This year our star attraction is one of the most successful British professionals in recent years, Dean Downing. Together with his brother Russell, they have virtually sewn up the British racing calendar and, as leader of the British based Rapha-Condor Racing Team he's notched up many fine wins in his career to date, including the National Criterium championships this year, which was organised by my club in Beverley, East Yorkshire. Perhaps his favourite race is the Lincoln Grand Prix where he finished 1st last year and 2nd this. The Rapha-Condor squad are distinguished by their black outfits, reminiscent, I'm told, of the early days of racing when everyone wore black alpaca. More about Dean on his website.

I recently witnessed a Go-Ride sesssion to teach youngsters how to ride the track at Scunthorpe which was run by Mark Barry. After the recent track successes at both the World Championships and the Olympics, it proved to be very popular with about thirty youngsters taking part, and Mark competently put these kids through their paces. He was, if you didn't know, one of the leading sprinters in the eighties and took part in the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Mark will be telling us about track sprinting and training.

What do you do when you've qualified as a coach? Recently qualified ABCC coach, Mark Gorman set up a training camp for himself and his club mates down in Wales, suitable for attracting members who are spread around the country. His enthusiasm persuades him to continue with this venture which precludes the necessity to use the training camps in Mallorca or elsewhere. It's obviously very convenient for travelling (especially with the current state of airlines), and your training is in the climate that we have to get used to. Mark, who comes from Cornwall, is an ideal role model for anyone starting out and new coaches have a lot to gain from listening to him.

Professor Louis Passfield is head of sports studies at the University of Kent at Medway and should need no introduction to some of the older coaches. He's been an eminent sports scientist for more than fifteen years specialising in Sports Nutrition, and Endurance in athletes and in particular, cycling. Louis previously worked at Chichester College where he fostered Peter Keen as a sports scientist and was a constituent part in the monitoring and development of Chris Boardman. He continues to work part time with British Cycling, consulting on physiology and the environment that endurance cyclists have to prepare for.

It has been proposed that each year we should not forget the valuable service that Ray Minovi has done for the ABCC and agreed that we should identify one of the talks as a Ramin Minovi Memorial Lecture. Ray had a great deal of respect for Louis Passfield and this lecture has been nominated.

Venue: Coventry's magnificent Transport Museum would be worth a visit even if you had no other reason for coming to the city on 9th November. The Cyclopaedia Hall has probably the largest historically-based collections of cycles in Britain. Booking: Mike Dawson on 020-8346-4232, e-mail on mkdawson4@yahoo.co.uk. or Lewis Hall is on 02476-677661.

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Cost. For four presentations, refreshments morning and afternoon, and an excellent buffet lunch, in a fascinating place where you can wander round and soak up the history of our sport, we've kept the price down once again to a mere £30. If it sounds too good to be true, just for once it really is. Meet your fellow coaches, and if you come on Saturday, Lewis Hall will take you on a not-too-long-or-difficult ride through the beautiful and historic Warwickshire countryside. Enjoy.