In this edition:
The AGM
Christmas Party
Spinning
Mallorca
Green+ weekend - Dorchester
The AGM
This year’s AGM will take place at 7.30pm at the Methodist United Church Hall, Pickwick Road, Corsham on Monday 7th December. This year we have decided to present the club awards at the Christmas meal and so the AGM will be solely for the required administrative and constitutional matters. As always we are looking for new faces on the committee. If you are interested in helping to run our club please speak to a current committee member about what’s involved.
Christmas Meal & Club Awards Night
Join us for a fantastic evening of celebration at our Annual Christmas Meal on Friday 11th December at 7 pm in the Corsham Cricket Club. This year promises to be extra special, with a delicious meal, music by Pipe Dream, dancing, and, for the very first time, the presentation of our Club Awards. It's a great opportunity to celebrate the season, recognise achievements across the club, and enjoy a memorable night with friends and cycling mates. Don't miss out on what promises to be a festive and unforgettable evening!
Price £20 per head
Please RSVP by Friday 20 November 2026, link to register in the club email update.
Club awards: Voting papers will be sent out early next month. In the mean time you might want to give some thought to who you want to vote for as Riders of the Year and of course, your Garlic Award nomination. The Garlic Award goes to someone who said or did something they wish they hadn’t! Do tell!!
Spin Sessions
Spin Sessions return on Tuesday 10 November at the Springfield Centre, Corsham
These sessions are a great way to build or maintain your cycling fitness over the winter while enjoying some great music.
When: Tuesdays, 7:30pm to 8:30pm
Cost: £5 per session, with any surplus donated to charity.
Sessions are open to current club members only. If you would like to take part, you must register using the form below. Places are limited, and a fair allocation system will be used if demand exceeds capacity.
Please find a registration link in the email version of this newsletter - further details will be shared once registration has closed.
Mallorca 2027
With thirty club members expressing an interest in the proposed trip to Mallorca the decision is to proceed as detailed below. More details to follow with the aim of taking deposits in January.
The trip will be in the first week of October, likely from Saturday 2nd to Saturday 9th.
James Lye has kindly offered to organise the trip for us through Stuart Hall cycling.
Approx £770 per person for the week, half board, based on two sharing a room. We think the single supplement will be around £100, but not confirmed yet.
Includes transfers & guides.
Bike hire is £30/day for mechanical groupset, £40 for Di2, with £25 insurance available for the week.
Flights will be extra. We’ll recommend a flight from Bristol and you’ll need to book your own flights.
Three routes to choose from each day with something to suit riders in our pace groups from Green+ to Red.
Fantastic roads, views and wall to wall sunshine*
*usually
Green Plus Weekend 2026 – Dorchester
Lisa, Vicky and Chris tested the planned 30-mile route for day 2 and pronounced it to be tickety-boo: scenic route, smooth roads and a super café. However, there was an enormous ‘BUT’ – those roads and that café would be closed on the Sunday of our weekend because of the Weymouth Ironman competition. Back to the drawing board!
A few weeks later a cheerful crew gathered in Dorchester for the fifth Green Plus Away Weekend. We headed out on a 51-mile route through the Dorset countryside. The first climb was rewarded with super views over Weymouth Harbour and the Isle of Portland. The route rolled through pretty villages, farmland and woodland eventually arriving at the first café stop at Athelhampton House. Amply refuelled we headed east for Wareham. One group were refused entry to Laurence of Arabia’s house despite furious brandishing of National Trust membership cards. The scenery changed as we moved from farmland to heathland and from winding lanes to long straight roads.
As we turned west after leaving Wareham, it became clear it was a ‘headwind home’ ride. Fortunately, further refuelling was soon available at the second café stop at the Orchard Café in the Holmes Garden Centre. There was a slight delay as Nigel had a ‘it wasn’t flat when I locked it up’ puncture at the cafe. We then headed back to Dorchester through a bit of light drizzle and met up again in the buzzing Brewery Square in the evening for even more food.
After a cool start, day two’s 25 miler warmed up with a combination of sunshine and climbing. After passing through several ‘Winterbournes’, we topped out at Hardy’s Monument for superb views over Chesil Beach and Portland Bill.
More ups and downs brought us to the delightful Upwey Wishing Well Tea Rooms for morning refreshments in the sheltered garden. The last climb of the day brought us back to Dorchester where we made use of quiet roads and cycle paths to ride to the unique suburb of Poundbury. Almost at the end, we relaxed in the sun outside Finca coffee shop reflecting on a most enjoyable weekend of cycling, sightseeing and socialising.
Thanks all round to everyone who took part, especially to Lisa for sorting the admin and organising the meal, to Chris for leading and to Margaret for helping to reconnoitre the day 2 route and declaring it appropriate for Green Plus riders.
The Green Plus Weekend 2026: The Stats
Day 1: 51.1 miles (82.2km) with 2223ft (678m) of ascent
Day 2: 24.8 miles (39.9km) with 1754ft (535m) of ascent
Number of ‘Puddles’ on day 1 route: 4 (Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Affpuddle, Bryant’s Puddle)
Number of ‘Winterbournes’ on day 2 route: 4 (Herringstone, St Martin, Steepleton, Abbas)
Number of punctures: 2
Number of people required for first puncture repair: At least 4 (1 holding bike; 1 removing and replacing tube; at least 2 getting the tyre back on; in addition, several puncture repair consultants offered advice at each stage of the process)
Number of people required for second puncture repair: 1 (riding bike while tube sealed then re-inflating)
Number of unexpected bonuses: 2 (The quality of the road surfaces which, with few exceptions were excellent; the Weymouth Ironman leading to a beautiful if slightly more challenging route for day 2)