• Sunday Morning Road Rides

    There are typically shorter, medium, and longer route lengths available each week all meeting at a mass start location, typically a parking lot.

  • Wednesday Night Pizza Rides

    These after-work rides typically start at or near the restaurant parking lot. Shorter and medium route lengths. Pizza to follow the ride.

  • Saturday Rail Trail Rides

    Explore the region’s many Bikeways, Greenways, Cycle Paths, and Rail Trails. Relatively flat path with little to no automobile traffic and a wide variety of surface types.

  • Hikes

    Typically we hike in the fall and winter months

  • Gravel Rides

    For 2024 we are planning at least one Sunday gravel ride to correspond with our Sunday road rides.

Early History and Evolution of the Pequot Cyclists

Contributed by Ray Foss & Scott Ebersole

The start of what would become the Pequot Cyclists occurred sometime in 1974. The club began shortly after the opening of Bombay Bicycle Shop in downtown Norwich,]1974. The owner, Jay Hawley, and a customer, John Fletcher, decided to offer Sunday group bicycle rides starting from the Norwichtown Green. These casual rides were always led by John Fletcher, who had extensive knowledge of the area’s country roads. Local cyclists showed increased interest, and, in 1978, John Fletcher decided to name the group “The Norwich Cycle Club.” By early 1980 interest  grew beyond Norwich and the Bombay Bicycle Shop.   John became involved with fellow cyclist Dave Reed to help run The Lantern Hill Time Trials located in Ledyard. From those trials,  new friends were made, generating interest in other area bike shops regarding forming a club. John decided to include this interest within the Norwich club and renamed it “Pequot Cyclists.” The Pequot name was chosen because it referenced all of Southeastern Connecticut where the current interest existed. Membership dues, a newsletter, Sunday rides with different starting locations,  and annual century rides soon followed. 

Time Trials, or The Race of Truth, were started early in the history of the Pequot Cyclists.  Per Dave Reed: John Fletcher was the original timer and organizer of the Time Trial. As I recall we started the Time Trial on the road in Ledyard that ran next to Long Pond.  I believe it was 1980 when the route switched to Route 2 after some friction with local residents.  The time trial route was 10 miles with a turn-around at Lu-Macs.  Later, the route was changed to a one way Time Trial with a length of 10 km for safety reasons.   Some evenings over 100 riders participated in the trials.

The Pequot Time Trials had some famous racers. Tom Danielson, native of East Lyme, was a professional cyclist from 2002-2015. He came to the TT one night and finished long before the second place finisher.  The young Hincapie brothers were junior riders and competed at the Pequot TT. George Hincapie raced as a pro 1994-2012.

For several years, the Pequot Cyclists organized and hosted rides that brought cyclists from all over New England including the well-received Seaport Century and the TEC century (Tour of Eastern CT).