Weekly Round-up: 2 June 2024
All the latest news, events, and results from NFCC Members from this week’s two-wheeled adventures…
Thursday Evening Chain GangAt least six riders turned up for this week’s chain gang training session on Thursday evening. Going by the reports on Starva, Ben George had his porridge that morning and led the bunch around on a super fast lap of the course as usual. |
Saturday Club RideThe sun was out and so were the club riders this week. We were joined by a few riders who had not been seen since the last time Factor 30 was de rigeur. We also welcomed Dave for his first ride with the club and hope to see him again soon. A strong turnout meant two pelotons were filled and much gratitude to a number of riders that stepped up to Group One to balance the numbers. The route this week took us to the quieter roads to the north of the forest and north west of Fordingbridge. We included a new road from Tidpit to Cranbourne which was enjoyed by those that like climbing and endured by others. |
 The first couple of hours were largely into a strong northerly headwind so thanks to those that did good turns on the front into that. All was going to plan until the road to Edmondsham where Sean unluckily picked up a puncture. There is an old joke about the man who replaced his windows three times before realising he had a crack in his glasses. Sean updated this with a cycling bent as he pumped up his tubeless tyre three times before plugging the hole! For this misdemeanour Sean becomes the latest inductee into the barrel this this week. [Ed. Note: What Barry didn’t realise was the name of the “studio” Sean chose for his deflation, and Barry got caught just at the right angle…] |
 The rides continued to the coffee stop at The Potting Shed who had kindly reserved a large table for us and served us with the usual efficiency. The puncture delay mean it was one group coming in as the other group left. Group One for once hadn’t disintegrated so formed up for the second half. We picked up Richard P at the café resplendent in his club 90th Anniversary jersey and being the complete bike tart he also had a Colnago in matching colours and trim. The route this week was stacked with some sharp climbs, and this continued after the coffee stop. Smithy, who had left his climbing legs at home this week being a man who has no shame, repeated his trick of hill avoidance last seen when we went through Wood Green by taking a Dick Dastardly like short cut across Brook Lane. |
 All proceeding as planned until we hit the airfield at Janesmoor Pond, at this point Phill B must have remembered that he either left the oven on or his front door open. He hit the front with about 3.5Km of the airfield road to go and held a blistering pace that everybody else was just about hanging onto until normal service was resumed at Milkham. Chapeau tot he peloto for moving so smoothly at near 30mph! Most riders completed the 120Km planned route, a number rounded up to a 100 miler but the leader in the clubhouse was Baz B with a mighty 190Km ride. There will be much head scratching from some of the club’s mileage monsters wondering why he didn’t round it up to 200! Another enjoyable club ride, good weather, good company, some new roads and some laughs. |
Sunday Club RideWith the forecast of a lovely sunny morning, Phil H was once again forced to take both his shoes and socks off to count the starters. Particularly nice to have 4-5 (I think) Sunday first timers. We split into two groups to protect the blood pressure of the local drivers who, though completely blind to endless lines of engine-based traffic jams seem to combust at the merest sniff of inconvenience, if caused by healthy people on two wheels. Group one set off at a nice steady pace and got back to Setley ridge cafe with an average pace of 29.5 kph (in case anyone’s wondering how fast that group is). Group two took it a little easier to enjoy the sunshine and light winds. Very nice mix this week of gnarled Sunday veterans with new and prospective members. |
| No dramas agin this Sunday but we did come across two motorised rally’s, one, predictably near Beaulieu, featuring a large number of people who thought that buying a Porsche would ‘complete them as a person’ and the other, a car jam of about 100 open-top Triumph ‘somethings’ (showing off my knowledge) who judging from the fumes that they were pumping out have no respiratory problems to report. The Daisy rooms cafe was as usual rammed, including 15 NFCC ride attendees. The staff lovely and efficient, coffee good and I really need to work on achieving a club discount at that place. Again, lovely to welcome and chat to new and old riders alike. A classic Sunday club ride. |
Bournemouth Arrow Open 10A number of NFCC riders were spotted on the results sheet from the rescheduled Bournemouth Arrow Open 10 on P311 this weekend, with some at the top of the list! Bev & Ella-May Hards topped the Women’s road bike category with a mother-daughter 1-2 in 27m35s and 27m47s. Reece Dawson clocked the exact same time as a fellow road-bike rider for joint second in the road-bike category, crossing the line in 23m37s. Bob Jolliffe and Barry Hards were also spotted on the start list, but at the time of publishing the full results had not been released. |
…A3crg FiftySien VdP was in action again this weekend at the …A3crg Nifty Fifty on the P883L/50 course on the A3. Clocking a seriously impressive time of 02h10m33s as the fastest women on a road bike, this means Sien has now completed the BBAR short for 2024 and we still have sux months of racing (…and record breaking) ahead. What an incredibly impressive start to the season! |
Rich’s Island DoubleAlthough he’s not bragging about it – probably because his legs are still too sore – Rich Ward’s furry chin familiar face was missing from the peloton this weekend as he hopped over to the Isle of Wight for not just one, but two laps of the island to raise funds for Bowelbabe fund for Cancer Research UK. Covering a whopping 204.24 km in just 8h44m of moving time, Rich & his brother climbed a total of 2,797m in gloriously sunny, but a tad breezy conditions. If the beer and ice-cream on the ferry on the way home wasn’t enough of a celebration, the brothers raised over £1,250 (donate here). Huge kudos for ticking off the island double and for the funds raised for an excellent cause, chapeau Rich! |
Get Involved:If you find yourself out and about representing NFCC, don’t forget to jot down a few words, snap a few photos and send them over to press@newforestcc.co.uk. |
