If cycling clubs feel like golf clubs on wheels, people will shun them

‘There is very little “bunched” racing on the open road and time trialling, which provided a nursery for past British world champions, is in a bad way.’ Photograph: Alamy

I agree with most of what Jonathan Liew says (UK cycling boom was not here to stay and lack of institutional will could keep it away, 6 February). However, his article doesn’t seem to entirely separate the sport of cycling from the activity. I have been a cycle ride leader and cycle trainer since 2009 – a few years before the boom times.

I was put off the racing side in the early 1980s when I found that cycling clubs were really just golf clubs on wheels. The “Rapha cafe bore” equates to 1980s golf bore. I loved riding the velodrome in Glasgow, pre-pandemic, until I rediscovered the golf club mentality of the 80s. I have never returned.