Tag: Cycle Event

Hit The Downs ’22

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Cycle Events

I can honestly say that I had a fabulous couple of days on The South Downs last weekend.

Arriving in Graffham in the early part of Saturday afternoon to set camp and have a quiet evening before our busy Sunday showed what a truly beautiful place this area of the UK is.

We let camp early on the Sunday and made our way to Shoreham to get registered and embark on the 30KM route of the St Barnabas House & Chestnut Tree House Hit The Downs 2022.

Whilst (thankfully) the temperatures didn’t make it up to those we’ve experienced over the last couple of days, we weren’t long into the route before we were starting to feel the heat as the sun started to warm everything up .

At the finish (and much warmer than I look!)

My Ride Track

The View From Chanctonbury Ring – Highest point of the route

Although the temperature wasn’t perfect, the lovely clear skies did provide some stunning views and the South Downs really have a lot to offer with beautiful open scenery and delightful woodlands.

The course itself is a mixture of road, bridleway and narrow track with much of it following the South Downs Way.

No matter where we were on the route, the trail surfaces were all very rideable with no nasty surprises, making the the climbs relatively easy and the descents a great deal of fun.

At the Findon Rest Stop – 20KM Point

I’d like to offer a huge thank you to St Barnabas House and Chestnut Tree House for putting so much effort into organising this great event and Marmalade MTB for the huge amount of effort they put into checking and signing the route in the few days leading up to the event itself.

Click the logos to find out more about these organisations

Next year? I think I’m up for 60KM 😁

Support Us

Event though the event is over, if you’d like to support me and these great charities, there’s still time to head on over to my JustGiving page and make a small donation to help us out.

From £1 to £50, every penny counts and will be very gratefully received!

Total Donations So Far

Hit The Downs MTB Is Almost Here!

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Coming Up

When I posted back in June that I’d be in the South Downs, taking part in the Hit The Downs MTB event to raise much needed funds for St Barnabas House and Chestnut Tree House in West Sussex, it seemed like such a long way off.

Just a mere few weeks later and the weekend has arrived!

After finishing up with providing some Race Timing Services to a great event tonight (more on that later), I’ll be loading up the van and then getting some well earned sleep, ready to head down South early tomorrow morning so that I can make a weekend of it.

The Challenge

I’m going to be riding 30Km across the South Downs, starting at 9am on Sunday taking us along some of the beautiful roads, trails and bridleways in this stunning countryside.

If you’d like to support me and these great charities, there’s still time to head on over to my JustGiving page and make a small donation to help us out.

From £1 to £50, every penny counts and will be very gratefully received!

Total Donations So Far

Northfield View Sustainable Travel Event

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Suffolk Cycling Events

Yesterday afternoon, I was delighted to be able to attend the first Sustainable Travel Event at Northfield View in Stowmarket.

Northfield View is a relatively new housing development in Suffolk being built by Taylor Wimpey. With phase 2 now fully completed and phase 3 still in the works, one of the major features of the development is the incorporation of sustainable travel into the estate design.

To promote this, The Way To Go Suffolk organised a community orientated event to promote different travel options in the area. They were joined by We Are Cycling UK, Suffolk Roadsafe, Suffolk Police, Outspoken Cycles and Cannon Consulting Engineers, who are responsible for the highways and travel design for the estate.

I attended as part of Suffolk Roadsafe with Way To Go Suffolk and our new representative from We Are Cycling UK, promoting the availability of our FREE Family and 1-to-1 Adult Cycling Sessions and more general cycling advice to local residents.

Suffolk Police were on hand to carry out security marking on cycles while Outspoken Cycles were kept very busy performing cycle maintenance checks and making repairs to those that needed it.

Cannon Consulting Engineers had current sustainable travel routes on display, as well as the in depth plans for Phase 3 of the development which brings together all of the hard work they’ve done so far.

This was an excellent opportunity to promote all things sustainable and it was great to be part of such a positive event.

