Blog
13 July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 6 - Dieppe to London
A non-riding day, well partial riding day to be more accurate, but we were not riding far. Breakfast was a dissapointment, even by the standards we had seen this week, so we quickly packed our bags and our cycling kit and rode the 2.5 miles back into town to grab coffee and croissants at a charming spot overlooking the harbour in Dieppe. Dark clouds were threatening yet more rain and we did have to shelter briefly from another downpour. Our ferry was due to leave at midday and we cycled to the ferry port in plenty of time. There were a lot more cyclists on this journey than we had from Dover to Calais, but it still did not take long to find a spot to secure the bikes on the ferry. We made our way up from the car deck and settled on some comfortable chairs for the four hour boat journey across The Channel back to England. Our crossing was calm and bathed in warm sunshine as we left the dark clouds over the coast of France. We arrived in Newhaven just before 15:00 and headed to the train station to start our journey back to London.
This is the 6th and final Blog entry for our London to Paris trip. If you haven't already seen the earlier blog posts, then please do go back and read them. It has been just over a week or so since we got home and we have all had a chance to reflect on our individual journeys as well as our collective journey. I'm sure that we all remember some things differently. These six entries are just from my memory, other members of the team will be able to tell you their own stories and I am sure they will do so willingly.
To our families, thank you for supporting us, while we embarked on this adventure. In the planning and build up to this ride, I am sure my co-riders have bored their families just as much as I bored my ever supporting wife, Nicky, and the rest of our family and friends. Trying to relay information about bike bags, what to pack and route diversions can't really be interesting to those not taking part, but our families are our rocks. They are the shoulders we stand upon. They allow us the ambition, support us and let us dream of trips like these. Thank you all.
For my five co-riders, I don't have the vocabulary to express my gratitude and my feelings for what we achieved and to be honest, it still hasn't really sunk in yet. Thank you for your excellent company and sharing this adventure with me. Despite the hills, the rain, the wind and the miles cycled, I had a great time with five of my best friends.
You are all amazing.
Jad.
12 July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 5 - Paris to Dieppe (110.8 miles - 3735 ft)(178 Km - 1138 m)
This was, for some of us, the last real day of cycling. When planning our return from Paris, it became clear that six of us getting on the Eurostar back to London with bikes was not going to work. We had looked at trains back to Calais and trains to Dieppe. Some of us planned to cycle to Dieppe and others had decided that Paris was a fitting end point to their cycling adventures. We knew that the weather forecast was not good from the previous night and when we awoke on Friday morning it was already raining quite heavily. Any desire I had left to jump back on my bike, quickly ebbed away and I made my apologies to Andrew that I would not be cycling with him to Dieppe. Stephen and Tim had also decided the same thing, so unfortunately Andrew was left on his own to cycle the 110 miles to Dieppe. There was no way he was going to get the train, and his determination to finish the ride through France was unwaivering. We wished him well as he packed his bike and we saw him off.
The remaining five of us split into three groups for our various train journey's to Dieppe and Tim and I headed off first to St. Lazare station to catch our first train of the day. On the way to the station the rain eased and stopped, I was briefly left wondering if I had been too hasty in deciding not to ride. Tim and I caught our first train from Paris to Rouen, where we had 20 minutes or so to wait for our next train to Cléres, then at Cléres we would have to wait nearly an hour and a half for our train to Dieppe. On boarding the train at Rouen we found it was heading to Dieppe anyway, so we just stayed on that train and arrived in Dieppe just before midday. We quickly found a bar and had lunch with a few beers while we waited for Joanna and Alex to arrive shortly after us....
Unfortunately Joanna and Alex had changed their travel plans. They had somehow gotten the wrong train from Paris and had ended up in Caen! Steven was still in Paris, with his train due to leave at 14:00 and by the time he arrived in Dieppe, Joanna & Alex had also caught a train back to Dieppe, in fact, they were all on the same train! Tim and I had already made our way to the hotel, and we awaited the arrival of Stephen, Joanna and Alex. Once we were all showered and ready to go, we realised that Andrew had done fantastically well and was not far from reuniting with us. The five of us found a place to eat and got a table while we waited for Andrew to arrive, so that we could all eat together. Our final night in France turned into a rather late night, with a few beers and a bottle of Champagne consumed, plus soft drinks and water!
11 July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 4 - Compiègne to Paris (56.4 miles - 2236 ft)(91 Km - 681 m)
Personally, I awoke after the best nights sleep of the whole trip and actually enjoyed breakfast. For some of us this was to be the last day of cycling, rolling into Paris had been the aim of the whole trip and today was the day that hopefully we would all complete that goal. First though we still had 60 miles to cycle and the outskirts of Paris to negotiate. We set off slightly earlier than we had done on previous days, hoping to get into Paris as soon as we could to maximise our time there. We had a quick stop at a shop in Lacroix-Saint-Ouen to buy snacks and for me to buy cigarettes, I had run out the night before and I needed a fix!
We cycled through Verberie and onto a 2 mile climb out of the village with a maximum grade of 6.2%, this tarmac had recently been relaid and this was the nicest surface we had ridden on so far during our trip, even if it was uphill. More small villages were passed and we approached Montépilloy and we were soon riding on a short cobbled section. Our first taste of real cobbles and all of of us were left wondering how the Pro-riders manage it and make it look so easy. After all our combined miles so far, our legs, arms, backs and bums did not react very well to this new sensation.
After 25 miles we entered the village of Plailly, which we had earmarked as our coffee stop for the day. As we had found previously on this trip, we managed to find a café serving coffee and beer, but no food. So we had to head over the road to a bakery after having our coffee, to get a sandwich (baguette) and a slice of cake. It was at this point Alex noted that he had a puncture and Stephen once again stepped in as mechanic extroardinaire, and helped Alex change the inner tube. They found that Alex's tyre had not only punctured, but had ripped, only a small hole, but enough to make the tyre too dangerous to ride on. Luckily, Stephen had brought a spare folded tyre with him, just in case, and at that point Alex was very grateful that he had.
