In this week’s episode, Cam and NJ do a deep dive with Co-founder of Chain Gang Cyclists (CGC) Yannick White. Throughout the show, we listen to how Yannick started cycling through lockdown, found a love for road cycling, and grew a cycling WhatsApp group into the UK’s biggest cycling club.
Spin Cycle is a podcast that celebrates the rich,
the diverse culture of the London (and further afield) cycling scene, chatting with the incredible people, groups and brands that make it a wonderful place to be a cyclist.
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About CGC
Chain Gang Cyclists (CGC) was founded during Quarantine 2020. Individuals had developed a passion for cycling as a way to keep fit and get much needed head space during phase 1 lockdown. As restrictions eased several friends who had developed the same love for the tarmac grew together to form a bike chain, which has fast turned into a weekly occurrence of rides across London and surrounded areas.
CGC
Instagram: @chaingangcyclistsofficial
Strava Club: Chain Gang Cyclists
[Laughter] hi everyone welcome to the spin cycle podcast the podcast celebrates the rich diverse culture of London cycling scene just chatting to the incredible personalities groups and brands that make London and the UK an amazing place to be a cyclist we’ve actually got a really special guest this
Week yet another person that was at my wedding and honestly how NJ and I met it’s Yanik white the Capo cgc Yanick welcome to the podcast mate pleasure to be here pleasure to be here good to see you both you too you too it’s always great to have ELO on the
Show in the cgc merch as well which I kind of enjoy hey what is the merch that you’re wearing here Yan oh yes this is an audio format so what what merch you wearing yanuk oh this is just um a cgc FS like home t-shirt from um from our summer Branch
Edition nice the the same day at my wedding so I double book it anyway let’s not talk about wedding anymore um so yanic famousy you are maybe Instagram as psych out of lockdown you’re the Capo cgc why don’t you give us a bit of an idea maybe who you are as a person
Actually behind the lens and kind of how you got into cycling how you are where you are today on the bike yeah absolutely um I think um from a personal perspective um yanic white um 40 years old um spend a lot of time with my family three kids been married for the
Past two years um so yeah personally things are going well um I work in the city um VP of sales so really really busy typically um and I’ve always um looked at some form of sport for exercise for distraction um and just typically to keep um the Mind distracted away from
The workplace or family pressures Etc and I mean you went I I know that you went from maybe not cycling at all pre- lockdown or I’ve seen some photos of you on a bike in the middle of lockdown but the hockey stick Journey from where you were pre- lockdown not
Really riding a bike or actually riding a bike just to get somewhere rather than it being actually I’m going to go out and ride my bike I want to go to sari I want to go north I want to go essics and plac like that and now you’re
Riding an Athos and you did one more City last month which is Mega by the way congrats on that thank you the person you were then and the person you are today like I guess what’s that kind of cycling Journey been like right cuz I
Was on one of the really early cgc rides but it’s a whole different kettle of fish now right like it’s quite Pro now why didn’t you maybe talk us about how like you kind of come up as a cyclist actually during that time too yeah definitely I think um yeah it’s
It’s not often I reflect but I think the Journey’s been definitely a bit of a worldwind um because I guess I I hadn’t really ridden a bike probably since I was about 16 years old right for me cycling was a way to get from like my
House to the shops or from my house to a friend’s house right so typical kind of BMX bike mountain bike I think I had a green muddy Fox um at the time with I guess what you’d call today tan wall tires right oh nice oh come on yeah
Playing it so um so so that was kind of my my my kind of pre really Road cycling um days but I think what happened during the pandemic was um my gym was closed um I used to I live I live in Wembley I used to run around Wembley Stadium um
And and they closed access to um the kind of track where you’d run around there as well so um I guess being on the social medias at the time seeing a few of my friends who um who were just like cycling to riding bikes um kind of made
Me think hey let me just get bike as a method or way to get out my house right we was all on lockdown it was a pandemic um but but you could cycle for I think five miles was the the rule at the time
R um so yeah I I picked up a bike literally to um get out the house and it was a a mountain bike at first because um I remember I called um I called my friend Chris and and he had a road bike
And I said to him hey I’m in the shop um and they’ve got like a mountain by what do you think and he told me um to look at put a road bike instead um and my my kind of my memory of a of a road bike
Was um was was literally like a bike with skinny Wills which as a big guy I was like way I’m gonna pick up a Race So I opted for the mountain bike and that was my first um really real um cycling Journey right myself um I think
My brother then purchased a bike and my neighbor had a mountain bike as well so we would literally just go out the house we all live like relatively close go out the house and and cycle um for a couple of Miles really and back yeah so that’s
Started and I guess it kind of you you you went on from there right so you’re you’re what in whoer what did you were you doing like the loops and stuff that we just like let’s just go down to Richmond see what happens let’s go to
Windsor back was that the kind of is that is that how it built because to go from I’m sorry but to go from never had a road bike to um you know RCC Ride Captain one more City yeah yeah there’s um a hell of a journey man yeah yeah in retrospect
