Vegan Cyclists racing affiliations?

[Mike A]

I was wondering if Vegan Cyclists is affiliated to British Cycling and or the CTT?

[bob_summers]

I don't think Vegan Cyclists exists as a club, AFAIK it's just some kits that BigGoodWolf had printed. Certainly it's not affiliated as VC&AC is.
Maybe it should be a club!

[Mike A]

Thanks Bob,

I thought so as I couldn't find any reference to Vegan CC on the British Cycling website.

I would guess that a lot of the cyclists on the Forum are members of cycling clubs affiliated to BC and CTT however, if an official Vegan CC was formed, they would probably be happy to join as 2nd claim or maybe even 1st claim.

I think that club affiliations are about £80 per year for BC and £25 for CTT.

If an official Vegan CC is not currently in place, does anyone have any views about forming one?

I don't want to tread on anybody's toes!

[Big Good Wolf]

Like Bob says, I just got the kit made and that's it.
I'm a mountain biker and the events I enter are generally not as formally organised as road races or TTs. There's no licences, no ranking system and no restrictions on who can enter, so there's no incentive to join a club and very few mountain bikers do.

I know little about the world of road cycling, so if you want to start a Vegan CC, that's fine by me. Any publicity for veganism and cycling has got to be good. The kit was copied from Vegan Runners, with their permission, so there would be no problem with adopting it as the official club kit.
We've got a team on [url=http://www.bikejournal.com/club.asp?ClubID={C8BF7D68-9415-4A4F-8614-4411BBD06AA5}]Bike Journal[/url], and a team on Endomondo, although that one's just me at the moment.

I've been thinking for a while I ought to start a Vegan Cyclists Facebook page, but I don't know what I'd put on it, so I haven't done it yet.

[the crazyest vegan]

Whilst I think it's a good idea, personally I would not race for the club, I have a club I am well established in and I would not change unless I was sponsered, if you start a club it means a lot of messing, I was time trial sec for my club for 3 years and you have to host at leist one event a year to be CTT affiliated, so with a CTT affiliation fee of £30 a year, then British Cycling affiliation which would mean people could wear your kit in road races is another £80 or so. Personally I think £15 is the most you can realistcly charge for membership for a club so you then need 9 people to cover most basic costs, if you want to start buying equipment to host races you'll need even more money but then grants are available etc.
Unless their are 4/5 vegan cyclists in the same area, I would not recomen starting a club, i've been on my club's committee and organised enough cycle events to know it is a massive pain in the bum!

[Big Good Wolf]

Vegan Cyclists are now on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/211983575548695/

[Simo]

Practically speaking, I don't think there are enough people on here to form a club that could pay its affiliation for a reasonable subscription fee. Plus as others have said, running an affiliated club requires work. You need a commitee and to hold AGMs.

Speaking as someone who has been in a number of clubs and raced on and off road, the world doesn't really need more clubs. It's fun (at first) to start your own club and get your own kit for you and your mates, but if you put that effort into joining an existing club and organising an event, you'd be doing the sport much more good. The sport is really struggling with a lack of volunteers to run and help at races, indeed the number of racers is a concern in some parts too.

[JonSullivanArt]

Hi there, back in 2001 I started a club called Vegan CC (Cycling Club).I was never with the club Vegetarian C&AC I think another J Sullivan rode for them. I was the only racing member of it .I rode Time Trials which a few results still remain online from 2001-2003.Im now back to training again after ten years off have joined the club VC Elan.I rode BCF events but mostly RTTC was affiliated to both.Great to see another club now with the name Vegan in it.
cheers
Jon Sullivan (Vegan for life)