Want to join a cycling club!

[Paycheck]

I'm a rookie who's looking to join a club in Sydney to improve my skills. I live in Pyrmont. Any suggestion on how to find and join a club?

[ftssjk]

your closest club is in glebe, but it seems to be a gay club.

http://www.sydneyspokes.com/

then there are clubs in leichardt and sydney

http://www.lbug.org.au/

http://bikesydney.org/new10/

[albe]

spokes take gay rookies too

nice chaps, went with them for a ride up around manly dam and surrounds back when i was living in sydney.

[BarryTas]

wow a gay cycling group, that is cool

[albe]

yeah there's a good range of sports groups in sydney for queer folk, many born out of the gay games. Also played a bit with the football team (rangers) years back and occasionally since. The football group do the o/s trips for the games, was never flushed enough with cash to go though.

The whole 'gay' sports group thing might seem odd to outsiders. But its a lot more fun than dealing with the usual bogan hater element in my regular social footy teams LOL.

[Max]

The whole 'gay' sports group thing might seem odd to outsiders. But its a lot more fun than dealing with the usual bogan hater element in my regular social footy teams LOL.

At the risk of derailing this thread...

Yep. I went to the Gay Games in 2002, in Sydney. Somehow I ended up being the banner bearer for Brisbane during the opening ceremony! I'll never forget the experience of walking into the stadium and hearing the crowd roar. For those of you who want to see shaky, blurry photos of the event, you can find some here.

Because I couldn't rally enough people from Brisbane to form a volleyball team, I ended up playing with a bunch from Washington, Germany and Belgium. We played well enough that we were moved up into A-grade, but we weren't good enough to actually be competitive against real A-grade teams! We got a pounding, and I think we ended up second-last in the A-grade ladder. But the truth is, we didn't care. We had the time of our lives. The thing about the Gay Games, and playing in gay teams in general, is that there is an overarching spirit of inclusiveness. Yes, there's competition. Yes, some of the players are so awesome that the rest of us can't even hope to play in their shadows (ie they're Olympic-level athletes). But it just doesn't matter. Everyone has a good time.

If you're nearby to Sydney Spokes, then you might as well give them a shot. I'm sure you'd be most welcome and you'll have a good time.

Max

[Chris249]

I'm a rookie who's looking to join a club in Sydney to improve my skills. I live in Pyrmont. Any suggestion on how to find and join a club?

Go to the club/BUG list at Cycling NSW for a start.

Apart from Spokes, if you're in Pyrmont the closest clubs could be Dulwich Hill and Randwick Botany.

Both clubs are very friendly. Dulwich may have a better setup for adults getting into the sport, with a special Saturday ride for those who have yet to progress to the faster rides out to Waterfall on Sunday. They start out from Marrickville which is a reasonable warm-up distance from Pyrmont. I think you can try their rides without membership or become a non-racing member with insurance for $90. Cycling NSW insurance is a nice thing to have because you are covered if you ding someone's BMW.

Some Dulwich guys ride World Cup track events and the "red swarm" apparently almost take over Dunc Grey for the RAW track series, so they are arguably mainly a training/social ride/track club, although they do plenty of road events as well. Good guys all - contact mikesbytes here for info.

Randwick Botany has an outstanding record at Masters level on the track (if the club was a country, it would have been 4th best nation at the Masters worlds!) but is also very much road/time trial oriented. I get the impression that the training rides are less aimed at less experienced riders, and I think you need to be a full racing member so it's more expensive. Rides leave from the Eastern Suburbs which may be harder to get to than RBCC

Bicycle Garage at Lilyfield has group rides Wednesday at 6am and to varying destinations other days. They are not a club so cannot offer training, but once again a very good bunch of guys and girls to ride with. I think the Wednesday ride is about 30ks and it winds out to SOP and back. Good pace for less serious riders.

A loooong way out, Penrith CC offered some race training at one stage - it sounded like it would be a really good skills course in how to handle group riding.

[stinhambo]

I went to the Gay Games in 2002... We got a pounding. But the truth is, we didn't care. We had the time of our lives. But it just doesn't matter. Everyone has a good time. I'm sure you'd be most welcome and you'll have a good time.

Thread derailed.

[The 2nd Womble]

wow a gay cycling group, that is cool

Nice to know Sydney has so many happy cyclists. Everyone's too grumpy in Brisbane

[splunk]

Back to the OP...

I was in a similar boat to you. I stay in the city(close to Pyrmont) and was looking for a group/club to join. I chose to join Sydney CC as they have organised rides every day of the week (bar Mondays) which start close to the city. The rides are well organised with an appointed ride captain which are split into 3 bunches of varying skill levels. I just rocked up to the start which is in Centenial Park, introduced myself and off I went. Check out the web site - http://www.sydneycyclingclub.org.au/

[cf73]

Just made the application tonight and joined the Illawarra CC
Hopefully can enter my first race on Sunday (36km scratch) and looking forward to it.

Sorry, didnt want to detract from the info you are trying to get about clubs close to Pyrmont, but wanted to share that I had made the same step.