CLUB OF THE YEAR - ILKESTON CC

The Derbyshire club was only set up in 2017, but has quickly become a pillar of the community In association with Santini

- James Shrubsall

Young Derbyshire club Ilkeston CC have faced down the considerable challenges offered up to every cycling club in 2020, and, in fact, could even be said to have thrived. Their enthusiastic and engaged membership have left few socially-distanced stones unturned this year, from roller sessions on Zoom for their youth academy, to Everesting and actually growing their member base when Covid rules were relaxed.

One of their newest ventures is working with local MPs and the police to promote awareness of the close-pass policy which has recently been launched in the county.

They’re a progressive and forward-thinking club by nature – and from their inauguration in 2017, progress has been the name of the game.

“We started out with just a weekly ride on a Sunday,” says ICC’s events manager, Emma Pilgrim. “And it became pretty clear quite quickly that the members wanted more. So before lockdown, we pretty much had something happening every day of the week.”

These ranged from Sunday rides to night-time off-roading, track sessions at the Derby Arena velodrome and even indoor sessions that would explore the two extremes of HIIT and yoga.

The latter went down particularly well – “so we were starting to introduce more strength and conditioning – more of the stretching side of things,” Pilgrim says.

Once lockdown was introduced back in March, the club immediately stopped all face-to-face activities, but were determined not to lose the momentum they had built up over the previous two and a half years.

“The youth academy straightaway went to Zoom sessions on rollers and turbos, and that kept going all the way through lockdown,” explains Pilgrim, who is also a youth academy coach.