Twenty members of the Alton Cycling UK group recently enjoyed a long weekend away cycling in Wiltshire, and based in the historic town of Malmesbury.

Over three days we followed various pre-planned routes of between 33 and 64 miles. It was a good time of the year to visit, as the weather was mostly kind and the countryside was verdant and in full bloom.

We thank Frank and Dina for organising it all so brilliantly as usual.

Cycling UK North Hampshire in conjunction with Cycle Alton are once again offering some confidence-building bicycle rides this summer, aimed at potential cyclists who are hesitant about cycling in local traffic.

Taking place on four Saturday mornings, the rides will start either at Jubilee Playing Fields or Holybourne Play Area, and will be led and accompanied by experienced local cyclists. See the poster for dates and locations.

The routes will take riders through the town centre and back, covering about five miles in total.

Start time is 9.30am and there will be an optional refreshment stop midway!

Groups will be a maximum of six riders.

Book now! at cyclealton@gmail.com

Treasurer Mark Beaumont received the following responses to questions put to the Cycling UK representative at the recent AGM.

Good morning Mark

Thank you again for inviting me to join your group’s AGM on Saturday 25^th April.

I have spoken internally with our Campaigns team and Head of Campaigns about your question ‘Can we campaign a specific council, for example Basingstoke? Can Cycling UK help influence the council to put in better cycling infrastructure in the Basingstoke borough?’

Our Campaigns team advise that there are 210 different highway authorities across the UK with responsibility for roads, including cycling infrastructure. It is therefore very difficult for us to target or try and influence directly from central office every single council. That’s why our model for local influencing is to develop and support local campaigners, so members and supporters can seek to influence the council in their area. We have over 300 local representatives within our Cycle Advocacy Network, including many in Hampshire and three in Basingstoke. We support them with tools and advice to help them have an impact locally.

Another member, unfortunately I didn’t capture his contact details asked me later on ‘Could Cycling UK get on TV more, to educate car drivers about the Highway Code and to be mindful of cyclists and what the Highway Code enables a cyclist to do’. Again I’ve spoken to our campaigns team about this. Please could you share this response at your next meeting?

We do try and secure media coverage, with several people from Cycling UK appearing on TV in the last year. Our Head of Campaigns has appeared on BBC Breakfast seven times in recent years, and five of those appearances related to either Highway Code rules or driver behaviour. Ensuring that Highway Code changes are properly communicated and embedded is a priority for us, and we will continue to look for media opportunities around this.

I hope this is helpful. It was lovely to meet you at your AGM and thank you for such a wonderful welcome.

Best regards

Melanie

Melanie Roberts

Membership Engagement Manager

Cycling UK 

The Cycling UK North Hampshire AGM was held recently in 16, Market Square, Alton, and was attended by 12 members with 6 apologies received, including from our Chair.

We were very pleased to welcome Melanie Roberts to the AGM, who is the Membership Engagement Manager at Cycling UK headquarters. She gave us an update on Cycling UK’s activities in the last year and planned activities in the coming year. It helped us feel more connected to events nationwide, after our focusing mainly on local issues most of the time. Melanie also answered a number of questions from the floor.

Current officers were voted in en bloc for another year, and the posts are as follows:

Chair: Frank Pote

Secretary: Richard Care

Treasurer: Mark Beauchamp

Website: Bob Bending

Membership: Richard Care

Welfare: Kaye Hicks

Alton rides Co-ordinator: Janice Montgomerie

It’s usual at the AGM to present the Mike Wilson tankard to the winner of the pace-judging & freewheeling competition, but sadly this year’s winner, Darren Parsons, has recently died. We have sent our condolences to his widow and family.

Three points were raised in ‘Any Other Business’:

• Gary Hodgson commented that the vintage bike rides led by himself and Chris Wright had only attracted one cyclist.
• Pete Remnant asked that the WhatsApp group only be used for announcements of relevance to the whole group.   We should try to avoid personal messages, but it may be difficult to get everyone to abide by it.
• Janice Montgomerie queried the size of the bank balance which is slowly growing year on year.
  Our treasurer explained that the year-end balance still includes donations from the Phil Hampton Memorial Ride which are yet to be transferred to the Cyclists’ Defence Fund.
  
  In the following discussion suggestions were put forward for how some of our funds could be spent, including subsidising new club kit, or donating a sum to local cycle campaign group Cycle Alton.

The provisional date of the next meeting is 24^th April 2027, but before then the committee will discuss how to attract more of the 900+ members in the North Hampshire area to attend!

The Annual Report and Minutes of the AGM can be downloaded from the Information page

Our annual Phil Hampton Memorial ride has been held in glorious spring sunshine.

While many of the riders were local, some cycled in from other towns such as Woking and Petersfield, and we also welcomed the usual large contingent from West Surrey Cycling Club who have been strong supporters of this event over the years.

The cyclists tackled either a 30-mile or a 50-mile route in the outstanding Hampshire countryside, before returning to Medstead Village Hall for refreshments provided by volunteers Dina, Lisa, Liz and Janice.

We thank Richard for organising the event once again, and a special thanks to all the cake bakers: Dina, Chris, Kaye, Sarah, Gill, Liz, Lisa, Viv and Janice.

After expenses have been paid, all money collected will be sent to the Cyclists’ Defence Fund. This year we collected the record sum of £1,210.00

There were nearly 100 riders taking part, two thirds of whom opted for the 50 mile ride.

Thank you to all the cyclists who came and made the day such a success! We look forward to seeing you next year

Eleven cyclists took part in this year’s pace-judging & freewheeling contest, which happened in August.

Congratulations to Daz who won both parts of the contest, and therefore was the overall winner on his first attempt!

The results are here:

Thank you to everyone who had a go and made it such an enjoyable event.

Nineteen members of the Cycling UK North Hants group recently enjoyed a long weekend away, based around the picturesque village of Lacock in Wiltshire.

Rides over three days were planned by Frank which included visits to locations such as Bradford on Avon, Castle Coombe and Marlborough.

The rain on Saturday led to some rescheduling but all the planned rides were ridden, just not necessarily in the anticipated order!

Thanks go to Frank and Dina for organising, as well as to all the others who helped in various ways to make the weekend so enjoyable.

Frank our Chair awarding the Mike Wilson Cup to Gary for winning the Pace-Judging & Freewheeling Contest

The Cycling UK North Hampshire AGM was held this afternoon with about 20 members attending.

A block vote resulted in all the existing post holders continuing for another year, namely:

Chair: Frank Pote

Secretary: Richard Care

Treasurer: Mark Beauchamp

Publicity Officer (website): Bob Bending

Membership Secretary: Richard Care

Welfare Officer: Kaye Hicks

Alton Rides Co-ordinator: Janice Montgomerie

Gary Hodgson was awarded the Mike Wilson Cup for winning the Pace-Judging & Freewheeling Contest, which took place last year.

No additional issues were raised and the meeting concluded in 45 minutes.

We thank everyone for coming, and Dina and Frank for organising the venue and refreshments.

There are price reductions on the For Sale page – take a look.

There are a few nice bikes on the For Sale page.

Take a look, and for those who make a sale, please email me so the item can be removed from the page.