As we cycled on, the roads were getting noticeably busier and we knew we were not far from the outer suburbs of Paris as we passed through Fosses, Marly-la-Ville and Fontenay-en-Parisis. A dedicated cycle path started on the opposite side of the road and we decided to stop to have a 5 min break and get onto the cycle path rather than the road. It was here we got our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. It was not long before we were approaching the Saint-Denis area and we saw the River Seine for the first time. Cycling along the river, we suddenly found our route was blocked. The road had been closed to allow for construction of a fan park, for the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games to be held in Paris, just a few short weeks after our visit to the city. A quick U-turn and navigation around the blockage and we were once again cycling along the Seine and onwards to Monceau Park. We had marked this as a rendezvous point in case any of us got detatched from the group or held up in traffic.
If you have ever cycled in Paris, you will know what a crazy place it is to ride your bike. The car drivers are actually very respectful and give you plenty of room and time, it's other cyclists you need to be wary of. We are still unsure what the protocol is for cycling in Paris and who has right of way. As Stephen said on our way into the city, if you see a gap, just go for it!
A quick loo stop and re-fill of our water bottles and we were off again, next stop the Arc de Triomphe. There are 12 roads that lead onto the Arc, which is basically a huge roundabout, and any cars already on the Arc are supposed to give way to traffic entering from any of these 12 roads. We entered the Arc as a team of 6 and stayed that way until Andrew, who was leading us, signalled for us to start pulling over back to the outside so that we could stop and get some pictures. Next we cycled down the Champs-Élysées heading towards the Place de la Concorde, before turning right past the Grand Palais and over the Pont Alexandre III, crossing The Seine and heading towards the Eiffel Tower. The iconic structure looms large over the city and although it may obscured at times by buildings, it is unmissable. The Tower marked the end point of our route from London to Paris, six of us had made the journey and we had all completed the mission to reach Paris on our bikes. For me, this ride had been on my bucket list ever since I had started road cycling in 2017 and there we were stood at the base of the one the most famous land marks in the world. I'm not ashamed to admit I felt quite emotional. We took pictures, we hugged and we congratulated each others achievements. We had ridden approx 320 miles in four days, from the outskirts of the capital of England to the capital of France. Not bad for a club that was less than two years old.
Next on the agenda was food, and a bit more sightseeing on the way to our hotel. We found a charming little place, Bistro Saint Dominique and proceeded to eat our weight in steak, plus a very welcome beer or coke for the non-drinkers. We chatted for a while, but we still had some places to visit before we got to our hotel, so we got back on our bicycles and headed to The Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral for more photographs to be taken. The ride to the hotel was even more chaotic than our earlier ride into Paris. The cycle lanes were full and it took all our concentration to negotiate the city as we headed North again towards Porte de la Chapelle. A quick shower and another beer in the hotel reception, then the six of us were heading to the Metro to go and visit the Pigalle Quarter and The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre. Joanna was our tour leader for the evening, and promised us a spectacular view of the city from Montmartre, she was not wrong. Hunger seemed to have gripped us and after a light, late evening salad and another round of drinks, we headed back to our hotel.
10 July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 3 - Arras to Compiègne (85.5 miles - 3694 ft)(135 Km - 943 m)
We were greeted by bright sunshine when we rose on Wednesday, but by the time we had finished breakfast, it was cloudy. Not fluffy white cloudy even, but dark, black clouds. We prayed it would stay dry, as was forecasted. Heading out of Arras we visited the fabulous Vélo Secteur Pavé bicycle shop and took an opportunity to check our tyre pressure and buy some supplies. Within six miles of leaving the hotel, we were once again surrounded by farmland as far as we could see and once out in the open countryside, the headwind hit us. Almost at the same time, the clouds cleared and the sun was shining brightly and warmly. The pattern for the day was set, even this early, it was goung to be bright warm sunshine but a strong gusting headwind.
At 23 miles we arrived at our first stop of the day, the Thiepval War Memorial to the Lost Soldiers of WWI. A huge, impressive monument to the fallen men in the battles around The Somme region, whose remains have never been found. There are some 72,000 names inscribed on the memorial itself. We took some time here and paid our respects, quietly reflecting on what feelings this place evoked within each of us. For me personally, while it is an impressive structure, I was just filled with sadness for the reason why it is there. We adjourned to the rather beautiful visitor café Cottage Geneviève et Auguste, for a toasted sandwich and a drink, before heading back again onto open roads and into the headwind. At 34 miles we stopped once again at the viewpoint over The Somme River itself. The 11 miles we had ridden from Thiepval to here had been littered with signs for memorials and graveyards to those lost in WW1 and now here before us was the stretch of water that all those people had died trying to defend or capture.... a river! Albeit a very picturesque river.
As we again headed south and climbed up, the now familiar headwind buffeted us once more. We were now on slightly busier roads, but they were instantly recognisable French roads, with a row of trees on our right hand side, giving us shelter from the warm sun. After 45 miles we were all feeling slightly tired and hunger was once again starting to creep into us. We diverted from the route to visit the town of Chaulnes, where we could see a supermarket on Google Maps and a pavement picnic ensued in the car park. We still had just under 40 miles to go to reach our destination. At mile 65 we entered the village of Canny-sur-Matz and found that the entire road had been skimmed in preparation for a new surface to be laid, but what had been left was a basic gravel road. Luckily we escaped this part of the route without any punctures. This was actually one of the few places where we saw people going about their business, and on the whole we saw more people on this day, than we had the previous day.
