Weekly Round-up: 27 Apr 2025
All the latest news, events, and results from NFCC Members from this week’s two-wheeled adventures…
NFCC Ten Series Rd.2: P182Another successful Time Trial evening for round two of the NFCC Ten Series – 14 rider crossed the lines. The full results and a link to the image gallery can be found by CLICKING HERE. |
Bike Shed Racing @ Thruxton Rd.3Another evening in the breakaway at the third round of the Pronto Bikes Bike Shed Racing Series at Thruxton for Phill Brown. Escaping off the front again with a small group this week, it was a disjointed team effort to get the group to the finish line over a minute ahead of main pack, Brown crossing the line in 9th place for another point. |
Thursday Evening Chain GangWith only five riders, four of which were new to chain gang, it was always going to be an interesting ride. Luckily, Hamish turned up so we had at least one member of the crew that knew where we were going. And, after a bit of a discussion about which way round was the “right way” to rotate round we set off. Apart from a few donkeys as we left Brockenhurst, the ride was generally uneventful from a wildlife perspective. We made good progress through Rhinefield and it was all looking good until we hit the hills coming into Burley, where Rupert ejected his parachute and went out the back. Luckily, the run down from Burley to Wilverley gave us a chance to lower our heart rate slightly before we hit the hill up from the inclosure. This is where Charlie muttered something about cruel Hills and decided she’d prefer her own company for the rest of the journey home. The average speed had also dropped below 20 mile an hour at this point so Hamish took it upon himself to get it back up to sensible levels on the final run for home. We finished in just under 43 minutes which I think is a respectable time given our novice status. We have to give a special mention to Glen Parry on his first time in a chain gang as he has clearly been taking souplesse lessons from Stuart Woodward as I don’t think his cadence |
Saturday Club RideThis week’s club ride was planned 72 hours in advance when the forecast was for a day of permadrizzle. The plan was for a 127Km ride around the forest with chances to cut short if the rain materialised. How wrong we were we were, and we were treated to a nice spring day to enjoy the New Forest and the surrounding area and decent riding conditions. About twenty riders in total decided to venture out so we had two full pelotons for the ride. Normally Graham F can be relied upon to find colours for kit that provide a horrendous clash with the club’s carefully chosen palette of colours. Not this week, his diligent surfing for special offers and pensioner special deals resulted in him finding some green shorts to go with the club jersey. The last time we saw anything with this much green it was trying to sell us tinned sweetcorn. |
 We headed south with plans to pick up Matt K in Burley and Graham S near Winkton. All went largely to plan, and we rendezvoused with them at the planned time and expanded both groups. Not much to report apart from Smithy taking a rare turn on the front at Harbridge and missing the turn and making his own shortcut towards Alderholt. We headed north to Rockbourne before turning back for coffee at the club favourite The Potting Shed for the first refuelling stop of the day. We regrouped after coffee and Group One did what the Italians would call “Gruppo Disintegrato” as usual. Group Two was expanded with the addition of Phill B and latterly Phil G as he ran out friends in Group One. |
 We headed into the wind across Ocknell’s Plain and Smithy decided he could not beat the wind and headed back to Ringwood for an early bath. We also lost Mark to a puncture as he implored us to ride on as he wasn’t riding the full route. Heading east a few of us were becoming aware of noises from Adrian’s bike that were not what would be expected of a well-oiled machine. It seemed like he had been riding with his rear brake on all day. After help from the masses that was proving the old maxim of “too many cooks” we discovered that the reason for this was that the QR on his rear wheel was not secure and he’d’ managed the first 100Km without having his QR done up properly. So, despite the best efforts of others to qualify it’s Adrian for the barrel this week. |
 Barry had floated the possibility of Second Coffee Club meeting before ride end in Beaulieu in the plan as it was 67Km from the first coffee stop to ride end. Once the seed of this idea was if Graham F’s head, he spent about 15Km lobbying the peloton until it was inevitable that we would stop at Steff’s for more cake. And inevitably now Phil G was with us ice cream was on the agenda. Heading back to Brockenhurst we still had nine riders in the pack at ride end. At this point we dispersed. Phil J and Sean headed towards Wootton Bridge and up the hill towards The Rising Sun. There, both of their bikes developed the same fault with their headsets that made them steer left and into the pub for more refreshments. Miraculously after some post ride beers their bikes recovered, and they were able to make their way home. Another great Saturday, several riders including Phil G, Phil J, Phill B, Robert, Graham F all rounded up to 100 miles plus so extras kudos to them.– Barry |
Sunday Club RideA beautiful morning by any standards tempted 17 starters for this weeks club ride. We split into 3 groups with seven braving the faster group this week including first timer Jacob. The first group set a lively pace from the off and soon passed Andrew B on the slopes of col de Bolderwood, waiting to join group 2 or 3. The pace up Bolderwood was a tad brutal (for those of us with older legs that hadn’t quite warmed up yet) but the young ‘uns made light work of if it with Jacob looking particularly quick. After a regroup we set off for the old airfield with one dropping off to join the following groups. Plain sailng around to everyones favourite ramp, Pipers wait. As is customary a few riders that haven’t climbed it for a while set off at a furious pace, before realising that it’s about twice as long as they remembered and twice as steep at the end. Having completed Pipers Wait we headed back to Ocknell plain. For reasons unknown at this point someone put the hammer down. Great fun and a few P.R’s set. Back at the cafe, feeling good and sitting in beautiful sunshine the months of freezing winter training started to feel worthwhile. We were soon joined by the remnants of the other two groups, although at this time they seemed to have melded into one and lost at least half of the riders. A few of us did some extra miles to make the most of the glorious weather. Really great mornings ride in great company as always. |
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. |
