Howdy fellow velos,As you can see from the picture above, our hydration sponsors The Rose and Crown have mounted the famous Vinghoe Velos club shirt on full view to all customers. We would like to thank Alistair for doing us proud and for his continued support of the club.

Before we get down to our usual business of planning routes, we have a couple of public service announcements.

The Times Cycle Safely Campaign

If you haven’t already read about this campaign then we can recommend having a look. Whilst we wouldn’t normally support a News International publication, the intent seems to be valid and there is growing support for their manifesto. Feel free to pledge your support if you like the ideas. The website is here – http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/contact/ .

Have your say about a Cycle Path from Pitstone to Tring Station

As part of the Castlemead development, some money has been handed over by the developers to build a cycle & pedestrian path along Northfield Road. As many of our members are already aware, the cycle along this road (especially in the dark) can be a considerably hazardous one. The parish council are looking for input from Pitstone and Ivinghoe residents who would use this new path. You can find more details over at the Pitstone & Ivinghoe village website. Please support this initiative by giving your feedback to the parish council so that the money is put to good use.

Will it or won’t it snow ?

As we go to press here at Velo Towers, it does look like there may be an inch or two of the white stuff falling from the heavens tonight. This, coupled with a forecast clear sky overnight suggests that Sunday morning maybe a trifle slippery on the roads.  Of course that won’t stop us venturing out, but we would suggest that if it is icy tomorrow, you dust off the Mountain Bike or Hybrid and give her a spin instead.

Depending on how severe the  weather is, we may adjust the planned route to suit the conditions – there is even talk of a possible off road ride for those who want to take advantage of the snow to go off-piste.

Long Route – 24 miles

Short Route – 14 miles

Be safe & warm out there.

Welcome to the latest news from Velo Towers.

Today 9 of our members braved the frosty morning for a very successful Saturday Morning Tea ride. They have shown us that not even sub-zero temperates will stop a Velo determined to enjoy a spin (& a hot chocolate) on a beautifully sunny winter morning. They have thrown down the gauntlet for the Sunday riders so why not wrap up warm and join us.

Short Route

Long Route

Some of you last week will have noticed our resident professor of hills “Dave Howe” operating his Super 8 camera. The results have been upscaled to HD and edited down to just the interesting bit – the start of the ride. So we have it here for your viewing pleasure. Anyone who would prefer to have their likeness pixelated so that they can’t be tracked down by the relevant authorities, please let us know and we will return to the editing suite.

Best regards,

The Velos Board.

A quick note to let you know there is a planned ride tomorrow morning for those lucky enough to be starting their Christmas holidays early this year. The ride is being hosted by the route planner extraordinaire Dave Howe and starts from the usual Rose & Crown in Ivinghoe. Dave tells us that the pace will be leisurely and both road and mountain bikes are welcome.

So 10am, Wednesday 21st December, Rose and Crown Ivinghoe.

Route details

After what was the most eventful ride ever on Sunday, a few members are planning a (mainly) off-road ride around Ashridge and Tring Park this Thursday evening (17/11/11). We are meeting at Ivinghoe Library at 6:40pm so good lights are required. We will be taking it easy pace wise, but there are  a couple of hills involved (The Beacon and up to Wiggington). As always, no one gets left behind so please feel free to join us.

Thursday off-road route

Many thanks to everyone who came out on last week’s ride. There were 28 of you which is a great turnout especially considering we are now in the winter season.

This week we are privileged to see ride planner Dave “l’alpe d’huez” Howe take a break from planning the route for the 2013 Tour de France to draw up a new route for us. The weather is forecast to be fabulous tomorrow so we look forward to a ride that includes a trip around the Pednor Loop together with a climb up Herberts Hole.

It is a 30 mile trek and we hope to get of to a prompt start so please try an aim to arrive at the R&C by 9:45am if you can. As is the norm these days we will divide up into two main groups with two paces.

As always, we welcome riders of all abilities. Sometimes the groups can become fragmented so please print out a copy of the route for any emergency navigation that is required.

Herberts Hole Route – 30 miles

Safe Cycling everyone !

