Mountain bikers in the Swindon area have recently formed a club. Aimed at encouraging cycling and fitness, the club takes a non-competitive view on cycling. Founder Phil Mayger said “The idea was to bring existing riders together and to encourage new people into the sport. We’d already been on a few of the Tuesday night rides organised by the Red Planet bike shop so we thought we could add to that.
In the summer we meet every Friday at the Croft Trail in Swindon for a few laps and then go to the local pub for a social. We have at least one local and one national trail ride per month, plus any other events we fancy doing. Our barbeque and ride nights have been very popular, so we have more of those planned.”
Mr Mayger said “people are welcome to just turn up and ride with us and if they like it they can join the club later.” Club membership offers benefits such as shop discounts, affiliated CTC membership (a national cycling organisation) and liability insurance.
The club has recently organised a series free skills training sessions. Instructor Rafe Aldridge explained that “the courses offer an introduction to mountain biking and are suitable for anyone over the age of sixteen who has a bike and can ride it”. One session was women only. Club member Jodie West said “I’d love to see more women join up. All those who have come out on the Friday night rides have commented on how friendly and helpful everyone is.”
Jess Clarke recently joined the club. She said “I was a bit nervous at first as I was worried that everyone else would be lots quicker and more experienced, but I needn’t have worried. It’s a friendly and relaxed atmosphere with everyone there for the same reason…to ride their bikes and have fun.”
The club is still working on its own trail at Croft Woods in Swindon. This is located on council owned land opposite the Nationwide Building Society headquarters at Piper’s Way. The trail is open all year round and is free for anyone to use.
Mr Mayger said “we took over the trails in April 2009 and there was a complete 5km loop at that time. We’ve spent the last year working on improving the route to bring it up to standard and still have another year of work planned. About half of the trail is surfaced with chippings at the moment but we need to get it all done to make the trail weather proof. We’re self funding and all the work is done by volunteers and community payback teams. Thanks to a generous contribution from a local business (Bell Tyre and Exhaust Centre) we’ve been able to surface the new start section and the CTC and the big lottery fund are looking to sponsor another section. We’ve had some personal donations to the club too.”
There are build events every month, either on weekday evenings or weekends. Pete Ratcliffe who is a regular on the build events said “we’ve got a long list of things that we’d like to do, it’s just a matter of turning up and getting on with it. The build events are fun; we’ve got a good team and it’s great to see the trail improving. We’re always pleased to see new people too.”