MEMBERS' INITIATIVES
Throughout the year members get together for a whole host of shared activities that they arrange for themselves, ranging from a morning's ride to a trip abroad. These are just a few examples of the many shared pursuits.
MIDWEEK RIDES
If you can't make it on a Sunday morning, or you'd simply like more than one group ride in a week, then perhaps a midweek ride is for you. The advantage of being in a vibrant club is that there are many of these rides arranged by members for themselves and most are on a regular basis. If this is for you then ask around - on a club run or via social media. You're bound to find what you're looking for.
2023 PARIS-ROUBAIS CHALLENGE
Organised by Dave Wilbor
Is the Paris-Roubaix Challenge on your ‘Bucket List’? It should be!!
This is your chance to shake, rattle and roll along the famous Paris Roubaix cobbled route on the day before the pros. Discover just how much your body can be rattled in one day on a bike - Paris Roubaix will test your endurance levels and bike handling skills like few other sportives can.
The organisers say:
"The ultimate challenge is to ride the 172km from Busigny to Roubaix, on the same course as the pros will do the day after. However, the routes of 145k and 70k will also leave you plenty of opportunity to get to know the tough cobblestone sections of the mythical Paris-Roubaix race."
The full length 172km route features 28 sections of pavé, with each one given a star rating to indicate difficulty. Full map and GPS details are available from the event website.
The starting point for the 172km route is Busigny, however please note that the 145km and 70km routes start and finish at Roubaix Velodrome.
Whichever route you choose, Paris-Roubaix offers a fantastic opportunity to sample the best of one-day racing at your own speed in the company of thousands of enthusiasts. Best of all, the next day you can sit back and recover while watching the pro peloton ride the same route in half the time!
We have a small team of intrepid Club Members who have already signed-up for this historic event, but we still have places available in either of the cars and space in the AirBnB’s for anyone interested in the trip.
You will need to Register for the Paris-Roubaix Challenge yourselves where’s you can select either the 172km, 145km, or 70km option.
Contact Dave Wilbor if you are interested.
This is your chance to shake, rattle and roll along the famous Paris Roubaix cobbled route on the day before the pros. Discover just how much your body can be rattled in one day on a bike - Paris Roubaix will test your endurance levels and bike handling skills like few other sportives can.
The organisers say:
"The ultimate challenge is to ride the 172km from Busigny to Roubaix, on the same course as the pros will do the day after. However, the routes of 145k and 70k will also leave you plenty of opportunity to get to know the tough cobblestone sections of the mythical Paris-Roubaix race."
The full length 172km route features 28 sections of pavé, with each one given a star rating to indicate difficulty. Full map and GPS details are available from the event website.
The starting point for the 172km route is Busigny, however please note that the 145km and 70km routes start and finish at Roubaix Velodrome.
Whichever route you choose, Paris-Roubaix offers a fantastic opportunity to sample the best of one-day racing at your own speed in the company of thousands of enthusiasts. Best of all, the next day you can sit back and recover while watching the pro peloton ride the same route in half the time!
We have a small team of intrepid Club Members who have already signed-up for this historic event, but we still have places available in either of the cars and space in the AirBnB’s for anyone interested in the trip.
You will need to Register for the Paris-Roubaix Challenge yourselves where’s you can select either the 172km, 145km, or 70km option.
Contact Dave Wilbor if you are interested.
2022 KING ALFREDS WAY
Report from Dom Maxwell:
King Alfred's Way Day 1. 60 miles South Harting to Amesbury. With Jeremy Wootton Fantastic day on the bike. Cadence cafes do the best toasted sandwiches on the planet. Made it up Butster Hill with all my kit.
Had a slow speed off after a rut and found a 2 inch nail in my tyre. Started pulling it and it just kept coming. Luckily sealant did the job. Staying finch cottage near Amesbury. Rooms are great and they even gave us a free cold beer when we arrived.
Amesbury to Reading tomorrow.
KAW day 2 Amesbury to Reading. 90 miles. Tackled Salisbury Plain and saw Stonehenge but didn't see a tank.
Avebury pretty impressive. Jeremy Wootton fell down a rut and unseated his tubeless and had to put in an inner tube. It had a rained at the start of the Ridgeway and I fell off in a rut. Soft landing though. So I'm winning the fall offs 2-1 currently.
Ridgeway is pretty intense and goes on a bit. Jezza was pretty keen on ordering a burger when we finally saw civilization.
