A big FOUR ride choices this weekend, including something a bit different! For those who fancy a change and maybe those who don’t join us on road rides, we have a traffic free option for you starting in Milton Keynes. Details follow the usual ride information below.

Please arrive BEFORE your ride time with the route planned in your head or your bike computer. We aim to leave no one behind, which means you need to check on the guy behind you, call out when there is a gap and wait for them.

9am from Ivinghoe church https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50849493 Steeple Claydon 52 miles climb ratio 42 feet per mile (flat/rolling)

10am from Ivinghoe Church https://ridewithgps.com/routes/45534905 32 miles to Latimer, climb ratio 41 feet per mile (flat/Rolling)

10.30am from Ivinghoe church https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50850791 21 miles to Wingrave with a climb ratio of 30 feet per mile (flat)

10am from Caldecotte Lake Milton Keynes https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50105778 26 miles with a climb ratio of 34 feet per mile (flat)

For riders joining the Milton Keynes ride, you will need to get to Caldecotte Lake Car Park, READY TO RIDE at 10am. The location is Bletcham Way MK7 8HP. (what three words= ///locked.trucks.press) You can park your car here, or further afield if you would like to extend your ride! The ride will take the form of a treasure hunt for the team to solve. The answers will all be multiple choice letters which will give a location on the “what three words” app, so it could be worth downloading this app to play along.

The ride is suitable for mountain bikes, Hybrid, bikes, Brompton bikes, single speeds, gravel bikes but maybe not your most precious road bike. Canal tow paths are the roughest surface we use. The current forecast is for a dry day following light rain on Saturday so the paths may be damp. The pace of this ride will be SLOW as we use shared paths and will be looking out for clues. If you fancy a few more miles why not start somewhere outside Milton Keynes and ride in? From Ivinghoe a ride along the canal is 17 miles and would take 2 hours, or from Stoke Hammond 6 miles, 45 minutes. There are also plenty of trains from Berkhamsted or Tring with a 4 mile ride from the station.

Clue sheets will be provided for everyone who joins on the day, we can ride as one team or split up if there are lots of riders. We will be visiting historic sites, dinosaurs, code breakers houses, totem poles, stepping stones and of course concrete cows. There is an optional coffee stop built in at 18 miles at Canal Street Coffee (recommendation from our friend from Berkhamsted, Verna).

The good people of Bletchley Park have helped reduce the length of the war by decoding German messages. The top secret base has now been disbanded but code breaker Ivor B  Brain has been left alone in Milton keynes to make his own way home. Sadly while Ivor is super amazing at cracking codes, he has no sense of direction or common sense, so needs you to rescue him from a mysterious MK location.

You must ride the 26 mile traffic free route, stopping at sign boards to answer questions, each correct answer will reveal one letter in a “what three words” location.  Simply travel through the history of Milton Keynes on your bike, find the correct letter from the 17 multiple choice answers, pop your final answers into “what three words”  to reveal the location to find and save Ivor.

The first clue is on the sign board with information about Caldecotte lake.

Roll on Sunday!

We have three routes for your enjoyment this Sunday, last week we tried to gain the youth interest with a post aimed at a younger audience. To be honest it didn’t make any difference and I may as well have been talking Shakespeare!!

Prithee beareth in intellect yond a contingent of our group art hence in Ludlow having a voyage in the Welsh hills, so our numb’r way beest down on usual. Thence shouldst still beest enow fellows to enjoyeth the local sights. So behold aft’r each oth’r, looking out f’r the sir behind as well as the one in front of thee. As usual aft’r the rideth we can take enjoyment from the hospitality at the Did rise And Diadem.

9am Local Hills 47 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50733254 climb rating Hilly, 60 per mile

10am https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50739568 climb rating lumpy 53 feet per mile

10.30am https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46895158 climb rating below average, 43 feet per mile.

Several regular riders have completed a piece of work, producing some guidelines to help us ensure everyone can benefit and enjoy riding in our groups. This is a thoughtful idea to give our rides some consistency and enable new riders to join us and understand the basics of group rides. There will no doubt be some conversation around this in the great debating chamber of the Rose and Crown beer garden. High on endorphins and testosterone and fueled by some of the finest real ale around, the conversation is bound to flow in a respectful and encouraging way. So please have a look at the following guidelines to sense check how we ride as a group and how we can all contribute to excellence on the roads!

