Thursday Club ride – 16th July 2026 Starting from Whatton | 44 miles | 1900ft elevation | Cafe stop: Coffee Barn Buckminster By popular request, here is the missing ride report from yesterday’s ride to The Coffee Barn at Buckminster. We left Whatton as one group and (new phrase for me) “tapped it out” in the direction of Harby – the hill loomed large and it was agreed we would let natural selection dictate the groups formation going forward from that point. Glorious sunshine and a stiff breeze both helped and hindered as usual. Service wasn’t quite as good as usual at the cafe with some long waits for drinks & food. Still a firm summer favourite tho. To summarise (as I’m off to the pub) it was another great turnout with everyone working together as usual. I promised on Brownies honour not to mention any wardrobe malfunctions so I won’t Thank you to Jackie Swann for the route.   #VBCC #Ridersmaketherides

Saturday Club ride – 18th July 2026 Starting from Bingham Market square | 52 miles | 2200ft elevation | Cafe stop: Hill top farm, Asfordby Super Saturday club ride, with gilets the dress code of the day as temperatures returned to normal with cloud cover at the start. With 18 riders we agreed to split into 2 comfort groups, with the proposed shorty’s deciding upon the longer route. Great to see Simon Whitman back out as he is on his recovery plan, for part of the route – welcome back Sir we have missed you. So off we set on a Dave Sparrow (aka lumpy) route to Hill Top, to be fair whilst it was lumpy the roads were quiet and new to most of us. The breakaway of 10 riders were off up the road from the square as soon as the starter waved the flag, and despite the lumps the pace was strong. The group was strengthened at the top of Stathern when the smiling face of Sarah Proctor greeted us. We pushed onto the cafe which is always great, got our card stamped and I luckily got the freebie  We sat outside and there was a breeze, when the Peleton arrived everyone glared at Dave Sparrow for his character building route … Donna Ablitt scored the scones 10/10 big, warm and crunchy top, soft butter and nice jam  On the way home Tom Pidcock (aka Duncan Harwood) kept the pace high, worried at one point a West Bridgford group would make the catch  Anyway when Tom called riders through Nick Honey and Kevin Everton took turns on the front. Dave and Donna’s group had a cow experience near Langar on the way home  Back into Bingham and the post ride debrief at Gilt was good – the milk shakes went down well  Great to see Kevin Deacon, Claire Necchi, George Addinall out today, along with Sarah Proctor and Michelle Oldfield. Hope you all enjoyed the ride today, there was a smashing vibe to the day  #VBCC#Ridersmaketherides