Right no you’re right I think um I think that if I think back to um the rides I started doing where I live there’s like a canal nearby so we used to um we used to just like ride down the canal and like super safe right um super flat and
Again that was the early experience I knew know better that was the early experience of of cycling or riding it was just um from A to B let let me get out do a small ride be outside for like half an hour or an hour and then back
And then I guess like after every ride you start getting a buzz of going further and further and further and I remember one day um we said hey we want to we want to cycle around hide Park and so um we put the bikes in the car um
Drove down right drove right yeah yeah yeah all that about 12 km pay congestion charge take your bike out right so we we drove down to baywater um met up with a couple of friends who also drove down to baywater parked up the car and then went into
Hide Park and did probably a lap or two at best right and then um back to the car and then back home and again that was the early experiences and then it went from that to one day going to like Richmond Park that was probably it’s probably the first experience of
Going to Richmond Park and seeing like again it was it was lockdowns just a bit different when I say so many cyclist so many then versus today is a a totally different number but felt like a lot of people in there at the time was was just like one really surreal really
Encouraging um people were going past me because I was on a mountain bike and they was on road bikes right I didn’t know difference between what makes the bike go faster Etc and so we were doing that and then one day my neighbor who I
Always beat when we was riding um he he he actually got a road bike and we went on a ride and I literally just couldn’t keep up with him and I and I had no idea like why right and then and then I learned more about understanding the
Weight of a bike the types of the bikes right Rolling Wheels just various different things so um again it was difficult getting hold of a bike right in in 20 yeah 20 2020 Etc super hard um to to find a bike so I I was search and
I came across a Tre de man it was called that I found online it was in stock at bricks and cycles and I called a store yeah and literally um over the phone put a deposit down went down there the following day and bought a bike nice
Sick that was my first experience in in roadcycling and then yeah yeah going out more I think as you ride you start I was posting on my like kind of private Instagram page I’d see someone else who rides or they’d see me oh yeah I got a
Bike as well I’m riding too let’s meet up yeah yeah yeah things just started to um escalate in in the sense of a of a social Gathering form right so rather than just me my brother my neighbor Chris it became maybe us and another person it’s almost
Like every week there was somebody else who also had a bike right yeah of course I mean how go on so I’ll ask you this one because wait when did you first decide when did you ignore the haters and decide you needed to put a bit of like
Her on because it’s it’s a it’s it’s a very Niche Choice going to either your local bike shop or going on Sigma and seeing a really expensive Speedo for about 150 quid and going yeah do you know what I can justify that was there a point where
You where you said well the die has been cast I’m now wearing line crit do you remember that was there a point where you were like [ __ ] hell we got to do this now do you know what I think um when I was first riding I was I was
Essentially like out of the gym and onto the bike so I was wearing like I wear Nik a lot so I was wearing night d right so my gym clothes became my cycling clothes and and I’d probably say that um when I got a road bike and I started um
Cycling more around like whether it’s Richmond Park or Regent Park and and and seeing other people in cycling apparel that becomes a comfort right because it’s it’s to a non cyclist wearing L is not cool right so to somebody who’s just got a bike we in like is not cool um but
Someone who’s just got on a bike who’s now associating with other people who are on a bike right you start to understand the maybe marginal gains but the benefits of wearing um bib shorts or tights padding for example umus we normal shorts no padding right t-shirt flapping in the wind versus fitted
Cycling Jersey non flapping in the wind right so those small um differences is probably what made me make that transition and then another one of my friends um had cleats for example yeah um and so um kind of said hey you should get cycling shoes the benefit of it is
XYZ like one day I went out on a ride in the rain and and and my feet were like slipping off the pedals as we was riding right and somebody didn’t have that experience right and so um you guys will know from from from going through those Journeys
Yourselves as well it was kind of making that transition kind of slowly but every ride you start thinking about right now I want to make that Improvement or now I want to look at that I actually not didn’t wear a helmet when I first started riding because you mad man mate
You got kids mate geez I know but again to a non cyclist who’s like your perception is I’m GNA get on the bike and I’m just riding to the local park on the pavement or on the road but I’m safe because I’m not going fast so that’s your perception
And then as you’re riding more and more and you’re seeing different things around cars more often you understand and become aware of um the risks right and then prevention’s getting in cure so obviously um helmets Etc become a thing of the norm right but to the unaware
Person uneducated person I would say um you know no better so to speak and do you like like I NJ and I Su for like a long time like quite a while like I’m remember wearing uh Liv strong branded quarter zip short sleeve jerseys and like just like the most heinous kit
