Ride as much or as long or as short as you feel. BUT RIDE.
– Eddy Merckx
How We Ride
As the great Eddy Merckx tells us, you must ride. But you must also ride with purpose to get your desired training or learning results. Rider or racer, we have weekly club training rides to establish your fitness base.
Each club ride builds at least one of the three key athletic abilities all cyclists need: 1) Endurance; 2) Maximum Power; 3) Sustained Power.
Endurance is usually developed with long rides at a steady moderate pace. Often we have more free time on weekends to schedule these rides. So Saturday and Sunday are reserved for 2+ hour club rides.
Maximum and Sustained Power are best developed through repeated interval efforts. Full workouts often need less than 2 hours. We schedule these rides on weekday evenings, after your workday has finished.
Please Note: Our insurance policy with the Alberta Bicycle Association requires all riders on all club group rides be members of the club. Please check out our Membership page for details and to learn about our trial membership.
The following list covers the basics of the club rides. Specific ride times and routes evolve across the cycling season. We post the actual weekly schedule to the News section and Calendar of this website.
While our Calendar is always up to date, changing conditions may require a last minute update or cancellation, which will be announced via a yellow announcement bar on the top of our website.
Wednesday – Track Night
When: 8-9:30pm
Where: Alberta Velodrome
Velocity has a long history with track racing. Canadian World Champion Tara Whitten started her career riding with Velocity.
The new indoor velodrome in the Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre is a state-of-the-art 250m long wooden track.
All club members need to hold the Alberta Velodrome Association’s (AVA) Level 4 Accreditation level before signing up for any of our club sessions. The AVA has a stable of track bikes free for members to use. All you’ll need to bring are your own pedals. We’ll get you set up with everything else.
Coach Kevin runs these weekly sessions in a structured format to build your pedalling “souplesse,” bike handling skills, and overall fitness levels.
Thursday – Urban Hills Evening Ride (Summer – Early Fall)
When: 6:30pm
Where: Meetup in the main parking lot area upon entering Hawrelak Park.
This is the Maximum Power ride. All riders improve doing high-intensity interval training, which fits a shorter weeknight ride. There’s no better way to force the watts from your legs than the challenge of a hill climb!
We follow a circuit around the less-travelled (at least by motor vehicle) short sharp hills in Edmonton’s river valley. Test yourself against other club riders close to your own ability. You’ll reach heart rate maximums rarely hit on your solo rides!
We always re-group after every climb, because none of us stay well-bunched anyway. It’s up to you how hard and how many climbs you’d like to do. Between efforts we cruise at a comfortable recovery pace that everyone can manage.
Experience Level: All fitness levels! All we ask is that you are comfortable riding in a group (If you aren’t, our Confident Rider Clinics will get you there!)
Saturday and Sunday – Endurance Rides (Late Spring to Early Fall)
Fun and friendly. That’s what our weekend rides cover, besides a lot of countryside around Edmonton. These rides start outside the Anthony Henday loop and will move around on about a monthly schedule. Members come from all corners of the Edmonton region. Our weekend club rides should explore all corners too.
The Saturday Ride is a 2-4 hour session that’s perfect for putting in some quality riding kilometres while chatting with your club members. This is a no-drop ride. You won’t get left behind unless you explicitly tell a Ride Leader you’re fine with finishing solo. Rider Leaders try to keep the speed in-check on this ride to avoid it turning into a hammer-fest. If more than 10 riders show the group usually splits into “A” and “B” groups, with the As riding faster than the Bs. Each ride route will be pre-set and posted in a Weekly Update and on our Events Calendar. On the east side of the city, we’ll head deep into Strathcona County. On the west side, we’ll head towards Highway 60, but usually stay north of the North Saskatchewan River/Devon area.
The Sunday Ride is a shorter 2-3 hour ride. And on some weekends, we’ll plan a gravel route for members looking to get off the paved roads and onto some quieter routes.
Experience Level: Please be aware of your own abilities. You must be familiar with riding in a group. As always, bring your own flat repair equipment, food, and plenty of water. Some spare cash is always a good idea. Riders in the B group should be comfortable at an average 25kph by themselves. Riders in the A group should be comfortable riding at an average of 30kph solo pace.
Rider safety is paramount on all our group rides. The club will offer Confident Rider Clinics for you to learn the basics of group riding. In the very least, make sure you understand all the advice on our Group Ride Tips page:
We post the latest weekend ride details to our Event Calendar.
In the last few years, wildfire smoke has become a bigger issue. Please take a look at our Air Quality policy to know how we’ll interpret Air Quality Health Index readings:
If there are any last-hour cancellations due to weather or poor Air Quality, a yellow announcement bar will appear at the top of our website.