A fair few cyclists out doing the KAW in their own style from iron men doing in 2 days to a fella using a supermarket basket to keep his gear in. I also saw an older gentleman with sticks for tent posts Great sense of comradeship throughout.
Headwind home tomorrow but hopefully the rain will stop and I've heard mention of some sand so that could be interesting.
Off to the spa now. No sleeping in a hedge for us
King Alfred's Way Day 1. 60 miles South Harting to Amesbury. With Jeremy Wootton Fantastic day on the bike. Cadence cafes do the best toasted sandwiches on the planet. Made it up Butster Hill with all my kit.
Had a slow speed off after a rut and found a 2 inch nail in my tyre. Started pulling it and it just kept coming. Luckily sealant did the job. Staying finch cottage near Amesbury. Rooms are great and they even gave us a free cold beer when we arrived.
Amesbury to Reading tomorrow.
KAW day 2 Amesbury to Reading. 90 miles. Tackled Salisbury Plain and saw Stonehenge but didn't see a tank.
Avebury pretty impressive. Jeremy Wootton fell down a rut and unseated his tubeless and had to put in an inner tube. It had a rained at the start of the Ridgeway and I fell off in a rut. Soft landing though. So I'm winning the fall offs 2-1 currently.
Ridgeway is pretty intense and goes on a bit. Jezza was pretty keen on ordering a burger when we finally saw civilization.
A fair few cyclists out doing the KAW in their own style from iron men doing in 2 days to a fella using a supermarket basket to keep his gear in. I also saw an older gentleman with sticks for tent posts Great sense of comradeship throughout.
Headwind home tomorrow but hopefully the rain will stop and I've heard mention of some sand so that could be interesting.
Off to the spa now. No sleeping in a hedge for us
2022 SOUTH DOWNS WAY : WORTHING TO EASTBOURNE
Report from Dom Maxwell:
4 of us did the SDW Worthing to Eastbourne today. Me, Jezza, Mark and Huw. Hats off to Huw who had a mountain bike, flat pedals and hay fever. 🤧 Started up hill barn and headed into sdw, truleigh hill was doable in the dry. Ended up with Tiffin out the back of a van at the Jack and Jill, with pasties and ice cream. After that it warmed up a bit. On a big hill out of the wind got up to 37 degrees. Scorchio. But I love the heat. Alfriston never seemed to arrive, but when it did we were able to rehydrate with 3 pints of Amstel. Then one last hill and arrive at Eastbourne. We also bumped into some Dutch cyclists who were doing the SDW in 2 days. I think it was a bit harder than they thought. Had a brilliant June day on the bike with great company. Thoroughly enjoyable.
4 of us did the SDW Worthing to Eastbourne today. Me, Jezza, Mark and Huw. Hats off to Huw who had a mountain bike, flat pedals and hay fever. 🤧 Started up hill barn and headed into sdw, truleigh hill was doable in the dry. Ended up with Tiffin out the back of a van at the Jack and Jill, with pasties and ice cream. After that it warmed up a bit. On a big hill out of the wind got up to 37 degrees. Scorchio. But I love the heat. Alfriston never seemed to arrive, but when it did we were able to rehydrate with 3 pints of Amstel. Then one last hill and arrive at Eastbourne. We also bumped into some Dutch cyclists who were doing the SDW in 2 days. I think it was a bit harder than they thought. Had a brilliant June day on the bike with great company. Thoroughly enjoyable.
2022 LONDON to WALES AUDAX
Report from Dom Maxwell
London Wales London 410km 19:00hrs.
My challenge for the year was to do a big Audax, and have I spent 6 months getting the right bike stuff and being super organised, unfortunately as I rolled to the start at 5:30am Wahoo let me down badly, and would not load the route, after a stressful hour and lots of help from fellow riders I managed to somehow get a route in place.
The start was bloody freezing -1 or worse, very hard to dress knowing would be 16 degrees later, but got a good speed on, as it warmed up a bit had some nostalgia as I went through Thame and Shabbington where I spent some of my childhood, and then through some lumpy but picturesque Cotswolds, there were plenty of riders I was now catching up to, and Audax's are very sociable.
We had to stop in Tewksbury and get a receipt for the Brevit Card, so I enjoyed a foot long Subway with extra hot sauce, eaten as fast as I could. The idea being that I wanted to ride pretty quickly to keep the night riding to a minimum (I have never done an Audax or night rides before)
Because the phone had been temporarily parted from Wahoo, the Wahoo lost the route and I was routeless again, time to become a limpet, so found some other riders to follow, which was nice and sociable but could only keep to their pace, they were very kind to put up with this novice Audax'er
Finally got to Chepstow which is very picturesque, thought I would take the family for a weekend at some point.
