Isle of Wight day trip 2024

This post is to measure interest in a day trip to the Isle of Wight in September. The island offers great cycling terrain with fantastic scenery, and excluding a personal mishap (!) has been the location for some wonderful away days prior to Covid.

A brief recap on how it would work: a relatively early start by car from Buckingham for a drive of approx 2 hours to park adjacent to the ferry at Lymington (close to SO41 5SB). We travel as foot passengers (with our bikes!) over to Yarmouth, and then go for a ride on the island with suitable cafe stops throughout the day. Return home early evening.

A complete circumnavigation is around 65 miles but other routes are available to suit all interests (see eg the komoot link below), so this would be an event open to all ride categories.

If you are interested, please sign up (no commitment at this stage) and feel free to add comments, questions and suggestions in the chat below.

It should be good fun so hope many of you can join!

https://www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/things-to-do/cycling/round-the-island-route
https://www.cyclinguk.org/route/round-isle-wight
https://www.komoot.com/guide/34145/road-cycling-routes-in-the-isle-of-wight
https://www.lifeinthesaddle.cc/2019/08/best-road-cycling-routes-isle-of-wight.html
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/2548849

Is there a C ish ride ! ?👍😆

@KatieR - yes! Come along and encourage a few fellow C riders to come too and there will be!

Hello! I'd like to join. Can I bring a friend with me?

Might decide to stop over somewhere before / after.

@Mihai yes that would be fine - I assume that they would cycle with you? You may want to encourage them to come out with you on some club rides first to check that they are happy cycling with us! And if they enjoy it they can join up 😉

👍

Thank you very much James. He lives in Cheltenham, so low chance he'll be able to join our club rides. He is a far better rider than me (A ride-level) and knows very well how to ride in a group ride.

Hi Katie - definitely!

😘

I’m in 👍

Sorry, going on hols that weekend now.

Great to see so much interest in this away day! Not too late to sign up - please click I'm attending if you want to come.

Logistics-wise, we will look to catch the 9am ferry from Lymington. The crossing takes 40 mins. We need to arrive at least 15 mins in advance of departure which implies leaving Buckingham around 6:30.

https://www.wightlink.co.uk/plan-your-journey/timetables

Not completely clear whether it is necessary, but it will probably be easiest if we pre-book the crossing which we can each do individually nearer the time - having checked, we don't need specify the precise time we want for outbound and return legs.

Lymington Ferry Port, Undershore Road, Lymington, SO41 5SB
https://what3words.com/brilliant.cheer.puddings

Last point for now - we are looking for ride leaders to lead B and C rides. Guidance can be offered on routes if required - main role will be to decide the distance for the ride and coordinate it on the day.

@JamesT thinking of maybe car sharing or going down the night before and staying .
What area ie town/location would you recommend that’s near to where we catch the ferry ? Any air bnb s you recommend!, 🥴
Thanks

@KatieR definitely a good plan car sharing - we can coordinate in September for people travelling there and back on Sunday.

I'm not familiar with any nearby airbnbs - I would have thought anywhere in Lymington, Brockenhurst or Lyndhurst would be convenient. If anyone else has any suggestions, please comment!

We're staying at the Bugle Inn in Yarmouth the night before and the night after. possibly leaving the car on the mainland.

Me and my friend, will come with the whole families (2 boys ,4 and 6, 1 girl, 5 years old) and looking at places to stay overnight. Is anyone else bringing their (little) children along? If yes, it would be good maybe to stay in the same area so they could have fun too.

Three weeks to go! Not too late to join, so please sign up if you fancy it. And we are looking for people to plan/lead the B and C rides - advice can be offered!

Can I ask who’s doing the C ride with me and Melanie! Happy to help lead a route

Some further thoughts on routes:

A ride: we will do the round-island route of 65 miles / 105km:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/2548849

See also attached GPX file

B ride: maybe this is a suitable route for you too, given it is an all day trip?

@KatieR - thanks for offering to help coordinate the C ride.
The following link may help - it shows the round island route but with a cut-off in the east (Alverstone to Havenstreet) that may make it a more suitable length? It also shows which roads to avoid (in orange) when planning a route.
https://www.visitisleofwight.co.uk/dbimgs/RTICycleMapNew.pdf

I also propose to set up a dedicated WhatsApp chat group for the day trip to avoid spamming everyone else!

Finally, to reinforce @KatieR 's question - please let Katie know if you are doing the C ride!

I'm looking forward to this - it should be a great day out!

1 Attachment

• Isle_of_Wight__Round_the_Island__route_anticlockwise_from_Yarmouth.gpx

Just had a further thought - I will set up separate ride sign up events for the A, B and C rides to help us coordinate.

I can plan and post a c route including coffee options obvs. Been there a few times so have a bit of an idea … ish!
I can’t guarantee I’m riding so don’t want to volunteer then bail. Obviously if I can ride I will.
Maybe @KimMcM and @KatieR and @Melanie7775 can just follow the route and enjoy the ride without a specified ride leader as such?

An option? Let me know …..

Morning, thanks for your message Liz. If Katie ad Kim are happy to down load your route on their Garman - I think we may survive ....... Would be good to try ad get a 35/40 mile (come on ladies - we've got this)!

Ids the plan to have lunch - the travel home?

Ooh no, I'd hope we'd be doing more than that 🙌 After all it's a day trip 😁. Want to see some of the island since we've got the time to travel around.

Great idea, I've never been to IOW before so am quite keen to do the full thing and maybe a few sightseeing / photo stops