In July 2010 “The Vinghoe Velos” sent out their first invitation to join a ride from the Rose and Crown pub. The ride started at 10am on a Sunday, no different distances, no pace groups, just a bunch of friends riding an array of different style bikes!
Over the last sixteen years the rides have changed somewhat in their makeup and participants. We have extended to three Sunday rides and also regular planned mid-week rides.
The longer Sunday ride is in rude health thanks to the ongoing dedication of the likes of Trevor and Pete who show up week in week out, joined by a fairly regular crew. Over the winter months we have dropped our milage and pace to enable others to join. There is no worries that this group will continue and most likely extend distance and also slightly up the pace over the summer months.
The 10am group is now on the endangered list due to low or no participation. Everyone can make very legitimate, fully understandble choices to not ride with the group, such as riding indoors rather than with the group, deciding you don’t like the route or riders on it and doing your own thing, chosing to do something else with your time on Sunday mornings, spend half the year on holidays, going to work on a Sunday, preferring to ride during the week and having a day off…..These along with a doctor “not fit to ride” note means 10am rides go out with a couple of riders on, or no one riding at all.
All the reasons to not cycle with the group are personal, valid and very legitimate, but understand this- if you don’t turn up the few that have been on rides will lose interest, go to a different club with a guarentee of people to ride with, take up a different hobby or discover they prefer riding solo. New people will turn up and have no one to ride with so will look elsewhere. There won’t be a group to ride with at 10am. The rides from Ivinghoe are not public service offerings or sponsored mass participartion events, they are made of and by those who take part. Our friendly relaxed (no rules!) approach is a unique selling point.
As we move into the warmer months the 10am ride may grow in popularity, or we may find that actually not enough people want that time and distance. This will be a shame for the few who would like it to continue. So lets see how the next few weeks go!
A great reason to ride this Sunday……. the Rose and Crown will be saying goodbye to landlord Mick, who has been serving up the best cheesy chips for the last 9 years! All our rides will finish there, a great opportunity to say goodbye in person.
At 9.30am we have “follow me I know a shortcut” which takes in New Road Weston Turville which has been remodelled as a twisty race track which will flow nicely on a bike. This is a 40 mile ride, flat to start and then a couple of hills on the back end.
9.30am https://ridewithgps.com/routes/54280524
At 10am the route is “shortcut shortcut” where we head out in the same direction but cut out the hills on the way back making this a very manageable 31 miles
10am https://ridewithgps.com/routes/54286000
At 10.30am you guessed it the route is “shortcut shortcut shortcut” which shaves off some more of the route and should have riders banging on the pub door at 12 O’clock