Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Rides and Touring => Topic started by: Kim on 09 March, 2019, 08:41:39 pm
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I was doing a bit of calendar-wrangling, and noticed we didn't have a thread yet, so here's a placeholder.
http://www.mildenhallfestival.bike/
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As expected, we plan to be there ;D
I have holiday booked around my shifted 3 days off :thumbsup:
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As will apollo and me :)
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We're bound to be there.
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I really hope to be there but it will depend on Pauline's health, as will everything else this year. At the moment she is still undergoing chemo and we won't have a prognosis until late May.
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Best wishes for that Alan.
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Last year was a bit of a wash out, not sure about this year as yet. Of course true to form, I missed the year when the sun was cracking the bloody paving stones.
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I haven't done Mildenhall for quite a while. Will keep options open for the moment. My dear wife doesn't like small tents, so I suppose we could bring a big one...
Edit: my dear wife doesn't really like any tents, but I think she might be prepared to tolerate one she can stand up in.
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Best wishes for that Alan.
Thanks.
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I haven't done Mildenhall for quite a while. Will keep options open for the moment. My dear wife doesn't like small tents, so I suppose we could bring a big one...
Edit: my dear wife doesn't really like any tents, but I think she might be prepared to tolerate one she can stand up in.
TBH, now they've sorted the stubble out, there's a strong argument for a big tent in the motor field over being crammed into the not-exactly-generous lightweight area on the new site.
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Is This Like the york rally , But it has more chance of being sunny & the showers work .
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Is This Like the york rally , But it has more chance of being sunny & the showers work .
It's a lot like the York rally, only harder to get to. Traditionally there's a downpour at some point over the weekend, instead of incessant wind, but the weather's usually decent enough. Showers are excellent since they moved to the new site (trailers like the ones at York, but with a working water supply), with none of the charm of the previous site's communal showers designed for 12 year olds.
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Sounds very Canny . Its only about 400 k from me !!! . But i could nab lots of BCQ Places of interest on the way there and back . & Suffolk looks flat compared to Geordieshire spot on for a holiday .
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Is This Like the york rally , But it has more chance of being sunny & the showers work .
It's a lot like the York rally, only harder to get to. Traditionally there's a downpour at some point over the weekend, instead of incessant wind, but the weather's usually decent enough. Showers are excellent since they moved to the new site (trailers like the ones at York, but with a working water supply), with none of the charm of the previous site's communal showers designed for 12 year olds.
Bloody easy to get to, gave me a nice round 160km for the Audax plus riding to and for. I don't remember rain on audax day last year.
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Uhoh:
Mildenhall Cycling Club have announced a major change to their annual cycling event. Their three-day Mildenhall Cycling Festival will be much smaller this year with a small selection of events taking place on the Saturday & Sunday of the August Bank-Holiday weekend.
Chairman of the organisers, Mark Burchett explains “Ultimately we have been the victims of our own success. Over the thirty years of the event the majority of the organising committee has remained largely unchanged and with none of us getting any younger, there are not any willing volunteers to take over. We have therefore had to take the very hard decision to make this radical change.”
Reflecting this change, the event will be known as the Mildenhall Mini-Cycling Fest and still located in nearby West Row with its wonderful facilities set in a peaceful and tranquil rural setting around the Village Hall, where refreshments will be provided from over the two-days. It is just under three miles from Mildenhall which can be reached very safely by cycle using the tarmacked Wamil Way bridleway.
Headlining the two-days of grass-track racing will be Sunday’s Ladies National 800m Championship. It is expected that the meeting will still attract the country’s top riders given Mildenhall’s reputation for grass-track racing as well as staging rounds of the National Endurance and Sprint Leagues. Juvenile racing will be on the Saturday.
For the touring cyclist, C.T.C. (Cyclists Touring Club) Suffolk will be offering 57, 100, 160, 200 & 300km timed-touring rides on the Saturday, under the auspices of the Audax organisation.
After last year’s successful trialling, the organisers will promote the ‘Come and Try It On/Off Road Time Trial’. This will allow competitors on the Saturday morning to pit their wits against the clock over a mixed 23km course of byways, tarmac and Fenland Droves!
This is a unique type of course that only the Fens can offer. Despite this, every single rider that competed in last year’s test event, for time-trialling’s governing body in the UK Cycling Time-Trials (CTT), thoroughly enjoyed it.
On Saturday afternoon & evening there will be a Cycle Jumble held in the Village Hall.
Although camping on site will unfortunately no longer be available, West Row has three campsites and the organisers are very much encouraging regular visitors to previous events to still come and spend the weekend in Suffolk cycling and at the Mini-Fest.
“It has been testament to the hard work and professionalism of the committed organising committee that an individual cycling club was ever able to promote an event of that magnitude which has become synonymous with cycling.” added Mr Burchett.
The Festival and its predecessor the Cycling Rally, have always attracted many up and coming names from the world of cycling including the Mildenhall Club’s very own Golden Member Victoria Pendleton CBE and more recently Laura Kenny CBE, both of whom went on to become Olympic and World Champions!
