122 people participated in Addiscombe Cycling Clubs weekly club ride last Saturday
September 1, a new UK record which no other cycling club in Great Britain is
ever likely to beat.

The happy 100 (Is that a LondonCycleSport jersey we see in the bottom row?)

Addiscombe Cycling Club is a friendly Croydon based club catering for racing
and leisure cyclists of all disciplines. Formed in 1929 the club nearly folded
in 1999 when the weekly ride attracted as few as 6 riders. Under the stewardship
of club captain Andrew Montgomery (known as Monty) and others, the membership
has grown steadily to over two hundred and fifty today. The club meets every
Saturday morning, 9am at Coulsdon South Station to start its weekly club ride.
This caters for all comers, covering a variety of distances at a variety of
speeds. On the first Saturday of every month the ride includes a beginners group
to encourage new members to experience the buzz of cycling in a group. Recently
the weekly ride has attracted an increasing number of riders and so a plan was
hatched to set a new UK record for the biggest cycling club ride.

The big day arrived and Monty and his vice captains nervously began to count
the arrivals. At 8.55 we had around 70 people, would the magic hundred be achieved?
Any fears were unfounded as by 9.05 there were a grand total of 122 riders waiting
to set off. The ride started with two parade laps of Coulsdon via the new bypass
and the high street. Coulsdon has never seen anything like it and people stopped
what they were doing, came out of the shops to watch and took photographs.

The ride then split into small groups and made its usual well organised way
down to The Pine Shop café in Charlwood where owner Renata welcomed us
all, as she does every weekend. The club had laid on cake and drinks and before
setting off back to Coulsdon, a group photo shoot was organised to record this
special event.

Afterwards Monty congratulated everyone for coming out to set the record. “This
has been quite simply the biggest ever club ride in the UK and the parade laps
through Coulsdon looked awesome. Having watched the club ride grow and grow
from a low of less than ten riders in 1999, today is an emotional day for me
and everyone in the club.”

Website – www.addiscombe.org/