Each week Cycling Weekly takes one step closer to finding the best club jersey in the world. To enter your club email cycling@futurenet.com
Ever clocked a local club run speeding past and reckoned their amazing kit could teach the WorldTour fashionistas a thing or two? Or maybe you felt it had no place being displayed in a public place and should be consigned to the recycled fabrics bin in the supermarket car park.
A little harsh perhaps, but in any case now you get to take a better look as we assemble club kits from all over the place and get the stories behind them. Even better, you get to choose your favourites in a weekly poll – this isn't called Club Jersey Clash for nothing! In each week's instalment we'll announce the winner of the previous week's clash.
Meet our clubs this week: Ashby Ivanhoe and Beaconsfield CC. Let battle commence!
Ashby Ivanhoe RC
We spoke to Jonny Robinson of Ashby Ivanhoe Road Cyclists
Q: How long has the club been going and what sort of riding do you do?
A: Our club was newly formed in January of this year [2023]! Our club members race crits, take part in the Sunday social rides and many of them do an annual charity ride.
Q: Tell us the story behind the jersey design.
A: The jersey was actually designed by my uncle (in law) John Hoggarth who is a graphic designer by trade. The whole design was created from a blank canvas and after many iterations our first jersey design was born.
The main goal of the kit was to be unique and extremely visible on the circuit and out on the roads. Some small details you will notice that the pattern on the jersey is the road from our logo.
And the orange separating line on the upper is where we've built in the logo from one of our sponsors (Adam Broadhurst & Son Building Contractors).
Our supplier for our 2024 kit is Shutt Velo custom who have helped with some minor tweaks from this year's jersey.
Q: What are some of the most interesting rides – or biggest achievements – members have worn it for?
A: The jersey was worn by our race team in 2023 where we scored 88 points from a small group of six riders. It was worn by Scott Broadhurst who recorded the club's first win at Haus RT Darley Moor Crit in April 2023. The other members wear it on club rides with pride, and I feel the kit design has certainly helped to grow our membership up to 25 members in less than a year!
Beaconsfield CC
We spoke to Alister Beveridge, one of the founder members of Beaconsfield CC.
Q: How long has the club been going and what sort of riding do you do?
As one of three founding members I set up the club in September 2014 with no expectations other than to cover ourselves from a liability perspective should an incident occur on a group ride. The club grew steadily but it was not until 2015 that version one of our club jersey appeared.
Q: Tell us the story behind the jersey design.
Through local connections we discovered that there was a local ladies cycling group and we asked them to join us. They had created a black and pink kit for a charitable event that they supported. Pink, black and white became our default colours and because they are highly visible and now very recognised in the area.
The second and current design came two years later, and rather than being designed by a couple of ageing cyclists with crayons, was finely crafted by someone that knew what they were doing. The manufacturer switched after a year to Endura who have been our supplier ever since.
Q: What are some of the most interesting rides – or biggest achievements – members have worn it for?
The club is primarily a social group, though we have a few that race across different disciplines and at least one that competes in UCI-sanctioned events in BCC kit.
We have strongly supported the Etape over the years with 20-plus members attending, as well as the other big European events. Membership reached a peak of around 225 just before the pandemic and is now growing again with 180 members.
Though the pandemic caused a reduction in numbers most of that was due to the loss of our kids' club as we lost the venue used for coaching.
IT'S TIME TO VOTE!
Last week's poll winner was: KMOTB with 75% of the votes, with Birmingham Midland Cycling receiving 25%.