You’ve ever seen in your life like these were the dark ages of cycling I told NJ once I cycled the wrong way against traffic because somebody told me that’s how you do it and this was in like dark rural suffk so anyway so like yeah it’s different but like even since maybe
You’ve got a quite unique perspective on this because you’re the cppo cgc we’ll get on more onto this section two and we can you know talk about how the club came but you’ve seen a massive change even though in relative terms came to cycling a bit late both in life and then
In the kind of overall Arc of where we are now but how do you think cycling has actually changed even since you’ve started doing it right be it from maybe a community from being out on your bike we might be venturing into the next part of the section but I’d just be Keen
To get your understanding of because you see it more than anyone right you run one of the biggest cycl clubs in London one of the most active cycl clubs in London how how do you think anything has changed since you first kind of started what are we now three years ago four years
Ago yeah I think um I think depending on who you ask that question to you probably get a slightly different answer right so I think from from my perspective as some as a non cyclist coming into cycling um every day is a school day first and foremost I think
For me right I I came into cycling um to to escape kind of um my house or my work um really for head space more than anything um and so that was my initial kind of goal right um then when I got into cycling and realize that there’s an
Amazing Community realize that it’s an amazing sport right I actually didn’t acknowledge cycling as a sport um prior to being in it right and so yeah when we talk about changes I I think for me um I’ve seen I’ve seen more of the cycl in world than I ever knew was imaginable
Previously right going abroad on a bike going on a cycling holiday right following um the tour to France for example a knowledging kind of sportifs social groups the social groups is the first part that I became aware of but there’s so much more than just social groups right going into the vrone
Accessibility places um as well so I think the changes I’ve seen at firsts hand have probably been um more and more clubs on a community grassroot levels I think C become a lot more accessible yeah right I I think it’s um I think it’s cool to cycle right my kids might
Tell me different I like today when when it’s Sunday morning and you come in home in a pair of bib tights a bass layer and you catch the look of your wife seeing you come in at N9 o’clock in the morning going oh my God this my life now yeah
How did the wife react to your your first she she liked it to be fair liked it at first right Men in Tights she liked it laughed a little bit but yeah it was um it’s been a transition um I think one of your initial questions was around
Like Brands and things like that right different clothing I think when I first started cycling and making that transition into wearing kind of bike attire kind of went to my default um domain whenever I need to order something which is Amazon right and I just ordered what was available the
Brand didn’t matter the fit didn’t matter I just needed a jersey for the ride tomorrow if I order it it comes let’s go um so that was the initial start and then um I I I say I shop a lot I used to um probably shop a lot I like
Nice things um so I spent a lot of time on Mr Porter and on Mr Porter where I discovered Raa and so I figured hey if RAF on Mr Porter and I shop Mr Porter that’s a brand that’s clearly pretty decent so let me try and Order um some
Bits from that brand so that’s that was my first kind of taste if you like of buying Rafa I think my first purchase was like a a black pair of like bib shorts for example with a black jersey and a black rain jacket right we’re the rain jacket black everything is your
First the fun the funny thing on that part um NJ was I had I had all black and I remember going on a ride and posting a picture on like Facebook or Instagram at the time and then my mom like sending me a message in our family
DM like you must wear a luminous clothing when cycling typical kind of worried mother approach yeah but now I’m definitely more of a stealth dark clo and attire person with hints of colors at the appropriate time right my mom says the same thing my mom
Says the same thing and she says like uh so I had a um I’ve got I wear jro helmets because I F my head quite well and um I gave her a jro I’ve got I had an old Juro synth and um it was black
And I gave it to her I said oh that’s quite an expensive helmet they really like weight you’d like that she’s like oh thank you very much and then um well you’ve met my mom and my mom said to me oh I was looking at your guys photos and
I’m looking at photos of other brands and I realized everybody wears white helmets why is that and I was like and I was like well it looks quite Pro but also and she was like yeah but you also have seen a lot more right oh yeah yeah yeah that’s the most crucial
Step people see you more the truth is white home it’s look cool in the summer right and then um I normally go white in the summer and black in the winter transitional what about the shoes do the the shoes match the helmet do you know what um I’m actually having this
Debate at the moment so um is this after I ruin is this after I ruined your shoes in January of last year this this is after I you my shoes yes you ruin everyone’s shoes nice R yeah yeah I actually ruined your shoes no you’re you’re you’re all good I
Think my my first pair of shoes were black um and then I transitioned to White and and in this past year I wore white shoes all through winter and realized that I ruined my shoes in the winter months so um having had fresh White Shoes this year I’m at that kind
Of transition phase now I think I’m going to go for the same shoes in black with shoe covers yeah whereas I wreck my white shoes in summer so that’s why I’m always in black shoes kind I’m just too messy I know no no no no because also you commit the
