It’s that time of year again where we look for your nominees, as we did last year the committee have provided a short list of nominees which you can add your suggestions to by emailing gemma.fletcher@northtynesideriders.co.uk by 23:00 on Saturday 28th February
Spirit Of NTR
| Duncan Smith | Duncan is one of our longer serving members and can often be found riding the hills on a Thursday night or partaking in a Sunday Club Ride. He takes part in a large number of NTR events and is happy to coach and mentor newer members. |
| Ian Stanners | Stanners is another long standing member and all throughout 2025 was posting Saturday rides, often on the quiet Northumberland roads and usually followed by a pub stop. I think he even escaped a ride ending in a visit to A&E in 2025 too! |
| Sarah Brett | Sarah hosted a number of off road rides during 2025 and is someone that is always happy to help with supporting a ride (even if it is not her own) and making sure everyone on the ride is supported. |
| Peter Hedworth & Peter Calboutin | Peter & Peter are part of the furniture and it’s a wonder Peter C has any time spare to ride his bike! They have both hosted Thursday Hills, looked after newcomers on a Tuesday TNT and both mentored new members in the club. |
| Daniel Berkhauer | Daniel has been in NTR for a little while now and during 2025 was posting a lot of his rides on our NTR socials, he took some great shots and is always willing to help out the club. |
| Jenny Nel | Jenny is someone who can be many different kinds of rider depending on the group, the good shepherd at the back of a ride or the strong rider at the front. Jenny has also hosted a number of NTR rides during 2025 and volunteered at NTR events. |
| Dan Richardson & Gemma Fletcher | Dan & Gemma hosted Monday Gravel rides for Several years, having stepped back as we move into 2026 and both get themselves muddy by racing for NTR in the CX scene. |
| Tony Douglass | Tony is one of the OG NTR members and has been supportive of new members to the club as well as spending time trying to improve engagement. |
Rider of the year
| Lee Head | In May 2025 Lee decided he would ride LEJOG, unsupported for charity (and nothing to do with the free days off work for charity work 😉 ) This was a mammoth effort and if I recall correctly there was a headwind for a large portion of the way. Lee being Lee also chose to wild camp a lot of the route. |
| Gordon Thomas | Gordon was the oldest member who chose to take on the London to Newcastle ride in 2025 and despite having a nerve injury made it almost all the way to Newcastle before having to be persuaded it was best to get off his bike and into the van. A great effort with an injury. |
| Jenny Nel | Jenny was described as the diesel engine during 2025’s London to Newcastle ride (and on many club rides too), always offering a steady and strong turn on the front. |
| Phil Steadman | In October 2025 Phil chose to ride the length of Spain over the course of 2 weeks, covering a distance of roughly 1500 km with a whole host of climbing. Something we see as a pretty epic ride. |
Most Improved Rider
| Niall Hindmarsh | Last year Nail won the Mike Lucas volunteer of the year award but during 2025 he has improved a huge amount as a cyclist, even spending those winter nights on Zwift. |
| Gordon Thomas | When Gordon first joined NTR a few years ago he used to be dropping off the back of the group, now he has improved hugely, taking part in some epic rides like London to Newcastle. These days you will find him at the front. |
| Ellie Cooper | Ellie is a member who has come on leaps and bounds and is not afraid to try new things, riding through some tough terrain on an off road ride to Wheelbirks or the little jump on Backworth wagon way, I think that second one was an accident though. |
| Mabel Mundy | Mabel is a relatively new club member but has impressed with taking part in some of our CX racing, who doesn’t love a muddy field? |