Construction has started on the long-desired clubhouse for the Hillingdon cycle circuit, which is due to be handed over to the volunteer Users Group on 1 May.

The  £715,000 project has been funded jointly with £350,000 each by the London Borough of Hillingdon and British Cycling, plus £10,000 each from the Hillingdon Slipstreamers children’s club and the Users Group.

Stuart Benstead, chairman of the Users Group which runs the circuit on behalf of Hillingdon Council, states; “We are most grateful to the council for its investment, encouragement and guidance in obtaining this clubhouse. We have a huge team of volunteers running events at the circuit seven days a week for much of the year, catering for everybody within the local community and around.

“This intense programme, however, has strained the goodwill of these volunteers having to brave the weather without an indoor administration facility and having to make-do with just a couple of storage containers and a canvas cover.”

The clubhouse will allow the establishment of a major school-use programme and there is already a BC Go Ride coach present who can capitalize on the existence of a facility that will provide changing rooms and classroom for these youngsters. Senior riders will still be expected to use the much larger First Class facilities for changing and showers in the adjoining Goals Soccer Centre, with which the Users Group works closely.

The clubhouse will be ready just in time for a series of major events including a National Youth Series meeting on 8 May, a London Nordic Ski meeting the next day, the two Hillingdon GPs for men and for women on 16 May, the Harlington Hospice Charity meeting on 22 May and the London In-Line Skating Marathon on the following day.

As can be seen on the circuit website, www.hillingdoncyclecircuit.org.uk, it is already being used for nearly 300 organised events covering most aspects of cycling and other non-motorised sports such as road running, Nordic skiing, roller skating, etc. These cover every age from five to 80+, and every level of skill from learning to ride at the women’s fitness club on Fridays through to Olympic gold medals, as won by Bradley Wiggins who started at the age of 12 on the adjacent but then-unopened  Hayes by-pass, precursor to the present circuit. World medallists Roger Hammond and Tony Gibb also started as youngsters at much the same time.