Also you’ll sometimes commit the war crime of wearing black socks so that’s the reason you actually wear black shoes then J let’s not let’s not lie to good people of podcast land black socks are for winter white socks are for summer I actually don’t own any black
Sucks yeah good point right and on that I think it’s time we went to a break thank You welcome back everyone uh Yan how did cgc start because me and cam despite being at the club for like over a year maybe cam longer in it um but we have no we don’t really know we just know you and Chris started it off yeah do you know what um I’m I’m
Gonna have to do some thinking myself know um I I so I mentioned um that when I started riding I was going out with like my neighbor my brother and then my neighbor had um a WhatsApp group with with basically his mates that had bikes
And so I was I was in his group we were all riding together like kind of like just during the week blah blah blah um and then um one day fast forward a few months into the pandemic and into riding one day I spoke to a couple of my
Different friends from like school days yeah who all live in different parts of London and we said hey we should we should all ride together and just like get together one day like I hadn’t seen some of them in like 10 years 15 years like let’s all connect and so um across
Like my social group I’m pretty much the the organizer and so um long story short I created a WhatsApp group and just put our different friends in it right so I was already in a group I created a group and put our different friends in and
Then we said that we would meet up at Oxbridge and ride um from Oxbridge to Windsor and back and so about um about eight of us or so um went and did that ride um and then um I think the group was just called like I don’t even know I
Just made up something like old school friends group or whatever right school friends it was something like that and we did that ride um and then um and then we did one more ride and then it was it it was just pretty VI that we were now
Going to start doing more rides together right and I had like this group and then my neighbor’s group I ended up putting my neighbor into this group and then um fast forward a month or so we just like changed it to just Chang gang at the time and that just literally I nothing
About cycling right so that just meant like um we were all riding bikes together so we’re like a bike chain like Chain Gang yeah yeah so that was like on the surface how the name came about and I remember um I think it was 2020
December we were and we were doing a um like a like a Harford Shire Loop so we all got together in like Brock born or something like that and then we um went and did like a long ride it was just after I think it was in between like
Christmas and New Year and that was probably like the first kind of Chain Gang so to speak unofficial Chain Gang ride so that’s how it came about and then we had like all these conversations around um about the name like after a while should we change it should we keep
It there was a whole load of of WhatsApp discussions um around that as well but yeah that’s that’s essentially how how the actual social to Club element came about and is that still the same sorry is that sorry NJ is that the same group chat now
That’s the same group chat oh wow yeah this this the exact same group chat that we have in place today was the group chat that started probably like as I say November December um 2020 was the initial group um all that’s changed is the name across that time to be a bit
More formal obviously when we first started we wasn’t it wasn’t the bike club it it was literally just like a a WhatsApp group like any other so that you could connect with some friends and have a chat it’s just that the conversation was all cycling driven
Right yeah was there any names that came up when you having these discussions that you’re like maybe but then they just were like do you know what um I’d have to probably I’d have to probably scroll back to the very start might be in there right yeah a lot of
Scrolling but um there was a lot of different names that got floated at the time but there was nothing that just sounded better than Chain Gang or cgc right yeah and and I think um I think I think Chain Gang or cgc just flowed and the other things that came up at the
Time again I can’t even remember him now um but but none of them sounded the same like it had the same impact yeah yeah it’s really good name it’s like the power of three so as the I guess the the club has gone from these I
Guess small acorns uh to where it is now um how big would you say the club is now and because I know that brunch is probably I guess your favorite well like as in I guess as members and people who outward look I’d say brunch is probably like your biggest
Ride yeah I think so like um we we we um I’ll tell you a quick funny story about brunch and how that came about right um last year last the year before last December me and Chris was having a conversation and and we we were informally doing
These rides on our own accord right and then more and more people were riding with us and so just saying hey Chris do you want to ride on Saturday just wasn’t really a way that we could get people together as the World opened up and people were living their own personal
Lives so we tried to figure out a way to get consistency and so um I remember speaking to um to to my to my wife at the time and saying hey um I’m going to I’m going to block out imagine this conversation right I’m going to block the next the next three month
Worth of Sundays um to write my bike um in the morning but I’ll be home by by by 111 12ish yan yan Yanik just to confirm to the audience that’s with three quite young children at the time yeah absolutely that that too that too right
So so I’m blockout time ride my bike um every single Sunday for the next three months um just temporary I just want to see if we can get this club going right so so we did that um we then was able to confirm that we would um lead rides
