West Lothian Clarion

The roots of our section began to grow in 2007 when 4 local cyclists started meeting regularly for bike rides in the Bathgate Alps after Sadiq Mir posted up a call out to local cyclists on a cycling forum. With the aid of social media the group grew large enough for the launch of a club proper in 2008

Since 2008 when the club officially formed, it has developed a range of activities and races which include time trials, cycle cross races, challenge rides, club runs, road races and numerous socials.

The core of the club’s activity it its regular Saturday club runs form two different locations, In the summer we run a TT series and a CX series plus a load of other club races. Although a large club our key goal is to increase participation from our members

In 2015 Our club hill climb attracted 100 entries from members alone and our Santa CX gets just as many participants

Although a long way from the centre of National Clarion activity our members take part in NCCC events, and have a big presence at the Easter Meet, winner the highest attendance trophy in 2014.

The club organised a well-received Easter meet in 2011 at Stirling when over 150 people participated in the weekend. We have organised the time trial and hill climb championships for the wider clarion, and usually get a good turnout despite our location

The club organises a full calendar of open races through the year and we encourage Clarion members to join us: January sees our Women’s and Youth Open CX; In March we run the RadTour Reliability Trial and Lang Whang Hilly TT. The Open 25 TT takes place in June and the Battle of Black Loch Road race takes place in July. In October the Closed Road Kingscavil Hill Climb closes our racing calendar

We’re keen to promote cycling for women and we like to think we have a supportive women’s scene within our club. We are a mixed club, with a sizeable number of female members, and we are always keen to attract more women into our club.

In 2010 the club launched its youth coaching programme aimed at riders aged 6 to 15. There are now 10 coaches and a busy team of volunteers running the bi-weekly coaching sessions.

We develop three core categories of cycling: Cycle Cross (CX), Mountian Bike (MTB) and Road with the coaches specialising in different disciplines but coaching all aspects of the sport.

We encourage a love for cycling to keep youngsters active but as British Cycling Our Go-Ride club we are also the first step on the British Cycling performance programme. We aim to develop the riders’ tactical awareness, fitness and skills so they can move along the pathway and fulfil their potential.

The biggest thing on the horizon for the club is our role as the lead stakeholder in the planning of a purpose built bike track in Linlithgow the £1 million project