About Clarencourt Cycling Club

The Clarencourt Cycling Club is a small well-established club based around Cheam but with members mainly from around North Surrey who enjoy riding their bikes together socially. We welcome new members and can cater for all abilities.

The Club was formed in 1927 when a group of lads with bikes who lived in Oxford and Cambridge Villas on Clarendon and Courtney Roads in Colliers Wood decided to form a cycling club after watching cyclists returning down the high street after a Sunday in the country. Hence the club’s unusual name and its colors.

Within a few years all disciplines of cycling, touring, racing and bicycle polo were being practiced and before the war notable local success was achieved, particularly in massed start racing. The club was reformed after the war in 1945 and membership swelled to over a hundred in this heyday of cycling where the tradition of club cycling for pleasure proved a bedrock for athletic endeavor. Local racing successes came in time-trialing at all distances in the early fifties and some of those old champions are still around today. A few years later, when massed start racing on the open road and cyclo cross started, Clarencourt members entered into these arenas with enthusiasm and some considerable regional success. Touring abroad, which had been practiced by a few stalwarts since the club started, became more frequent and Clarencourt riders also raced in Europe.

In the 70’s and 80’s the mass popularity of cycling waned as cars became more available but still the club flourished with individual successes from a smaller membership. With the arrival of mountain bikes the club’s traditional interest in off-road riding found a new outlet and such rides were incorporated into the programme of activities alongside the road programme.  In the last 20 years short trips, usually of a weeks duration, to France, Spain and Belgium have featured regularly in our programme., as have shorter “Awayday” excursions in this country.

Recent History

In recent years our participation in racing has declined and our main racing reputation came from the promotion of two major bike races. In 2004 we promoted the Team Time Trial National Championship and we still promote the Surrey League 4-up Team Time Trial Championship. As some of us retired from work we extended our range of activities to include midweek leisure rides locally. In the past few years we have had a welcome increase in membership giving us a wider age range, more varied spheres of activity and an increase in lady members. There has been a new interest in cyclosportive riding. Although we have a minor participation in racing, we still have the organization and experience to support those with athletic ambition.

Today we are back to being a small group of people who enjoy riding bikes together mainly in the beautiful countryside of Surrey and Sussex but often farther afield. Our aim is to provide the support for members to enjoy whatever they want to do on a bike. And we’d like you to join us!

One of the early Jerseys club members used to wear and race in.