Redhill CC - A little bit of History

Redhill CC was founded in 1945 by Jim Wallace. He was a big supporter of track racing which was more popular at the time than road racing. In fact, Jim instigated the White Hope Sprint at the Good Friday Herne Hill meeting, he was the promoter of this event for many years. The funds raised in Jim’s memory supported the prize money for the event for some years after.

Our Club's objective was - and remains - to promote cycling in all its forms in East Surrey.


In the 1950s, the club boasted a number of exceptional riders including Bernard Pusey - one of the 10 British riders to compete in the famous 1955 Tour de France team - and Peter Head who rode for both British and foreign pro teams, winning the Grand prix de France Time Trial in 1967. Both are still with us.

Their respective Palmares can be seen here:

Peter Head - Palmares

Bernard Pusey - Palmares

Peter Tester, Ken Stokes and Olive House were other great RCC riders of that time, all of whom were top competitors in their day. See some of the astonishing and nowadays  little-known club point-to-point records here. RCC Point to Point records (scroll down).

In the late 70s, we held weekly club nights on Friday in the YMCA hall in Reigate..(where Majestic Wine Warehouse is now). The ethos of the club was based around cycling as a competitive sport so active participation in TTs, road races and cyclo cross was high.

During the 80’s and 90’s we had between 40 and 60 members many of whom were juniors even to the extent of having more juniors than seniors for a number of years.

Even so the club promoted a major road race each year, the Dave Cosson Memorial and a major cyclo-cross race at Dorking Nower plus open TTs.

All the while, RCC ran traditional 'club runs' on Saturday and Sunday and its TT series on Wednesday evenings. 

Around about the year 2000 it became apparent that the world of cycling was changing starting with the growth of MTB  so Graham Haysom, Mike Ormerod and later Frank Grainger started leading MTB rides from Reigate Hill.

The club today is one of the close group of competitive South of London clubs that includes Addiscombe CC, Kingston Wheelers and Norwood Paragon. We grew rapidly from 2005 to 2015 with active MTB, Road, Time Trial and Racing sections and a focus on inclusive introduction of new riders into the club. We have also built a Go-Ride childrens and youth section - the Redhill Raiders to train young talent.

These are all promoted as part of the club’s offer to potential members plus through our work leading training rides for the YMCA Challenge programme we encouraged and recruited riders to join the club to extend their enjoyment of cycling. 

We were one of the first clubs to detect and benefit from the changes that lifestyle was making to cycling. We embraced and promoted cycling as an activity that could be enjoyed on several levels within  a sporting framework. 

Since 1945, Redhill CC has offered opportunities to ride, compete and socialise to riders from all backgrounds and abilities. Long may it continue.