We have good news for our Velo members – prolonged negotiations with our contacts at the Met Office have resulted in us once again securing very decent Autumn weather for the ride this Sunday. In fact things went so well that they have agreed to make up for a lack of Summer this year by giving us an especially warm end of September week.

Numbers are likely to be a little down a little this week as some of our colleagues are pushing themselves well beyond their riding abilities by attempting the Wiggle Rut 74 mile ride around Oakham. We wish them the best of luck and have alerted the nearby emergency services. The normal ride goes ahead from the R&C at 9:50am and as is the new norm, we will have two groups – fast long and slower long – known as the flonger and slonger groups.

We would like to remind members that the Velos Christmas ‘bash’ for riders and their partners has been booked at the Old Hunters Lodge in Whipsnade on Friday 9th December 2011. The cost is £23.95 per head and a deposit of £10 per head is required to Jayne Raynor by 9th October – spaces are limited and many have already paid their deposits so please let Jayne know ASAP to avoid disappointment !

Advanced notice that some members are already casting their eyes toward 2012 and what challenges we can put in place to spur us on through the cold Winter ahead. Andrew is organising a group to test themselves in the London to Paris ride – if that is something that interests you please make yourself know to Andrew or Jose on Sunday the 9th when they return from their trip to see old pals Fidel and Raul.

As always, “Let’s be careful out there”.

Long Ride

We have taken a break from watching the Tour of Britain to bring you news from our head quarters here at Velo Towers.

Following on from our highly successful venture into Social Media using Twitter, we are now going to have a stab at Facebook. A page has been set up and if you are a Facebook user, please find us (Search for ivinghoe velos) and say hello (and ‘like’ us). For those not on Facebook, fear not – we have no plans for it to become our main place to distribute news – the website and emails will continue to be the best place to find out what’s going on.

There are only 4 more days left open for registrations for the 74 mile Wiggle Rut that takes place on the 25th September. I am very proud to say that the Vinghoe Velos is by far the largest single team with 8 members already signed up. If you would like to join us, please head on over to the Kilotogo.com website and register. As mentioned before, on the 25th the normal ride will take place from the Rose and Crown for those who sensibly don’t feel they need to put themselves through the pain of a crazy distance.

And finally, there is the normal leisurely off-road ride in Ashridge taking place tomorrow evening (Thursday). We meet at the Ivinghoe Library at 6:40pm and head up to the Beacon car park for 7pm.

A few of us who are preparing for the Wiggle Rut  on the 25th September are going to head off from Pitstone roundabout at 9am tomorrow (4th September) to get in a warm up workout before joining the long ride at the R&C from 10am. If you feel like adding a few more miles you are most welcome to join us.

If anyone is still thinking of registering for the Wiggle Rut, please do enter your team name as “Vinghoe Velos”. We will be sorting out sharing the transport up there soon so please let John Hegarty know you are going.

And completely unrelated, here is a photo from the ride last week where we had an unusual type of road blockage.

Another great turnout yesterday. Not all of us managed to avoid the rain – but then again, what did we expect – it is summer !

Road Bikes :

Tuesday 7pm at Pitstone Roundabout. Fast-ish pace, hopefully without the monsoon we experienced last Tuesday.

Off Road Mountain Bikes:

Tuesday 7.30pm from Rushendon Furlong. Can be quite challenging from a technical perspective but a lot of fun.
Thursday 7pm from Ivinghoe Beacon car park. General trail riding suitable for most people. We do need to warn riders to be aware that there are some very aggressive badgers around Ashridge that have been known to attack cyclists with a view to stealing their bikes. Let’s be careful out there.

Pinch, punch, first day of the month (no returns).

OK, now we have that silliness out of the way please see below of our mid week rides.

Road Bikes :

Tuesday 7pm at Pitstone Roundabout. The illusive Dave ‘The Hill’ Howe will be leading this one so expect a decent workout.

Off Road Mountain Bikes:

Tuesday 7.30pm from Rushendon Furlong. Can be quite challenging from a technical perspective.
Thursday 6:30pm from Pitstone Roundabout (calling at Ivinghoe Library @ 6:40pm and Ivinghoe Beacon car park at 7pm). General trail riding suitable for most people.