New Rider(s)

Afternoon guys - apologies, I know this topic will have been covered a million times before but please bear with me...

My mate and I are looking for a club to ride with, I live in Finsbury Park, I've been riding for the last 10 or so years, we're both 28.

We'd like to join a Sunday ride to get a feel for the club, members, speed, route(s) etc. I understand you meet at 8:30 on a Sunday on Holloway Rd. Would you mind please giving me a hand with the following?

1. What distance do your Sunday rides typically cover?
   
2. Do you head out towards Potters Bar along with lots of the other clubs? Presumably the routes vary?
   
3. We're looking for a reasonably fast paced ride - we're pretty comfortable with a 27kph average over 70-100km or so (route depending of course) - presumably it's best to start in your 'B' group?
   
   

Thanks very much, really appreciate your guidance.

All the best

Dan Lampard

Dear Dan,

thanks for your interest in riding with ICC.

Re 1: we offer several rides of different pace and distance - anything from a fast 60k to a not so fast 160k or more. The choice is yours.
Re 2: we offer a variety of routes, some going out to Potters Bar, others to Epping, Chilterns or Surrey. They vary and members usually put routes on the forum before the ride.
Re 3: makes sense.

Please also note: you can join ICC as guest for three rides, you need to attend a Group Riding skills session before your application will be processed and helmets are mandatory on all rides.

Hope to see you out soon.

Eva

Eva

All noted, thank you for such a speedy response. In relation to the Sunday ride will it be clear who will lead each ride (i.e. A, B, C)? I'll have a look on the forum during the week to scope out the suggested route/distance etc.

Thanks again

Dan

Hi Dan,

Welcome to the club. I'm a mate of your Dad and Adrian.

B rides typically average 24/25kph. It may be best to join one first although it sounds like you'll want to give the A group a go pretty soon. Sometimes people advertise B+ or fast B rides as well.

Unless otherwise advertised all our regular rides start at Whittington Park where ride leaders will announce themselves. Not all rides are announced in advance on the forum.

You might also consider joining one of our Tuesday or Wednesday rides if you're free at 6.30pm.

Thanks @DavidMason.
One slight correction. The weekday rides are for members only but I hope Dan will join ICC pronto :)

Thanks David and Eva - much appreciated - small world! I'm going to try and join you guys on Sunday.

All the best

I'm sure this has been covered, but do you need to do the skills session prior to attending a weekend ride as a non member?

No, you can just turn up to the weekend rides (with a helmet) at Whittington Park.

You need to do the skills session before you can join the club as a member, but not to do a Sunday ride as a guest.

In addition to this, you only get three rides and can only join Sunday rides before becoming a member.

What's the difference between the intro to club riding and skills sessions?

Hi there djh,

Intro rides focus more on the ride itself. We cover the basic skills of riding in a group and then go out and put those skills into practice in the real world, over a ~50k ride. This is generally quite a relaxed pace, replicating a normal club ride and helps people understand whether group riding is for them.

The group skills session is just about the 'skills'. Here we explain the skills in a lot more detail and after explaining each one we then practice it over a number of laps of the inner circle in Regents Park. This is more for people who know group riding is for them, and want to refine their skills.

Ideally all people who do the Intro Ride would also do the group skills session at some point. If you do the Group Skills session, there would be no need to the Intro Ride.

Hopefully that helps.