The club in a Nutshell

The 'Lakes', as it's often known, is a very friendly non-formal club of keen cyclists who enjoy getting out doing all sorts of riding. We don't go in for committees - we'd rather just have a club get-together at a pub when needed to sort things out.

This page gives an introduction the club. but also see also:

• Rides page for details of weekly club rides
• Events page for details of this year's planned events

A Lot More Than just Road Riding

The club name is a bit misleading now. It dates from 1977, when the club was set up to provide for riders who wanted to road race - the other clubs in the area concentrated on time trialing.

But nowadays we do a lot more than just road riding - members go mountain biking, ride cyclo-cross races, mountain bike races, time trials, road races, sportives, leisure cycling - the full range.

Club Rides

There are club rides each week, often several. The standard one is Sunday morning, stretching into afternoon a bit, but there are often also groups going out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, depending on who's available and what the weather is like.

The standard meeting point is the bus lay-by at the top of Melton Brow between Dalton and Lindal. For details, see our Rides page and Meeting Points map.

The Fred Whitton Challenge

Back in 1998 a terrible thing happened when one of our key members, Fred Whitton, died of cancer. The following year his close friends in the club organised a challenge day ride round all the Lake District passes, in Fred's memory and to raise money for charity. Since then this Fred Whitton Challenge has become an annual event, with feed stations and full electronic timing, and it has caught the imagination of thousands of cyclists from all over Britain, Europe and beyond. It has now grown into a major event that attracts thousands of entries each year, and the total raised for charity is now hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Club Events

As well as the Fred Whitton Challenge, we also organise other events during the year. We host road races on our local courses and run cyclocross events. For details see our Events page.

Come and Join Us

If you're interested in joining us then give us a call or send us a message - see our Contact Us page for details. Or just turn up at the top of Melton at 9am on a Sunday morning and join us for a ride, or just have a chat with the riders going on the day ride.