25th Isle of Wight RANDONNEE – 100km Bike Ride

Last Sunday Myself, Jill, Rory, Nick, Danny & Greg met up at the Fastcat at some ungodly hour to take the short trip over to the Isle of Wight to take part in the 25th Isle of Wight 100km RANDONNEE.

2156 cyclists took part this year, up from 1644 in 2008. Of the 2156 riders, 1851 took part in the 100km ride and 305 in the 55km ride. Needless to say we got involved and smashed the 100km and chucked on a few extra miles to make it a round 115km.

A much harder and way hillier ride than any of us expected but we all finished, got our certificates, collapsed and all with a ride time of just over 4.5 hours.

Pop over to my Flickr to see all the photos from the day.

Strong Island Bike Ride – Leaving at 2pm this Sunday

The Bank Holiday is nearly on us and even though it looks like it may be a wet and windy one hopefully a fair few Strong Islanders will still turn up for what looks set to be a pretty good laugh on Sunday. Especially if a few people are rocking the ‘Fishermen Chic’ look.

The final details are as follows. Leave at 2pm on Sunday from The Bridge Tavern, shown below and marked with a blue marker on the left hand side of the map. Ride a casual paced 5 miles and then descend on to Albert Road where the unofficial end is at The Little Johnny Russells and Porters, marked nearer the middle of the map.

You can View The Map Online to get a closer look at the route, but it’s pretty basic and shouldn’t take long. I’d say an hour at the very most, depending on how many people join in.

To any non-riders, we should be in the pub around 3pm at the latest so we’ll see you there. Have a great Bank Holiday and we’ll see you all on Sunday.

Strong Island Bike Ride – Sunday 12th April

Many of you will know that we here at Strong Island and many of our friends are quite keen cyclists, nothing extreme, just good bike rides. Ben Mills from The Little Johnny Russells had suggested getting as many people together as possible for a Strong Island tour. Sterling idea!

After some quick route planning we come up with a short 5 mile ride. All based around Southsea and the Seafront. Starting at the Bridge Tavern opposite the Fish Market and finishing up along Albert Road. An easy, casual ride that is accessible to everyone and their various types of bikes.

This is strictly for fun and is open to anyone and everyone on any bicycle. We’re not out to make any points or be political and is by no means intended to be a Critical Mass or even a race. Just a good laugh on a Bank Holiday Sunday.

I’ve made a public Google Map of the initial route if you want to check it out and comment or suggest anything.

We’ve also added a poll button to try and ascertain interest. Who knows. If we can get big numbers we might be able to get some ‘Postive Local Cycling’ coverage.

Anyway. Stay posted and we’ll keep you updated on everything as this is still in the planning stages really. Oh, and for those who are interested ‘Fisherman Chic’ is the theme. Yep, you read that right, ‘Fisherman Chic’.

Download the A4 Poster here and join the Facebook Event Group here

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Sunny Southsea

I went for bike ride today to take advantage of the nice, albeit cold, weather and take a few photos. Check them out over on my Flickr photostream.

The 2nd Strong Island Ale – Dry Dock No. 1

As you may know each year we run a home brew competition in February where the winning brew has the opportunity to be brewed by Irving & Co Brewing Co. and sold around the city in the summer. Last year’s brew, the Strong Island Hopper Ale, was hugely successful being one of Inving’s best selling ales and selling out so quickly it went through a second brew run. This year’s winning ale is Dry Dock No. 1, originally brewed by Lee Immins, went on sale in some of Portsmouth and Southsea’s pubs over the weekend.

We spoke to The Hole in The Wall in Southsea who said the new ale went down a storm with it being their best seller on Sunday and with almost two barrels empty by the end of the Bank Holiday weekend. Those guys at the Hole in The Wall and their regular ale drinkers know their stuff so for us this was amazing early news with the ale.

To officially launch Dry Dock No. 1 we are having a launch party with the lovely souls at The Belle Isle on Thursday evening. The ale will be on full flow, come down and try a pint or two. As well as being on sale all around the city the ale will also be available in Chichester’s Belle Isle too, so you can drink it away from home for the first time too.

The Isle Of Wight Randonnee 2012 – Team Strong Island

Just over a year ago, a group of Strong Islanders were sat on the Isle of Wight ferry on our way to the yearly Randonnee cycling event; 60 miles around the island spread across 5 checkpoints. Whilst on the crossing we couldn’t help but admire various enthusiasts and their custom team jerseys. Fast forward a year and it is my great pleasure to unveil the Strong Island cycling jersey. Made as a one off for the event, the jersey is our way of representing this city and all the values that come with it. Thanks to the combined designing efforts of Chris Ballingall and Tristan Savage, we were able to produce this clean, retro looking jersey that 11 of Southsea’s finest could wear to conquer the island’s endless hills. Well done chaps.