Forest Fourscore Reliability Ride
The first Reliability Ride of the 2018–19 Winter season will run on Sunday, 28 October. The Forest Fourscore is an 80-mile route starting from and ending at Carlo's Ices and Tea Rooms (Romsey Rd, West Wellow, SO51 6BG); it takes in some of the Dean Valley and Avon Valley before cutting through the New Forest. Although it is a long route, there are few hills apart from the lane linking Alderbury to Downton.
You will set off at 9:00; your finishing time will be recorded between 2pm and 4pm; before you attempt this ride, be confident of being able to ride at an average speed of 12mph for about seven hours.
If you drive to the start, you can park at Carlo's Ices. Please arrive by 8:45, so that everyone can sign on in time for a prompt departure.
Reliability Rides are not races! They test your endurance, and your ability to follow a paper routesheet or a gpx file uploaded to a navigation device. You can do them solo, or with a group of friends who ride at similar speeds, that is, you can think of them as club runs with the café stop at the end of the route, not in the middle.
The next Reliability Ride is scheduled for the last Sunday in November.
Bourne Valley Reliability Ride: 2018 results
The worst of the Beast from the East, aka the Siberian winter wind, fortunately arrived a day later than expected, and the second reliability trial of the new year went off without a hitch. 20 riders turned up at the start; a few didn't finish, but most did, and they did so with very good times. The results:
GOLD award (16+ mph)
Malcolm Baker (Braishfield) Tom Budden Richard Burch
Joffrey Carlier* Graham Harman Gordon McKinnon (Braishfield)
Nick Malbon John Phillips (Ben Scott-Munden)
Will Weynberg Paul Witcombe. Jonathan Wren
SILVER award (14 to 16 mph)
Mel Cook Jorge Manso (as yet unaffiliated)
BRONZE award (12 to 14 mph)
Mick Bradban Colin Witt
As mentioned on the club's closed Facebook page, the next reliability ride will be held on the last Sunday of April, starting again from Romsey Bus Station and following a new route out to Longleat Safari Park and back via Shaftesbury, Cranborne and Fordingbridge: 100 miles in all. On the last Sunday of this month, 25 March, I shall be doing the route as a social ride with café stops in Warminster and Shaftesbury, and checking my draft route-sheet along the way. Both events will start at the earlier "summer schedule" time of 9 o'clock.
Reliability Ride, 25 February 2018
The second Sotonia reliability ride of the year will be held on Sunday, 25 February, setting off from ROMSEY BUS STATION at 9:30.
The Bourne Valley is a popular route, not too long (circa 54 miles, or 86 km) and not too hilly.* There is some riding on the A30, but the traffic should be relatively light on a Sunday morning. The lanes around Chilbolton and Longparish are attractive, as is the cycle-friendly B-road from through the pretty villages in the Bourne Valley.
A gpx file of the route and the route-sheet, which have been checked against each other. are available on the Sotonia "Forum." In due course, these files will also be available on the Events page of the club website.
Please arrive by 9:15 to sign on. At that hour, there is normally plenty of free parking in front of the bus station (don't park in front of Aldi)
*NOTE: This ride is different from the "Bourne Supremacy", a much hillier extended version, which last ran about two years ago.
Newton Tony Reliability Ride 28 January 2018
The 2018 reliability rides kicked off with a new, 69-kilometre route starting and finishing at Carlo's Ices and Tearooms (West Wellow), reaching its furthest point in Cholderton (and the nearby hamlet of Newton Tony) and making its way back via Porton Down, Winterslow and the Dean Valley. The finishers (FWCC = Fareham Wheelers Cycling Club; all others are members of the Sotonia Cycling Club)
GOLD (16+ mph)
Jerome Bakker
Richard Burch
Dave Dalton (FWCC)
Eileen Duff (FWCC)
Jon Legg
Neil Mackley (FWCC)
Nick Malbon
Kirsty McSeveny (FWCC)
James Peckham
Paul Ranson
Ben Scott-Munden
Nigel Sign (F)
Russell Speight
Rich Stephens
Bruce Tandy (FWCC)
Red Walters
Will Weynberg
Paul Witcombe
SILVER (14-16 mph)
Janet Burnage
Mel Cook
Leon Kuzmicz
Martin Roscoe
George Wadsworth
BRONZE (12-14 mph)
Mick Bradban
Colin Witt