Entering another village at 76 miles, Monchy Humières, we stopped at a small bridge crossing the L'Aronde River, which was part of the Chateau d'Humières estate and golf club. A very pleasant place to stop and grab some food and some more pictures before completing the final 10 miles to Compiègne, finally arriving at our hotel at 18:35. A longer day on the bike, and we had stopped a few times. It seemed that the wind today had sapped our energy more than the rain of the previous day. To be honest we were all feeling pretty tired by now, with most of us not used to multiple days of cycling but as we sipped a nice cold beer, the underlying thought was that by this time tomorrow, we would hopefully be in Paris.
9 July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 2 - Calais to Arras (76.4 miles - 3823 ft)(123 Km - 1165 m)
We really wanted to make the most of each day and get up, have breakfast and leave the hotels as early as possible. So a 06:00 alarm and breakfast at 07:00 would give us enough time to get some food inside of us, get dressed and prep the bikes ready to be on the road by 09:00 at the latest. Most of us were well rested after the long previous day, although Alex did complain that the combined 'sn-orchestra' of mine and Andrew's heavy night time breathing had left him feeling rather un-rested. I did remind Alex that I had put ear plugs on the kit list as an optional extra!
Breakfast itself was basic, croissants, pain au chocolate, baguette, cereal, yoghurt, coffee and fruit juice. It was at this point that we saw a weather report on the news channel in the breakfast area, it didn't make for pleasant reading, it was going to be a wet day. Our first rest/food stop was planned for just 25 miles from the start and we left the hotel in good time to start our journey south through France. At this point the weather was cloudy, but not cold and we soon dispensed with the need for arm warmers and gilets. We quickly made our way out of Calais, which being a typical port town, is not an especially salubrious area. We picked up a cycling path along the canal, which led us out of town. We continued criss-crossing the canal on our way to Ardres, 10 miles away, where we managed to find a bike shop open for Stephen to replace the two inner tubes he had used the previous day. It was then onto our first climb of the day from Tournham-sur-la-Hem up into the forest and the Audomarois Nature Reserve. We had seen YouTube videos of previous London to Paris rides and we knew this was a long climb which came in two parts, of just over 5 miles with gradients up to 7%. Not too much, but just enough of a distance with a heavy laden bike to make your legs burn first thing in the morning. At the top of the hill we came across Chapelle forêt de Tournehem sur la hem, a small chapel built in the middle of the forest.
After 25 miles, we reached the town of Lumbres and passing a Leclerc supermarket and a McDonalds, we headed downhill into the town, to find most of the shops closed and our route partially blocked by roadworks. Finding nothing suitable in the centre of Lumbres, we pressed on around the roadworks and towards the outskirts of town we found a bakery, where we could at least get a cold drink and a croissant or a cake. We knew this would not sustain us for the full day and there were comments that we had passed the golden arches, but we felt comfortable that we would be ok until our next stop in Pernes, another 25 miles away. Lumbres had been a very quiet town and as we climbed again out of the village it started to rain, it rained hard and although we stopped to put on jackets, we vainly hoped this would be a passing shower, but deep down we knew this would not be the case. We cycled onwards and through some very beautiful villages, one thing that struck us all, was the lack of people. Yes, it was raining, but we saw no-one, not even many cars being driven over the next few miles. The weather quickly deteriorated as we climbed to the top of another plateau of farmland we could see rain falling everywhere around us, we felt enshrouded by a grey, wet cloud. This was going to be a hard days ride. At this point the miles ticked by slowly, we were wet, very wet and pretty miserable, but we had to keep going. Then just as the first rumbles of thunder could be heard above us, unbelievably, the rain got heavier.
We reached Pernes and 50 miles completed. As we cycled into the main square we found a bakery and with a covered alleyway next to it, we took shelter. We must have looked very strange, six soaking wet cyclists, sheltering from the rain, stuffing our faces with foot-long baguettes filled with ham and cheese, and drinking cokes and coffees. As we stood there the rain slowly eased and stopped, we whispered silent prayers that the worst was over. With full stomachs and high hopes we got back underway to continue our journey. As we rode, the breeze quickly dried our cycling gear, although it would take longer to dry our shoes. We were all just starting to feel happy when we started another climb. Yet again as we crested the hill, looming black clouds appeared to be moving our way. The accompanying thunder, was once again followed by torrential rain. In the distance we could see the forked lightening and the thunder grew louder. We came to another small village, La Comté, and the rain was just horrific, we found a bus shelter and six of us cowered under the roof, out of the rain. We must have been there 15-20 minutes before the storm passed and the rain eased, but not stopping completely. We once again set off as we still had 20 miles remaining to Arras.
Just as we were approaching Mingoval at 63 miles..... 'mechanical' came the cry! Our first puncture of the day and our third overall, this time it was Tim who suffered the cruel fate. As he and Stephen turned his bike over to get the wheel off, the sight of yet another bolt of lightening and the now familiar clap of thunder greeted us, as once again a heavy downpour ensued. Cold and wet fingers meant that this puncture stop took a bit longer than the two we had the previous day, but eventually we were moving again and at 70 miles we cycled into the village of d'Écoivres. As we took a right hand turn just at the end of the village we came across one of the many military graveyards that are dotted around this part of France, this was the biggest cemetary we had seen so far. We paused, and stood for a moment in the rain, to pay our respects to those that lost their lives between 1916-1918. The final seven miles to our hotel in Arras was uneventful and the rain had even stopped by the time we arrived at 16:45. We checked in, found our rooms and headed for a shower to wash our kit and ourselves, hoping that the kit would be dry by the morning. We stuffed freshly bought kitchen roll into our shoes and headed to the nearest restaurant for a meal and a few drinks. Despite the atrocious conditions that day, our spirits were still high, we were still bouyant and happy to have gotten through the day. We knew nothing could be worse than what we had just ridden through and the sun even came out, seemingly in agreement with us.
