Best Cycling Club

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BY: chris denman

Published: 22nd January, 2015

Why West Drayton MBC is the best club going.

I’ll explain why West Drayton Mountain Bike Club is the undoubtedly the best cycling club around fuelled from my own experiences with West Drayton MBC.

Firstly, a brief background. A few years ago I decided to get back into biking after being into BMX, first as a kid in the early 80’s, (back in the day) and again years later, until I stopped after snapping my ACL ligament in my knee, thinking my biking days were over!

Well, after a successful knee operation and remembering all the fun times I had on my bike I decided to give mountain biking a go a few years after. Sure, a lot of mates said they were up for it, but in practice none were really that keen. So, I decided to jump into the deep end get a full suspension mtb and headed to the Alps on a solo mission. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into. Well, in short, it didn’t take long and I knew that this was for me. I had met great like-minded people out there and realised that this was what I wanted to do. I hadn’t killed myself either coming down the side of French mountains in Morzine.

All I needed now was to meet others here, with the same outlook. They must exist right?

I think it was somebody suggested a local club called West Drayton Mountain Bike Club as I live in West London. I thought it was a bit odd that there was such a club in West Drayton being so flat and close to Heathrow airport! From a quick internet search I found that there was a club website, an active forum, loads of rides going and a really healthy scene. I thought I must get involved with this, so I tagged along on one of the clubs many social mountain bike rides. The pace was much quicker than I was used to going out on my own, I remember at first but everyone was friendly and people were waiting for others to catch up, all having a great laugh bombing along the canal to the woods and thrashing around in the mud and dirt, in and out of trees and up and out of bomb holes. It was great. A massive buzz and the freedom, it felt like being a kid again. Get in there.

That was my introduction to the club and I have not looked back in the years now that I’ve been a member. So here it goes, since joining the club as essentially a total novice mountain bike rider who had dragged himself to the Alps to see what it is all about. I have gone all over Wales with the club on Social bike rides, I’ve ridden down Mount Snowdon with Club mates! I’ve been to Scotland, all over Scotland taking in the Seven Staines and numerous trail centres up and down the UK. I’ve gone on Club trips with great people and such fun times. We’ve been back to the Alps several times and had so many laughs and serious good riding only the experience itself can really describe the rush and feeling of freedom out on the bike. However, these activities are just the tip of the Iceberg. West Drayton MBC is much, much, more than just a mountain bike club.

I cannot speak of the Club without mentioning The Club Chairman, Chris Denman. Well he is an absolute machine and should really have a medal from the Queen by now for what he puts into the club. He has encouraged me endlessly and loads of others in the club to progress in the Sport of cycling from riding to a better level right up to racing and getting on the podium. (Well it only happened last year and I still haven’t got over it) He has an un-rivalled energy what he puts into organising events in the club it is staggering. It truly is.

So, how have I progressed and been encouraged in the club then? I thought I would never get into road riding, (thinking it was for skinny blokes in lycra) but when I started wanting to get fitter, it was suggested that I take up on the road over winter. A bit reluctantly I did so, bought a road bike and within six months of getting this bike I had cycled across that Alps with the club from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea in about a week. I never thought that would be possible taking in all the famous Tour de France Cols. What an experience too and a more beautiful landscape I think I have never seen. Since then with the club I have cycled across the Pyrenees on the road, from the Atlantic to the Med again in about 6 days. People were calling me a roadie. How had this happened? My fitness had improved and I was starting to feel like a proper cyclist.

The amount of cycling events the club puts on is endless and the type of riding people do is so diverse there cannot be a club like it. The club organises a Road Sportive in the Winter, The Bucks Road Sportive. This is a 100km ride into the Chiltern Hills and in Late February, is not an easy ride at all. It organises the Bucks Off Road Sportive in Spring which has got to be the greatest off road Sportive in the South of England. The ride is up to a 132km of riding in the picturesque Chiltern Hills. It is a hugely attended ride with hundreds of people taking part. It has run for many years and year in year out is always great success. The efforts the Club Chairman has put into this over the years is incredible. The Club puts on a Mountain Bike race in Black Park Country Park and this year hosts the first of the Southern XC series races. The Club has put on, in recent years, a Duathlon. Later in the year the club will run the Exposure Night of the Knobbly tread night race, again in Black Park country Park. Yes, night racing, the club has introduced me to this and what a buzz it is racing your mates around the woods at night flowing around following a tunnel of light ahead of you in the eerie dark woods.

So if you think West Drayton MBC really just don’t think mountain biking. I have done training on the track in the indoor veledrome at Calshot with the club. This is racing around a really steep banked wooden track on a fixed wheel track bike. What a rush. The club organises races down at Hillingdon track on the road race circuit down there. I’ve had the opportunity to ride with some amazing people, ex racers and people who encourage you and really bring you on in the world of cycling and this is all through the club.

West Drayton has got the be the most inclusive cycling club around, we have riders who are pushing into their seventies and young lads who could barely ride in a straight line who regularly race now in a local and a national level. I‘ve seen the progress of so many riders through the club and some have been picked up with the allure of bigger sponsors, Male and Female riders. The common factor is, the grass roots of where they came from have been West Drayton MBC. The Club has Cyclo-cross racers, racing at the sharp end at a National level, we have an elite road racer and numerous guys, weekend warriors, who are racing in National and at a local level on Cross country mountain bikes week in week out. Aside from the fast boys, the club has a massive social scene with social rides happening locally often a few times a week. I can ride off road mid-week at night, and attend group road and mountain bikes at the weekend. I have ridden on a 4x track with club friends at Chicksands and in France, gone Down-hilling at the National Downhill track at Fort William in Scotland. I have ridden the French National XC course in Les Gets in France a couple of years ago when the professionals were practicing. We take part in Sportives across Europe each year. This is all encouraged and supported by the club along with all the events I mentioned that Club organising and runs. It’s amazing.

How many clubs can say that theirs riders have ridden so many diverse styles of bike riding and had all these cycling experiences. I think we are unrivalled in our diversity and inclusivism to cycling, from the sharp end of racing to living and breathing all types of cycling. Oh and did I mention, we’ve got the best Club Kit going. As a club, we look great doing what we all love to do. West Drayton MBC to me and many others is a totally unique cycling club and simply the best.

D.Smith

So anyone else inspired or loking to be inspired

https://www.facebook.com/pages/West-Drayton-Mountain-Bike-Club/27327170637

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