Other well-known cyclists to have ridden at Mildenhall before going onto international fame include welsh starlet Nicole Cooke MBE, Ben Swift, Jason Kenny OBE and Steve Burke MBE.
Further details of the Mini-Fest will be available at www.mildenhallfestival.bike
END.
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From discussions with organisers last year, I was expecting some changes but this does spell an end to the rally as we have come to know.
Press release above has an embargo.
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Organiser Email received this morning confirming the changes and no camping at the rally site.
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Organiser Email received this morning confirming the changes and no camping at the rally site.
:'(
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Maybe we can have a yacf camping weekend instead somewhere? :)
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Maybe we can have a yacf camping weekend instead somewhere? :)
Could even be in Suffolk... (or is it Cambridgeshire?)
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Woah, this is a new thing:
After last year’s successful trialling, the organisers will promote the ‘Come and Try It On/Off Road Time Trial’. This will allow competitors on the Saturday morning to pit their wits against the clock over a mixed 23km course of byways, tarmac and Fenland Droves!
This is a unique type of course that only the Fens can offer. Despite this, every single rider that competed in last year’s test event, for time-trialling’s governing body in the UK Cycling Time-Trials (CTT), thoroughly enjoyed it.
Anyone know how it panned out? Mud? Cobbles? Helmets??
(I can't even find the results on the CTT site - which isn't surprising, even if they *are* on there!)
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https://www.campsites.co.uk/search/campsites-in-suffolk/woodbridge/shottisham-campsite
I like the look of that.
Woodbridge station isn't far away (bear in mind these are the same trains that serve Darsham, so quite small) and Ipswich is easy cycling distance.
There are some pretty decent looking off road tracks for walks and bike rides.
Sea swimming at Shingle Street, not far away.
Campfires allowed in hired fire pits.
If, as the website suggests, the camps site is divided into smaller fields, we might be able to have one entire bit to ourselves.
Do we have a seconder? ;)
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If you organise, we'll arrive. ;D
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Looks good :thumbsup:
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OK, I shall put my mind to this over the coming week.
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Of possible interest to Mildenhall-bound persons from eg Mordor and WoE, starting in May there will be a direct train from Bristol via Birmingham and Leicester to Cambridge (and on to Stansted Airport). The amount of interest is likely to be limited as it's slow (5 hours from Bristol compared to 3 via London) and run by Cross Country, therefore stupidly expensive (anytime return £257 v £98.50 via London) but maybe it will make a bit of sense from the Wet or Eat Midlands.
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Of possible interest to Mildenhall-bound persons from eg Mordor and WoE, starting in May there will be a direct train from Bristol via Birmingham and Leicester to Cambridge (and on to Stansted Airport). The amount of interest is likely to be limited as it's slow (5 hours from Bristol compared to 3 via London) and run by Cross Country, therefore stupidly expensive (anytime return £257 v £98.50 via London) but maybe it will make a bit of sense from the Wet or Eat Midlands.
That sounds suspiciously like they've discovered a way to make the infamous Mordor-Stansted train even more crowded...
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It's an additional train, which, judging by every train I've ever taken between Mordor and BTM, will be crowded on arrival at Mordor. I can't see anyone from this end staying on it beyond Leicester cos, as mentioned, other ways are both cheaper and quicker.
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Is it additional on the SSD-BHM leg (which I thought was at capacity), or have they just extended it down to BTM to provide more trains between BTM and BHM (which is no bad thing, but doesn't do much for the Eat Midlands)?
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AIUI it's a whole new service. It's early in the morning though – leaves BRI 0630 or thereabouts. Just one more reason I'm unlikely to be on it (unless I get back into audaxing and ride the Cheltenham Flyer again)!
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Actually I've just looked at my source again and I think I've misinterpreted: I reckon it's currently a service from Gloucester-BHM-LEI-SSD and it's going to be started back from BRI cos they'll be stabling (quaint term!) the train there overnight. So yeah, just even more crowding for Midlanders. But on the good side it's a DMU (a "Turbostar", which is probably nowhere near as space age as it sounds), so bike space should be corridor or flippy seats rather than danglies.
Edit: Confirmed this is the case. It's only new south of Gloucester. So not really of any interest to anyone north of there.
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We went over on Saturday lunchtime as we'd booked into the travelodge for 2 nights.
The carparking was on the field that is usually the lightweight campers behind the village hall. There was 3 rows of cars there when we arrived.
They were serving coffee and cake in the hall as usual but the place was empty, we got coffee and cake and wandered over to the racing.
Compared to other years, it was very quiet. Just families whose kids were racing were there.
There was nothing else on site :(
Mildenhall itself looked empty, the only other bike we saw was Graham Lawrence's at the cafe.
He said the site by the airfield had only 3 other tents in also.
Hope this is not the last we see of the rally, would be a shame to lose it.
I can see how it's come to this though as like a lot of clubs, no one wants to do committee work to help out.
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That is so sad to hear.
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If it does get rebooted (which probably comes down to some locals being willing to step up), we should make extra effort to attend.
Same goes for York, tbh, though it was looking a bit healthier this year.
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I feel for the rally and do hope others come forward to resurrect it. But sadly after talking to past organisers I think it could be the end as we know it.