Sunday February 19th – Change of start venue. Urban ride round Northampton.

With Neil off on official MTB commissaire’s duty we are changing the venue for the ride on Sunday 19th February.
By popular demand, I am going to lead a ride around the off-road routes to be had in and around Northampton.   We will meet at Sixfields, Northampton at 9:00 am.  Please use the Bowling/Gym car park – click on the calendar for a location map.    We should be back around 11:30 am.

February 12th – Sixfields, Northampton to Towcester – Worst Bridleway of the year!

Four of us ventured out to the A5 Ranger’s Club house on Feb 12th.  The weather was a balmy 6°.  The route out was all rideable, but we did take the precauution of avoiding the ford and taking the “bridge” near Hulcote. The return journey started with a climb out of Towcester to Wood Burcote which got the legs going again.   We hit the first “interesting” bit of bridleway at Alderton, but at only about 100m was not much of a problem.    The fun really started as we left the Midshires Way to drop down to Blisworth over 500m of frozen hoof prints covered in snow.  This has already been voted the worst bridleway of the year.   I am sure we are going to get more candidates as the weather warms up the infamous Northamptonshire clay to its normal consitency!

Cannock Chase – February 5th – POSTPONED

Reminder about the ride at Cannock Chase on Feb 5th.  Click the Calendar for meet time and location.

Given the current weather forecast, please check the Forum before you travel.  Neil will leave a post if he is not going to travel.

 Forum Comment from Neil: 

Well, almost 12 hours later and there is now a blanket of thick snow here in Harborough. 

Looking at web cams around Cannock, they sem to have a good snow fall too http://cannockweather.camstreams.com/

I think on safety grounds for a club ride, I do not want to be responsible for another “Dr0r” accident, so I am cancelling both Cannock & the back up Harborough rides.

Sorry.

Neil

WVCC Reliability Ride Jan 29 – 9:00 from Lubenham

Some of us are up for this on-road ride.    Details can be found on the WVCC website – click to get there

Andrew Waller is looking at the 110km no stop route.  I am thinking of the 104km,  which is the 54km followed by the 50km – this way I get to eat excellent cake halfway round as well as at the finish!

Leave a comment and let us know what you are thinking of doing.

Ian

30/01/2012  In the end Andy and I route the two 50km routes, leading the roadies round in the morning.  Starting from home, Andy ended the day with 145km and I got 174km. 

HONC 2012 Open for Entries Jan 3rd at 10:00 and full by 10:35!

2012 sold out in under the hour.

I see Martyn,  Andrew Waller, Darren, Mark Pearce (and brother-in-law) got in.  As well as my entry,  I got entries for Mark and Ginette and Steve Osborn.

Anyone else got an entry?

.. and we got a CATS jersey on BikeMagic….  click here to see it

Ian M

30th December – Peak District Ride

In efforts to get rid of the Christmas excess, or make room for more on New Year’s Eve, Martyn, Andrew, Darren, Mark, Ginette and Ian, made the trek up the M1 to Ladybower in search some off road fun.   With Martyn not sure if he had 3 hours in his legs Darren had chosen the route and lead us round.  After a short warm-up on the road we hit our first off-road climb up to Crookhill farm.  Martyn and Ginette took a steady pace as the rest of us tried to clean the climb.   Once at the top a quick check on Darren’s new MemoryMap GPS unit had us on our way along Open Hagg and down to cross the A57.  After a short blast along the valley it was time for a hike a bike sessions to pick up the Roman Road at Hope Cross.  This rock strewn track soon claimed its first victim with Ian coming to an abrupt stop, over the handlebars to land on his knee and elbow.  From here we came back across the A57 and up through Rowlee Farm and a track across the open land back to Hagg Side.   Back at the cross roads we were at about a hour before we headed North to Derwent Reservoir picking up the road round Derwent and Howden reservoirs.  Howden reservoir was in full flood with white water cascading down the dam wall.    With the cold and damping starting to affect the fingers and toes it was time for a hot chocolate break at the Ladybower cafe.   We were soon back on the Eastern side of Ladybower ready for the last climb up and over Whinstone Lee Tor.  The slabs did not make the steep climb any easier.    Once through the old barns it was back to the deep rutted tracks,  where Ian had another lie down thanks to semi-slick tyres – not the best idea.    After a quick look at the rain coming in over Ladybower it was all downhill to the Ladybower Inn, where Martyn and Ginette were already enjoying their food and drink.

Thanks to Martyn for putting the idea on the forum and to Darren for leading us up and down for 40km proper off-road biking.

Click here for a map of the route