Across that time and then um so now we were writing out the itinerary for January and we basically filled it up apart from the third Sunday we couldn’t figure out what to do and so I told that story story earlier about when we first rode to Richmond Park right what was
What was what was interesting about that time is that um all you could do is ride like you couldn’t go to a shop after they were closed after a while even the calf was Clos so there was Zero social element to it right and and we started
Meeting so many people but you actually don’t know what anybody looks like beyond the helmet right yeah yeah right we we we like you recognize people by their by their by their Lids by their bike not by when you see when you see a cyclist you know
Wearing their C you’re like oh so that’s how you dress that’s or you walk past him because you don’t recognize him yeah so we’ve probably all been there as well so um so as a throwaway it was like rather than trying to find a ride like
We love Richmond Park let’s just go to Richmond Park do some laps and then let’s just find like a cafe or something after to have a bit of a social and that’s essentially how brunch was formed right um the first one it was like 30 odd people or so um again everybody
Loves Richmond it’s accessible you did some laps a good old social some coffee and cake and some chap so that’s how it came about and then the summer one was was again like hey this this this brunch rides good do you reckon we can get 100
People was how that came about right and then um I think we love abbreviations because amongst one of us somebody just threw out like bank holiday Bonanza next minute it becomes right had like 140 50 people at the first one um thing again this year so
That’s by far the biggest um ride tendy wise um for sure did can I ask you sorry NJ but um Yan the first brunch we did was that an I’m not going to name the place but was that a place where we said
There was going to be 15 of us and 30 of us turned up and it was in South London and they told us to stop coming in and I had a point at I I and my wife was very much ready to have a baby well she was
She was seven months pregnant and I decided to have a pint very early on and it was and it was the first maybe the first proper cgc thing where people were like okay this is this is a Vibe this place is is was that that one that was
That one 100% yeah 100% And and yeah we we we didn’t know how many GNA come right so so so we we called that particular place and just said hey can we make a reservation for 15 people and I think like day before the ride it was
Like 30 or or it was about 25 or something so we called up and said hey there might be a few more of us and it was a bit kg in the answer and then we turn up on a day 30 right you turn up to any restaurant or calf and you
Essentially bring them business you would think that would be an amazing thing to do but I guess they’ve got local custom yeah which come there regularly as well so um yeah in short 30 bikes um I guess difficulty with other customers getting away to the takeaway
Cup lids because of the bikes right so yeah um yeah we we we found a new home that welcomed us with open arms I’ve kind of focused in on I guess brunch but what other other R of cgc do I think um the EOS of cgc really is
About um opening up um rides to the community to join and and we try and embrace um all different types of people that we can support in a safe environment and so um our rides range um from what we call C1 to C4 yeah right so
From race Pace to um chitchat Pace um so as long as you can like confidently ride your bike um then we can try and um create a home for you to ride in a safe space and then location wise um over the like years our our members of um it’s
Gone from being like in Northwest London with just Chris and South to um having a spread of a little bit of everything and so every week we try and rotate um our our start point and our ride destination so that it supports um the community
That we serve um but also so that people um get a variety of different rides right if you want to do Hills we can take you out to Kent or S if you want to do something flat we can keep it pretty Central if you want some nice Lanes we
Can go to the CHT oric so we try and do a little bit of everything and then more recently um we um like Richmond Park is almost like the Hub to a degree especially for weekend rides we’re trying to do at least every other ride starting from Richmond um
Just so that we can create that concept of um if I’m familiar with that area or local to that area then I know that I can at least join a ride every other week versus having like I don’t know free and essics back to back right and the start
Point not being relevant for the audience that we serve yeah that’s great um what about off the the bike do you do any sort of off the bike events where no one turns up in lra um you mean non events what are
Those now we do we we um we we we we try and do socials right so whether it’s um hireing a a bowling venue um or hire in um a bar or Pub um in central somewhere relevant just to get people together I think um again when we first started
Cycling it was just to get out the house but actually um we we we’ve been fortunate to build um a community of people who have formed friendships right and so trying to provide an environment for those friends to um connect and have off the bike conversations drink socials
Parties um we do yeah so what is the what would you say the most epic party you’ve done is would it be the bowling in the karaoke or would you say it was the Christmas party where yeah whether it was an impromptu speech or not I I will let cam decide on that
But it was probably the the most vibiest TP party probably to ever happen in Rafa I’ve not been to any other but it was like people on the street wanted to get in it was just like the DJs were playing like the best music everyone was like on
On like just the the best level every it felt like someone got married and I’m not sure who who got married that night but it felt like a wedding go Yan go go I’ve got my own thoughts but yanet you this is you’ve got the Floor Mate