Still trying to fix the Wahoo I could not find any WiFi, so at the control in Chepstow tried a factory reset, and praise the lord that worked, so downloaded the route on both Wahoos, deleting the half I had recorded and off I went.
I was able to speed up a bit, but the volume of food or the sweetness of the food was making me nauseous, which meant I was not eating much at all, after a pretty quick but very long leg, I got to Lambourne as it got dark.
I was pretty destroyed at this point and couldn't face the beans on toast at the control, I had caught up with some faster riders though and met a friend for life in James.
I set off for my first ever night ride and soon caught up with James, he would be an Audax saver, We had 90k's to go, which was messing with my head because it was the middle of the night and I still had entire "Sunday Ride" to do, the first section was 50K to Henley and felt like the longest 50k of my life, I was cold, nauseous and a bat nearly flew into my hair, Henley never seemed to arrive, because I hadn't eaten anything I was bonking and ready to order a taxi to the car from Henley.
We got to Henley around midnight, I have never been so pleased to see a petrol station. James was full of encouragement and said only 20 miles to go, I had some Lucozade which my Nan used to give us when we were ill as kids, so not had it for about 40 years (more nostalgia) with Salt and Vinegar squares, and that perked me up enough to get back on the bike, then it was following James wheel to the end, I don't think I have ever been so happy and tired to finish a ride, I had to do the drive home in stages to have a nap.
Lessons: Eat small and often, check Wahoo the night before and the morning before you leave. Probably could do with a medium saddle bag for clothes with so much variation in temperature. Take phone charger.
Went well: Bike, wheels, tyres, aerobar, and exposure light were all first class (aero bar and 50mm Hunt wheels add speed)
Equipment: Kinises GTD, Hunt Carbon 50, Pirelli P0 30mm tubeless, Profile aerobar, Racestrap top tube and frame bag, Exposure Sirrus 9
London Wales London 410km 19:00hrs.
My challenge for the year was to do a big Audax, and have I spent 6 months getting the right bike stuff and being super organised, unfortunately as I rolled to the start at 5:30am Wahoo let me down badly, and would not load the route, after a stressful hour and lots of help from fellow riders I managed to somehow get a route in place.
The start was bloody freezing -1 or worse, very hard to dress knowing would be 16 degrees later, but got a good speed on, as it warmed up a bit had some nostalgia as I went through Thame and Shabbington where I spent some of my childhood, and then through some lumpy but picturesque Cotswolds, there were plenty of riders I was now catching up to, and Audax's are very sociable.
We had to stop in Tewksbury and get a receipt for the Brevit Card, so I enjoyed a foot long Subway with extra hot sauce, eaten as fast as I could. The idea being that I wanted to ride pretty quickly to keep the night riding to a minimum (I have never done an Audax or night rides before)
Because the phone had been temporarily parted from Wahoo, the Wahoo lost the route and I was routeless again, time to become a limpet, so found some other riders to follow, which was nice and sociable but could only keep to their pace, they were very kind to put up with this novice Audax'er
Finally got to Chepstow which is very picturesque, thought I would take the family for a weekend at some point.
Still trying to fix the Wahoo I could not find any WiFi, so at the control in Chepstow tried a factory reset, and praise the lord that worked, so downloaded the route on both Wahoos, deleting the half I had recorded and off I went.
I was able to speed up a bit, but the volume of food or the sweetness of the food was making me nauseous, which meant I was not eating much at all, after a pretty quick but very long leg, I got to Lambourne as it got dark.
I was pretty destroyed at this point and couldn't face the beans on toast at the control, I had caught up with some faster riders though and met a friend for life in James.
I set off for my first ever night ride and soon caught up with James, he would be an Audax saver, We had 90k's to go, which was messing with my head because it was the middle of the night and I still had entire "Sunday Ride" to do, the first section was 50K to Henley and felt like the longest 50k of my life, I was cold, nauseous and a bat nearly flew into my hair, Henley never seemed to arrive, because I hadn't eaten anything I was bonking and ready to order a taxi to the car from Henley.
We got to Henley around midnight, I have never been so pleased to see a petrol station. James was full of encouragement and said only 20 miles to go, I had some Lucozade which my Nan used to give us when we were ill as kids, so not had it for about 40 years (more nostalgia) with Salt and Vinegar squares, and that perked me up enough to get back on the bike, then it was following James wheel to the end, I don't think I have ever been so happy and tired to finish a ride, I had to do the drive home in stages to have a nap.
