A Spring Adventure in Dénia
The Alton Cycling Club’s annual spring pilgrimage took a small group of members to the sun-drenched roads of Dénia, Spain, from March 29th to April 5th, 2025. This highly-anticipated trip promised a week of challenging rides, stunning Mediterranean vistas, and camaraderie. In total, the group covered in excess of 400km of riding with 5000m of elevation over the 6 days of riding.
Dénia: A Cyclist’s Paradise
Dénia’s reputation as a top cycling destination is well-earned. The area provides:
- Varied Terrain: The riders enjoyed a mix of coastal plains and demanding climbs, including the famous Coll de Rates, allowing cyclists of all abilities to find their rhythm.
- Ideal Conditions: The spring climate in Dénia offers perfect cycling weather, with warm, sunny days and gentle breezes – although the club encountered some strong coastal wind son the last day on the back of Storm Nuria.
- Pro-Level Routes: The club members rode on roads frequently used […]
Annual Dinner 2025
In March, we held our Annual Dinner and Awards evening. It was the first one that I’d been to as the new Chair of Alton Cycling Club (following Guy Henshaw’s impressive 5 year chairmanship!). We organised a fantastic evening with Kelvin on the saxophone to kick the evening off, tasty catering and great service from Anne at Plan B, and then Alan Jacob, our new President, handed out special thank yous and trophies. The Alton Cycling Club trophy winners from the 2024 Hill Climb (that tough long Brockham Hill Lane out of Holybourne) were Simon Potter and Freja Halliday. Simon also won the men’s Strava segment challenge and Ruth Stratford won the women’s Strava segment challenge. Really impressive efforts!
Our evening was topped off with Josie Dew sharing photos and talking about her cycling adventures over the years – an impressive range of countries, cycling in […]
Alton CC Photography Competition
Our Club Dinner included presentation of prizes for the Alton CC Photography Competition.
In first place was Becci May with a great shot of Owen’s bike in the Atlas Mountains Race and a supporting shot of coffee and cake!
Second prize went to Charlie and Sarah Williams who submitted a huge selection of images of UK cycle sport.
Third place went to John Heath for his wonderfully evocative image of L’Autobus from the 2002 T de F on La Plagne…
Thank you to everyone for your photos!
Club AGM 2024
Our AGM this year was a super-special one, celebrating the wonderful support we’ve received from Ray Wood and his wife Di Wood, for an impressive 17 years as Club President. Ray hands over this role to Alan Jacob, a treasured and active long-standing Alton CC member – still cycling in his 80s!
The Chair of Alton CC, Guy Henshaw, also stepped down after 5 years in the role, in which he’s driven a lot of positive changes and handed over to Becci May, our first female Chair. Guy was thanked for his leadership, energy and dedication to the club. Becci quoted “Our cycling club is a sociable cycling club, and I’m sure being the new Chair will be fun, building on the ideas and interests of our members and attracting new members to join us too”.
With fff beer generously provided by Graham Trott, we also thanked our sponsors, Owens Cycles and […]
New Club Sponsor, Ventrus Networks
We are delighted to announce our new club sponsor, Ventrus Networks Limited, a local IT services company.
Ventrus Networks is a premier provider of Helpdesk, Server Monitoring, Managed Networks and Consultancy Services to businesses across the UK. Delivering specialist services to keep critical business systems running, Ventrus Networks can work as your IT department or in support of your IT department. Managing Director, Andy Chapman, says “We are excited to announce the beginning of a new partnership with Hampshire-based Alton Cycling Club. This partnership demonstrates our commitment to supporting local communities and, in this instance, the raising of youth participation within the sport of cycling. We support Alton Cycling Club as it is run by volunteers who provide a friendly environment for cyclists of all ages”.
Updated guidelines for both riders and ride leaders
Club group rides are a mainstay of our activities and we strive to make them as fun and enjoyable as possible. Our ride leaders are all volunteers and when leading a ride listed on our rides page they become ‘club officials’, which means they are covered under the club’s insurance provided by British Cycling. All ride leaders should follow the ride leader guidelines which we originally published in 2021 and have just updated to include a section on e-bikes.
Similarly, all club members riding on our group rides should follow the rider guidelines which have also been updated to include the same e-bike section.
These guidelines are available on the Rides page of our website for all existing and potential members to read. If you have any concerns or questions on this, please contact our Club Welfare Officer at welfare@altoncyclingclub.org
Thank you
