The Clubs of the Year are awarded based on community involvement, dedication to growing the sport of cycling and a focus on activities beyond their own club for the benefit of the entire cycling community. While there are countless amazing clubs in the USA Cycling ranks the clubs below support many facets of cycling, beyond just going out and racing their bikes. It is because of this that they are named as either a division winner (based on size) or special category winner.
In addition to bragging rights, the winning clubs will receive a trophy and complimentary renewal fees for 2018. Congratulations to our winners!
Division I – CT Cycling Advancement Program (Middletown, CT)
Division II – GS Andiamo (Redlands, CA)
Division III – Skylands Cycling (Sussex County, NJ)
Best New Club – Danger Diamond (Minneapolis, MN)
Junior – Team Velosport (Orange County, CA)
Women – Pandemonium Cycling p/b Hodges Bend (Tulsa, OK)
Mountain Bike – Summit – Competitive Cyclist (Park City, UT)
Collegiate Club- University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ)
Collegiate Varsity – Marian University (Indianapolis, IN)
Here’s a break-down of what our 2017 Clubs of the Year have been up to:
The CT Cycling program once again took home the Division I title in 2017 due to their continued strong support of local junior programming with an extensive youth program designed to expose as many kids as possible to cycling. Although this is largely accredited to their successful school club program with 500 juniors participating on 38 teams, the program is also being recognized for their significant outreach efforts. This included hosting 40 computrainer events at local middle and high schools, exposing over 8,000 kids to bike racing in a fun, low pressure environment. Find out more about their program here.
GS Andiamo continues to stand out not only as a strong junior program, but also as a strong club program overall. While their fantastic junior development pathways and youth outreach always put the team at the top of any list, it is their focus on creating junior specific events that puts them ahead of the pack. From hosting over ten events throughout the year, to specifically training and mentoring local officials, they are ensuring that bike racing continues to be open and welcoming to juniors. Learn more about their team here.
Skylands Cycling represents many teams that are successfully blending all areas of cycling – from competitive racing all the way to recreational fun rides. The team supports a race component and hosts race events alongside successful weekend touring rides. This has allowed them to introduce a large number of cyclists to the sport in a fun manner that includes homemade ice cream and brick oven pizza stops. Outside of the cycling realm they are also active in their community, raising funds for epilepsy research, cancer research, and local police organizations, as well as hosting helmet drives. Check out the team that does it all here.
Danger Diamond takes home the Best New Club title. Their focus is on making a more welcoming environment in cycling by promoting development of riders who may not have found sport welcoming in the past. They do this by developing community and resources for women, transgender and non-binary riders. This means supporting multiple levels of participation, either through their Hammer Havoc program which focuses on recruiting and mentoring riders or through their more racing focused Foxy Moxy program.
Team Velosport is a program that consistently brings home national titles, but many do not realize the support work behind those championships. The team endeavors to mentor a large number of juniors, rather than focusing on a small, elite team. They do this by offering low member fees as well as a fleet of race bikes to riders who may have financial barriers to getting involved with cycling. Their program also keeps the fun in racing by hosting off the bike activities like beach parties, Tour of California viewing events and a trip to Interbike. By exposing kids to a wide swath of cycling the team continues to be successful. Find out more here.
Pandemonium Cycling took home the prize for women’s club of the year due to their incredibly active members. The club hosts monthly events that enable race and club members to interact socially, including happy hours and a photo scavenger hunt ride to local landmarks. The team also gives back by volunteering at race events like Tulsa Tough, as well as volunteering with the Girl Scouts, Big Brothers Big Sisters and other local groups. Their newly established mentorship program was also a success this year, enabling club members to reach goals with the support of the team. Learn more about the team here.
Summit Bike Club wins best mountain bike club in part because of their epic growth. Starting in Utah the program has expanded to Texas and now includes over 200 junior members and 30 coaches. In addition, the team branched out this past year to promote the Tech Dev Pro, a UCI sanctioned race geared towards introducing younger riders to UCI racing. The program also continues to support athletes of all levels, from beginners all the way to sending athletes to Austria for UCI racing and team camps. Find out more here.
The University of Arizona program continues to be a stand out cycling team while encouraging the growth of other teams in the Southwest Collegiate Cycling Conference. The team actively hosts four races throughout the year as well as other team building activities such as gift exchanges, running bike valets at nearby events and participating in semi-annual bike swaps. Members are also involved in the local community, working with local youth team El Grupo, supporting the drive for the Tucson Velodrome and serving as representatives to the local association and collegiate committees. Welcoming all sorts of riders they continue to have a strong partnership with the school’s triathlon team. Check out everything they do here.
Many collegiate varsity programs can claim team and individual titles to their names but Marian continues to win the varsity club of the year title based on the strength of their community involvement, student development and event hosting. Home to over fifty events across all five disciplines the school continues to develop the event hosting capabilities of its cycling center. Students play a big role in this, learning about event promotion by assisting with course construction, social media, marketing and coaching. Off campus, the team continues successful partnerships with Midwest Devo, TEENWORKS and the Freewheelin’ Community Bikes program.