The Ivinghoe Velos are a group of social cyclists unconstrained by rigid rules of many cycling clubs. Most rides will finish either at a local coffee shop or at the Rose & Crown Public House in Ivinghoe.

Several different length rides are available each week, but the aim is to ride at the pace of the slowest rider in each group and not leave anybody behind.

Friendly advice:

1. You are responsible for the rider behind you. Call ‘dropping’ if a gap forms.
2. If on the front of a small group (say five or less), look to stay in front for a mile or so before safely peeling off and retiring to the rear.
3. Roads vary in width so use your judgement as to whether it is safe to ride two abreast and still provide for vehicles to safely overtake.
4. When coming to the front of the group, maintain the then current steady pace and try not to increase the speed, leaving individuals or the peloton behind.
5. Please do not ride from the back of the peloton directly to the front as a sudden increase in speed can cause the group to break up.
6. Watch out for the signals of the riders in front of you and mirror those signals back through the peloton such as alerts for potholes or indications of direction. Similarly pass messages up the through group to alert the peloton to gaps or punctures for example.
7. Try to keep the peloton short or break into smaller groups (4-6) to allow other road users to pass safely.
8. Try to keep pedalling. By freewheeling, your bike slows, which has a concertina effect back through the entire peloton with riders at the rear constantly having to speed up and slow down to maintain their position.

Finally, the various routes are published on the Ivinghoe Velos website. Please make sure you carry a copy of the route (either printed or downloaded into a directional device) in case you should become detached from the group.

Further information is available in British Cycling’s advice at Riding in a group – Top 10 tips It is also worth looking at the highway code which includes clarification on the expectation of drivers when driving in the vicinity of cyclists

ALSO… (sorry it’s a long one) Next weekend, Sunday 25th May there is going to be a traffic free Milton Keynes Parks ride option. This ride will be around 25 miles and is a traffic free treasure hunt style ride with 17 clues to solve as we ride round. The route will take us to concrete cows, a Roman Vllla, a stone circle and several lakes, we will cross a river by stepping stones and discover lots about the history of Milton Keynes. There is even a BMX track if anyone is brave enough!!! The route can be ridden on a mountain bike, gravel bike, hybrid, Brompton or a single speed, even a road bike if you don’t mind riding it on canal tow paths. We will start the ride from Caldecotte Lake (Bletcham Way car park). You can arrive by car, by train or ride all the way by bike. This ride will be great for anyone who is not keen on road rides but fancies riding with us. Will you help us find and rescue code breaker hero Ivor B Brain. He is lost in Milton Keynes (like we all have been at some point!) and needs our help to get home!

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50105778

In an effort to encourage some new riders to join the fun we have put out a couple of easy routes over the last two weekends. Sadly we didn’t have much interest So a new approach this week, I’ve found a translator that will turn the post into something the younger people of today will understand, maybe this would help recruit some new faces?

Yo, check it! Three sick rides this Sunday, fam. Perfect chance to hit those two wheels and vibe in the Hood. With Ivinghoe Velos, no one’s gonna be ghosting (as long as your route’s all set in your app). Next weekend, we’re bouncing to Ludlow for a crew trip, so this week, we’re crushing some local hills on the longer ride. Time to whip out your slay ride and roll with us!

Rolling with a crew saves energy ’cause you ain’t fighting the wind as much, so you usually zoom faster than riding lonesome. We’ve got three rides that totally fit your vibe, truly. Longer rides mean faster speeds, ya know? Work together, dream together, our best is your best, so jump in a group, have a blast, and maybe chill for some brews and cheesy nachos after!

Yo, all our vibes kick off at Ivinghoe church, and wrap up at the Rose and Crown, slay. Make sure to roll through before we dip, hit up the FB poll to let us know which ride you wanna crack. Yo might snag some Strava bling if you roll with us.

9am 53 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50631100

10am 30 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50629636

10.30am 21 miles https://ridewithgps.com/routes/50629362