This is your Club Jesus it crazy I think um I think for for me um I’m I’m a big fan of like experiences right so um I always want everyone to have the best time and so I’m passionate about trying to um put my all into anything that we
Do right and also every event I want it to be better than the last one right which which I’m quickly learning isn’t always viable as well right so you touched on the bowling so the bowling was probably one of the first events that we did um where it was
Like hey let’s like forget the bites today let’s just all get together and have a great time right and i’ I’d actually done events at Allstar Lanes before from a work perspective so I knew they had karaoke right and and I think anytime you’ve got like music drink and
Karaoke like it’s almost like the ingredients for a good time right like you kind of shouldn’t not have a good time when you got that um so that one was amazing and I was like seeing people like getting up on the mic going going like Dean or
Daryl or whoever just having a really great time right like the bowling was just the excuse to get together right I don’t even know how many people actually Bowl bowling was an accessory mate the bowling was accessory I didn’t bowl a single round mate I was there vi vi so
That that party was epic um but but the Christmas party was was um I’d been to a couple of um events at Rafa and we had partnered with Rafa which gave us accessibility to um or access to the clubhouse right and so yeah wanted to turn the clubhouse into a nightclub
Right and so um yeah we we put that on as the kind of end of year stroke Christmas party stroke anniversary because around that time is also when that first ride I mentioned right so we kind of treat it as a unofficial anniversary stroke end of year celebration so um yeah like like
For me um I guess I get satisfaction from just looking around the room and seeing people enjoying themselves seeing two random people who turned up for rides at different times that didn’t know each other that are now having a like civilian attire I call it right off
The bike in your civilian gear um having a drink having a dance and enjoying yourself with somebody who used to be a stranger like for me like what’s more enriching than that and so that party um was was epic right seeing people on the street walking past the store and then
Coming back and trying to figure out how I paid to get in it’s like no this is just the Cycling Club party mate right yeah it was great mate mate went so bowling my wife and my daughter came my daughter was four months old do you remember first of all they were like
First of it was downstairs basement allar lanes and the guy’s like bro no why why you got a baby here man bro no babies I like no I’ve cleared up with the the guys who arranged it I can bring my baby and he’s like I need to speak to
Him and you were like n shut up man let’s let this guy in and my daughter no headphones none of this like ear defend she slept behind the speakers when everybody was doing the karaoke videos from that and the Christmas the Christmas part was chaos like I turned up there’s
Like oh my God like like yeah you know like I pretended that that speech was off the cuff B I’ve been I I planned that for three weeks and I was I it was so planned but I pretended it wasn’t clearly it was but I turned up and I was
Like like there was there was there was more pizza than people and I don’t mean just like pizza slice CU I mean actual and I was I like oh okay maybe have a little bit of food and then they were like no no no keep going keep drinking
Keep going keep going keep going I think we left at 9 yeah I think we left about 9 10:30 when we at 9 or 10 I think we left and then you know this is my daughter was still under a year old right so we were
Kind of taking it easy and my my wife was there and those kind of thing and I was like oh yeah we can just shoot off it’s a bit late but I remember like you know when you wake up on your phone you look at what people have been doing yeah
And it was like it was like Yanik white Instagram updated 45 minutes ago I’m like like I’m so glad like those days are behind me Mt I can’t do that anymore yeah it was definitely um it was definitely a late one we ended up in Chinatown didn’t we Yan I can’t remember
The Chinese restaurant was cool but I devoured that sweet and sour like like it was no I was like to the I don’t know why I was like the waiters at like 1:00 a.m. in the morning what would you recommend they were like they were horrible but that’s what I want that’s
What I want for my like you know from those restaurants like at 1: am they’re like all the recommendations are like some like floro yellow on the like menu and I was like I know what I’m already gonna get yeah it just like all over my
Face like like i’ been to war or something like that the signs of a good night if you’re in central London you’ve had a good night out if you end up in Chinatown right oh yeah oh yeah yeah oh yeah that was an epic finish to the
Night yeah so we uh we’ we’ve kind of you know established the beginning we’ve established the present but what about the future um where where do you see I guess cgc because this year you launched your race team um yeah I don’t know what else you’ve launched uh you just got bigger that’s
All I know race team you’ve got bigger future is there more ride captains on the horizon is there more rides more destination rides yeah definitely definitely I think um one of the things that um that I used to do at the start of each year was just um have a conversation with different
People or or send out a survey to different people and ask hey what are your goals like what are your writing goals this year yeah um because if I guess my my kind of vision or my desire is if I can try and create um within cgc a platform to help individuals achieve
Their riding goals um then then then that means that the club has continue to serve its purpose right and so um and I couple that with um some of what my riding goals are right or what are my or Chris’s objectives or goals because a
