The Goring Gromils are a group of friends who live in or around Goring and enjoy cycling.

We’re not MAMILS
You may have heard of MAMILS – Middle-Aged Men In Lycra. The daughter of one of the group named us GROMILS. We are (mostly) Old, but hopefully not all Grumpy, and not all male. Anyone is welcome to come along and see if they like it.

Gromils are very informal and friendly (we hope), more interested in finding new coffee shops than breaking speed or endurance records. We have probably visited about 40 different cafes in rides from Goring – the challenge is finding new ones, but we try. Read on to learn more. If you like what you see, contact us and come out for a ride.

Rides
Our normal weekly ride is on a Monday morning, so we can celebrate not having to get up for work any more. We also have an early Sunday breakfast ride (season and weather permitting) and occasional Thursday rides . Typically we get 5-8 out on a ride.

We aim to ride throughout the year. In the winter a typical ride would be 20 – 30 miles. If it’s particularly cold with a risk of ice on the roads we will sometimes do a walk instead. In summer we typically do 30-55 miles, with an average moving speed of around 10.5 mph.

The rides are usually on-road, but sometimes include the sort of tame off-road that can be tackled on a hybrid bike (e.g. Nunhide Lane from Sulham to Theale, or The Ridgeway west of Streatley) if it’s dry.

Usually we take turns coming up with a ride for the Monday – the keener ones will plot it on a navigation app (e.g. Topo GPS, OutdoorActive, Ride with GPS, Komoot). This is sent out to the group a couple of days before. Routes we have done form the backbone of the local routes listed on the Goring Gap Cycling website.

Other Activities
For the last few years some of us have gone further afield for a few days, such as a four-day tour of the Cotswolds and a trip to Bellême, Goring’s twin village in Normandy – three days’ cycling each way.

We usually have a Xmas meal together (often in January or February), and vote on our favourite rides and cafes, to inform future planning.

See our Latest Ride or Where we’ve been so far this year.