Winchcombe Cycling Club

Don’t forget Post ride ‘mulled wine’ and ‘mince pies’ this Sunday at WCC HQ – White Hart Garden Bar from 12.30ish!

The end of November sees the official end to the night riding series. It has been alot of fun with some great rides every wednesday night throughout November culminating in the big Forest of Dean night ride.

A big thank you to all of the riders who showed up across the 5 rides, it was great to have both a the committed few, as well as several different faces that turned up for one or two of the rides.

Due to the success of the series, we are going to continue the rides on through the winter. If there is a ride happening it will be posted on the site before wednesday morning if we plan to stay local – or a bit sooner if we plan any adventures further afield.

This weeks ride (04 December) will set off from Abbey Terrace at 6:45pm on Wednesday night. Hope to see you there! 

A great trip over to the Forest of Dean on Wednesday night. Six riders from the club turned up at the Rising Sun pub and headed of along to family trail into the forest. We met the Verderers trail at the trail center and did a loop of the blue run in the darkness, with the swoops and burms becoming unfamiliar to even those of us who know the trails well in daylight.

A great circuit in the darkness (and it does seem very dark in the woods), with not much but owl hoots for company! – then back to the pub for a quick post ride drink before heading home. A great ride was had by all (apart from one rider who had a front break failure, so had to head home early), and it seems there would be considerable interest in doing another night ride in the forest in the future. Watch this space!

A joint night ride between WCC & North Cotswold CC has been organised for Wednesday 27th of November. The ride will start from The Risng Sun, Mosely Green, Parkend, Lydney, Gloucestershire, GL15 4HN at 7pm.

The plan is to take a well known route joining the Verderers trail, and then return to the pub for a drink. Email winchcombecyclingclub@gmail.com for more info

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Congratulations to club member John Michelbacher who has recently qualified as a British Cycling Coach, John has kindly volunteered to run a series of Go Ride events for school age children, which will be held at Winchcombe Senior School in January/ February.

It is envisaged that these events will take place on a Saturday morning and will last for about 1½ hours. They will be fun sessions that will focus on cycling skills – very similar to those we arranged last summer for the Kermesse. If there are any children who are interested in taking part please the club know on winchcombeecc@aol.com. If parents/Club members would like to help with the organising & setting up of this event, it would be much appreciated.

For everyone wanting to pick up some winter cycling bargins, Aldi are running a special promotions day that includes cycling gear. On Thursday 21 November they will be having special offers on there own range of winter kit. Find out more at https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-21st-november/

Due to partly to the weather predictions (of cold!) and also the low number of people confirming they would be able to make the trip over to the Forest of Dean scheduled for this week, we will be moving the ride to another date – there are also talks taking place to try and organise a join night ride in the Forest between WCC & North Cotswold CC (safety in numbers!).

The general feeling for night ride 4 seems to be ‘keep it local’. With this in mind the ride will now be taking place from Winchcombe on the 20th. We will be doing a adhoc route into the local hills. Hope to see a few of you at 6:45 on Abbey Terrace this Wednesday.

- approx time 2 hours – Approx dist. 14 miles - Start 6:45pm from Abbey Terrace, Winchcombe.

The Gravitas award (the MTB section’s prized annual award for falling off better than the rest) was duly handed to this year’s winner, James Taylor, on this week’s Wednesday night ride. Presented with due pomp and ceremony by his father (and original Gravitas winner way back in 1994) with obligatory applause provided by Simon Sylvester.

6 Riders turned up for the run over Leckhampton hill. For once the weather appeared to be great (although it did try to rain as we got to the top).

A nice and muddy ride up and over the hill and a great descent through the woods on the winding single track, managing to avoid most of the slippery roots (although not all of the low hanging tree branches).

Plans are in progress for ride 4 – more information will be on the site in the next few days.

Ride 3: Wednesday 13th November – Leckhampton hill
This ride will be more testing, and we would recommend that you are familiar with night riding and happy that your lights are up to the job as you will need them! You will encounter some single track that includes some roots and rocks while riding in the woods, not to mention some stunning views of Cheltenham.

The route heads through Cheltenham, up and around the hill (some riding in traffic on the way). We have a nice loop that is tried and tested.  - approx time 2 hours – Approx dist. 16 miles - Start 6:45pm from Wellington Square, Cheltenham (this is a good location to start, as there is free parking available – meet on the corner of Wellington square and Wellington rd/West Dr).

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