Rapha Cycling Clubs

FreddieVonRost

Two in Londinium, one quite close to my gaff. Rapha seem to organise a lot of events but there is an air of "being up their own bottom" when l looked at their website. Not sure whether to fork out for an annual membership as unfortunately there are few traditional clubs here.

Is there anyone on the forum with anymore information?

Ben6899

Are you in London?

FreddieVonRost

Hi Ben,

Yes, Londinium is my manor. Two choices Spitalfields or Soho.

Ben6899

Well I'm not a member of either and haven't been (they both do great coffee though), but there are plenty of club choices in London.

What did you mean by "traditional"?

FreddieVonRost

A club that has been around for ages. Used to ride with the Finsbury Park and Paddington CC but it would take me ages to get to the club run point in Potters Bar.

Hence the attraction of Rapha which is close.

Ben6899

It depends how you define "ages", I suppose. But CC Hackney, Islington CC, CC London or Central London CTC come to mind... they're pretty well established and traditional clubs.

Might be worth a go?

joe_totale-2

Surely most club runs from Rapha would involve riding through central London to Potters Bar/Crystal Palace where the other, traditional clubs meet before then riding some of the lanes?

There's also Islington CC who meet in Holloway which is an awful lot closer, they may not be a traditional club but they've grown incredibly quickly since starting.

imposter2.0

CC London..? Club rides from Finchley, I think. I'm not with them, just aware of them...

Ben6899

imposter2.0 said:

CC London..? Club rides from Finchley, I think. I'm not with them, just aware of them...

That's them. They meet at a cafe opposite the Bald Faced Stag, I think.

joe_totale-2

There's Peckham CC who're a new club but seem like a friendly enough bunch. They meet in Peckham so not actually that far from Soho/Spitalfields.

IMO the geography of Kent/North Downs is more interesting to ride in that anything to the north of London, I think this is the area that Peckham ride in.

cruff

Another shout for CC London. Got a lot of mates who ride for them - well organised, well run club.

FreddieVonRost

CCL bookmarked. Thank you muchly.

teisetrotter

Yep riding out through Crystal Palace is the quickest route to the countryside in London and the countryside includes the north downs, the sandhills of surrey and kent and the wealds of Kent and Sussex. Lumpy enough, very pretty and more lanes than you can point a bike at.

Brixton, Peckham, BigFoot, Catford, Penge and Dulwich all have clubs with regular rides from Crystal Palace (there are stacks of mini-groups as well) and there is a massive bike shop/cafe called Cadence where many meet-up. Dulwich is the biggest club and probably has the widest choice. There are also open multi-club rides & races anyone can turn up to:
Tuesday Crystal Palace Crit's in the Park for CAT3 and above
Wednesday summer Chain gang from Elmers End a smash fest around the Downs 7pm - 9pm in the summer with normally 3 - 4 speed groups
Wednesday winter road bike training sessions at Herne Hill Velodrome
Sunday meets from Cadence at 9am with two speeds 23-25kph and 27kph

That is in addition to the individual club runs on Saturdays and Sundays. Dulwich run about three different versions on a Saturday and a Sunday for longer, earlier, shorter and faster rides.

Lastly, I know a lot of people in RCC. It is a good club. They have some mad early morning stuff I think Tuesday from Soho is a stupid early climb fest in N.London around Alexandra Palace and things like Swain's lane. Then some weekend rollouts.

If you want to get to the rides out that way it's an easy roll out from Central London or trains to Crystal Palace from Victoria, London Bridge and the Thames Link line.

In conclusion, go south-east and you have more choice than probably anywhere else on the planet