Weekly Round-up: 20 Apr 2025
All the latest news, events, and results from NFCC Members from this week’s two-wheeled adventures…
Road Bike TT Series Rd.1: P164Twenty three riders crossed the lines for the first round of the NFCC Road Bike Only Time Trial Series on P164 this week – 15 of them scoring points towards the overall series. The full results and a link to the image gallery can be found by CLICKING HERE. |
Bike Shed Racing @ Thruxton Rd.2Back on track again this week for the second round of the Pronto Bikes Bike Shed Racing Series at Thruxton for Phill Brown. Escaping off the front of the pack at the end of the second lap, Brown sure knows how to make racing hard for himself on a windy night at an aerodrome. With one other rider, Phill worked with his breakaway companion to gain a big advantage on the main pack but wasn’t able to hold the wheel after the sixth lap. Eventually caught by three more chasers with only a few laps remaining, Brown managed to stay away from the pack an finish fifth, giving him enough series points to take fourth overall out of the 120 riders that have taken part so far. |
Thursday Evening Chain GangSix made it to the meeting point at St Saviours church in Brockenhurst before saying their prayers and setting out for this week’s Chaingang. Rupert was hoping for company for a slower group, but finding himself a Billy no mates joined in with the others for kick off. With Ben G leading the group out of Brock, the pace was somewhat lively, and Rupert sensibly pulled the plug early. The others quickly got into a nice rhythm of through and off. One or two of us had a few moments of maintaining a pretty tenuous grip on the group in the middle section, but largely due to Ben taking pity on us we all stayed together until Burley. Soon after scaling the world’s smallest but most brutalising hill and then accelerating up to 40kph, a pony, which until then had been looking extremely content at the side of the road, suddenly wandered out in front of us. The equine brake test split the group, with Hamish being particularly unlucky in getting separated from the pack. As we reached Wilverley Rise, Hamish somehow made it back to the group just as Ben and Eddy B hit the accelerator. At the top of Wilverley the duo were mere spots in the distance, and Elliot had made some distance on myself and Hamish. This is always where the fun starts on Chaingang as everyone rips into a bit of downhill and a bit of tailwind. Respectable times all round, particularly strong performance from Ed this week. I rounded up the ride by cycling to Lyndhurst to join the gravel n grogger’s for a well-earned couple of ales. |
BACC Good Friday TT – P311The traditional Bournemouth Arrow Cycling Club Good Friday 10-mile Time Trial took to P311 early on the bank holiday with a handful of NFCC riders on the line. Bev Hards took the top step in the Female Road Bike category with a 27m48s. Paul Lockyer finished in joint second place overall in the open TT category with a 21m22s, with Barry Hards not too far behind in 24m54s. |
Buxton Mountain Time TrialNFCC’s TT superstar Sien vdP ventured north this weekend and called in to the Buxton Mountain Time Trial while in the area. Completing the 22-mile hilly course in Staffordshire in just 1h11m48s was enough for Sien to finish as the 6th fastest woman on the day. |
Saturday Club RideAfter a few weeks of thinking we might need to start having three pelotons on a Saturday, the weather forecast resulted in numbers just reaching double digits this week, so it was a single peloton ride for a planned 126Km ride within the forest borders. Unsurprisingly, committed hydrophobes Graham F and Smithy didn’t make the start but some credit to Smithy as he did try and rendezvous with the group later on. But he predictably miscalculated possible interception points and completed a Billy No Mates ride. With early morning rain and more forecast most riders got their winter bikes out of mothballs and turned up suitably equipped for a wet ride. But what’s this? Mudguard enforcer Barry turned up sans mudguards. Without any right of appeal, the consensus of the assembly was, go straight to barrel, go directly to barrel, do not pass go, do not collect £200! |
 In more unsurprising news, Axum missed the start by a mere six minutes. This will be his last club ride for a while as he will be joining the flannelled fools of Lymington Cricket Club for the rest of the summer. Cricket has a law where an incoming batter can be timed out if they do not get to the crease on time. So, I’m confident this will be his most common form of dismissal this summer as he’s been practicing this all winter. About ninety minutes into the ride we picked up Phill B, who was drinking coffee and waiting for the rain to pass before bravely venturing outside. After a couple of hours of solid riding, we all made it to Steff’s for coffee. |
 We continued in an orderly fashion up Beaulieu High Street as we went for coffee. Then out of nowhere two reprehensible riders who showed the benefit of hiding in the pack all morning and saving their energy suddenly made a break for it so get to the coffee stop first. Matt K was motivated to get the last Vegan Sausage Roll for which he was proved right as he did bag that, Phil H just can’t help it as he’s done it so many times and it’s now just normal behaviour for him. Amazingly, we had the place to ourselves with no other groups out today. As we were making our departure Richard “…a ride without cake? What’s the point?!” Parker made it to the café in a major act of mistiming and missed out on refreshments. |
 The ride continued south towards Lymington, Ben G and James peeled off as planned. Barry was the next to drop off near Brockenhurst as his legs had given up. Phil J then made the cut for home at Wootton Bridge after suffering jet lag from the one-hour time difference he had to deal with coming back from France yesterday. By the time the ride got back to Brockenhurst it was only Phill B left, but that does not count as last man standing as he missed the start. Kudos to all that were brave enough to venture out today. Thanks as ever for the excellent camaraderie and riding. Thanks as well for Phil G who was back on photography duties after a few weeks away.– Barry |
Sunday Club RideOn a cold, breezy but sunny Easter Sunday, A miraculous 19 members raised themselves from the ‘little death’ (sleep, not the other meaning!) to attend this weeks club ride. Three groups headed out on a route intended to avoid the worst of any Easter traffic that might arise. As it turned out, as with Saturdays club ride, it was pretty quiet out there. |
 The three groups all made reasonable progress in slightly testing conditions without obvious incident or indeed much to write about. There was a particularly impressive turn-out at Rosie Lee’s cafe on Setley ridge though with at least 17 making it to the finish line. Some of the epic eaters were absent, perhaps way-laid by Easter eggs but those present did their duty by further swelling the coffers of the owners who I’m told are now listed in the FTSE 100. Great ride as usual in good company. Thanks to all for attending.– Phil H. |
Southern XC MTB Series Rd.2 – Folly Farm, BasingstokeRound two of the Southern Cross Country Mountain Bike Series at Folly Farm in Basingstoke this weekend also doubled up as the British Cycling Southern Regional Championship. NFCC’s Jay T, Glen Parry and David Walters were all in action on a dry and dusty, yet still technically challenging course. Parry & Walters, both in the Open Sport (19+) category, managed to complete four laps each in the 1 hour(ish) race, finishing in 30th and 54th places out of 76 starters. Jay had a good day on the bike in the Open Masters category, finishing in 4th place, but with one of the riders ahead out of their region, this awarded Jay 3rd place in the regional championship. |
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. |
