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Welcome to the website of Leicestershire's Friendly Cycling Club.
Leicester Forest Cycling Club is a little different to many clubs who exist only for racers and chain-gangs. We are all cycling fanatics, but like to enjoy what we do at the same time. Our conversations are more likely to be about which cafe we will ride to rather than what our resting heart-rate might be. We have members of all shapes and sizes and guarantee a warm welcome for any new members, regardless of experience, equipment or ambitions in the sport. That said, we do have some very good time-trial, road race and audax riders.
Please have a look around the website, but before you do, allow me to tell you a little bit more about the club.
We have a membership of around 105 from all over Leicestershire and they get involved in all forms of cycling. We have commuters, tricyclists, racers, time-triallists, Sustrans volunteers, fixed-gear riders, fast men, slow men, rouleurs, grimpeurs, singlespeeders, mountain bikers, tourists, happy folks, quiet folks... you name it! What I'm getting at is that we don't care what you ride, how fast you ride it, what your resting heart rate is or how fast you can ride a ten. As long as you ride a bike, you're welcome here.
The main event of our week is the Saturday morning club run. This starts here at either 8.30 or 9am. There are two versions of the route. The shorter route is usually 27.5 miles to the cafe stop, that usually starts at 9am looks like this. The longer run is usually 36.5 miles to the cafe stop it starts at 8:30am adds about 10 miles to this. The early ride usually goes a bit quicker than the later one, so we'd suggest that you try the 9am ride first. There will be a couple of 'sprints' up hills and one for a village sign, but these are only brief and we'll join up again afterwards.
After the cafe we ride 16 miles and people tend to peel off at the end of this section depending where they live or are heading that day.
Whichever route we do, we'll stop at a cafe for breakfast, tea and a breather. The pace picks up a bit after the cafe and the group usually breaks up as we get towards Leicester, but don't worry, if it's your first time we'll never just ride off and leave you!
You can also download a zip file with the gpx and kml route files here.
Throughout the summer we run a time trial series on Thursday evenings. The route for that is here. We have all kinds of riders at all standards and ability riding in our time trial series. A few people are out to win but EVERYONE is out to beat their own best time. Time trialing is addictive. Once you try it, you'll be back again and again...
We also run an open 25. This time trial attracts some of the fastest riders from around the district, setting some incredible times. We run an Audax event in February. A 100km route from Leicester around Rutland that is usually challenging for both the hills and the weather.
Our members also ride mountain bikes regularly throughout the year. These rides usually go from Hall Gates car park in Bradgate at 7.30pm on a Tuesday. But we'll also have people riding regularly at Cannock Chase and in Wales, the Lakes etc. Keep an eye on the forum for details of these and other rides.
These are the 'official' events. Outside of these, members will be riding every day of the week, usually posting the details on the forum to see if anyone else fancies it. Examples of these can be sportives, both local and international (a group of us have ridden the largest sportive there is, the Tour Of Flanders for the last couple of years), velodrome trips, tours, end-to-ends, charity rides etc etc.
We are commuters, activists and advocates doing whatever it takes to promote cycling as a social, recreational and competitive activity.
So, have a look around and you'll get an idea of the sort of thing we are upto. If you want to become a member, or just want to go for a ride and see what it's all about, then get in touch.
Whatever you ride, ride with us. Leicestershire's Friendly Cycling Club.
Ian Nutt.
President, Leicester Forest Cycling Club.
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2011 Leicester Forest Open 10 Slideshow
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