Year or two ago it was hey I want to go abroad with the bike right so selfishly we wanted to go abroad with the bike um but but it turns out that a lot of other people wanted to go as well right and so small personal holiday became a cgc club
Organiz trip right we didn’t say hey we want to build a trip for the club we just wanted to go abroad with the bike and others did so we facilitated that right and a lot of our events and different things have been around maybe personal interests and we’ve built that
Into the club because they became common interests and so um I knew coming into this year that there was a desire from individuals to um to race right um I also know that um we didn’t have a race team I didn’t even know and I still and
Figuring that out like what like as a as a team what are your responsibilities what do you provide right um what I know is we had a couple of riders who were strong who were approached by other clubs who had those facilities and Pathways and so respectfully they went
Road with those different clubs which which is great because that um that that enabled me to understand that we were missing something and so um connected with British cycling spoke to a few different individuals for support and started to really set up an infrastructure so that people within our
Club could race under our club versus having to go somewhere else because we haven’t got that and so we we built a platform for four people um we actually just had two more um connect and join as well so so we head into the end of the year with with six people officially
Registered um under the brand but but but but probably more because some people do cross and different things and they’re tagging our club we just haven’t had a formal conversation around it yet so we need to formalize I think some real structure and process across the
Race team side is on the agenda for next year I think um continuing to serve the the community right continue to provide open rides that are accessible for um for for everyone who can participate is something that we’re passionate about um you mentioned ride leaders I think it’s
Important that you can only serve the masses or an audience right if you’ve got yeah enough ride leaders to support that infrastructure and be and be safe um so where we’re actively recruiting for more ride leaders to come into the fold right um at a stage we had 16 the
Theory across that was everybody has to do one ride per week or sorry per month which covers the weekly roster um but what I’ve learned as well is the more and more that people cycle the more you find like passions in different areas and and and and life also just takes
Over right so availability isn’t always there and so you’ve always got to have a constant Bank um of of of of people who can also add into the fold and and people have often reached out saying hey I’d love to do that I’d love to do this
Um and and I’ve probably been closed to some of those conversations because either I don’t know you I don’t know you well enough right yeah but but I’m also learning to um to to try and entrust um people more right which is very difficult because I’ve entrusted a lot
Of people as well um and and that doesn’t always get you the right outcome that you’re looking for and so you have to somewhat guarded um yet able to be open um to to allowing that as well yeah but in short answer um more racing across the team I think you see more
Bibs out there in the wild right more cycling trips to go abroad to some of the same but also new destinations um more more local UK based trips as well and just more more more rides in a wider variety with more Riders joing the fold perfect that sound that sounds like a a
Strong TW 2024’s coming up you were talking about uh I guess structure and safety um as we all know in any Walk of Life there’s going to be I guess people aren’t going to get along there’s going to be conflicts there’s going to be um
People unhappy how as a club do you and Chris I guess deal with those sort of complaints and how would people if how would people go to I guess if their problem was with you and Chris how would they I guess go about dealing with
That yeah I think um there isn’t like a magical answer or wand yeah to to Really throw at that one right I use the phrase every day is a school day um quite a lot because um when when you’re in something that’s that’s essentially new to you um
You’re constantly learning right um yeah I’m I’m a leader in my day-to-day job I manage and responsible for over 70 people right and so from like a um a dealing with conflict or complaints or or resolution solving that’s that’s what I do um in a structured way but in the
Workplace that’s different to in an environment like if he was with your friends right or in a a cycling Community um and and I guess one of the things that I’m learning is um as we continue to evolve right we started with a small WhatsApp group that had yeah six
People the WhatsApp group now has a 100 people right our our straa club has over 1500 people so we interact with 1500 people we can join our rides right if we had like um one person for example have um have a challenge or something didn’t go well it
We talking like less than like 0.1% but it’s still 0.1% right and so um the way that we would really try and handle that and solve it is just as best as we can so whether that’s hearing something having a dialogue around it um it really depends on on what it is right
I think um I think for me we talk about like Cycling Club um we have a saying called it feels like home right because um because hopefully the invite well I think where it comes from is the fact that it’s a super friendly warmly place you can come and
You can just feel like you’re with your your matate mates right or or family and so feels at home comes from that and so I’ve tried to always um resolve something if it comes up in a similar way that I would with my friends um however the bigger you become the more