Hit The Downs MTB Event

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Coming Up

On 17th July I’m going to be in the South Downs, taking part in the Hit The Downs MTB event to raise much needed funds for St Barnabas House and Chestnut Tree House in Sussex.

St Barnabas House provide palliative hospice care for adults and Chestnut Tree House provide care for children and their families across East and West Sussex.

The Challenge

I’m going to be riding 30Km across the South Downs, starting at 7am on the 17th July and I’m looking to raise £100 to support these great charities!

Please Help Me Out

Whilst I’m all to aware that things are tight for us all at the moment, if you can, please head on over to my JustGiving page and make a donation of any size to help me reach my £100 sponsorship target.

From £1 to £50, every penny counts and will be very gratefully received!

Total Donations So Far

Bury St. Edmunds Cycling Activity Day

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Suffolk Cycling Events

Last weekend, I was delighted to attend the first Suffolk Cycling Open Day of 2022, hosted by The Way To Go Suffolk and very well supported by We Are Cycling UK.

I attended the day with one of my colleagues on behalf of Suffolk Roadsafe to have a chat or provide advice on Family Cycling and other related subjects. We were also available to provide some additional assistance for the Led Ride into Bury St. Edmunds Town Centre towards the end of the day.

As well as The Way To Go Suffolk, We Are Cycling UK and Suffolk Roadsafe, there were a number of other teams, agencies and companies available at the event.

Bury St. Edmunds Rickshaw were present, along with their new EcoCarriers service, offering free rides on their awesome rickshaw cycles, while Bury St. Edmunds Police were doing free postcode marking to help prevent cycle theft and make it easier to get bikes returned to their rightful owners should the worst happen.

Outspoken Training were providing mechanical checks and services and had their bicycle powered scalextric so that we could have a fun (if slightly unusual) race with each other.

There was also a fantastic range of e-bikes available to try from local companies Eezybike and Spoke and Motor, which a great many of us took the opportunity to have a go on around the event area.

After we’d all had our fill of checking out some of the awesome e-bikes, cycles and activities on offer, it was time for our Led Ride into Bury St. Edmunds town centre to have a very enjoyable cup of tea and a scone.

We Are Cycling UK‘s Suffolk Representative, Nik did a fantastic job in making use of the local cycling infrastructure to lead the ride with the two of us from Suffolk Roadsafe providing some additional assistance to keep us all together and raise visibility to other road users where needed.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in making the day so enjoyable and I hope to see some of you at future events like this!

May 2022 Events

Posted on by Ross Spencer in Coming Up

With a pretty packed April now behind me, May is looking to be an even bigger month with lots of exciting events happening through the month.

1st May – Race Timing @ The Heritage Coastal Run

Off to Thorpeness to start my month at the Rotary Heritage Coast Run (Half Marathon, 10K and 10K Canicross)

8th May – Course Director @ The Woodbridge 10K
Visit the Woodbridge Shufflers 10K Website

The 8th May sees me returning a little more to my roots in supporting the Woodbridge Shufflers 10K as their Course Director.

14th May – Race Timing @ The Ipswich Twilight 5K
Ipswich Twilight Road Races Website

The start of a fairly busy weekend and I’ll be heading off to Ipswich for an evening 5K at the Ipswich Twilight 5K

15th May – Race Timing @ The Mammoth Marathon
Visit the Mammoth Marathon website

After my visit to Ipswich on Saturday, I’ll be off to Sea Palling on the Norfolk Coast on Sunday for the Mammoth Marathon!

22nd May – Race Timing @ The Sunny Hunny Triathlon
Visit the Maldon Mud Race website

The last of my working events this month, heading off again to the Norfolk Coast to race time the Sunny Hunny Triathlon

29th May – Participating in the Norwich 100 Cycle Ride
Visit the Maldon Mud Race website

Strictly speaking a weekend off so I’m going to be participating in the Norwich 100 from Bike Events, in aid of The Big C Cancer Charity.

Have a fantastic May and enjoy everything that you get up to. Hopefully the weather will stay good for us all!