New Louth cycling club enjoys membership boom

A Louth-based cycling club which was founded just under one month ago has already seen a massive growth in numbers.

Keen biker Gavin Borthwick founded Louth Cycling Club with his wife Nicola via facebook and has already seen 160 members sign up.

“It has all developed quickly. It’s weird, I don’t know if we spotted a gap in the market or something,” he said.

“Previously there have been a couple of cycling clubs in the Louth area, but they seem to have faded away.

“I guess there has been a longing for something to be organised. We did it and it has grown really quickly.

“We are an open club so it is free to be a member. All we want to do is help people socialise or share their experience of riding and get excited about cycling.”

And with team sports unlikely to resume any time soon, Gavin says now is the perfect time for people to give the sport a go.

“Usually the idea of cycling clubs is to build camaraderie and share knowledge about cycling,” he added.

“Obviously it is a little difficult to do that with social distancing, but we share information on social media with people.

“The lockdown brings other issues. There’s a lot of people who may not have picked up a bike for a long long time and are trying to get back in to it.

“It’s always good to have some support, being part of a club gives people a bit of impetus to drive them to get out more and do something that is healthy.

“We are planning on holding group rides for people of different abilities. We want to identify where people are at and hopefully we can have weekly rides based on groups.

“The hope is that we can also enter our most talented riders into registered races and get our own team kit.

The club are now looking to register for affiliate status with British Cycling and are appealing for sponsorship to help cover fees.

It will mean the club will be fully insured to organise ride outs and give knock-on benefits and discounts to club riders.

“Sponsorship will help the club and get a company’s brand out there on our kit,” he added.

Cyclists tend to have a bit of money to spend with the company’s that are supporting us.”

For further information visit www.louthcycleclub.org or email [email protected]

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