Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Rideout Report - Swindon

road.cc goes for a damp, muddy club ride with our readers & members

The team road.cc rideout tour bus landed in Swindon last weekend to take on the quiet lanes of Wiltshire and the Cotswolds. Thankfully the weather stayed fine, the company was great and Hargroves Cycles even laid on the hot chocolate.

Sunday was one of those mornings, damp, a bit windy and grey, very grey – not one of those mornings where you really want to drag yourself out of bed and get out on your bike. But come out you did and what a range of riders we had, really highlighting what a broad church cycling encapsulates. It was great to see.

team roadcc Swindon.jpg

The shorter route was delayed with a pre-departure puncture so the long group rolled out first winding our way out of the town crossing, yep, as you’d expect with it being Swindon, many, many roundabouts but we were soon in the lanes heading for Cirencester.

The pace was brisk and our group of twelve were certainly getting in the groove as we rattled through the ever so slightly pot-holed lanes. It was quiet mind, I bet we only saw a handful of cars in the next hour and a half.

There was plenty of banter going on and the way we were moving felt like it was a weekly club run rather than a group of people that met up an hour ago. We covered the twenty-eight miles to the café stop at a pace of 17.5mph although we still didn’t manage to beat the short group who’d bagged all the parking spaces and the seats.

team roadcc Swindon cafe.jpg

Speaking of the short group, they took the more direct route to Cirencester through similar leafy lanes and with only a couple of hundred meters of climbing in the entire route the pace was kept high averaging around 14mph. An impressive figure for the eighteen or so miles considering the wind. 

team roadcc Swindon bikes.jpg

Coffee and cake imbibed and off we rolled, all of us. Both groups were heading on the same sixteen mile route back to Hargroves’ Swindon store which means we were soon spread out all over the local lanes. Everyone had found their own pace and group though and some personal achievements were being settled.

Rolling up at the ride HQ were many mud-splattered but smiling faces with tales to tell of the mornings ride. Hargroves had laid a post ride spread on of sandwiches, Italian meats, cheeses and more importantly cakes to refuel some tired legs.

On the whole it was a great ride and we really thank you for coming out and joining us. To have such a diverse group of riders start, yet all arrive at the finish with the same emotion on your face was surely a sight to see.

A massive bundle of kudos goes out to one of the riders who was back on the bike after she had been recently hit by a car. I for one know that takes a massive amount of courage so congratulations and we’re so glad you came out.

Our next rideout is in Chichester on the 21st of February with the routes being devised by team road.cc member Ian Upham. Hargroves Cycles are hosting us again so you can expect plenty of food, coffee and technical support.

Full details will be up real soon.

Register here.   

As part of the tech team here at F-At Digital, senior product reviewer Stu spends the majority of his time writing in-depth reviews for road.cc, off-road.cc and ebiketips using the knowledge gained from testing over 1,500 pieces of kit (plus 100's of bikes) since starting out as a freelancer back in 2009. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 170,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him, he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. With a background in design and engineering, he has an obsession with how things are developed and manufactured, has a borderline fetish for handbuilt metal frames and finds a rim braked road bike very aesthetically pleasing!

Add new comment

4 comments

Avatar
Paul_C | 8 years ago
0 likes

Swindon to Cirencester and back... yeah, you really 'experienced' the Cotswolds...  3

Avatar
David Arthur @d... replied to Paul_C | 8 years ago
0 likes

Paul_C wrote:

Swindon to Cirencester and back... yeah, you really 'experienced' the Cotswolds...  3

Fair point. Choices limited when starting from Swindon though, and we wanted to make it an accessible ride so it was never going to be an epic distance ride that would take in all the sights of the Cotswolds. Hopefully it was a nice taster for some people that might not have ridden in that part of the country

Avatar
eddyhall | 8 years ago
0 likes

Can I ask who makes the ladies orange jersey / jacket in the cover photo? And do they do a mens version?

Avatar
mrmo replied to eddyhall | 8 years ago
0 likes

eddyhall wrote:

Can I ask who makes the ladies orange jersey / jacket in the cover photo? And do they do a mens version?

Look at the band on the sleeve*, would suggest that it is Rapha.

 

*see the marketing works.

Latest Comments