to be the hard riding section of the West London CTC. A year later he joined fellow club members in the CTC offshoot: the Westerley Road Club. For the next few years he concentrated on long distance time trials, a speciality of the club, Highlights included being a member of the winning team in the Polytechnic 12 hr and finishing 13th in the National 24 hr championship, Nicknamed Hedgehog Mike is a life member of the Westerley.

After moving to Lancaster in 1968 he forsook cycling initially in favour of fellwalking and then running for Lancaster & Morecambe A.C. A series of stress injuries put paid to this and, after some 5 years of relatively easy cycling to and from work, at the 50th anniversary reunion of the Edgware CTC he was introduced to Audax UK. The rest is history: 187 completed Audax trials plus a number of sportives; organiser of local Audax/CTC events from 1993 onwards, 21 years as secretary of Lancaster CTC plus – in 2017 - membership of the 300,000 mile club. With his wife Anne and a number of club friends, from both Lancaster and the South East, he has attended 11 of the French annual Semaines Fédérale Internationale Cyclotourisme. He was elected hon president at Lancaster’s 2018 AGM and, in March 2019, is due to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Mike Hutchinson’s 80th Birthday Celebrations

On Sunday 17th March club president Mike Hutchinson celebrated his 80th birthday by holding an afternoon tea party for around fifty of the present CTC Lancaster and South Lakes membership. There was a club run before the event, with coffee at The Apple Store, Scorton, after which the riders made their way by various routes to Barton Road Community Centre, where many other members were waiting to greet Mike.

However there were more surprises as he had no idea that sons Tom, Neil, Ian and Tom’s partner Ciara were waiting to see him! This was quite a shock, and very welcome surprise! Club digital images were running as attendees partook of the splendid afternoon tea. A good time was had by all.

Thanks must go to Anne and Pauline for organising the event and members too numerous to mention who helped on the day putting out the tables and chairs, acting as bar persons, washing up, tidying the room etc. We can thoroughly recommend the community centre as a venue for any future club activities.

Ray Moss

Ray has been exploring the lanes of our area on his bike since he was a teenager in Priest Hutton. Born in 1932, he joine"lld the Carnforth Cycling Club in the early 1950s. One of his first rides involved 10.000 feet of ascent in 8 hours, searching out almost every hill in the Dales!

He spent his National Service in Germany where he further developed his love of cycling with his service mates- his old passport is full of stamps, collected on his rides which crossed and recrossed the borders with Belgium and Holland. Moving south, he also cycled around southern Germany, Austria, and northern Italy. Returning home in 1956, Ray joined the Lancaster Cycling Club, where he took to time-trialling, as well as Sunday rides and Scottish tours.

Ray joined CTC Lancaster and South Lakes in 1991, following a camping weekend meet of the Club at Hutton Roof. He is a past Rides Secretary, and famously knows every lane within a day’s ride of Lancaster. He still averages at least 50 miles a week on his modern Giant, and is appreciating its lower gearing when compared to his first bike, a Lenton Sport 4-speed!