It looks like the Winter Gardens will get some love

According to this BBC news article, Thanet District Council (TDC) has arranged with Westwood One Theatre for them to renovate and reopen the place.

I’m sure the £4m funding boost helped that along, although that’s a drop in the ocean compared to the spiralling estimates of the price of restorative work needed, which could be as high as £11m.

As most of you probably know, the Winter Gardens were closed in August 2022 after Your Leisure reported big old financial losses and gave the lease back to TDC.

There’s a bunch of paperwork and other preliminary planning requirements, but reports suggest the venue could be open in as little as 18 months. That places the opening time around October or November of 2026. I wouldn’t hold my breath. These things always seem to run over due and over budget. My bet is on an opening in spring of 2027.

What’s your guess for when (or if) the Winter Gardens will reopen?

Image credit: Nick Smith / The rear of the Wintergardens, Margate

#TDC #WinterGardens

A Groupe Ride from Nyon to Les Fruitières with Tête de Course

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Yesterday we left Nyon through the "secret" passage that takes you from near Place St Martin to the lakeside. We had to take this route because of the défilé des enfants. Roads were blocked so some drivers might have been trapped for an hour or two. On a bike I was blocked from going one way so I went another way, and then I walked to the meeting point.

Tête de Course is a group that meets on Wednesday mornings, at 06:30, Thursday at 18:00 and on Saturdays it depends, in so far as I can see. I am still new to the group.

The Morning Ride

The Morning ride is open to riders that can ride twenty five kilometres an hour or more. On Wednesday it involved quite a bit of climbing but I was able to keep up with the group and will almost certainly ride with them again next Wednesday. Riding at 06:30 is nice because the roads are empty, but also because the temperature is still relatively low. At the end of the ride you can have a coffee and croissant before getting on with the rest of your day.

The Evening Ride

The Evening Ride is split into three groups. Group 1 is the fastest, most demanding group. They ride fast and do the full loop. Group 2 rides a shorter route at a slightly slower pace. Group 3 is a more relaxed pace. In theory if you can't keep up with group 1 you can drop to group 2.

My first ride with this group was a group 3 ride. Initially the idea was to ride a shorter ride up the Baudichonne climb, stopping at the P'tit Bar. I rode to it, had a quick snack, and then continued riding upwards. I was the only person from group 3 to get to the top. That's why this week I decided to ride with group 2.

This week group 2 rode to Les Fruitères de Nyon. It's a climb up the Jura to a farm from which you have a good view of the Léman and the Alps, including Geneva.

What struck me about last night's ride is that we were riding as a peloton, up steep gradients, and keeping as a tight group. It's the first time I ride in such a group, where we stick together until a certain point. Eventually as people grew more tired the group elongated.

Near the top group 1 flew by group 2. At the top we stopped for a few minutes, to appreciate the view, before heading back down.

How Does it Compare to Bike Club Switzerland

Whilst Tête de Course (TDC) starts from a café in Nyon Bike Club Switzerland (BCS) starts from a bike shop in Les Grottes by Cornavin train station. It uses meetup.com and has clear and distinct groups for relaxed rides, moderate rides, peak rides and gravel. So far I have focused mainly on relaxed with this group.

The relaxed rides are meant to go at 20km/h or so but can trend upwards depending on the level of the group and they try to be around 50 km long. Some relaxed rides are long, and thus 80 or more kilometres in distance.

With the relaxed rides you stop for coffee at some point. Within this group climbing is at your own pace.

I cannot comment on moderate to peak rides yet as I have not tried them. I do joke that we did a recovery ride one sunday at 29km/h or more. This is not a criticism. It amused me.

And Finally

I enjoy riding with Tête de Course. I enjoy that it is local to me. I enjoyed riding in a peloton part of the way up the Jura, before fatigue encouraged me to have more space between myself and others. If you love to climb on every ride then this is a great group. Tomorrow they are going along a route that will have 1400m of climbing. I could be tempted, if I didn't think that I need to give my body time to rest and recover. That's where BCS comes in.

If you live in Geneva BCS rides are from 40-80 kilometres long, but if you live in Nyon then every ride is a century. It is possible for me to do 100+km rides consistently because relaxed rides are at a pace that I can sustain for longer periods of time. Tomorrow I might ride 120km. I suspect that I will catch the train from Geneva to Nyon, or Coppet.

I am enjoying these bike rides.

#bcs #cycling #Geneva #groups #Nyon #relaxed #rides #tdc

A TDC Social Ride to La Baudichonne

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Yesterday evening I went for a group ride but rather than riding for an hour or so to get to Geneva I rode to the centre of Nyon. I rode to the old garage that was transformed into a café called Tête de Course. This is where the TDC group meet before starting their Thursday evening bike ride. Social Rides

Three Groups

The group split into three groups. Group 1 was the fastest, and then group 2, and finally group 3. I chose to be in the easiest group as I am not used to riding with this group and it was the right decision.

After running in the morning, and not having a proper lunch I thought that I should choose a group that did not push me too much. Little did I know that in the end I would ride up to the P'tit Bar, before deciding, "I feel ok" so I continued to the top.

Challenge To The Top

This is not an easy ride. When I do this ride I wish that I had more easy gears so that I could shift to easier gears. As I did not have this option I stood up on the harder bits, and kept pushing. When I got to the p'tit bar I fuelled up before continuing.

I was overtaken by people from the first and second groups during the climb. Quite a few of them said nothing. I don't know whether it was out of shyness or exhaustion. I suspect exhaustion was the main reason for their silence.

At one point I did ride alongside someone who had music playing. For him this was a "rest day" as it was for me. His idea of rest is staying in zone 2. This makes sense. We talked for a bit, until I felt I was pushing too hard and chose to slow down.

Short in Distance but Steep

This is not an easy climb. It's only 5km so it's short, but it is steep and you barely have an opportunity to rest. You just need to grind. It didn't help that I did not have the route that we were doing on the GPS. I had the long variant and the long variant made it so that I knew how much was left to climb, but not distance.

I still made it to the top. It's the first time that I see so many people up there. Usually I just see three or four other cyclists. This time I saw two cycling groups. No one but me, from group three, made it to the top.

Did I choose to ride with a group that was too easy, and that's why I dropped them? I don't think so. I didn't know this group, or their riding experience. I prefer to try for the slowest group, see how it feels, and then push myself if I feel that I can try for a slightly harder group.

And Finally

A seventy kilometre loop with a Geneva group involves fourty four kilometres to get to the start point and back. In theory I would cycle one hundred and ten kilometres. If I start with a Nyon group the ride to the start is less than three kilometres. I only add 6km, or six minutes to the start. It is also an opportunity to meet local people, to Nyon, rather than local people, to Geneva.

If I am not just doing long rides I can do more strenuous rides and I can skip the train.

#cycling #group #Jura #Nyon #social #tdc

Flock of Parrots

https://env-0499245.wc.reclaim.cloud/videos/watch/3b484123-6feb-4b75-b7b4-81dc92228c5d

Thrilled to win a TDC for Naatak Multiscript! So pumped to see this wild, multilingual ride get the love it deserves!

#TDC #NaatakMultiscript #TypeDesign #ektype
#Naatakmultiscript #font #TDC71 #award #multiscript #india #variable #uniwidth

Euchre was selected as one of the Type Directors Club TDC71 best fonts of 2024. It was even selected as a freaking Judge’s Choice!

You can view all of the winners online at https://tdc.org/winner-archive/?work-year=2025.

See more of Euchre and grab free test fonts at http://okaytype.com/euchre

#tdc #typedirectorsclub

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