FAQ
Just drop us an email colvelo@outlook.com or join us for a ride to find out more.
Our standard weekly offering is a club ride on both Saturday and Sundays. Saturday rides tend to be in the region of 70-150km in length at a moderate pace, whereas Sunday’s “Coffee and Canvas” rides are 50-70km, and slightly more relaxed. Unless stated otherwise, Saturday rides depart at 0830 from Crouch Street Bakes, and Sundays are 0900 from Caffe Nero, Culver St. Strava is where you can get all the details for that week’s riding.
In addition we run 5 “Monument” rides throughout the summer which total around 1300km. These are our tribute to the biggest pro cycling races and see us traverse every corner of East Anglia. We see these rides as the pinnacle of our club riding!
What governs all of our club runs however, is an emphasis on the social aspect – plenty of chatter, and good coffee stops. We pride ourselves on welcoming all-comers, and that is evident on the range of bikes on show at the cafe before every ride, from carbon weapons, all-steel tourers and fixed gears.
This is a misconception we always have with new riders. While the Monument rides are central to our season, there is ample place for somebody who is happy with something more moderate, although you may get the odd playful nudge towards a big challenge!
Not at all! We have loads of social events, from monthly mid-week curry nights to screenings of Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix at Queen Street Brewhouse. We’re super lucky that still being a reasonably small club, there remains a feeling of being an extended group of pals.
We also host at least one “bike jumble” every year, where you can come and buy/swap/haggle for, cycle components and spares.
In addition we also have links to Colchester Bike Kitchen, a community project that encourages punters to fix their own bikes and Re-cycle, the bicycle charity in Wormingford.
Again, being a smaller club makes us flexible and democratic. As such, if you want to arrange a ride, social or event – shout up! In the past few years we’ve had members going off at their own tangents with clubmates, from camping on the beach at Aldeburgh, Festive500 groups and the “100 club” – an annual (friendly!) competition to rack up the most 100km rides. This flexibility is unique and we’re always open to feedback to give members the best value for their membership fee.
Our annual membership fees are £25 for first claim members, and £10 for second claim. We’re pretty sure we offer the best value in the area in terms of £/km!
We always suggest you come along for a couple of rides to get a feel for the club before becoming a paid-up member.
We don’t run anything official during the week, but groups of members regularly go out midweek on an ad-hoc basis.
Not at all. Since the early part of 2017 we’ve embraced the rise of the Gravel scene. A great way to get away from traffic and explore new terrain, we’ve been running gravel rides alongside our regular weekly club rides ever since
In May 2018 we ran our inaugural “GraVelo” Monument; 180km of local tracks and byways, and in the true spirit of ColVelo GraVelo we of course finished at a beer festival. Perfect! A committed bunch have been making trips away over the last few summers to tackle gravel riding all over the UK. Shout up at the next ride and its likely someone will be able to fill you in.
As well as regular email updates from the club, all members are invited to join our Facebook Messenger group, or if that’s not your thing then we also have a members-only Strava group. However, the best way to be the first to find out what’s coming up is to get yourself on a club ride and have a chat!