Bob Kemp Memorial Ride

  • Starts: Saturday 13 June 2015 5:00 am
  • Ride leader/Event organiser: John Rosbottom
  • Category:
  • Route grade: C - Moderate route
  • Ride to elevenses grade: D - Flattish route
At: The Spring Centre, Havant

Address: East Street, Havant, P09 1BS

The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre web site is here.

More details and map.

Contact us about this event

Send an email to ride leader/event organiser: John Rosbottom.

Map

Next Saturday (13 June) our regular Saturday club ride is extended by an early start; that's Very Early, as in 5am at the Spring Centre. However there are opportunities to join the ride en route (see below).

The Bob Kemp Memorial ride is an imperial century that is intended (like all our rides) to be a fun day out and to provide riders who may not have ridden 100 miles in a day with an opportunity to sample long distance cycling on a well supported and relatively easy ride. This edition of the ride, at 113 miles, is a full value 100 miles, enabling us to visit some great places following a very lovely route.

The 5am start at the Spring Centre in Havant means we will enjoy some exceptionally quiet roads for the first few hours and will arrive in Salisbury in time for a second breakfast 🙂

If you enjoy typical club rides of around 80 to 100 km and feel OK at the finish then there is no doubt you are capable of managing a 100 mile ride. The finish will be late afternoon as usual. Bring a bit of food as there are few eating opportunities on the way out to Salisbury (especially at the time we will be riding), but later in the day there are good eating places in Stockbridge and Winchester. If the weather forecast is sunny bring sun tan cream. It's very important to bring a water bottle and a basic toolkit. But the most important thing of all is to be comfortable on whatever bike you use.

You don't need to worry that the pace will be too fast; the ride is more about energy conservation than speed. I am seeking volunteers to act as back marker and co-leader. The back marker plays the crucial role of keeping an eye on the back of the group in case of problems and enabling the leader to quickly check the group is still together. The co-leader leads from the front from time to time so that I can drop back to chat to people and check that everybody is happy. If you would like to volunteer for either of these roles please  send me a message, or just phone me.

There are a few changes to this year's edition of the ride. Traditionally we breakfast at Tescos just on the edge of town, but this year we are breakfasting in the town centre at the lovely Kings Head Inn that provides a really nice breakfast. You can save time by checking the menu below so you will be ready to order immediately we arrive! (Click the image to see a larger version.)

KingsHeadMenu

Out of town is by way of riverside tracks leading us to the ancient hill fort and rotten borough of Old Sarum, and from there we head back East to lunch at Stockbridge on the River Test. You can get a decent lunch at Lillies, or bring sandwiches for an al fresco lunch in very pleasant surroundings. After lunch we follow some beautiful lanes through Kings Somborne to Winchester for a spot of tea by the cathedral before heading home initially following another river, the Itchen, before turning East back to Havant. Traditionally we have tea in Alresford, but this year the closure of the road into Kingsworthy makes Winchester the more practical teastop.

We really do want to encourage everybody, and especially beginners, to enjoy a longer ride, so set your alarm for an early start on Saturday and make the most of the long day before the nights start drawing in again.

BKM 2015 edition
BKM 2015 edition

Above is an outline image of our route. If you want to see more detail click on the image to link to the mapometer web site where you can zoom and scroll around the route, and download a gpx file for your GPS device if you wish.

We shall stop for 5 minutes at the public toilets in Station Road, Wickham (about 17km or 1 hour from Havant) so that more Westerley based riders can join us without having to trek to Havant for the 5am start. (Please let me know if you plan to join us in Wickham so I can watch out for you.) Other nodal points for even more Westerley riders are the bridge on Poles Lane under the M3 (37km / 2 hours), or Hursley village (43km / 2h20m from Havant), although we won't be stopping here. Again if you would like to join at one of these points please let me know.

The aim is to get back to Havant around 5pm, so we should have a full 12 hours well spent at an average speed of 9.4 mph with an estimated riding speed of 11.9 mph (assuming 2.5 hours off the bikes). For those of you who think in metric units that's a riding speed of 19.15 kph; or if you do it by feel it's a 'very comfortable' pace 🙂

STOP PRESS:

  • The pollen forecast is high - bring the drugs of your choice.
  • I have prepared an experimental routesheet for the ride. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I would be grateful if somebody could compare theory and practice and check the accuracy of the routesheet for me.

About Saturday and Wednesday rides

Rides from Havant with stops for elevenses, lunch and sometimes tea. If you're unable to keep up or have a mechanical problem, someone will be available to help you - although we obviously cannot guarantee to solve all problems.

Riders are free to join and leave the ride at various points. Some ride directly to the elevenses stop.

Click either heading below to find out more about Wednesday and Saturday rides:

Wednesday rides

Wednesday rides are the largest of our rides and can provide a range of options to riders. We often split into multiple groups at the start, for example:

  • A fast group that takes a longer and/or hillier route to the elevenses stop
  • A ride which takes a more direct route to the elevenses stop at a moderate pace
  • An elevenses ride comprised of riders going only to elevenses; the elevenses ride will have its own ride leader and might go to a different destination if the route to the main elevenses destination is long and/or hilly

On Wednesdays it is highly likely that there will be several riders coming back to the Havant area from the elevenses stop - although they might not include a PCTC ride leader. If that is what you'd like to do, please consult the ride leader at the start to ensure someone knows and is able to bring you back.

In addition, some rides split after elevenses to go at different paces or to alternate destinations. These are usually announced during the ride briefing. Please ask if you are unsure about the options available.

Saturday rides

Saturday rides are (usually) much smaller than Wednesday rides. As a result they offer fewer options for rides but more flexibility for routes and destinations.

The rides are often shown as 'informal' meaning there is no prescribed ride leader. Unless weather is particularly adverse, however, they always go ahead at the stated time and start point. We try to keep to the suggested elevenses destination to allow for people who want to ride directly there.

The lunch destination does change occasionally but we will always take views of riders into account. In particular, if you join a ride because you think you can manage the distance/hilliness, we would not substitute an alternative if it meant you couldn't join the ride.

If you want to ride with us but only to elevenses and need someone to help you with the route back, please use our general enquiry form to let us know in advance of the ride so we can try to arrange something for you.

This article describes what you should consider bringing with you on one of these rides.

2 thoughts on “Bob Kemp Memorial Ride

  1. Anyone thinking about using the rain forecast as an excuse to lay in on Saturday - be warned that the Met Office's forecast now suggests that it won't be raining. Or hailing, or thundering. Please re-set your alarm clocks appropriately.

    1. +1 to that. If you've never ridden at dawn, give it a go. Apart from the wonderful daylight and the dawn chorus we have the opportunity to ride on roads we would normally avoid; some hellish A roads can be transformed into quiet, well-surfaced routes with plenty of elbow room.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *



Replies you enter here get sent to every member that has registered an interest in this type of ride/event. If you want to ask the event organiser a question or let them know something that is not of general interest, please use the 'Contact us about this event' link towards the top of this page to avoid creating unnecessary emails. Thanks.

We have had a lot of spam comments, so each comment now has to be moderated before it can be shown. It can therefore take some time before your comment appears. There is no delay, however, if you use the 'Contact us about this event' link. If your comment does not appear here after some time has elapsed, it is probably because it was deemed to be not of general interest.



You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong> . Alternatively, if you have an id for the site, log in to remove restrictions on HTML.