8
July
2024
HWCC London to Paris 2024
Day 1 - London to Dover (96 miles - 4041 ft)(155 Km - 1232 m)
After eight or nine months of route planning, selecting and booking hotels, ferry tickets, bike bags and deciding what kit we needed to carry, the day had finally arrived. Meeting in Kingston upon Thames market place at 06:00, four of us commenced our journey south towards Dover, where we would meet two other members of the team who had elected to get the train from London and meet us at the ferry port.
Less than three miles cycled and still in New Malden, not even enough time to get used to our fully laden bikes, there was a familiar cry of 'mechanical'! Our first puncture thanks to a tiny sliver of glass. Was this an omen, a sign of things to come? We had deliberately chosen to leave Kingston so early to give us enough time to cycle the 95 miles to Dover, without any panic of stopping for food or mechanicals along our journey. We had to be at Dover Ferry Terminal at 17:00 to catch our 18:00 ferry. Stephen skillfully and quickly changed the inner tube and we were off once again. Meandering through the streets of Greater London, which even at this time were starting to get busy, we made our way through Morden, Carshalton and Wallington towards Purley and our first real test of the ride, Downs Court Road with its half mile 6% climb. Steady paced we crested the top of the climb and felt the effect of our fully loaded bikes, we knew there was further climbing to do before we passed beyond the M25. We continued upwards and onwards towards Warlingham and the top of Nore Hill, where once again the cry of 'mecahnical' signalled another puncture after only 18 miles. Another front wheel puncture for Stephen, so far the cycling gods were not looking after us. We remained calm and Stephen once again changed the inner tube with minimal fuss and we headed off, still very much with time on our side.
We had 'frankensteined' the route from three or four other routes and as we tested our brakes descending Titsey Hill and passing under the M25, we knew that Greater London was behind us and we were finally heading out into country roads and the flattest part of our ride for Day 1. Limpsfield, Four Elms and Chiddingstone Causeway passed without any issues on our way to our food stop at Tonbridge, Kent, where we stopped at The Finch House Café after 36 miles. Fuelled by coffee, coke, bacon and sausages we left Tonbridge to continue south east. The weather on Monday was fairly cloudy and mild, but most importantly it was dry, perfect cycling weather. We continued through the Garden of England and cycled through villages and small towns on the route, passing multiple oast houses, which are dotted all over Kent and even cycling through a vineyard and an apple orchard until reaching The Knox Bridge Café at 54 miles, where it was coffee or coke time and a chance to refill our water bottles.
We were now getting to the end of the flattest part of the ride, and after driving this route a few weeks previously, we knew that some tough hills were ahead of us before we reached our destination for the day. Dover itself sits in a small valley, and there is no way to approach the town without climbing some hills, unless of course you drive along the M2 and A2. Given we were cycling this was not an option and even the A2, with many HGV lorries and high volume of traffic was not somewhere we wanted to be on our bikes. We reached the small village of Sellindge at 78 miles and stopped to grab some snacks at the little shop. Fuel for the body to get us up Blindhouse Lane & Hempton Hill, a 1.2 mile climb topping out at 9%. Reaching the top of this climb at Farthing Common, we got our first glimpse of the sea as we continued to Etchinghill, where we faced our final real hill of the day, a short 0.5 mile, 10% climb to take us to Hawkinge. We now knew it was downhill all the way into Dover and down to the ferry port. We arrived at the seafront in Dover at 15:20 with plenty of time to spare and quickly contacted our two other team members, who by this time were also in Dover and had a quick rendezvous for for some photographs before heading to a hotel bar for some much needed refreshments. In the end the cycling gods had been kind to us and we caught our ferry from Dover to Calais with ease. Food on the ferry was surprisingly good, it had been many years since I had been on a cross Channel ferry and catering had vastly improved.
We arrived in Calais at approximately 20:30 local time, after the 90 minute crossing and adding the hour time difference on. As we disembarked the ferry it appeared that we were the only cyclists on that crossing, as we received an escort from a van off the ferry and through the port to the main road into the centre of Calais to find our hotel. We knew that our accommodation for each stop on this trip was budget accommodation and was going to be very basic, it had helped to keep the costs down. We found our hotel which was not far from the port and it was indeed pretty basic, but we were able to sort our kit out and have a hot shower, before grabbing some sleep in preparation for the next day, and our first day in France.
Little did we know that there was nothing we could do to prepare us for what lay ahead of us on day 2....
2
July
2024
Time for an update.
Not quite sure how or why, but it seems we forgot to post a June blog, our apologies.
As you may expect a lot has happened in the last two months and a lot of cycling has taken place. We have visited some of our favourite destinations such as Elm Farm in Sutton Green, Bagshot and a longer ride to Brighton and back. In the middle of May we attended our first track day down at the historic Goodwood Motor Racing circuit and Stephen even managed to get a picture featured on the GCN YouTube channel of his bike that day!
Eight of us cycled in the Ford Ride London Essex event at the end of May, despite a cold and wet start to the day, we all managed to finish the ride within the time limit. Some personal records were broken by our members, so congratulations to those that cycled further or faster than ever before. Well done team!
Last weekend three of us lined up at the start of the annual Chase The Sun (South) ride, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. We headed off in windy conditions and managed to cycle 130 miles before we realised that we were not going to make the sunset in Weston-Super-Mare. Deciding to call it a day is a horrible experience, but sometimes it is for the best. I'm sure some of us will try this again next year, although congratulations to Tim, for whom this was his longest ride. Well done Tim!
