Origins of the Condors (2011-12)

Five years old, you say?!

Of course it’s a cliché, but in life I do try and take the “If you’re going to do something, you may as well do it properly” approach, and this was certainly the case with the Cowley Road Condors.

The growth and evolution of the Condors, whilst natural, belied a steely determination to make it a success; hard work that was often tricky to balance against our own cycling goals, careers and personal lives. But we never imagined the Condors would grow into the club it’s become today.  The Cowley Road Condors is the club it is due to an amazing combination of work ethic, trial and error, learning on the fly, and the passion and dedication displayed by its members.  I’ve always said how the club wouldn’t be what it is without the wonderful input of its membership base.

I hope this snapshot of its very early days builds a picture of how Jonny and I started the club and tried to put it on the right path.

Right, back to 2011…..                       

We have a name!

The origins of the Cowley Road Condors can be traced back to a pretty specific point in time. Not long after acquiring road bikes, four local Cowley residents (Jonny Revis, Ollie Jaques, Nick Hughes and Jock Poole) found themselves in The Library pub on the Cowley Road discussing the possibility of creating a local, friendly cycling club with an ethos of being welcoming and inclusive.  Basically, a cycling club we’d actually like to ride in ourselves, and one which would hopefully provide opportunity for meeting likeminded people.  I remember we couldn’t believe East Oxford, a catchment area of young professionals, families and a large student body didn’t have a cycling club!  

The exact reason we found ourselves in the pub that night at that time was because one of us had just been unceremoniously dumped. It happened a lot back then.  As we all know riding a bike is therapeutic; creating and running a club at the time of any emotional trauma is a revelation – it gives you no time to stew!  So, as the beer flowed, the ideas came thick and fast.  A “this could work you know” mentality took over and before we knew it Jock was scribbling out the design of a bird onto the back of a beer mat.  When questioned, Jock emphatically stated it was a Condor. Not being totally clued up on what Condors looked like we agreed, and declared that it, combined with our famous street’s name, had a certain ring to it.  And there you have it, the name was born:  The Cowley Road Condors.

Getting the show on the road…

Rick’s Café, a favourite of Jonny’s from the moment it opened, became our Saturday morning office and was where the essential, though admittedly boring, initial admin took place. I remember we asked ourselves the question – what would you need to do to run a cycling club effectively?  Basically we needed to ensure we could actually start a club and obtain a good grounding of some of the rules. 

I remember it being immensely satisfying when we officially registered our club with British Cycling and saw our name appear within the “find your local club” searches. Here we were… Oxford’s newest cycling club… this was real!

The process of getting the news out there then began.

The First Ride

Honestly, Jonny and I had at that time had no real experience of riding bike, let alone running a cycling club, so you can imagine the apprehension when the knocking on the front door of our East Avenue HQ began.

The ride occurred on a balmy Tuesday evening. News of the ride had spread mainly via word of mouth and through some local advertising at Rick’s and at the John Radcliffe hospital. We were about to embark on a ride with new people… how novel!

Many of you have probably seen this snap of our rag-tag brigade shortly before we departed for Brill on 14th June 2011.  It was a 35 miler which I remember was tackled enthusiastically – especially by the chap in jeans and a t-shirt (I later found out his bike was nicked; we never saw him again!) – and actually went along very smoothly.  It was back to Rick’s for a post-ride natter.  Excellent.

Ride, repeat

Tuesday and Thursday, week in week out, became the riding mindset. We wanted to ensure people knew the days and times we rode so Jonny and I were there religiously as the club got off the ground.  This included turning out in some pretty hard-core winter weather with freezing temperatures whilst the weekly rides became established.  I vividly remember the contents of my water bottle freezing in -7C conditions, a ride in which Jonny also punctured two miles into proceedings!

The above sounds like hard work – which it was – however, it was also immensely enjoyable and fun to see the club to grow in popularity with new faces out riding each week. Original club hard man, Don Ramage, joined at this time – a landmark event in Condors’ history! There from the start were:  Hamish Baxter, Jo Kitley, Ben Sanders, Matt Coulter, Lucy Bruzzone, Tom Nee, Ben Jack, Steph Arnold and Andy Ford. Classic Condors including Tom Lamb, Rob Mawdsley, Cathy Naylor, Jamie Kirby and Jack Wilcox joined soon after.

I think we were about a month old when this was taken (2011).

Andy Ford fixing a flat illuminated by our bike lights.

