ABOUT US
We are a community cycling club based in the Hatch Warren and Beggarwood area of Basingstoke.
The club’s motto is “Come Ride With Us,” and we hope you do. We are working to be as inclusive as possible and encourage you to join in.
We offer rides for different abilities, so whether you are a beginner or a seasoned rider, you are welcome to join us. We ride every Saturday at 9 a.m. starting from St Mark’s School on Danebury Road.
So, if you want to get fit, ride with like-minded individuals, and see the Hampshire countryside, please get in touch. We would love to welcome you on our next ride.
MEMBERSHIP
JOINING HATCH WARREN & BEGGARWOOD CYCLING CLUB.
Our membership year starts on the 1st of April and finishes on the 31st of March. This year’s membership fee is £10.
If you’d like to try the club before committing to membership, please come to a ride and introduce yourself. We won’t ask you to fully sign up as a member until you’ve cycled with us three times.
Alternatively, if you’d like to have a tester ride outside of a club ride, please message the club and we may be able to organise a special ride.
Visit our Facebook pages for more information: https://www.facebook.com/HWBcc
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us either by Facebook or via email at info@hwbcc.org
We use the British Cycling platform to process membership applications. Please use the link below.
After submitting your application through British Cycling the club will contact you.
Just to confirm there is no need to join British Cycling to join our club.
RIDE CALENDAR
We are planning to offer a minimum ride distance of 15 miles on Tuesdays and 20 miles on Saturdays, and where rider/leader numbers allow we’ll also offer a 30 mile ride on Saturday morning.
Our rides will run at a 12-13mph social pace meaning that no one will be left behind. We’ll ride to the pace of our slowest rider. If we get larger groups we will try to split them according to ability.
Our rides start from St. Mark’s school and we’d love current, past, and new members to join us. As always please come prepared with a well-maintained bike and safety equipment and arrive 5-10 minutes ahead of the published ride times so we can organise groups, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/HWBcc/events
ROUTES
The club has created 31 route sets, numbered 1 to 31, for the days of the month. The cycling route on a particular day will generally be based on the route set for that day of the month.
Each route set includes a short ride of about 15 to 18 miles, a medium ride of 20 – 25 miles, and a long ride of about 30 miles, which are used on a typical Saturday ride.
Each route set also has a longer Ride of about 45 to 50 miles.
The length of ride is denoted a, b, c or d.
Using the above system, rides on the first of the month would be 1a for the shortest ride, 1b for a 25 mile or so ride, 1c for a 30 miles or so ride and 1d for a longer ride of 40 – 50 miles.
The club grades each route by difficulty, like ski runs.
Green = Limited climbing. In the shortest rides, these would have less than 1000 feet of climbing. For the medium 20 – 25 miles rides, the climbing would be under 1350 feet, for the rides of about 30 miles the climbing would be up to around 1850 feet. For the longest rides the climbing would be under 2400 feet.
Blue = Average climbing.
Black = Lots of hills! These are generally the five rides in each set which have the greatest overall climbing. Additionally some may be rated black if they have a notable ‘cat 4’ climb.
Orange = Consider hazardous / segment in notes.
The grading can be found in this download: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ROUTE GRADING
Whilst we don’t want to be draconian with too many rules we want every rider with HWB to be as safe as possible and not take any unnecessary risks. We also want the club to have a good reputation within the community for sensible and considerate cycling.
There aren’t many rules; the main ones are that we won’t allow anyone to ride with us without a suitable helmet and that we currently ask that all riders be over 18 years old.
Things to remember on each ride for comfort and safety:
Helmet, pump, spare inner tube and tyre levers, drink, bike in good working order, snack (a banana, chocolate etc. Haribos are great for the back pocket!)
Things to remember on the road:
We won’t ever leave anyone behind. If you’re struggling, just say. We’ll have a rider leading who knows the way and typically a rider bringing up the rear to ensure we stay together and we’ll re-group along the way if needed.
Poor weather won’t generally stop us so long as it’s safe and practical to ride. Come prepared.
We will generally try to avoid ‘A’ or major roads. This will also mean that we will cycle down some narrow country lanes. We all need to be considerate to other road users and, if we are aware of a vehicle approaching, to let the other riders know. A shout of ‘car’ is usually sufficient. Don’t ever place yourself in danger; please follow the highway code.
We would encourage you to read ‘Guide to riding in a Group’ produced by British Cycling (it’s quite a short read and useful stuff) and the clubs Rider / Ride Leader Guidelines (see link below).
General stuff:
Any cancellations/changes to the route, timings, etc. will be detailed in the Events calendar on Facebook. Please check in advance, especially if ice, fog, or persistent rain is forecast.
You can bring your bike to the start by car if you’d like/need to. There is parking at all our start locations.
Importantly, whilst we’ll always look out for each others’ safety, please also be responsible for your own.
If you’ve got any questions at all, just ask!
Rider / Ride Leader Guidelines
FOLLOW US ONLINE
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/HWBcc/
Facebook Forum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1476015042715709/
Twitter [X]: https://x.com/HWBCycling
Instagram:@ https://www.instagram.com/hwbcc/
CONTACT US
For more information, please email: info@hwbcc.org or visit us on our Facebook page or our forum.