Cycling club

A cycling club is a club or society formed by and for cyclists, and is usually focused in a particular geographic location, perhaps a region, town or city suburb, as well as national cycling clubs, such as the United Kingdom's Cyclists' Touring Club, CTC) and also internet based clubs such as i-Team & Team Internet.

There are also specialist cycling associations drawing together enthusiasts in particular niche disciplines (eg: the Tricycle Association, the Tandem Club) or age groups (eg: the Veterans Time Trial Association, for those aged over 40). Members of these groups will tend also to be members of conventional cycling clubs.

There are also groups which specialise in supporting the needs of leisure cyclists and/or campaign for improved facilities for recreational and commuting cyclists (eg: the London Cycling Campaign, Friends of the Earth, Greenwich Cyclists).

Activities

A cycling club's range of activities can vary from being solely focussed on one aspect of cycle sport, as in the case of racing teams, through to offering members a broad base of cycling related and social activities.

Traditionally, cycle racing clubs organise events for their members and local sporting community, including track cycling, cyclo-cross, road bicycle racing and time trials). Also included will be organised training for such race events.

Cycling clubs may also offer suitable events for the recreational and lesuire cyclist ranging from touring, to weekly club-runs (traditionally held on Sunday mornings). Most clubs will usually also hold regular meetings and social events, and may have BC or ABCC qualified coaches, or simply offer the benefits of accumulated experience.

For most competitive cyclists, membership of a cycling club affiliated to a recognised national association (eg: British Cycling and Cycling Time Trials in the UK) will be required before he or she can race. While training or competing, cyclists can be associated with their clubs by wearing jerseys in distinctive club colours.

Sponsorship

Some cycling clubs are sponsored by commercial organisations. Club members' racing jerseys and other clothing may, therefore, carry the logo of the club's sponsor (thereby advertising them, their products or services), while some members may also get other benefits such as equipment discounts, free equipment, and/or financial support for race attendance.

Names

UK cycling club names vary enormously. Many simply reflect their home town or district (for example, Tom Simpson started his cycling career with Nottinghamshire's Harworth and District Cycling Club, while contemporary Brian Robinson started with Huddersfield Road Club). On the other hand, some club names will give little or no guide to their geographic origin (eg: Acme Wheelers are based in south Wales, Zenith CC in Leicester, Gemini BC in north-west Kent) or may be known by a website name such as i-Team.cc & TrackCycling.co.uk

As well as calling themselves 'cycling clubs', clubs may also style themselves as a 'road club' (eg: Beacon Roads Cycling Club, Warrington RC and Archer RC), a 'velo club' (velo being French for cycle; eg: Clayton Velo, Yorkshire Velo, Thames Velo, VC Elan, VC Londres or Velo Sport Jersey) or a bicycle club (eg: Tooting BC); some call themselves 'wheelers' (eg: Nelson Wheelers, Macclesfield Wheelers, Manchester Wheelers' Club, etc.) or even 'coureurs' (eg: Cleveland Coureurs). Some club names have their roots in political or social movements (eg: the one-time socialist Clarion clubs, such as Fenland Clarion, Nottingham Clarion, Crewe Clarion, etc), religious circles (eg: Manchester St Christopher's Catholic Cycling Club) or occupational groups (RAF CC, Northumbria Police CC, GB Fire Service Road Team, Army Cycling Union). There are also club names that evoke the wandering nature of cycling (eg: 34th Nomads, Altrincham Ravens, Lewes Wanderers, Colchester Rovers, etc) or some other aspiration (eg: Norwood Paragon, Sheffield Phoenix, Dulwich paragon).

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