We host another Beginners Session this Saturday and our Sunday club ride this weekend has us visiting an old favourite, The Queen Stage in Effingham, Surrey. The following day, Monday 8th July, six of us will embark upon our most ambitious event to date, four days of cycling from London to Paris. Keep a look out on our social media for updates as we cross Northern France from Calais to Arras, to Compiégne and finally into Paris. Some of us will then cycle back to Dieppe, to catch a ferry back to Newhaven on Saturday 13th July. The rest of July will see us head to Chipstead and some members may take on the Dunwich Dynamo, an overnight ride from central London to Dunwich on the Suffolk coast.
Coming up in August will be our Annual visit to the Isle of Wight for a day around the island but for most of the month we wil be concentrating on short and medium distance rides, in addition to the Social Laps of Richmond Park and our Beginner Sessions on alternate Saturdays.
We are also in the process of refreshing our website and hope to be in a position to launch the new look in the coming months. This will include additional pages and more fuctionality for members, and moving our planned rides to our own events schedule on the new site.
If any of the above coming events interest you or you would like more information about our upcoming rides, continue to visit our Meetup and request to join us.
We look forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime you can use some of the links at the top of the page to view our social media channels.
9
May
2024
Big Rides.
Well we have finally managed to ride in short sleeve jersey's and bib shorts. Say it quietly, but could Summer be on its way? It all feels promising so far. We have now restarted our Wednesday evening Pretzel rides in Richmond Park. Our virtual Zwift rides have now moved to Tuesday nights and we will continue to host these rides for anyone that can't make it to the park on a Wednesday evening. However, with the price increase revealed by Zwift this week, it will be interesting to see how many members continue to use this indoor virtual platform. Last month we rode a new route to Mytchett and visited a new café on the River Wey and we will definitely be trying this route again in the Summer.
Last weekend a few of us cycled in the London-Wales-London 400Km Audax and proudly flew the HWCC colours once again. Many congratulations to Stephen, for whom this was his longest ever ride. Well done Stephen!
So what is coming up in the next few weeks?
We have another new destination to visit this weekend as we again head west to California, alas not in the U.S.A. but California Country Park near Wokingham. This is a Green Intermediate ride and at 63 miles, will be our longest remaining ride before RideLondon in 2 weeks time. Before we head into the closed roads of Essex though, we will be heading down to the historic Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit to ride on the track as part of their cycling open day. In early June we have a shorter ride to Sutton Green and a visit to another favourite Café at Elm Farm, before once again heading to the south coast for our first visit of the year to Brighton. This is followed with the challenge of Chase the Sun looming large at the end of June and our 4 day ride to Paris just a few weeks later at the start of July. For any of you taking part in these events, it really is time to ramp up our training miles in preparation for these big rides.
Despite all these events taking place we will continue to vary the lengths of our club rides so that shorter rides will be available, in addition to the Social Laps of Richmond Park and our Beginner Sessions on alternate Saturdays.
If any of these events interest you or you would like more information about our upcoming rides, visit our Meetup and request to join us.
We look forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime you can use some of the links at the top of the page to view our social media channels.
17
Apr
2024
Lighter Days.
Let's be honest, the weather in March was wet, very wet, but we persevered and managed to ride every Sunday, even in the rain. We were able to visit some new café's such as The Old Clunker in Dorking and The Yangaz Bistro in Cranleigh, as well as some old favourites like Tanhouse Farm.
A few of us even managed to ride our first 200Km Audax as a club and proudly flew the HWCC colours when we cycled the Kingston Wheeler's Gently Bentley Audax. Many congratulations to Tim, for whom this was his longest ever ride. Well done Tim!
We also managed to hold a few meetings to discuss our London to Paris ride in July and we have most of the details agreed now. We just need to cycle more often to get ourselves ready for this epic adventure. Now that the clocks have finally shifted and we can enjoy more riding hours of daylight, it shouldn't be too hard to ride longer and further. Every year it seems the five months of darker nights takes a lot longer to pass and we can finally return to lighter evenings, but here we are at last.
We have some epic rides planned before we embark to Paris though, so our training really needs to start now. As with anything we do, the more we practise, the better we perform. We have some long distance rides coming up and we need to separate these by some shorter, recovery rides at a more relaxed pace to give our members a good variety of ride distances.
As mentioned last month we have now moved our virtual Zwift rides to Tuesday evenings. The lighter nights mean we have resumed our Wednesday night pretzel rides around Richmond Park, with the plan to host these events every week, weather permitting. Keep an eye on our Meetup for all our events and request to join us to come along on these rides.
We look forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime you can use some of the links at the top of the page to view our social media channels.
01
Mar
2024
Springing into action.
The first day of March and Spring is here, hopefully. Days have been getting noticeably longer and the dark evenings will recede even more over the coming few weeks as we look forward to the changing of the clocks on 31st March, which also happens to be Easter Sunday.
As we are now into March, we are also into a new subscription year for HWCC, which runs from 1st March until the end of February. Now the bad news is that all members, Full, Beginner & Overseas, need to renew their membership and please pay their subscriptions. The good news is that we are holding the membership fees at the same level as last year, £30 Full Membership, £10 Beginner Membership & £10 Overseas Membership for the period up until the end of February 2025. Once again, Full Membership works out to less than the price of a coffee per month!
Our club rides during the colder seasons have been well supported and it is amazing to see so many members now wearing club kit. We have been limiting the distances of our club rides in the last few months, no-one wants to be out in the cold for hours on end. As the days get longer we will look at re-introducing longer rides and the greater distances will be useful as training for some of our upcoming events and Audax rides. As previously mentioned, we will rotate these with shorter distance rides, so that there will be something for everyone each month. We will continue to host New Member Induction Rides in Richmond Park for those wishing to join as Full Members and on alternate Saturday's we will host our Beginners Sessions. We have been fortunate to welcome some new members to the club over the Winter months, but we hope to meet many more of you as the weather improves and the temperatures increase.
