West Lothian Clarion have been shortlisted for the Club of the Year in the 2020 Scottish Cycling Awards.
Clarion, who won the award in 2017, are shortlisted alongside Glasgow Gals and KICC (Kids Innerleithen Cycling Club).
It’s certainly been a different year for the club, who saw most of their usual activities cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. That’s not to say 2020 wasn’t a busy year, though.
The Clarion began last year as normal, organising the Linlithgow Youth and women CX race, which
has pioneered coaching prior to races for women and successfully contributed to the number of women racing in Scotland.
In February, the club focused its efforts on supporting the successful Crowdfunder campaign for the
West Lothian Cycle Circuit, donating a further £3600 to this initiative to take its total contribution to a massive £16,500.
Along with Scottish XC, the club organised what turned out to be the only race in the planned cross-country MTB race series for the year at Beecraigs Country Park. It was a terrific event and included Covid-19 protocols for the restrictions then in place.
The club had also run a few coaching sessions for youth members before the first lockdown.
During the first lockdown, the club rallied and encouraged members and the wider community to stay active and connected.
The club made particular use of social media to support people in finding appropriate local routes and communicating current guidance as well as more general cycling advice.
They arranged weekly time trials on Zwift and quizzes on Zoom.
Clarion members were also encouraged to post images of themselves out on rides, and for 10 weeks during lockdown, the club ran a fun ‘casquette challenge’ to find a club cap that was moved to a different roadside position each week.
The club also partnered with Etape Caledonia to run a challenge for riders of all ages to cycle the distance that the Etape would have covered and later in the year arranged a Santa Challenge, which involved members riding their bikes in a festive outfit.
As the first lockdown eased, the club developed a strategy along with Scottish Cycling to get youth coaching back up and running, requiring significant volunteer time to ensure protocols were followed.
Sessions were run thought the summer, adapting to different lockdown measures, until the tier system made it impracticable to run sessions again.
During this period, the club also took up Scottish Cycling’s Active Girls Fund initiative and ran coaching sessions for 20 girls who were not club members.
The club also managed to run two club-confined time trials in the summer – the club 25TT championship and the Club 2up TT.
Work on club development continued too, with a successful application to Scottish Cycling’s progression programme.
The winner of the award will be announced through Scottish Cycling’s social media channels towards the end of March.
