ABOUT US
We are a diverse, friendly and competitive cycle club based in Crystal Palace, SE19. We have riders at all levels, from steady Sunday cyclists, to out and out racers. Whatever your level, you’ll get a warm welcome from everyone here. No matter what your cycling goals are, riding with us can help you achieve them.
We sprang into life in 2012 when Elitecycling head coach, Paul Mill, set up the club to run alongside his cycling and triathlon training company. This brought his clients together to ride with and motivate each other on a Saturday and Sunday. This is one of the unique features of our club. When we go out on a ride, more often than not, we'll be led by a British Cycling accredited coach doing specific drills to help us improve - intervals, hill repeats, criterium practice, race scenarios, cornering - as well as steady social miles with a lot of fun along the way. We sometimes work hard, but we all help, support and push each other through the pain!
At our Performance Centre at the Crystal Palace National Sports Stadium we have loads of resources to help get you to the next level in your cycling. Here you can get yourself tested to find your base level of fitness, get bike niggles sorted, have one-to-one coaching or indoor turbo sessions, buy some kit and much more besides. We look after our club members and you'll find your confidence, fitness and skills quickly improving!
We're a small club and, as such, you won't get lost amongst the numbers. This gives our coaches and experienced riders lots of opportunities to help get the best out of you.
We'd love to meet you so come and join us on one of our rides to have a taste of what we can offer, We can't guarantee it, but we're pretty confident you'll have a lot of fun...
COACHING
Our head coach, Paul Mill, has been a top level athlete and coach for many years.
Paul at the EliteCycling Performance Centre in Crystal Palace
He started Elitecycling in 2012 and since then he's worked with cyclists of all abilities who have all had their own targets and goals, whether they be winning races or riding safely. He's a qualified Level 3 Cycle Coach (Road and Time Trial) , Certified Training Peaks Coach and has a Diploma in Sports Psychology.
He is absolutely the man you want riding with you if you want to improve your skills!
If he's available (which is very often even when he's juggling the demands of coaching Team Wiggins!) he'll be there on the Saturday and Sunday rides looking after us all.
You couldn't wish for a more knowledgeable or better wheel to follow and he'll get you through whatever challenges you're setting yourself.
The Performance Centre. It's quiet right now, but it's often full of (willing) suffering!
One of the benefits of being a team member will be access to Paul's expertise and the resources of his Performance Centre in Crystal Palace. Here you can have one-to-one coaching on an indoor turbo trainer, get your bike fixed (or buy a new one!), discuss training plans or try on a new jersey.
Paul also makes a mean coffee so it's sometimes a good idea to just pop in for a chat!
The prices and more information for all of these services can be found here
TRAINING CAMPS
Each year we head to Spain for our club training camp. This is an intense and fun week, guaranteed to give your fitness a massive kick start before the season begins.
We go to Albir on the Costa Blanca in Spain early on in the year, to get some sunny training into our legs while its still cold and chilly back home. Albir has some of the best cycling you can find in this region and you'll often see lots of pro teams battling their way up the same climbs as us (though we have to say, they might be just a tiny bit quicker). The Col de Rattes is a particular favourite in this area, with pros and amateurs alike travelling to test themselves up this climb.
Spending each day on the bike with a coach and your fellow club mates will move your cycling to another level during this week. You'll come back, fitter, faster and raring to start your summer cycling season!
If you want to read more about our camps, then click here to go to the Elitecycling coaching website for more details.
INDOOR FITNESS
During the winter, we run are now fully online Turbo classes using Selfloops software. This allows us to stream your Power and Heart Rate data directly from your home It's a great way to meet other club members and sweat away the miles in the dry! Find out all about Turbobeat on the Elitecycling coaching website here.
MEMBERSHIP
HOW TO JOIN
1. Do an Introductory Ride
We want to meet you and we want you to join our club! Why not ride with us a couple of times to see what its all about. We meet outside the Performance Centre on Saturdays and Sundays at 8.15am. Get in touch with us, so we know to expect you and check out our RIDES section for more info about what you can expect when you come out with us.
club email: info@elitecyclingclubcp.com
A few notes:
1) You'll need a working road bike and a helmet.
2) We don't expect you to be an expert, but you should have a basic familiarity of riding with others on the road.
3) If you enjoy it and want to become part of the team, we ask that you join within three months of first coming out on a ride with us.
4) You don't need to be a member of British Cycling to do an introductory ride, but if you decide to join us then we will ask you to become a member if you're not one already [see point 2 below].
2. Join British Cycling or add Elitecycling to an existing British Cycling membership
We need you to become a British Cycling member at Race Silver, Race Gold or Ride level. When you join, you can nominate us as one of your clubs on the form. We insist that all members of the club are British Cycling members for insurance purposes and to support our sport through its governing body.
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership
3. Pay your membership fee
Once you have your British Cycling membership number and have added us as one of your clubs, its time to do some paperwork and pay your fee. The annual fee is £30 and its payable to our treasurer by bank transfer.
And thats it! You're one of the team!
When you join we'll also give you access to our private Facebook group where we can plan rides and arrange social meet ups and our team Whatsapp group which is great for impromptu rides, general chats and help and encouragement.
We'd also hope you'll be keen to lend a hand to keep making the club better and better.
ECCCP membership lasts each calendar year
RIDES
One of the other things that sets us apart from a lot of clubs is that we ride out on both Saturday and Sunday.
One of our saturday rides! If you want to check this ride out on strava click here
Saturday will generally be a shorter more intense ride where we get some focused training in. We'll do specific efforts on climbs, sections of riding at tempo or threshold and much more besides. You'll definitely feel your fitness improve in leaps and bounds after taking part in a few of these!
We generally keep to a few specific routes on Saturday, so that everyone can get used to the demands of each different ride and measure their efforts accordingly. It helps to know that there are no extra hills ahead so that you can go all out on the last one!
In terms of pace, on Saturday we generally try to split into two or three groups depending on numbers. Each group will do the same loop but at different speeds. It might take a couple of rides to find the speed that's right for you. We want it to be challenging but not punishing! Just to note, Group 1 is the fastest group and depending on the planned workout might not be able to wait if someone is having an especially tough day, but we'll make sure that they get picked up by Group 2 who won't be far behind!
Sunday is generally a longer steadier ride where we get our base miles in. There might be a few challenging parts, but there won't be any of the surges in intensity that you'll find on a Saturday. We also try to vary the routes on Sunday so you'll be exploring more of the Kent and Surrey countryside. We'll all ride together on this ride so its a great opportunity to have a bit more time to meet and talk to your fellow club members. Absolutely no one gets left behind on a Sunday!
We have a ride with gps account that contains all of our rides for you to download to your garmin/wahoo so that you can have the route profile etc in front of you as you ride. We'll give you access to all of our routes when you join
From time to time we'll also do big one off rides to keep us on our toes. Spinning to the seaside and back, taking part in one off sportives around the country and travelling to compete in Gran Fondo's abroad are all things we've had a go at. If there's any event or ride you'd like to do then let us know, we're pretty much up for anything!
We ride all through the year so you can rely on us to keep you motivated to hold onto your fitness gains during the winter off season.
CONTACT US
Performance centre location
CLUB EMAIL:
info@elitecyclingclubcp.com
PERFORMANCE CENTRE PHONE:
08455677788
PERFORMANCE CENTRE ADDRESS:
Jubilee Stand, National Sports Centre, London, SE19 2BB
SOCIALS