Regular Weekly Rides

The Clubs weekly social rides, centre around our Sunday morning group outings.  Some weeks we have up to 20 riders, split across at least 2 to 3 ability levels, ranging from gentle to brisk. The beauty is that because these share the same mid-ride coffee stop, you can also choose for example to push yourself by going out fast but then come back at a bit more of a conversational pace allowing you to take in the scenery and get to know people better.

• The Sunday rides are carefully planned out each week by the Club Ride Organiser(s).  It is not a perfect science but, with the benefit of 40 years of collective Club wisdom, we generally know how to find all the best hills and how to avoid them, also where to go when it’s wet and where to go when it’s blowing a westerly. Their special trick is to nearly always find a way to give you a tail wind coming home!
  

• Ride with GPS links for the routes for the Sunday morning rides are sent out each week a couple of days in advance and for each of the Sunday groups there will also be a ride leader whose job is to help guide everyone round and get people home safe. Riding in a group can be great fun and provided a few simple guidelines are followed it should also generally be safer than riding by yourself. To support the safe and enjoyable riding of everyone in the club, we have developed some simple guidelines for both group ride participants and for group ride leaders link to guidelines.  Based on national best practice we ask all new riders to familiarise themselves with these before riding with the club for the first time. 

• Every Sunday throughout the year we try to run at least two groups, if in the depths of winter there ever isn't enough, we ride as one. There is of course always a cafe stop and we try to plan the 2 routes so that both groups arrive at this about the same time. We will post links to the routes a couple of days in advance, it is only in extreme circumstances that a Sunday ride doesn't go ahead so if nothing is posted in advance it's still worth turning up.

In addition to our Sunday groups there is also a regular group which goes out every Thursday morning. This is also usually well attended but traditionally is not planned in advance with routes being decided on the day based on weather conditions and a quick consensus. 

Alongside our weekly rides there is also a regular once a month more gentle Saturday ride.  At 20 miles long this is much shorter and more gentle than our traditional club rides.  Although aimed primarily at giving non members a nice first step to group riding club members are very welcome to also come along.

For those who have never cycled in a group before, it can take a bit of time to get used to and requires a reasonable level of both underlying fitness and bike handling skills. We are keen to encourage new people into the club and are happy to provide a bit of help, if necessary, to bridge the gap. This could for example be by pairing people up with a more experienced rider for their first few rides. Alternatively, for those who prefer to first do some rides on their own we are always happy to advise on some great local routes which you might want to try to start with.