Bridgnorth Cycling Club History

The current Bridgnorth Cycling Club is an amalgamation of two cycling clubs from the historic town of Bridgnorth, below is a little history of each of those clubs and the merger that brought them together into the club as it is today.

Bridgnorth Cycling Club

Bridgnorth Cycling Club was formed in 2010, when our current Chairman, Andrew Davies, put an advert in the Shropshire Star, enquiring whether any local riders were interested in forming a cycling club in the town, to fill the gap between the larger established clubs in the region.

A mixture of people came to several meetings at Oldbury Wells School, a committee was formed, and the club was started with Tuesday evening mountain bike rides during the summer and developing to have evening mountain bike rides on a Thursday with members often participating in weekend rides and competitive mountain biking.

The club evolved to include road rides on a Sunday where members enjoyed the Shropshire lanes and roads whilst looking forward to that all important cake and coffee stop.

Whilst not a racing club, many members participated in Sportives arranged across the Midlands including the Birmingham Velo.

Cycle Club Bridgnorth

Cycle Club Bridgnorth RWG was founded in 2018 to encourage road riding and racing in all its formats including an U23 team.

Gaining sponsorship from a wide and diverse area the club ran Reliabilities and group rides whilst supporting the development of young riders.

The club attracted attention and members from across the Midlands with a growth in amateur riders at various levels and on many a club ride you could meet and talk to up and coming and professional riders attached to teams, not least our own George Mills Keeling who came 2nd in the 2019 Junior Tour of Wales which is the biggest 3-day race for Junior cyclists. George has gone on to ride for Ribble Weldtite and is now with AVC Aix En Provence with the support of The Rayner Foundation.

The club finished top in the Shropshire & South Staffs Cycling Clubs Road Race League (SSSCCRRL) the first year it entered thanks mostly to a strong field of vets riders. Members also took part and got great results in hill climbs and time trials.

You could and will continue to meet Andy Tennant who rides for Canyon dhb SunGod, Grace Lister a member of the British Cycling Junior team on both road and track, Ben Healey who rides for Trinity Racing and is currently the Irish Champion, Leah Dixon who rides for Tibco – Silicon Valley Bank and Jacob Tipper who rides for Ribble Weldtite.

The Merger

Whilst the Covid pandemic of 2020 slowed and changed the world and that of cycling initial discussions were held between senior members of both clubs which resulted in a meeting in September where members of both clubs committees held exploratory discussions to discuss the benefits of both clubs merging to become just one cycling club in Bridgnorth thus bringing together the different disciplines of Mountain Bike & Road riding, Road racing & Time Trials to create an exciting, vibrant and inclusive offering to all riders and abilities and encourage new members. Also, the larger membership would provide a bigger pool of volunteers to help at club organised events.

A further meeting was held, and agreement reached that a vote on the merger would be put to the respective clubs’ members.

Voting forms and explanations were placed on both club’s media platforms, Facebook, WhatsApp, and websites to ensure that all members of both clubs had the information to enable them to make a balanced vote.

A resounding Yes vote was received from the club’s members and the hard work began to bring the task of merging to a conclusion.

As the UK enters the Spring of 2021 you will see the benefits of this hard work as you will see the Bridgnorth Cycling Club name and Bridgnorth Cycling Club colours of red, white and green emblazoned with the club’s sponsors on trails, roads, races and time trials.
Hopefully when we can go abroad safely, pictures will be added to the website showing club members in club colours on the roads and trails of our holiday destinations.

Accept no alternatives – This is the true Bridgnorth Cycling Club.