The weekly Saturday morning club ride is the beating heart of VCR Colchester. It is a social ride rather than a training ride and it has been said of us that you can hear it is a VCR group approaching because everyone is chatting.
We are lucky being based in North Essex to be able to ride East into Tendring and even to the seaside at Clacton and beyond, North into Suffolk either towards Ipswich, or more westerly to Hadleigh, and Kersey with it’s famous ford, West along the Stour valley Area of Natural beauty towards Bures, and Sudbury, or South-West along the Colne valley taking in the various Colne villages, and the Chappel Viaduct.
Rides are typically about 40miles/65km, with the necessary Cafe stop for coffee and cake. We have a library of routes and a curated list of approved cafes with the requisite standards of coffee, cake and welcome for damp cold cyclists or sunny gardens depending on the season.
All rides are intended to be social, and an opportunity to catch up with other members and enjoy the glorious scenery. They are non-drop rides (you won’t be left behind with a mechanical in the miles for the start) and we take pride in being competent considerate cyclists – see our ride etiquette guide. We are not Draconian in our rules and are happy to help people new to group riding, but are confident that if you have learnt with us you’ll be able to ride confidently with pretty much any other group. We do require people to have drop handlebar bikes and no tri-bars. This is just to ensure the safety of you and others in the group.
We generally split into 3 speed groups.
- Social 16mph/26kph
- Medium 18mph/29kph
- 20+mph32+kph.
Our rule of thumb is that if you can ride solo at 1-2mph lower than the speed then you will have no problem keeping up with the group.
If those speeds seem a bit daunting we also run Sunday Socials for part of the year which are slightly shorter, on a flatter circuit, and at a lower speed to give people a chance to try group riding and get confident about riding in a group, or just to have an even more relaxed ride.
The aim of all our club rides is to enjoy riding your bike, and meet with others who like riding bikes. The fact that coffee and cake are consumed is merely a side benefit!
