Welcome
If it is your first time riding with the club, make yourself known to one of the people organising the ride so that you can be looked after.
The main weekly club rides are on a Saturday morning. The club also runs ad-hoc mid-week rides either day time or evening, organises special clubs rides (such as the annual day trip to France), and rides in groups on charity rides or sportives.
Saturday Morning Club Rides
Our club rides start from the Millers Arms, Canterbury at 09:00 each Saturday.
To join one of our Saturday morning club rides you should:
- Decide which group to ride with
- Sign on the app – Download the official CBC app, powered by Map My Tracks
- Download / get familiar with the relevant route – either from the app or from Map My Tracks.
- Turn up in plenty of time, with a working bike, enough drink/food for the ride and a sense of humour
Choose your Group
We are fortunate to have several different groups, classed by average speed (not distance). Each group aims to go at the pace of the slowest rider for the majority of the time, the exception being hill climbs where we climb at our own pace and re-group at the top. If in doubt when selecting your group, please select the slower, shorter ride. the aim is for all groups to arrive back at the Millers at a similar time.
Our “Black” groups are suitable as a recovery ride for racers and those who can and want to average over 16 mph (25.5 kph) over 2-3 hours.
Our “Orange” groups are for those who can and want to average over 14mph (22.5 kph) over 2-3 hours.
Our “Yellow” groups will average over 12mph (19.2 kph) over 2-3 hours.
The quoted “average speeds” includes stops – see our club rules page for more detail on ride speeds.
When there is a large turnout, we often run several rides of any “colour”, and we sometimes subdivide according to speed. So a “faster orange” might try riding at near-black pace.
We have a set of club routes (Yellow, Orange and Black) which are designed to take about 2.5 hours at the target speed. So the black routes are the longest.
Sign up on the App
Go to the Upcoming Rides page and add your name to the ride. The relevant ride will show a choice of two routes which will be used if 2 or more groups are formed. There may be another non-standard route, but it will use the same exit route from Canterbury. Routes have been chosen to avoid lots of CBC groups all heading out the same way.
Get your bike ready
See our page on being prepared for your ride
Ride leader(s) will then sort those assembled into ride groups with a maximum of 10 per group (and some at maximum of 6). If there are more that two groups or both groups riding the same route, ride leaders will ensure a gap of 3+ minutes between groups leaving.
Pre and post ride coffee
If you arrive very early you might find other riders having a coffee at the Millers Arms (junction of Mill Lane and Pound street) and this is where many riders meet for a drink afterwards.
What happens if lockdown starts again?
If the limit of groups of 30 happens again, we will revert to having a strict limit of 30 riders per start location. If there are no spaces left, contact a member of the committee, don’t just turn up