Over the course of the Winter, our Wednesday evening Zwift rides have proved popular with our club members that use the online training platform and we recently had our first Guest Rider join us for a Zwift session. We were fortunate to be joined by Dan Richards, otherwise known as The One Armed Wonder on Instagram. We will be looking to invite more guest riders to join us, so keep an eye on our Meetup events. We intend to continue these virtual rides but will probably move the events to Tuesday or Thursday evenings once the clocks change and lighter nights mean we can resume our Wednesday night pretzel rides around Richmond Park.
Interested in joining us? Visit our Meetup we look forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime you can use some of the links at the top of the page to view our social media channels.
06
Jan
2024
Happy New Year!
Traditionally cycling in November and December tends to go a bit quiet. Darker nights and colder days, usually means the number of members out riding regularly is reduced from those in the Summer. At HWCC we have been fortunate to maintain attendance levels on our rides for the past couple of months, and our intention is to continue cycling outdoors as much as we can during the remaining Winter months, weather permitting.
In November the weather was quite kind to us, we were able to host all of our planned club rides with no disruption to our schedule. We visited some of our favourite places such as Basil & Blue in Chobham and Pinnock's in Ripley. We also discovered some new places such as Polesden Lacey National Trust Café and H'Artisan in Wargrave, places we are sure to visit again.
December saw us complete only two club rides, both occasions visiting Windsor. Bad weather and a few of us catching Covid meant that some of our meetups were abandoned or postponed. One such event was our End of Year Party, which we have now rechristened as a Start of Year Party, to be held later in January. One event that did go ahead in December, and thankfully on one of the mildest December weekends ever, was a long distance ride by a very determined cyclist, Andrew Jones. Andrew recently joined us from another club that some of us rode with previously, so we are well aware of his long distance cycling credentials. Raising money for the Shooting Star Children's Hospice in order to provide care and help for terminally ill children and their families, Andrew rode 500Km around Richmond Park. This amazing effort equated to 47 laps of the park, from Friday night on the 15th December to the early morning on Sunday 17th December, while dressed as an elf and towing Santa in his trailer, ELF1. Our thanks go to our members who cycled with Andrew for at least part of his ride, when we were able to do so and also for the messages of encouragement and support he received. Andrew's Just Giving page is still open, so please support his efforts by making a donation, if you are able to.
The HWCC diary is already looking pretty busy for 2024, more club rides and adventures to be had. A few of us have entered some long distance Audax rides and well known events such as Ride London-Essex and Chase the Sun. We must not forget our own London to Paris, four day ride planned for July. We also need to squeeze in our club ride around the Isle of Wight, which we all agree should become a HWCC traditional summer ride. Alongside these events we will continue to schedule our Sunday club rides for members who aren't completely crazy!
We have now populated our Meetup page with events up to the end of April, so if you wish to join us for any of these rides, visit our page and request to join. We look forward to welcoming many more of you to Hampton Wick Cycling Club, so sign up for a Full Members Induction Ride, or a Beginners Session, and we look forward to meeting you soon.
24
Oct
2023
HWCC 1st Anniversary
Hampton Wick Cycling Club was launched a year ago today. The idea was to create a cycling club that encouraged people to take up cycling as a sport, to provide an environment for those new to cycling, to come along and gain confidence about riding in a group and to also build a community of people who just love spending time on their bikes. No ego's, no politics, just get on your bike and come ride with us!
The only goal we had in mind on the 24th October 2022, was to try and get ten full members by the end of year one and encourage as many beginner members as possible by running our Beginners Sessions.
We currently have three beginner members and nineteen full members. Included in this, is a beginner member who upgraded to a full membership during the summer and her progress has been great to witness.
Massive thank you to everyone involved in HWCC, you have made the club a welcoming place for new members, both experienced and inexperienced cyclists alike. The sharing of information and encouragement is brilliant to see, as is the celebration of personal milestones and the congratulations shared between everyone. This really is your club and it has been an exciting year.
We look forward to building our calendar of events for 2024, which is already looking busy and we look forward to welcoming many more of you join us at Hampton Wick Cycling Club.
You can visit our Meetup page and request to join to come along for an induction ride or to join our Beginners Group. We look forward to meeting you soon.
Happy 1st Anniversay HWCC!
05
Aug
2023
What happened to Summer?
It's probably fair to say that July was a bit of a wash out. While we havn't had to cancel any Sunday club rides, unfortunately some of our Saturday events and mid-week Pretzel laps of Richmond Park have fallen victim to the weather. Last weekend's ride to Henley-on-Thames was completed in pouring rain for the last thirty or so miles. We arrived back at The Swan in Hampton Wick, drenched, but still smiling.
Our recent rides have seen us visit The Surrey Hills, Guldford and as stated above, Henley-on-Thames, just inside the Oxfordshire border. Later in August we will be cycling to Oxford on what will be our longest club ride. You can see the full list of our future rides on the Events Calendar page. As always, we welcome more people to come along and join us on our forthcoming rides.
We have welcomed another three new members to HWCC in the last month and our club continues to grow. Once again, many thanks for the warm welcome everyone has given to these new joiners.
We are delighted to announce that we have partnered with Gear Club as our new supplier for our custom club kit. Salman and his team are a pleasure to work with and respond to enquiries quickly and efficiently. Members have already received items, inside the quoted 4 week delivery lead time. We are confident that Gear Club can provide our members with a level of service they deserve.
You can visit our Meetup page and request to join to come along for an induction ride or to join our Beginners Group. We look forward to meeting you soon.
