VCGH MTBers

Godalming Thursday night MTB rides

2009-04-01T04:49:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again! Now that the clocks have changed the weekly night rides from Godalming are restarting this week.

For those of you that don't know, these rides have been running now for over 13 years and originated as a CTC organised ride. Many of the original group are still involved and everyone is welcome to join a ride.

Most weeks see the majority of the group turn up meaning that most rides have around a dozen or so riders on them. Meet at the tree in the middle of Crown Court Car Park (adjacent to Godalming High Street) at 7:15 for a 7:30pm rideaway. Rides vary in length as the daylight gets longer so 12 to 18 miles but can be 25+ during mid summer. It's a medium/social pace and mixture of bridleways and single track. Rides go to all points of the compass depending who's leading. It's not an official Club ride as many others are not members.

Contact is Nigel Mathias on 07774 168819

Swinley Singletrack Saturday Sessions Winter 2009

2009-01-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

The winter Saturday Swinley Sessions proved very popular again this year with a decent turnout most weeks with a peak of 12 which is a nice number to ride with in the forest. We finished the 'Winter season' in the same way as last year with a blast around Mychett led by the Tunnel Hill Trolls. One rider rated the ride as 11/10 for grin factor and we look forward to riding with them again!

So we have now moved out of the Winter season and are now upping our variety and types of Saturday ride for the Spring and Summer. Chris Hunt will again be leading his pain inducing training rides during the race season over the Surrey Hills with average speeds in excess of 11mph and no stops. For the rest of the year now Lee Irvine will be leading a monthly 'mini-epic' which will be no less demanding on the rider. We will be filling as many of the Saturday gaps left by these 2 (and any races) with additional rides, mostly around the Surrey Hills, but also in Wales and other trail centres. Well, that's the plan anyway!!

Sunday club runs remain in the same vein as always with all comers welcome and ride durations ranging between 2.5 and 4 hours.

MTB Racing in 2009

2009-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Part of the job of any cycle club is to encourage it's members to take part in the competitive elements of the sport. Historically the MTB section has always had a relatively small number of members actively competing each year (half a dozen of us) without much being done to support those that might be interested in trying it out.

So this year we have decided to be a bit more active in encouraging people to take up xc racing or endurance events. Firstly we established what the level of interest was via the club survey at the end of 2008. To our delight we learned that just over a quarter of the club were interested in MTB racing, especially if they felt part of a team.

Next, armed with this new information we emailed everyone in early January with the clubs race calendar for the year which included the local XC series (Gorricks), the regional series (Southen XC Series) and the largest national endurance series (Merida) as well as a few other key events such as the 12 hour night race 'Dusk til Dawn' which the club attends every year and does rather well in...

Driving this initiative with my support are 2 individuals. Namely Chris Hunt, MTB Race Captain and Lee Irvine, MTB Captain. Chris attends all the XC races whilst Lee is an endurance junkie. You will be in good company if you join them. Last year Chris came 4th in the Southern XC Masters category whilst Lee completed all stages of the week long Trans Wales with a decent placing and competed in the Mega Avalanche in the Alps.

What next?Our sunday club rides are a fairly casual affair and will remain that way so in 2009 we are again stepping up our Saturday offerings for those of that you who want more of a challenge. In January and February we are leading the Saturday Swinley rides (lead by Lee and I) to help you challenge yourself with a bit of technical riding and in March and until the end of the race season in October Chris will be repeating his monthly training rides which can cover over 40 miles at 12mph. Those rides will hurt. Lee and others will also be leading a monthly Saturday ride to complement Chris's training rides where you will be pushed harder and further to find new limits.

Behind all this we are helping people up their bike handling skills by organising 4 different levels of training sessions with a local training company.

The first local race is a Gorrick on sunday 18th January. More information can be found at http://www.gorrick.com The club will have at least 4 riders in attendance with many more showing an interest. There is a beginners and fun category to enter (gender specific) if you want to try it out without being in with the ultra competitive. The fun race is still pretty competitive though believe me!