Cycling Hall Of Fame, Member News, President, Ride/Event Info, Volunteer Opportunties

President’s Message – August 2025

Team,

I hope everyone is having a great summer with lots of riding.  As summer winds down and autumn—and the fall riding season—nears I want to give you a brief update on things happening with the Club over the next few months and encourage you to help the CBC with the 2025 Cycle Sequatchie event. 

Cycle Sequatchie & Three Mountain Challenge (October 4)

A truly great cycling event and one of the CBC’s most important events of the year, the 2025 edition of Cycle Sequatchie takes place on Saturday, October 4, 2025 in Dunlap, TN. 

Volunteer Cycle Sequatchie:  As a co-sponsor of Cycle Sequatchie we need your help!  Not only does the Club manage most of the rest stops, we need volunteers to manage registration/packet pickups, to help with road marking and road marshalling, and to assist with set-up and break down, among other things.  Please help us by signing up HERE.

Ride Cycle Sequatchie:  If you’re not volunteering during the October 4th event, why not ride, whether for the century or any of the shorter route options.  Riding in Sequatchie Valley is a genuinely beautiful experience and the post-ride farm-to-table lunch (not to mention the concurrent Dunlap Oktoberfest) is a real treat. 

Fall Picnic (October 11)

The CBC Fall Picnic will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at a location to be announced.  It will be pot luck affair, with the Club providing a main dish and soft drinks.  We’ll have a selection of fun rides—hard, medium and casual—good food and great company.  Come ride, dine and socialize with your CBC mates. Stay tuned for more information in early September.

CBC in the Media (September)

Be on the lookout for the September edition of Chatter Magazine in which Chattanooga’s own and original bike club, The Chattanooga Bicycle Club, will be featured in an article.  Chatter Magazine is a lifestyle magazine published by the Chattanooga Times Free Press. 

Chattanooga Cycling Hall of Fame (HOF)  (January 2026)

Can you believe the HOF Class of 2026 will be the 5th edition of this CBC event?  Held in conjunction with the Annual Membership Meeting and Dinner, the 2026 Hall of Fame, sponsored by Owen Cyclery, will take place in late January 2026 and probably at Finley Stadium’s Ultra Club, similar to last year. 

As a reminder, nominations are due September 26, 2025 for individuals in the greater Chattanooga area who have distinguished themselves in at least one of the following categories:  recreational and/or competitive cyclist, advocate, innovator, coach. and/or mentor, while demonstrating a positive impact on the sport of cycling.  

If you know someone who you think would be a great addition to the Chattanooga Cycling Hall of Fame, send the person’s name along with a few sentences about why he/she would be a good addition to the HOF to forrest.simmons4@gmail.com by or before September 26, 2025. 

See you on the road,

Tom

Cycling Hall Of Fame, Member News, Officers, President, Volunteer Opportunties

President’s New Year’s Message & Invitation

Thank YOU for being a member of the Chattanooga Bicycle Club, for loving cycling and riding your bikes; for leading and riding in Club rides; for helping with rest stops, marshalling, and marking routes for CBC-sponsored rides, especially Cycle Sequatchie; for organizing and attending club events; for serving on the Executive Board of Directors; and for everything else you do to promote cycling. The Chattanooga Bicycle Club exists because of you and for you.

Annual Meeting, Dinner, and Hall of Fame Ceremony

The CBC’s Annual Meeting and happy hour, followed by dinner and Hall of Fame (HOF) ceremony take place on Saturday, January 25, 2025. The meeting begins at 4:30 at the Finley Stadium Skybox, with social hour starting at 5:30 at the Ultra Club at Finley Stadium. The annual CBC dinner and HOF ceremony follow from 6:30pm to 9:00pm. Register HERE for the Annual Meeting and/or Dinner/Hall of Fame ceremony.  

Why attend the Annual Meeting? There are two very important aspects of the Annual Meeting. First, you’ll hear from your current Board members, who will give their annual report—the State of the CBC, and second, you’ll elect your Board for 2025. These are the folks who keep the CBC ticking and you should be active in their selection. (A third reason to attend is for a chance to win one of the door prizes—a Garmin Varia radar, a set of Continental Grand Prix tires, and a gift certificate of $125 for the Club team store). Members who attend the annual meeting also get a free drink coupon for the social hour that follows the meeting.

The following members are running for re-election or election to the 2025 Board of Directors.  Please note that we still need candidates for Social Media Director, Membership Director, and Social Director.

Elected Positions

  • President                                 Thomas Hand
  • Vice President:                     Sharon Russell
  • Treasurer                                 Jennifer Fiori Kreafle
  • Secretary                                 Kevin Whiteside
  • Event Coordinator              Deborah & Sam Beck
  • Road Ride Coordinator     Peggy Olsen
  • Social Media Director      TBA (very important – we need you!)
  • Membership Director       TBA
  • At Large                                   Rich Rudner
  • At Large                                   Bill Jennings

Appointed Positions

    • Advocacy Director               Ben Richards
    • Social Director                      TBA (very important—we need you!)           

Why Attend the Annual Meeting + Dinner and HOF? It’s a fun, gala evening for only 20 bucks. The dinner is a natural extension of the Annual Meeting. Spend the evening with your friends and fellow riders celebrating the CBC and the sport of cycling. 

We Need You to Take a Pull in 2025 – Please

 You Too Can Run for the Board of Directors!  We are especially eager to have candidates for Social Media Director and Social Committee Director.  The Social Media Director promotes Club interests and markets Club events on social media, while the Social Director lead the committee that plans and implements CBC social events. Candidates for president and vice president must have been members for two years. Please step up to serve in one of these important positions for 2025. Please email your expression of interest to Tom Hand (Tom.Hand@chattanoogabicycleclub.com) and Sharon Russell (sharon@chattanoogabicycleclub.com).

Cycle Sequatchie & Other Cycling Events. Those of you who have been CBC members for a while know that the 3 Mountain 3 State Century, which was a fantastic ride, was a rallying point for member contributions and volunteer efforts and kept us in the black for many years. That ride is gone, but today we have the Cycle Sequatchie Century and Three Mountain Challenge, which the CBC co-presents with Velo View Bike Tours. The brainchild of Shannon Burke and Celeste Cyr, Cycle Sequatchie has become one of the premier organized road rides in the Southeast. If you’ve ridden it, then you know what a wonderful ride and event it is. Cycle Sequatchie is also the only thing keeping the CBC in the black today. 

In 2025, the CBC will be much more involved in every aspect of Cycle Sequatchie, providing all volunteers needed for the event–from marketing and registering riders to route marking, rest stops, marshalling, and other logistics. We will be calling for and will need your help in 2025–both before, during and after the event. Please make time to serve. It’s good for cycling and essential for the CBC.

Once again thank you for being a member of the CBC and the cycling community in the Chattanooga area. I look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting, Dinner and HOF. It really is about the bike…and the rider!

See you on the road,

Tom

Pedal, smile, repeat!