I Heart Vence

A little cycling club based in the hills near Nice is to thank for a big part of the Condors’ success. During our first cycling trip abroad in Apr 2011, we were lucky enough to encounter Vence cycling club.  What was most striking, other than the speed they over took us on climbs, was their striking pink and black kit. The colours just seem to work.  Pink and black was officially adopted by the Condors and its popularity, even to this day, seemingly holds no bounds.  It has become synonymous with the club.

Jonny must however take all credit for the flames. I remember the call of ‘Jaquesy, check this out’ as he proudly presented me with his design.  We were so cool back in those days we even had our initial and surname printed on the front.

Rick’s

A move to Rick’s café took place fairly soon after our formation. As nice as it was to have cyclists turn up to East Ave, it soon became necessary to move our meeting point when we started blocking the road and annoying the neighbours.

Rick’s proudly became the club’s first sponsor shortly before the first kit order with supplier, Owayo, was placed. Other than it being totally cool to have a local business logo on our jersey we also secured a 20% discount for members (yes, ensuring membership cards existed even then was a top priority).  Rick’s unfortunately never did get around to fulfilling their promise of naming a sandwich after us.

Ben Jack and Jack Wilcox living it up in Rick’s.

Inclusivity and growth

Inclusivity was a byword of the club from the beginning.  Anyone was welcome to join, male or female, young or old, fledging rider or seasoned racer; I think this attitude, as well as the welcoming nature of our members, is a huge reason why the club flourished – something which continues to this day.

Growth occurred at a pretty speedy rate and it wasn’t long until the club began running its popular Newbie rides, a chance for those thinking of joining a cycling club to come for a spin. There were new faces each week; something that was always lovely to see was people returning for repeat rides, or bringing along a friend, partner or colleague to try us out.

The Beeline trio of Mark, Matt and Kurt took a shine to the club and must be thanked for pushing those purchasing bikes or looking to join a cycling club our way. Advertising was also stepped up, as was the use of social media.  It was always a hope the appeal of our club would shine through on our Facebook pages.  I actually believe it would have been hard to grow our club so quickly without social media – with Facebook and our newly created WordPress website we felt like world beaters!

The Condors has always adapted to the wants of its members. When it came to club spins the early days saw only one or two groups heading out each ride night.  Tuesday was the night for the social paced club spins whilst Thursday’s soon became the home of the Screamer ride. In its very early iteration the Screamer ride saw a group set off approximately 20 minutes after a steady paced ride group on the same course in a bid to chase them down – I think this may have actually been Cathy and Jamie’s first ride and introduction to the Condors!  As the number of members grew we tried to tailor ride groups accordingly and began introducing more people to ride leading.

Our first AGM took place on 26th April 2012 at the Dil Dunia curry house on Cowley Rd.  Official roles were established at this stage including Jonny Revis being named our inaugural President.  Original aims were to keep increasing our membership count, including the number of women riders; to establish more ride-leaders (a common theme to this day, hey?); raise some money for the MS Trust, our chosen charity at the time, and to explore the possibility of doing some racing.

Some serious decision making at our first AGM (2012)

Hi-Lo can you go

How better to cement recently discovered cycling friendships than regular nights out? The Condors has always been a very sociable club – anyone who has ended up in Hi-Lo during the small hours will tell you that. The Christmas do and post-Silverstone TTT nights out have been solid fixtures in the club calendar from the off (always ensuring the following day is a write-off, I should add). The club’s annual weekend away was founded in 2012; a trip where we visit the one and only Baskerville Hall in Brecon – a tough, yet rewarding area for riding, which really puts to test your fitness gained over the summer.  Jonny and I had both had the pleasure of attending separate stag dos at Baskerville Hall prior to the formation of the club; it’s a slightly creepy but absolutely spot on place for a cycling weekend away and situated on the door step of some beautiful climbs.

The condors riding in Brecon for the first time (2012).

Tom and Amy Lamb’s wedding cake back in 2012.

Onwards and very much upwards

There is so much more that could be written and, at some stage, should be documented… the formation of the Women’s Committee; the creation of the ORRL; amazing charity work and competitive successes to name but a few topics. It’d be fun to pull everything together in a reflective piece to mark our 10th birthday!

It’s so exciting to see the club continue to grow and develop and is in a brilliant set of hands with Cheryl Reid and the current Condors’ board. Cheryl and her board recognise the history of the club as well as its needs in its current iteration.  The Cowley Road Condors continue to move onwards and upwards.

Ollie Jaques – July 2016  

Matt Coulter – an absolute whippet on the hills. He sadly left us to start a band and travel the world.  I maintain he’ll be back.

Coulter, Revis and Jaques at Hillingdon 17th June 2012.  We all got in the points and Jonny brilliantly won!

Jonny ripping it up in some early races (2012).