Lessons: Eat small and often, check Wahoo the night before and the morning before you leave. Probably could do with a medium saddle bag for clothes with so much variation in temperature. Take phone charger.
Went well: Bike, wheels, tyres, aerobar, and exposure light were all first class (aero bar and 50mm Hunt wheels add speed)
Equipment: Kinises GTD, Hunt Carbon 50, Pirelli P0 30mm tubeless, Profile aerobar, Racestrap top tube and frame bag, Exposure Sirrus 9
2022 L'ENFER DU NORD
A few images from from Dave Wilbor : L’Enfer du Nord (Hell of the North) a precursor to the Ladies Paris/Roubaix Race.
2019 GENT-WEVELGEM CYCLO
In 2019 a number of Excelsior riders organised a trip to Belgium to take part in the Gent-Wevelgem Cyclo. It is a sportive run on the same Flanders roads as the following day’s professional race being in an area that was a setting for the First World War 100 years ago and passing many war memorials along the way. Attracting many thousands of riders it poses a considerable challenge with steep cobbled climbs, unmade roads (known as plugstreets) and open windy sections.
Fortunately this year saw stunning weather and light winds. Nik Allen, Simon Steeles, Dom Maxwell, Trevor Leeding and Ian Leeding all tacked the 134 mile event. With over 4,000 feet of climbing they did well to finish in 6 hours and 40 minutes at an average speed of 19.8 mph. Paul Townsley rode in the shorter, but still arduous, 87 mile event.
Fortunately this year saw stunning weather and light winds. Nik Allen, Simon Steeles, Dom Maxwell, Trevor Leeding and Ian Leeding all tacked the 134 mile event. With over 4,000 feet of climbing they did well to finish in 6 hours and 40 minutes at an average speed of 19.8 mph. Paul Townsley rode in the shorter, but still arduous, 87 mile event.
2016 EPIC ALPS/MONT VENTOUX TRIP (Simon Atkinson June 2016)
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All the photographs and action recounted from a truly awesome journey with cols and climbing by the bucketload.
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2016 GRAN FONDO INTERNAZIONALE FELICE GIMONDI BIANCHI (15th May)
A mega Italian challenge for Paul Townsley as he rides in the wheel tracks of past Giro D'Italia stars.
For a report of the day just click on the chart
For a report of the day just click on the chart
2016 WIGGLE JURASSIC BEAST SPORTIVE (8th May)
Nicky Carsons is at it again. A real glutton for pushing herself (a.k.a. punishment) this time she tackled the "Beast".
For a report of the day just click on the photograph.
For a report of the day just click on the photograph.
2016 HAMPSHIRE HILLY HUNDRED SPORTIVE (8th May)
Our club president Robert Downham rode this one in May 2016.
For a report of the day just click on the photograph.
For a report of the day just click on the photograph.
2016 WIGGLE SUPER SERIES NEW FOREST SPRING SPORTIVE
Two of our members, Nicky Carsons and Ken Gormanly, rode in this sportive in April 2016.
Ken reports: The venue for the Sportive was Somerley House near Ringwood. Starting just outside the New Forest National Park we rode to the south-west corner of the Forest and headed east first of all, completing an anti-clockwise loop of the woodland area on unspoilt and quiet back lanes with picturesque views. The standard distance was 67 Miles and elevation gain of 2030 feet. A typically good Wiggle event…well organised, good direction signs, mainly pothole free roads, lots of energy food and drink at the feed station ….and a tee shirt and medal at the finish. The weather was good to start, but after about 3 hours a weather front came through bringing light rain and cold winds. One minor drawback was that on the standard route the first and only feed station was at 46 miles….a long time to ride before the first fig roll of the day!! Nicky - Gold Award 4hr 32mins Ken – Silver Award 4hr 33mins |
BRECON BEACONS TRIP
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A three day trip to the Brecon National Park organised by four of our members. The hotel was situated in the heart of the park near Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in the area at 2907 feet. Nearly 200 miles of riding in absolutely stunning scenery.
To see the photographs and a report of the trip click here.
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TOUR DE FRANCE TRIPS
A regular trip to the Tour de France, complete with bikes is organised each year. One of our members, Pete Logan, has a property in Saint-Aubin-Des-Bois in Calvados and hosts a group of members.
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LONDON REVOLUTION VISITS
A number of trips to see star riders action at Lee Valley have been organised. Andrew Lock hires a mini-bus and gets us all there and back safely.
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