In February last year I was getting ready for my first cycling event – a 25 mile bike ride for Sport Relief. It was a good route though a few hills and I was fairly certain I would die on a couple and also that my vagina had fallen out at some point!
My husband was part of a cycling club, Romford CC, and I completed the ride with some of the members of the club.
I was hooked. I am sure when I started telling people they would smile and nod whilst probably thinking really? You? She who bakes cakes and sits on her fat ass watching Eastenders? Good luck with that! That was what I was thinking anyway.
My husband is heavily involved in the club and so I know most of the members. They are lovely, a couple are borderline mental and if you forget a name call them Steve – there are many Steve’s in the club!
I have had so much help from so many of them and am so grateful. I started cycling at a cycle centre near us, Redbridge Cycle Centre, which is a track purely for bikes with no cars so a good start for a newbie. I would regularly meet one of the ladies in the club and a now friend of mine, Lisa, and she is the singer of the club – she would always get there before me and would cycle with her phone playing music and I would generally hear her coming before I saw her wailing to Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up! On our first ride together she had to point out that my cycle helmet was on back to front – smooth move by me – someone put a cork on my fork please!
I would never have been able to complete the Prudential Ride 100 last year without their help and I love celebrating with them all (and lots of wine) in the park after the event. My husband signed me up for this without telling me (the b*stard) and I completed this in 5 hours 21 minutes with his help and that of his other love, best mate and club member, Timmy. It is one thing having your husband stay with you on a ride but another when someone else sacrifices their ride to help you which is lovely and also can make you feel bad. I said a few times Tim should go off as he is a much better cyclist and I felt I was holding him back but he wouldn’t have it and told me not to be silly although he then said but can you f*cking hurry up?! Thanks Tim!
Romford CC was originally founded in 2012, by some friends in Cycle Surgery Romford, wanting to take the store’s social ride to a club level. After inviting customers to join them, one of the riders went about and decided it would be a great idea to officially create a cycling club, this was the start for Romford CC.
We are a great social bunch of people with varied riding abilities and have a very encouraging approach and view.
They are sponsored by Cycle Surgery in Romford and Yellow Jersey Cycles in Billericay.
If you are interested in cycling, want to join a club or would like to come on a ride take a look at the website: http://www.romfordcyclingclub.co.uk/ you can get in touch by clicking on Contact Us, at the top of the page or drop an email to info@romfordcc.co.uk
Who wouldn’t want to be part of this club and get to wear the dashing pink and yellow kit? On a ride once with another friend and club member Sophie, we pulled out of a pub rest stop and someone commented that they were not entirely sure if our kit was hideous or genius – it gets us noticed though and I personally love a bit of anything pink! And let’s face it no one looks good in Lycra so it’s nice to be part of a club and you can all look like sausages and condoms together!
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