Big Round Yellow Thing In The Sky!

Goodness me, 2025 is really going quite fast, here we are in May already.

April has been a very pleasant month, early mornings are still a bit chilly, but the welcome sight of the sun and blue skies means that the arm warmers do not have to stay on for too long. How nice is it to feel the sun shining on bare arms? We have managed to get some good rides completed during the month and visited old favourites such as Elm Farm Café in Sutton Green and Charlie & Ginger in Leatherhead. We also made our way out to Bagshot, but sadly found that Roost Café had closed down and opted for a snack at The Village Café. We visited a couple of places for the first time, Dinton Country Park near Reading and Heather Farm Café at Mimbridge, near Horsell Common. As we hoped to do, we have been able to vary our distances on our club rides, giving eveyone a chance to find something suitable for them.

We have now re-introduced our Wednesday Evening Pretzel rides in Richmond Park. We usually meet at Kingston Gate at 18:30 and the Pretzel takes approx 75-90 minutes to complete. We will post these each week on our Events page, weather depending. Our Wednesday Pretzel rides also double up as Full Member Induction Rides, so if you are interested in coming along and meeting a few of the members, sign up via the events page by clicking the RSVP button on the event page.

Our scheduled rides for April include some old favourites such as Box Hill and Effingham. We will pay another visit to California, sadly, not on the West coast of the USA, but California Country Park, just South of Reading & Wokingham. We will also for the first time as a club, ride to a popular cycling destination café, The Milk Churn at Rudgwick, which is just South of Cranleigh.

Many congratulations to Selina who completed the Etape Loch Ness ride last weekend and in doing so, collected her London Classics medal, having previously completed a London Marathon and the Swim Serpentine. Selina joined HWCC as a Beginner, towards the end of 2024 with the main aim of completing this Sportive and she has put in lots of work and effort, riding most weekends during the winter months. Both Selina & Paula have now completed a sportive each this year, so the ladies are blazing a trail for the rest of us to follow, well done to you both. We know that Paula and Dave Pinsent are both signed up to the BHF London to Brighton ride on 15th June, so we have scheduled a club ride to Brighton 2 weeks prior to this date, for some practice on Ditchling Beacon.

Do you have any goals or plans for your cycling in 2025? Perhaps you plan to do a big event, ride a long distance or just want to ride more often. We'd love to hear your plans and perhaps help you achieve your goals. We are a friendly bunch and we welcome new members to join our club. If you would like to join us on our future rides, sign up for either a Full Member Induction Ride or a Beginners Session on our Events Page. Once you have attended either of those events you will be given more details on joining Hampton Wick Cycling Club.

We look forward to meeting you soon. In the meantime please use some of the links at the top of the page to view our social media channels.