08
July
2023
New members and new rides.
During recent weeks we have welcomed another three new members who have joined Hampton Wick Cycling Club. We have also seen our first membership upgrade, with our Beginner Member, Eunice, upgrading to a Full Membership. The club is growing and we thank the existing members for making the newcomers welcome and feel at ease.
Last week saw the annual Dunwich Dynamo night ride from London the the Suffolk coast. Well done to Sebastian and Ify for completing this ride.
Our midweek pretzel rides in Richmond Park are proving to be popular and we will continue these for the rest of the summer and for as long as the weather permits.
We have visited familar destinations on our recent Sunday rides, such as Box Hill and Effingham, where we also had our biggest turn out for a Club Ride. We have also visited new destinations such as the Isle of Wight. A spectacular route designed by Stephen which took mostly the coastal roads of the island, this enabled us to see some picturesque views and some hilly roads. With a fair bit of climbing involved, the island is certainly not flat! We are now looking to make this an annual ride for the club. It certainly feels special having to cross the Solent by ferry and we cannot wait to return.
Upcoming rides will see us visit Guildford and Henley-on-Thames. As always, we welcome more people to come along and join us on our forthcoming rides.
You can visit our Meetup page and request to join to come along for an induction ride or to join our Beginners Group. We look forward to meeting you soon.
02
June
2023
Short sleeves and some epic rides.
It feels so good to cycle in short sleeve jerseys and bib shorts. Tell me I'm wrong. A real change in the weather during May as we moved from cold and wet days to chilly starts, but with temperatures climbing into the high teens.
To accompany these changing conditions we have been hitting the roads and witnessed some epic cycling achievements. Mixed into the calendar along with some of our shorter, social and steady rides, we ventured a bit further afield and held our first HWCC Brighton event. Some notable and kudos worthy achievements from the day including Tim & Alex cycling up Ditchling Beacon for the first time, Stephen completing his first Brighton return and Tim for completing his longest ever ride and surpassing the 100 mile mark in the process. Well done to all of you. It was great to have some company on the retun journey rather than riding solo.
Stephen has very kindly launched some midweek rides in Richmond Park for club members on Wednesday evenings and Eunice has now completed her first ever pretzel of Richmond Park. Well done to you Eunice.
Sunday 28th May saw the Ride London events return and a chance for cyclists to ride around the capital and into Essex on closed roads. Our friend Alex completed the Ride London-Essex, his first ever attempt at 100 miles and we offer him our congratulations on his epic achievement.
As you can see from some of these images, more members have now received their club jersey's. This starts to give us an identity when out cycling and we hope it will be recognisable for good reasons. If you see us out on the roads, don't be shy, give us a wave or come and speak to us if you are interested in knowing more about the club. We welcome more people to come along and join us on more of our adventures that are planned for the coming months.
You can visit our Meetup page and request to join to come along for an induction ride or to join our Beginners Group. We look forward to meeting you soon.
02
May
2023
Join us for these coming events.
We appear to be experiencing warmer temperatures and rare sightings of a large yellow circular thing in the sky, could it be that summer is finally on its way?
We have in place a ride to Brighton for later in May, keep a look out for rides to Oxford and Cambridge to be posted soon on our Meetup page. Later in the summer we are looking at visiting the Isle of Wight and intend for another trip to Brighton to be scheduled, possibly late September. There are also rumours of a cycling trip to France in 2024, so watch this space. I have watched in awe some Strava posts over the weekend, from friends who took part in the Mallorca 312 - This is a closed road sportive held once a year on the island and it is definitely a 'bucket list' ride that we may have to investigate further.
On Sunday 4th June, Kingston Cycling Campaign have organised a community fun bike ride around a 7 mile loop in Kingston. We will have a few members along on this event, we are a friendly bunch and would welcome you to come and chat to us to find out more about the club. You can sign up for this free event at tiny.cc/KingstonFunRide.
If there are any rides, or events you wish us to look at, then please do not hesitate to let us know.
31
Mar
2023
How much more winter?
So we finally moved into British Summer Time last weekend, adjusting our clocks forward by 1 hour. It is possibly self explanatory as to why we now refer to this time change as Daylight Saving Time instead of British Summer Time, it still doesn't feel very 'summery' or even springlike, does it?
March has been a mixed bag of all weather types and although we have recently experienced a few warmer days, on the whole March weather has generally been awful. It feels like we haven't been out side cycling for such a long time. We have been able to welcome a few new members in the past few weeks, so we look forward to those recently joined members coming along on club rides soon.
We are making plans for rides and events for the months ahead. We are looking at visits to historic towns, fish & chips at the seaside, a multi-day tour and possibly even a ferry ride. We may even have a special guest rider join us on one these rides.
We are a friendly bunch and we welcome new members to come along and find out more about the club, so please visit our Meetup page and request to join our group.
28
Feb
2023
Countdown.
A little over three weeks until the clocks go forward and the start of British Summertime. Not sure about you, but I am definitely ready for longer, warmer days. We have been luckier with the weather during February than we were in January, so we shouldn't complain too much, however early indications for March do not look great with very cold spells and even more snow fall predicted. We will keep posting events on Meetup and we will try to give as much warning as possible if we do need to cancel any rides. I will be adding to the schedule on Meetup in the next few days.
Our club is growing and we now have nine full members and one beginner member, so thank you to all who have joined us so far. I fully expect the membership to continue to grow as we start to move out of colder months. As we get to the end of February we also come to the end of our Introductory Offer period and club memberships will be due for renewal from the 1st March 2023. Full Membership is just £30 per year and this will give you access to all our club events.
