Gravel Rides

The club are delighted to have been offering a monthly gravel ride as part of our regular rides programme since August 2022. Popularity of this monthly ride has grown steadily with thirty or more members now regularly joining each ride and now with some bonus longer rides thrown in for good measure during the summer months..

The ideal bike for these rides would be a gravel bike or cyclocross bike although the routes chosen are all accessible by mountain bike as well. Probably best not to try these routes on your road bike or Brompton though................

Gravel Ride Calendar 2026

The regular programme for 2026 will see our monthly gravel rides (usually) going out on the second Saturday each month. Each ride has a ride leader who supports the riders on the selected routes based on best local experience at the time of year – New Forest and Salisbury for wet, icy wintery conditions, spring and autumn for more bridleway and XC routes before the undergrowth grows and Summer wherever we wish to roam! 

We introduced some longer days out in summer 2025 and will hopefully repeat that again for 2026. These will be extra dates in addition to the usual monthly ride. 

We’ll send out briefing notes ahead of each ride and event so watch out for the monthly route updates.

Diary Dates 2026

January 10th - New Forest - A New Year sees our first monthly gravel ride enjoying some of the best known all weather winter tracks around the New Forest. 

14th February - Salisbury Plain with Paul O'Halloran
14th March - Back in the Forest with Nath Curtis
11th April - Winchester with  Vanda Jeffreys (tbc)
9th May - Winchester with Paul O'Halloran
13th June - Winchester with Nath Curtis
11th July - Winchester with Neil Towns
8th August - Winchester with Vanda Jeffreys (tbc)
12th September - Winchester with Nath Curtis
10th October - Winchester with Vanda Jeffreys (tbc)
14th November - Salisbury Plain with Paul O'Halloran
12th December - New Forest with Neil Towns

Once again the team are also working on some ‘longer adventure’ rides through the summer with plans forming as below. Dates are yet to be confirmed but to whet your appetite,

Long New Forest - June
Purbecks - July 
Isle of Wight - September
King Alfred’s Way - early May Bank Holiday with one or two day options - Saturday Sunday - Start in Reading, stay at home in Winchester overnight, ride back to Reading day two. Reduces costs to car/train with no need for hotels. Two nice big days!

If you are interested in joining any of the gravel rides or for more details please do email [email protected] and we can put you in touch.