NFCC Weekly Round-up

Weekly Round-up: 29 Mar 2026

30th March 2026 Latest news

All the latest news, events, and results for NFCC Members from the previous week of two-wheeled adventures…

Gravel’n’Grogg

Back to the fan-favourite West route for this week’s Tuesday Evening Gravel’n’Grogg with four riders just about making the 1800 start in Lyndhurst. It’s always good when the night starts with a trouble-free ride from Lyndhurst to Brock, and even better when that continues for the whole ride. Picking up an additional three riders at the halfway checkpoint, it was a seven-man peloton for the remainder, with Stu’s recently-found strength leading the group for most of the route.

Fortunately, the group made the whole route this week with a wrong turn or any mechanical issues – nothing to do with the absence of both Mike and Barry, honest – but it was the Forestry Commission who threw a spanner in the works this week. The usual trail we take from the Canadian Memorial back towards Lyndhurst was obstructed with bridge works, but nothing a bit of trailside magic couldn’t resolve – remember boys, what goes on tour, stays on tour! Plenty of yarns with refreshments at the Nondescripts Club and hope shared over the upcoming lighter evenings, before a dark and chilly ride home. Cheers all

London Lockdown

The London Lockdown is a fairly new ride that has been getting bigger since, well the 2020 lockdown. It’s a 100 mile, through the night ride, starting and ending in central London (Victoria station), through the London boroughs, eventually making the shape of a ‘Corona Virus’ (plus syringe). Only a minimum £10 entry which goes straight to charity, plus optional £20 for custom casquette. This year, the Friday 9.30pm grande depart merged with a Critical Mass event, so there was pumping music, flags, smoke and a distinct smell of wacky baccy as 375 riders made their way out. Weight of numbers made for slow but steady progress for the first 5 miles but CM held up all the traffic at junctions and traffic lights were strictly optional (London rules). Eventually CM peeled off and the field strung out along the now deserted London roads, speed was mainly ‘Goldilocks’ pace thanks to plenty of pot holes and never ending speed bumps. At 2am, the route conveniently took in a 24hr McDonalds and as mass of riders descended in for a welcome fuel up! Plenty of amazing sights and landmarks kept us all alert as the night slowly merged into dawn and morning traffic began to build up. And Daylight was all around and we made our way down The Mall for the last few K’s. So spent most of Saturday asleep but would defiantly recommend this to everyone next year looking for something fun and a bit different.
– Rod H.

Saturday Club Ride

A strong turnout this week for a 108Km hilly ride to the north and west of the area. Not much bare flesh on show at the start as there was a cold wind that stayed with us for most of the day. Only Phill B bared his legs at the depart. We did welcome back Axum for his first club ride of the year and look forward to seeing to his new club jersey with three pips on his shoulders. Congratulations to him. With the lifting of the winter diktat for mudguards most riders took advantage to bring out their summer bikes but bouquets to Graham, Mike, Phill and Neil who still kept their mudguards on. We headed out in two pelotons with plans to meet at The Potting Shed for coffee. Group One, which normally splinters post coffee said adios to Dan at Bolderwood and James M at Hamptworth, so they were a bit depleted before we were even a quarter of the way round. We also picked up Coffee Stop Richard at Milkham who sensibly declined an offer to add to the numbers in Group One.

The section between Lover and The Potting Shed was a bit savage with repeated climbs and not much recovery but it did mean we had done most of the heavy lifting by halfway. Another bouquet has to go to Smithy. We descended into Wood Green with an immediate climb to Godshill. There is a short cut called Brook Lane which he has historically taken to avoid unnecessary hills but this week he eschewed his customary cheat route and did every metre of the ride’s climbs.

The ride continued as planned until the bottom of Blissford Hill where the planned route was the easy way towards Hampton Ridge. Here, like a dog that has just seen a rabbit, Matthew K saw the 25% sign and couldn’t resist. The other Group One riders not wishing to have their manhood questioned felt compelled to follow suit. All made it comfortably of course. The Group Two riders who are generally older and wiser took the sensible route around the Muur de Blissford and arrived for coffee ten minutes after the first group as planned.

At the coffee stop I am pleased to report that there was no repeat on Bandanagate from a couple of weeks back. Both Graham and Rupert’s handlers have sewn their names into their accessories so there was no danger of a repeat performance of missing buffs. Post coffee we got back on the bikes, and it felt about 10C colder and the wind was really icy. It made us look forward to the first climb at Rockbourne to get warm. Matthew K was definitely getting warm. His attempts to take off his leg warmers whilst cycling only ended up in an undignified Nora Batty impression (ask your grandparents kids!). Having watched the pros take theirs off, pull them over their cleats all whilst maintaining 40KMh Matt thought he could do the same. Eventually he adopted the amateur method of sitting on the side of the road and entertaining his co riders with his own form of yoga.