While we have been able to enjoy a few days of milder weather, we have been able to get out more, with last Sunday's event to Box Hill being our fourth full members club ride and our biggest turn out yet with five members coming along. We hope to meet many more of you in the coming months.
29
Jan
2023
Winter Weather.
The weather has not been very to kind us since the start of the year. We have had to cancel some events due to some of the icy mornings we have recently encountered.
We are now just eight weeks from the clocks going forward at the end of March, we can hopefully look forward to longer, warmer days.
Thanks to Tim for braving the cold last week and coming along to a New Members Induction ride, we look forward to welcoming Tim as a Full Member of the club.
Recently, we have also visited The Swan in Hampton Wick and held our first social night. It was a chance to talk about the aims and the direction we want the club to go. There were some great ideas and suggestions made. An enjoyable night all round.
We would like to thank Rupert & Jack at The Swan for making us welcome and we are looking forward to enjoying post ride drinks at The Swan.
12
Jan
2023
New Kit Day.
We are delighted to announce that we have partnered with SaddleDrunk to provide all of our club cycling kit.
It also happens to be #NewKitDay.
We would like to say a huge thank you, to Stefano and his team at SaddleDrunk for their patience and also their great advice and help, through the process of having an idea for our kit, to seeing an actual product.
I am sure we will stand out from the crowds with our new apparel, so if you see us out and about, be sure to give us a wave.
31
Dec
2022
Happy New Year.
With Christmas celebrations complete and New Year's Eve now upon us, our thoughts turn to 2023.
What plans do you have for the coming year? Cycle further? Cycle more regularly? Have you made a New Year's resolution to get out on your bicycle?
Have you set any goals for 2023, or do you have any events planned that you wish to train for?
We are aiming to continue cycling through the winter months, weather permitting. Visit our Meetup page and request to join to get the full list of our upcoming events. We look forward to seeing you during 2023.
Don't forget that from now until the end of February, Full Membership is only £2.00.
Membership will be due for renewal at the beginning of March and is just £30 per year.
07
Dec
2022
Growing.
After launching the club nearly 7 weeks ago, it is good to see so many requests to join our Meetup group. We have now held some events such as our Beginner Sessions and New Members Induction Rides. We now have a growing list of Full Members and Beginner Members.
A huge thank you to those that have attended some events and to the people that have subsequently become members of HWCC. Don't forget that from now until the end of February, Full Membership is only £2.00.
Membership will be due for renewal at the beginning of March and is just £30 per year.
We have 2 events remaining this year, with the next New Members Induction ride taking place on Saturday 17th December and I look forward to meeting some more of you.
We are starting to build a diary of events for next year and the intention will be to continue riding throughout the remainder of the winter months, providing it is safe to do so. I look forward to meeting many more of you in 2023.
If we do not meet before, then I wish you and your families a great Christmas and an even better New Year.
14
Nov
2022
If you build it they will come...
This often misquoted line is spoken by Ray Kinsella played by Kevin Costner in the 1989 film Field of Dreams. The actual line in the movie is "If you build it, he will come". As the movie ends, you see a long line of cars coming down the lane to watch the baseball game. Since then people use the saying “If you build it, they will come” as a catchall phrase that any new business or venture you start will succeed.
You may well ask what the connection is to Hampton Wick Cycling Club. Well, during many months of planning, organising and lots of time spent setting up club accounts, there are times when you ask yourself why am I doing this? There was a period leading up to last weekend, when a heavy feeling of self-doubt hit me. What makes me think I can set up a new club? Will anyone think the club is any good? Do people actually enjoy cycling with me?
So it was with huge excitement we were able to hold our first club event on Saturday 12th November, a Beginners Session in Richmond Park. Many thanks to Eunice and Chris for coming along to the informal ride, at a very relaxed pace. These sessions are provided to let you experience group riding, where we talk through some of the manoeuvres, signals and calls used when riding with others.
We have had an amazing response with over twenty people expressing an interest in the club by requesting to join our Meetup group. We now hope to host weekly events for our members (weather permitting) and our first Full Members Induction Ride is scheduled for Saturday 19th November. This is a chance for those signed up on Meetup to come along and see what the club is all about and ask us any questions they may have. Obviously, we hope that those who attend on Saturday, will join the club and then be able to come along on our first Full Members club ride to Effingham on Sunday 20th November.
We have a list of our upcoming events on Meetup so sign up to come along to one of our rides.
29
OCT
2022
Full Membership £2
Attend a New Members Induction Ride as listed on our Meetup page and become a full member of the club for only £2 until the end of February 2023.
21
Oct
2022
Greetings.
Having cycled fairly regularly since childhood, I only really took up road cycling in 2017. I entered the Prudential Ride London and the Birmingham Velo sportives. In 2021 I completed one of my bucket list rides, Chase The Sun. This year I have been taking part in a few longer distance audax rides and completed my furthest distance ride to date, managing 265 miles on a round trip from home incorporating the Dunwich Dynamo.
I joined my first cycling club in 2017 and have acted as Membership Secretary and Committee member. I have cycled with a few different clubs recently and wanted to have a more social aspect to my cycling.
Hampton Wick Cycling Club started as an idea, an idea that not all club members need to be able to ride a hundred miles at 25mph or have aspirations of completing the Tour de France. The ethos of the club is to provide a welcoming place to anyone, of any ability, who is interested in taking part in group cycling. A ride into the countryside, with a stop for coffee and cake. Then perhaps a pint or two at the end of a ride, sounds like the perfect Sunday doesn't it? We hope to provide people with the opportunity to improve their cycling while out each weekend, so do you feel like coming along for the ride?
If so, we'd love to hear from you and any ideas you have for the club. We welcome anyone to get in touch about becoming a member, especially if you are interested in volunteering to be part of the Committee or to become a Ride Captain.
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