Champagne Trip 2026
27 of us headed to the Cote des Bar in early June for a week of cycling in the gentle and scenic countryside of this lesser known champagne region. Having arrived by various means, most of us checked into the Hotel Lac d’Orient in Mesnil-saint-Pere as our base for the week while a few parked up at the lakeside camp site.
The hotel was perfect for our group, comfortable rooms, convenient, quiet location, and tasty food with the benefit of as much wine as you wanted included with dinner! An additional bonus was the wildlife with long-eared owls by the lake and house martins nesting outside our rooms. The weather was cool, sunny and mostly dry. Most of the rides made use of part of the extensive network of well maintained and quiet cycle paths that circle the lake.
Sunday
A sunny, scenic ride through villages and vineyards to the small town of […]
2026 Jim Woods Memorial Ride
The 5th edition of the Jim Woods Memorial Audax ride took place on Sunday 12th July. This year, Alton Cycling Club paired with leading local charity, Cardiac Health, which benefited from the money raised.
The route was 108km from Alton, through beautiful Hampshire countryside via the Itchen, Test and Dever valleys. There was a welcome break for coffee and cake at the Waitrose Leckford Estate in the picturesque Cherry Tree Café and finally back to Alton for welcome refreshments at Cardiac Health’s Alton HQ.
It was a year for records. A record number, 93 cyclists entered the event and despite the extremely hot weather, 75 started. A record amount of over £1,400 was raised for Cardiac Health.
Mike Hayward has his own reasons for supporting the ride:
“The new base at Cardiac Health Alton for this 5th running of the Jim Woods Memorial 100k Audax ride worked really well. Ample free all-day parking very […]
2026 TT Series – Round 3
The third in our evening TT series was held this last Thursday, the 30th July, on our 5-mile long Candover Valley course. Numbers were down to only eight riders for this event, with six from the club; Lucy Elliott was our only female representative. Conditions seemed good though times seemed a little down on the previous event.
Lucy Elliott took 1st place in the lady’s competition, albeit with no competition, with a 14’03” run, 12’13” on handicap.
Competition was close in the open category: Chris Palmer claimed 1st place with an 11’58”, with Alton’s Andy Chapman just two seconds behind in second place, with a 12’00” run, and ACC’s James Meakin just a few seconds further behind for third place on 12’13”.
In the club handicap competition, Guy Henshaw came out on top with his 11’13”, with Andy in second place (11’24”) and James in third with 11’37”.
Our thanks go to Mike and […]
Happy 90th Birthday Alan Jacob!
We were so pleased to celebrate Alan’s 90th birthday with a special cake made by Christine Lavender, celebrating Alan’s long history of cycling and racing. Alan is our club’s President, and is regularly out on his bike, including our Sunday 30 milers. Thank you Alan for all you do for our club.
2026 TT Series – Alton Cycling Club TT Championship
The Club time trial championship held this last Sunday (5th July) on our HCC286 course attracted fourteen riders from the club plus a further four non-members, with Michael Harrison and Alison Hitchock of North Hants RC returning after last year’s event for another go. Ages of the riders ranged from 22 to, our own, John Heath at 80! Numbers were down a bit on last year’s 26 riders with the number of riders from the club dropping but remaining with over a quarter of the participants being female.
Conditions appeared to be excellent for the event with a light cross/tail wind and lovely warm temperatures. Of those who rode last year, all put in a faster run this year, some significantly so. Freja, Lucy and Nigel Hooker all knocked over a minute off from their last year’s times. New member, Karine, took on a TT for the first time, minutes after […]
2026 TT Series – Round 2
Round 2 of our four race TT series was held last Thursday, the 18th June. Conditions were great, warm (but not roasting) sunshine and a gentle tail wind which led to some excellent times. The summer TT series is run on our 5-mile long Candover Valley course, and this round attracted 14 riders, including five non-ACC. Sadly this time we had no female participants: where are you ladies?
In the open contest, Alton CCs own Jamie Allen claimed the 1st place with a great time of 10’53”, that’s an average of over 27mph, with Chris Palmer (no club) second again with an 11’39” run, setting a new PB, and our own Guy Henshaw just a few seconds behind for third place on 11’52”. Andy Chapman just missing out on the third-place spot by 4”
Ian Ransom came out top again in the club handicap competition with an improved time of 10’34”, beating […]
