Our Club Rides

Our club rides are fun and friendly and we have a nobody-gets-left-behind policy. They range from long Sunday rides to intense laps of Regent’s Park and take place six days a week.

Our rides are open to all members. Before we can accept your application you must attend a free session where we can introduce you to club riding. You will find the next Intro Rides here and the next Group Skills rides here and you can sign up on the event page. We aim to hold one of each every month.

We have a mandatory helmet policy on club rides, so please make sure you wear one - no helmet = no ride.

Please take a moment to look through our Group Riding Guide if you are new to club rides.

Here are details of our regular club rides and how we categorise them by pace. Many club members also like to take part in races, TTs, sportives and audaxes, and members can find more information on the club Forum.

RIDE GRADES

We aim to make it as easy as possible for members to find rides at the pace they are looking for. We use five colour bands to indicate target speed on the flat (not average speed over the whole ride, which is affected by traffic, hills and weather).

• Green: 20-25kph
• Silver: 25-30kph
• Blue: 30-35kph
• Black: 35-40kph
• HC: 40hph+

Some rides may be additionally labelled “Fast” or “Easy” to indicate the upper or lower end of that band. A “Fast Silver” ride would be in the 27-30kph range. An “Easy Blue” Ride would be 30-33kph.

We also hold regular step-up rides at the top boundary of each colour led by an experienced rider. The aim of these rides is to build practical awareness of the boundary between each colour band and give members a chance to test whether they are ready to progress to higher pace bands. Green to Silver Step-Up rides will aim to ride at 25kph on the flat. These rides will normally be shorter than average to accommodate riders who may be riding faster than they are used to.

We advise riders who are new to club cycling to start with one of our Green rides.

CLUB RIDES

Our Sunday club rides leave from Highbury Fields at 0830. We normally have a range of rides available, going different distances, in different directions and at different speeds. The shortest are usually 50km and many are 100km or longer. We often have a midway coffee stop.

We encourage ride leaders to post their rides on the forum in advance. This allows people to sign up for the ride and download the route to their bike computer. However, it’s also possible to turn up on the day and find a ride.

Ad hoc club rides on Saturdays and other days are advertised on the Forum.

The meeting place is close to the centre of Queens Walk which runs directly across the centre of Highbury Fields.

REGENTS PARK LAPS

Many members enjoy riding laps of Regent’s Park in close formation to develop speed and stamina. Saturdays are particularly social and many people stay for coffee afterwards.

All club rides meet at the zoo entrance on the Outer Circle.

Saturday
• 0700 training pace (fast)
• 0800 social pace (not quite as fast)

Tuesday
• 0615 training pace
• 0630 Women’s laps

Fridays
• 0630 social pace

Our Group Skills sessions are a good introduction to Regent's Park laps. These meet on the south side of Regent's Park Inner Circle.

WEEKDAY EVENINGS

We offer a number of weekday evening rides, all starting at Highbury Fields unless otherwise stated, except for the Velopark session which starts at the Olympic Velopark. In summer members often stop for a drink at the end.

These may not all routinely take place, particularly when it’s cold and dark. You may want to check or post on the Forum to see if others are planning to ride.

Tuesday
• 1815 - Radlett Revolution - A 70k route with lots of straight sections where groups can ride in formation and get up speed.

Wednesday
• 1815 - North London Hills - A 50k route offering plenty to build up climbing strength

Thursday
• 1815 - Gritty Fifty - A 50k gravel loop out into Epping Forest
• 1815 - Fixie Loop - A 60k ride out to Brookman’s Park and back
• 1830 - Velopark – Laps of the Olympic Velopark.

Routes can be found here https://ridewithgps.com/groups/Islington-CC