HHV Women’s Newsletter – March
International Women’s Day | Condor Women’s League | Women’s Crit and Adult MTB | Volunteering at HHV | Other events and sessions
Hey HHVW community,
Spring, is that you? It’s my pleasure to come to you on the first day of March with a dry week ahead. This time next week we’ll be deep in our International Women’s Day takeover and I look forward to see lots of you here (explore the schedule below). I’ve also spotlighted some new and updated sessions and encouraged you to consider volunteering with us this year – it helps more than you know.
I know the world is feeling even more wild than usual this week, but the simplicity of bikes remains. We had a very inspiring event on Thursday exploring the topic ‘can bikes save the world?’ where we all agreed they are a very joyful and powerful tool to help (thanks to UpCycle, The Bike Project and The Big Ride for Palestine for joining us).
I hope to see you here very soon.
With warmth
Megan
(She/they)
Women’s Cycling Development at Herne Hill Velodrome
Contact: mbarclay@hhvt.org
Instagram: @hhvwomen
International Women’s Day takeover
(next) Sunday 8th March
Explore the full schedule and book:
8:30am
Pre-ride coffee
Join a local club (eg Dulwich) for a women’s ride or organise your own, starting and ending at HHV. We’ll have barista-coffee and snacks available from our Jan’s Café.
The Café will be open and serving 8:30-3pm.
11-3pm
FREE bike checks
Mechanics will be on hand to give your bike a check over – first come first served.
11-3pm
Cycling market
Visit our clubroom to chat to cycling brands that have women in mind.
Our women’s track sponsor Condor will be here to chat about bike fitting and to stamp funky designs onto your kit.
petrichor projects will have a stall showing off their women-first kit that you can try on and discuss with their founder Claire.
Sessions (all pay what you can)
12:30-2pm
Off-Road session
An off-road cycling session led by a coach – suitable for all experience-levels and any off-road bike, or you can hire one of ours. The session will explore all the core skills needed to ride off-road as well as encourage you to build off-road endurance and have some fun on the trails.
3-5pm
Track Taster
Come and try track cycling for the first time. Our coaches will take you from complete beginner to understanding the different skills and etiquette of riding the track – all in an encouraging group of other beginners. Bike, helmet and glove hire are included in your booking.
5-7pm
Women’s Track session
You must have completed a track taster to do this session. Our most popular women’s session will be running as usual, come along and meet a strong community of track cyclists.
Condor Women’s League
Our iconic Condor Women’s League is back and if you’ve ever ridden at the Women’s Session then it might be for you and you already have a taste of what this race series is like.
Launch party – Sunday 22nd March 7–9pm in the clubroom
Join us for the launch party where we go through the race programme, discuss what you might need to get race-ready and can ask any and you can ask questions.
📆 Below are the dates for this year's events (all Saturdays except June). Racing is from 5:30 until around 8pm.
Round 1: 11th April
Round 2: 9th May
Round 3: 14th June (Sunday)
Round 4: 11th July
Round 5: 8th August
Round 6: 12th September
Please talk to your coach or get in touch with me if you’re at all interested and would like to know more.
Women’s Road Crit* sessions – supported by LDN Academy
Women’s crit skills sessions on Friday 10 & 17th April
These sessions are aimed at those thinking about participating in crit racing for the first time, or looking to brush up on their skills. We'll be practicing cornering, group riding and bike handling amongst other skills, and introducing crit-specific racecraft. These sessions are supported by London Academy who will be here with some experienced road & crit racers to share their skills and knowledge, as well as our British Cycling qualified coaches.
*Road Crit (short for Criterium) is a road race format held on short, closed-circuit courses. You start in a bunch of people, they last between 30 to 90 minutes and are renowned for featuring lots of corners.
(You’re also welcome to our mixed gender Adult Crit Skills sessions on Thursdays in April).
Adult Mountain Biking – With Silvi
Mondays 7–8:30pm you can find us wizzing round the track centre or on the trails brushing up on our mountain bike skills.
The session is designed for adults (14yrs+) who want to develop their mountain biking skills. We'll cover essential techniques such as climbing, descending, cornering, wheel lifts, and jumps. Since it's not possible to cover all techniques in one session, we recommend attending multiple sessions to experience the full range of skills.
Introducing Silvi
We’ve been connecting with some new coaches for our sessions and are very lucky to be welcoming Silvi Vargos along. She is a national-level 4 cross racer and performance 4x and BMX coach so you won’t be surprised to hear she has some incredible knowledge to share. The next session she’s coaching is tomorrow 2nd March.
Volunteering at HHV
Want to get more involved in cycling and the HHV community? As our racing season fast approaches there are plenty of opportunities for volunteering with roles to suit everyone – joining the judging team, serving in our cafe, marshalling courses, setup and take-down, sign-on, commentating – across track, road crit, mtb and cyclocross racing.
You don’t need any experience of the race or HHV, turn up on the day and we will tell you everything you need to know. We’ll be announcing sign-ups closer to the racing so look out for that or get in touch now with any questions or expressions of interest.
If you volunteered with us last year we’d love to have you at our volunteer lunch Saturday 28 March, 12–3pm in our Clubroom. RSVP here.
Other sessions and events
Events
International Women’s Day Takeover – Sunday 8th March
Easter Eggstravaganza (kids 2-10yrs) – Friday 4th April
Brixton CC Cobblemonster (Sportive) – 12th April
Sessions
Women’s Track Sundays – Every Sunday 5–7pm. Skills + intermediate riders, including Women’s League race workshops (dates tbc)
Women’s Track Taster – First Sunday of the month 3-5pm
Women’s Off-Road session – Every Wednesday 6:30-8pm
Women’s Strength – Monday’s 6–7pm in the clubroom (drop-in)