With everyone well turned out and a lack of mechanicals, the barrel this week has to be a mea culpa from the ride leader. Not one but two errors in the GPX file this week. Luckily, everyone has been dealing with this type of ineptitude for many years and carried on with what Barry meant and not what he had plotted. Heading up towards Holmsley Airfield, Rupert opined that it was good that the big black cloud had missed us. Seconds later we were pelted by a hailstorm, so this weeks Michael Fish award goes to Rupert! Approaching Burley Group Two was joined by Phill B who was overwhelmingly tempted by the option of Second Coffee Club at Shappen’s in Burley. This created a final fissure in the remaining group, half the group went for coffee and half realised that this meant listening to the enlightening repartee between Phill and Graham as a captive audience, so a reduced peloton carried on back to Brock in blissful silence!Matthew KA tough day with a decent number of hills and a cold wind that was defintely stronger than we thought it would be. The usual camaraderie, well turned-out bikes and tight group riding. Extra kudos to Axum who clocked up a very impressive century ride.
Thanks all as ever to everyone and hopefully we are now into summer riding.
– Barry.

Sunday Club Ride

Another good turnout this week, plenty for three groups and Graham’s coveted middle (Goldilocks) group. A welcome return of Andrew, Rich B, and Neale. It was nice to have Chris join us for his first Sunday ride too. Clocks went forward overnight and nobody seemed to forget, although there were a few later than usual arrivals at the start. The route was a bit longer and a little hillier than usual, including a little extension loop and the rarely ascended Bramble Hill. Thankfully, reports of significant gusts were greatly exaggerated and a nice persistent headwind was all we needed to contend with. This was uniformly decided as a ride highlight, especially on the runway section towards Bolderwood. Group 1 rolled out promptly and joined the queue at the level crossing. Groups 2 and 3 wisely took the Balmer Lawn alternative and got away cleanly. It took Group 1 some time to close the gap, which at least gave Ed a decent warm-up before he latched on to Group 1. Group 3, meanwhile, had its own dynamics to manage: Neil warming down after yesterday’s ride, David taking it easy ahead of a three-day race in Ibiza next weekend, and Budge, who, by Jayne’s accounts, had substituted rocket fuel for his morning tea. A mention for Rod, who completed the London lockdown ride on Friday, chalking up a century and still turning up on Sunday, chapeau. A solid ride, well done Rod. As is customary, coffees were doubled, and everyone attempted to make it home before the weather turned. A pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning, in excellent company as always.
– James A.

Equinox Omniloop 24hr 3D TT

With a change from Audaxing last weekend I took on an ultra race, Equinox Omniloop 24hr 3D TT. 3 different loops to ride in the Cotswolds. Hilly long, 116km worth 9 pts, rolling medium 60km worth 3 pts and flat short 18km worth 1 pts. Ride any loop in any order and accumulate as many points as possible. Weather was fantastic for this time of year, dry, blue sky and light winds. Start time was 10am, I opted to kick things off with a couple of short loops then straight into a Medium loop, which was lovely rolling route with only one climb to note. Quick cafe stop at 100km then joined the long loop which went deep into the Cotswolds countryside, this was a more testing loop with plenty of climbing and one particularly long steep 17% climb out of Winchcombe. On the return to HQ, the temperature dropped and darkness descended. Back at the HQ around 8pm with 216km done. Changed into warmer clothes for the cold night to come, rested and refuelled then headed back out into the cold night. I had intended to do a second long loop but decided to stick to the other loops as likely not as cold and closer to HQ if needed. Ticked off another 2 short and 1 medium.

Back to HQ, now 3:40am 317km, 15hrs done. Fatigue was really setting in now. More food and coffee then back out. Some opted to sleep for a while, with hindsight a quick nap would have been a good idea. With temperatures hovering around zero I managed 4 more short loops then feeling completely knackered limped back to HQ. Now 5:40am 392km and almost 20hrs. More food, coffee and defrosted before heading out again for a final go. Headed back to more short loops along with most others clocking up final points. My renewed energy after my stop only lasted a few miles then back to plodding along in a sleep deprived state. With birds chirping the dawn soon made its appearance and the end was in sight. I managed another 3 short laps then grovelled back to the HQ to the smell of bacon sarnies and called it a day at 23hrs 20min, not enough time for another lap. Total distance was 450km. I totalled 26 points and around 15 place (not finalised yet) out of 40 in the male solo category. All in all a cracking event, well run. Some lessons learned, should have taken at least a short nap in the early hours plus for more points would have been better to complete the big loop earlier then start a second long loop before dark.
Maybe next time ?
– Ray C.

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