Welcome to the fastest growing, and socially most vibrant, section within the club!
Given we have lots of club members riding gravel bikes, mountain bikes and cyclo-cross bikes for ages we decided the time was ripe for setting up more dedicated off-road group rides.
Our Club off-road activities fall into roughly four areas:
- There are plenty of ad-hoc social rides. Members and non-members are welcome. These rides are generally suitable for mountain, cyclo-cross or gravel bikes, and are around 3-4 hours in duration. Meeting points vary but are in the Fleet/Farnborough area. Watch the website for details. We also plan to add in the occasional ‘epic’ ride, visiting the Peak District, Wales, South Downs Way, King Alfred’s Way and so on.
- We have a growing number of riders who race cyclo-cross competitively – usually in the Wessex League and the Central League. These Leagues normally run from mid-September to mid-January. Cyclo-cross is very accessible, for all ages from under-8s to over 50s, boys, girls, ladies and men and can be ridden on any bike. We even had two riders in the National Championships in January of this year.
- We offer the following rides:
- A weekly “Easy Trails” (graded green) off-road ride designed for newcomers, those returning to cycling having been out of the saddle for a while or for a few recovering from injuries who want to rebuild their stamina, which runs on Saturday mornings, taking in a variety of local loops in the Minley Forest, Ceasar’s Camp, Hawley Lakes and Fleet Pond areas (circa 30km with two hours of cycling),
- A weekly “Easy Trails +” (graded blue) for a more technically demanding ride over a similar 30km : 2-3 hour duration PLUS
- A monthly “DIRT Trails” ride for the even more adventurous ride members (graded red – circa 30 miles over 2-3 hours of cycling).
- Finally, we have club members that enter a variety of competitive and non-competitive events for gravel and mountain bikes.
NOTE: Below is the FCCC Trail Grading (which is taken from ‘British Cycling’). This gives an indication of the rides available, the types of terrain, skill levels and capabilities required for the rides.
We’ve also got a very active WhatsApp group for sharing routes, rides, hints and tips. This is primarily open to members.
To find out more about our off-road activities, please contact us at offroad@fccc.org.uk, or click one of the links below:
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