OK cycling boys and girls. Dust off your bike, check the brakes, pump up the tyres. It’s time to roll out for another infamous Chapeau! Alleycat.
An alleycat is a fast paced puzzle/checkpoint ride. Riders are given a sheet of clues and questions and a map of the town, and must answer as many of the questions correctly as possible, as quickly as possible..
We’re parking up outside firstsite on Saturday 12th January. Registration is from 7:30pm, and the ride starts at 8pm sharp. It’s just £3 for entry and that entitles you to win a some pretty cool bike shit. Plus there are prizes on offer for different categories of riders and bikes, so it doesn’t matter what bike you’re riding or whether you’re an experienced rider or just starting out, everyone’s welcome. It’s the joy of the ride. Chapeau! if you will.
The winner is the person who makes it back to the finishing post with the most answers right. If two people have the same amount of correct answers, the one who makes it back first is the winner. But as the last alleycat showed, the guy who came in last answered the most questions correctly and was actually the winner!
Bring lights and a lock. It’s dark out there, and I don’t want to shout at you for not being seen. If you’ve never been before, I’ll be there on my white fixie. It’s a bit like a pub quiz and a treasure hunt combined, but you’re on your bike. Win win in my eyes. Get RSVP-ing on facebook OK.
Photo above: December’s Alleycat, getting ready to roll out outside firstsite.
Photo below: The winners holding up their spoils back at HQ (bit too quickly for me to capture!)
I was at Highwoods Country Park letting all the lovely folk know about all the awesome rides coming up in Britain’s Oldest Recorded.
Having just returned from a wet soggy field, I braved it back to butt house in a downpour wearing a fur coat on a fixie. Not the best choice or clothes or bike for the day…. But anyway! There was a super turn out when the rain was at bay. We met a lot of families who are keen to get cycling together, men who are up for cycale and ladies who are up for even more!
I thought I would share what I was passing out here so you can also jump in and enjoy a range of rides too. It does what it says on the tin - type of ride, dates, website for more info below. Enjoy! Don’t forget Richard Monk from CTC can lend you bike, and they also run confidence building and fresher courses for new cyclists or people wanting to get back into the saddle. No excuse.
Upcoming Rides
Family
7 October Fresh air miles Family Ride
30 December Fresh air miles Family Ride
Sustrans
Ladies Only!
28 October Breeze Bike ride, ladies only
25 November Breeze Bike ride. ladies only
23 December Breeze Bike Ride, ladies only
Breeze
Mixed 20/40 milers
Thursday evening rides, 7.30pm, Leisure World
Sunday all day rides, 9am, Lesiure World
CTC - Cycling Campaign
Fun & Overnight
6th October Alleycat ride
13th October Overnight ride to London
3rd November Halloween Alleycat
10/17 November Overnight to Cambridge weekend
15 December Christmas Alleycat
12 January New Year Alleycat
9 Febuary Alleycat
16 February Singles Night
22 February Ride to Amsterdam
Chapeau!
Beer & Bikes
13 October Keith’s Mystery Tour with Bells On
2 - 3 November Norwich Beer Festival
Cycale
I’ll be a pinting and a plodding along for this ride! Really looking forward to it. Chapeau! Chin chin!
chapeauvelo:
Here at Chapeau two of our favourite things are Beer and Bikes. Luckily, Colchester & North East Essex CAMRA have got us covered on both counts with their monthly CycAle rides!
July’s ride will be rolling out from Manningtree Station at 11:30 on Saturday 21st, taking in a leisurely 26 miles as well as a BBQ afterward. If this tickles your fancy and you’re already a paid-up CAMRA member then head over to their website and RSVP! Not already part of CAMRA? Well this might just be the perfect time to join…
August’s CycAle ride will be a loop from the Bricklayer’s Arms into the foreign lands of Suffolk, taking in the Ipswich Beer Festival and home again on the Harwich Ferry. Again, if you’re interested then make sure to RSVP.
If the next two months’ rides have whet your whistle then make sure to head over to the Colchester & North East Essex CAMRA website for a full listing and more details.
Chapeau!
CAMRA, or Campaign for Real Ale to give it its full title, is a national organisation with a simple goal - to promote, preserve and DRINK real ale. Membership starts at a rather reasonable £16 per year and grants free entry to most, if not all, beer festivals, as well as social events such as this.
Fellow cycling chums!
Pam Nelson and I are back out in force cycling for the Essex Castle Ride this Saturday 14 July, in aid of St Helena Hospice.
I found the ride from the brilliant site Bike Events and subsequently Chapeau! which showcases local rides.
I’m doing 25 miles. I’ve done 20/25 before on the odd random weekend. The most fabled cycling tale is when we decided to have a quick poodle around Mile End. We ended up trekking all over London, finishing up in Chiswick where one of our friends lived. That was some serious miles. I was on a small ladies Peugeot (which is actually for children) and my bum was pretty sore!
On arrival to the house we were so knackered we attacked the local corner shop buying mountains of BBQ food and booze - resulting in a house party. We had loads of fun. Downside was…. cycling all that way back over London with a hangover.
Ever since the epic London ride. I’ve had pride in knowing I can cycling quite a few miles, even on a shitty bike. I proved it to myself again roughly a month ago for the CVMW ride around London. This again was roughly 20 miles. There was one really steep hill where I nearly lost it. I was on a three speed Apollo Wayfairer. Again, a bad bike for a long haul. But I did it! And man did I sleep well.
This Saturday I’ll be rocking up with my 5 speed Disco Dawes. It has drops, straps and a comfortable saddle. I rode it to Mersea once for a one woman bike holiday. So I’m hoping I fair better on this.
Having said that, sometimes it just depends on the day, and getting into the groove. I know a lot of long haul cyclists (my Dad being one of them), and I believe getting tired and a sore bum is just the joy of the ride. If you’re one a bike you love, and it fits. What more could you need?
I also wanted to add that St Helena Hospice is a wonderful charity. They looked after my Nana in her final months. It feels grand to combine my love of cycling with something personal and to get that warmth of giving something back.
Ladies & gentlemen! If any of you are free this Saturday morning and want to come for a ride! Please drop by the Bike Events site, register and roll up at Kings Head Meadow. It looks set to be a good one. Chapeau!
I made some flags for CHAPEAU!
These were for our appearance in the Colchester Carnival.
I managed to crack them out in about 2 hours.
Here is my little step by step photo blog thing about it.
Read More
AlleyCat time!
Just wanted to make y’all aware about the 4th AlleyCat hitting Colchester next Saturday.
Saturday 30th June, rolling out at 7:30pm
Meeting outside firstsite
This isn’t really a race, more of a scavenger/treasure hunt where you are given questions which can only be answered by cycling to the location.
There will be a:
“How much is a chocolate bar from the Highwoods Tesco”
“What’s in the window of Debenhams, Culver Square side”
“Which film is showing in screen 5 of the Odeon”
It’s a real blast! I love trying to answer the questions as quickly as possible. Getting back to the pub in time to beat the boys. I won an awesome knogg light last time. Some of the questions are trick questions. So you have to be ruthless and rule out the duds. You don’t want to risk cycling to a location and loosing valuable time and effort.
You could be the slowest cyclist there and win through pure dedication to the questions. Totally depends on how you roll.
Hope to see some new cyclists there! I think we’ll be meeting back at Chapeau! this time which is pretty damn exciting. It’ll be great to see this venue used for a fun social cycling event. Courage!
