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!