Our Formation - Club History

The club, formed in 1974 by a group of riders from the 34th Nomads, who wanted to break away from the traditional format of the old established cycling clubs.The V C Elan has had a relaxed approach to running a cycle racing club, and has been very successful since the club was formed, winning National championships, divisional championships, winning medals in Kent and Essex time trial best all rounder competitions.

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V C ELAN

How the club was started

 The V C Elan was formed in September1974 by four riders all from the 34th Nomads .The four were Pete Haswell, Dave Lee, Ron Read, and Roy Woodham, and had been first category road men, and members of the British League of Racing Cyclists.

After the League and the Union joined together, to become the British Cycling Federation, the” just four” felt that a lot of the fun of racing seemed to disappear.

The old roadmen and quite a few other cyclists took to cyclo cross with its more relaxed attitude to rules and regulations.

 After the club was formed, the idea was for each member to take on a job to keep the club going, and to keep the format simple with as few rules as possible and just to enjoy the racing at their level (veteran) The “just four” enjoyed their racing Taking the south of England cyclo cross team prize, and people started to take interest in the club.

One of the early applicants was Paul Mepham who ran a cycle business in Woolwich and was also a keen racing man. It seemed a natural progression that Paul’s shop, Harry Perry cycles should sponsor the club, and he started sponsoring the V C Elan in 1975, and this was a happy association that was to last for the next ten years.

Of the original four Ron Read, and Roy Woodham stopped racing after a few years but Pete went on, and won a bronze medal in the South of England veteran cyclo cross championship, and a year later took the silver, and also won the season long London League veterans cyclo cross championship.

Dave Lee motivated by his new club went from one success to another. In 1977 he broke every veteran track record in the book, from one Kilo to the hour record, unfortunately due to a misunderstanding by the track officials, the records were not registered in the required time and so the times were not ratified, another of Daves greatest rides was to win the Border 12hour time trial with a distance of 265 miles a club record that still stands, he also won road races and numerous time trials at all distances.Dave Rowe, and Dave Pitman were both early members, Dave Rowe in 1976 won the National Tandem Championship partnered by Dave Legrys to add to the silver he had won in 1975. Both riders went on to become successful professionals.Dave Pitman in 1976 was selected to ride for Great Britain in the Peace Race, behind the Iron curtain, and also the Tour of Britain where at one stage he was second on general classification. In 1977 the club got its first invitation to ride abroad, and was racing in Holland, representing Greenwich, in 1979 Steve Douce hit the headlines, when he took the silver medal in the National Schoolboys cyclo cross championships. Later in the season he led his brother Graham, and Nick Moody to the team prize in the National junior Cyclo Cross Championship. A year later it was silver again ,in the Junior championship, after falling badly in the event, he carried on to finish a very creditable second with his leg pouring with blood from a wound that was to need several stitches.

Finally Steve was rewarded with gold in the 1981 championships, and was later selected to ride for Great Britain in the World Championships; fate again took a hand when the GB manager failed to send Steve for a random dope check, so Steve was declared a non-finisher.

Steve went on to be a professional with Raleigh Cycles and was the National open Cyclo Cross Champion.

 1981 was another good year for the club, Chris Eynon a junior on form, winning at home and in Belgium and Italy, young Tracey Brunger won the ESCA National schoolgirls cyclo cross title, and also won the ESCA National schoolgirl 10 mile time trial title. Tracey’s dad Ron Brunger, who was one of the Elans top cross riders, was a very proud dad. The club received a second invitation to represent Greenwich in an International week of racing, this time in West Berlin.

 Tan Lobley won the British Universities cyclo cross championship held in Birmingham, and rode for the Elan when at home.

In 1982, the team went to Stella Plage in France to race in a cyclo cross as a return gesture after the French had raced here, and had been beaten by Martin Cruse in a tremendous battle for first place. The top place in the return visit went to France, but the Elan members took most of the prizes including, first schoolboy, Adrian James, and first veteran,

Arthur Ellis.

Time trials were also a big feature in 1982, when Del Maund took a break from road racing to lead the team to an almost clean sweep in the Kent Cycling Associations B A R,

Del Maund 1^st, and both the reliable veterans, Brian Birch 2^nd, and Arthur Ellis twelfth, to win the team prize.

1983 Brian Birch continued to ride the long distance time trials, getting a 3^rd place in the Eastern Counties BAR, and setting a new club 100 mile record of 4hr 7 minutes .

1984 Brian again continued with the long distance events, again getting third in Eastern Counties BAR, and won the Kent Vets group, long distance championship, in the winter months the cyclo cross riders kept the clubs name to the fore.

The club changed in 1985, Harry Perry cycles stopped sponsoring the club due economic pressures, but Paul and Kath continued being valuable and reliable members, a quiet couple of seasons followed, then in.

1988, 89, 90, 91 and 1992 saw an increase in membership and a move from the South East London division to the Kent division. The junior team’s performances were outstanding, with wins from   

 Leo Leone, Trevor Ingram. John Appleby. Chris Warling. Chris won the Eastern Counties Junior Road Race Championship, and the all London junior pursuit title, and third in the Divisional road race championships. John Appleby won two bronze medals in the E S C A National track championships, in the sprint and pursuit.

Fist year junior Robert Whiting, who had good results as a schoolboy, was learning to cope with the extra miles as a junior.

The seniors were also getting in the news, Jim Thorpe won a silver medal in the Divisional road race championship, Martin McGregor fourth and Andrew Meliak seventh, they also won the team prize.

Further results came to the club seniors with Callum Gough, Ian Harris, and Martin McGregor winning events followed closely by the rest of the club for the runner up positions.

Track racing was also a strong point with the club through Martin McGregor, John Appleby and Trevor Ingram winning events at Harlow, and Chris Warling and Leo Leone winning at Herne Hill.

 During the next twelve years, Peter Haswell moved to Herne Bay and eventually joined the Thanet Road Club a local club, other members either moved house or just moved to other clubs but a lot of the regular members continued riding for the Elan .