Steve Hacker had just completed a 40-mile plus cycle ride when he spoke to The Local Answer.

He’s a member of Leadon Vale Cycling Club which have been in existence for five years and the go-ahead club have come a long way in that short period.

Hacker was at the inaugural meeting when the club were formed – the meeting was held at the clubhouse at Corse and Staunton playing fields – and Hacker remembers that on the club’s first ride only about 10 people took part.

Now the club have upwards of 70 members who can go out on organised rides as many as four times a week.

Hacker had just taken part in the Tuesday morning ride ahead of this interview and he said: “We started at about 9.30 and got back at about 12.15. It was a good route around the Malvern Hills.”

The club don’t have a race element– the emphasis is on participation and being all inclusive – but that certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t take their cycling seriously.

“We have Tuesday and Friday evening rides we have four routes every Sunday morning which are split over 25 miles and over 45 to 50 miles,” said Hacker.

Those routes are plotted by the club’s chairman and captain Colin Gittings, who Hacker describes as “an all round lovely man”.

They are designed for riders with different speeds and ability with the aim of everyone returning to the clubhouse at roughly the same time and, adds Hacker, “in time for Sunday lunch”.

“Colin is brilliant,” said Hacker, who is the club’s membership secretary. “He sets the ethos for the club. His nickname is ‘Yellow’ after the yellow jersey that is worn by the leader in the Tour de France, although I think he bequeathed the title to himself!”

Clearly having fun is a big part of what the club are all about but although the rides are non-competitive, there is plenty of determination among some members to get back to the clubhouse first.

“Although we don’t have a ‘race’ element to the club, we do consider ourselves to be proper cyclists,” said Hacker. “Several of our members have completed Land’s End to John O’Groats, long distance sportives and tours in the Alps.”


Hacker, who used to run an engineering company in Gloucester, moved to Staunton some 13 years ago and he says the cycling club have given him a new lease of life.

He used to do a lot of running and he added: “It’s a great club to belong to. It’s sociable but at the same time you are getting exercise. I don’t think more than 10 of our members were cyclists before they joined the club.

“Now they consider themselves as cyclists – they don’t just ride a bike. There’s a difference.

“I think one of our USPs is that we have a sports pavilion where we all meet up and can go back to. A lot of clubs just meet on a roundabout.”

Like all clubs they would like a few more members, of course, but they’ve certainly come a very long way in a short time.

So how did it all start?

“It was at the end of the 2013 cricket season,” explained Hacker. “A few of the cricketers at Corse and Staunton said, What shall we do next week?’ and someone said, ‘Let’s go for a bike ride’.

“I think they did about 15 miles with a tea stop and afterwards Charlie Hulls, who is always looking to increase the use of the playing fields, said, ‘Let’s form a cycling club’.”

The playing fields in Gloucester Road are managed and maintained by volunteers – Hulls is one of the main men – and are also used by Staunton and Corse Football Club.

The cricket club have been going for well over 100 years while the football club aren’t far away from celebrating their centenary so Leadon Vale Cycling Club are very much the new kids on the block. But they are certainly here to stay.

“It’s been amazing how far we’ve come from nothing,” said Hacker. “Now we need to encourage the next generation to take up cycling.”

And after the progress they’ve made there is surely little doubt that they will.