You have to put structure in place right and so we’re at this space now where we’ve started to look at okay um what does our committee look like what does our um not just resolution problem um eut look like what what does our new ideas Solutions Etha look like too right
So trying to really create that structure um where we can be a bit more formal not too formal we’re not a company right we’re also not a club that charges membership where we can say right let’s put this person here and put these funds towards XYZ like like mostly
Everything we do is is self-funded from from my pocket right or from Chris’s pocket and so there’s an element of like triing error in some of it or doing what you can with the means that you have um but everyday is a school day right it is you’ll always be learning there’s always
I guess they’ll yeah issue isn’t the same like you can’t deal with each issue in the same way it’s all like they’re all individual and everyone’s feelings are always sort of like individual to them and you have to sort of understand them as a person and as long as both of
You were like looking for a positive outcome then that that in itself is like I I would feel like safe in that space I’m just going to add in a little you know uh little little little question that we didn’t I didn’t tell you that we
Were going to add in um if I was new how would I join cgc yeah absolutely I think um I probably answer that by looking at how new people joined today right so um I I manage currently our um Club straa page um we have a team of admin people
Um who also conver and and allow people to join and I also manage our um Instagram page right um Chain Gang cyclist official um blah blah blah right shame so um typically I’ll get messages um or DMS from people saying hey I’ve seen your Club it looks really blah blah
Blah I’d love to join like what’s the average speed or do you guys do rides here or how do I connect with you guys those are typically how um the conversations go and I’ll just drop a reply back um depending on what they’ve asked and pointing them in the right
Direction right we we run open rides um three to four times a week right Tuesday is essentially our um fast laps right Friday is typically our community open lap days right 7: a.m. which is a a relatively good opener for anyone and then um Saturday we have um Hills if you
Like Hills Saturday’s good and that’s by weekly and then Sunday is our our club ride days right um now depending on the ride depends if it should be somebody’s first ride or not the majority of rides have a C3 or C4 Group which is typically um the easiest entry group for anybody
Who’s new into the space perfect talking about I guess new uh new new and into the space um I feel like since the pandemic diversity and I guess Grassroots cycling is I would say is quite hand inand probably one of the biggest clubs in London for diversity if
Not the biggest yeah how H yeah how do you see I guess cdc’s involvement in I guess Grassroots cycling going going forward I think um I think three years ago I didn’t have a bike right and so my entry I mentioned before um buying a mountain bike a couple months later
Buying a road bike um what I didn’t mention is six months after that buying another road bike and that saga continues more recently still having another new bike right so you’re constantly evolving but my point is more I started in the Grassroots I still consider myself to be in the Grassroots
Personally today right so we’ll Al we’ll always cater for the grassroot level because the reason the reason that we ended up changing that WhatsApp group into an actual Club so to speak is because accessibility to the sport wasn’t easy even for us right yeah that there was no kind of open door
That said hey you can come and ride here I I dm’ so many different people to figure out how I can ride and I either got no response right or I got a rejection response so we created our own lane because there there there was no
Kind of other option or door that was open um and and and so so our doors will within our control always remain somewhat open right I say somewhat with a caveat because um it’s not viable to continuously provide um the facilities that we do at like zero cost
Indefinitely right at some stage we’re going to have to put a process in place um so that we’re not like losing money so to speak right but the door being open the Grassroots I think is important it’s key is what we’re passionate about um so we’ll we’ll continue to kind of
Fight that flag for as long as we can perfect perfect I think I think that wraps wraps up this section time for a Break welcome back everybody uh we’re going to go into the third section which is Q&A first question might not be rapid fire but I think we need to do it regardless NJ and I both members of cgc uh Yan can you tell us the story behind the cgc kit
Please yeah yeah I think um I um I support man united for my sins we’re having a shocking time at the moment but let’s not talk about that right I know nothing about football fine good good let’s let’s let’s let’s stick with that are they are they are they are they
Still in they still in the Champions they’re still in the the the league one they’re still in the top one yeah ju just about just about we’re hanging in there we’re hanging in there but um but but my favorite kit um was a a red um a
Red jersey that had sharp on the front and and it basically had the stadium printed into the design of the jersey in the background and so um when I started thinking about like designing a a kit for the club um like we’re from London right so I wanted London to feature into
The design um and so I kind of um took inspiration from that um man united Stadium Jersey and thought how can we build a cycling jersey with like the London Skyline in the background and so um literally like downloaded some pictures um of different kind of skylines had the idea of the Jersey
Thought about a few colors and then just started tweaking it over time together together and then um and then landed where we are right so yeah that was um that’s where it came from a lot of people walking around with um man united inspired jerseys right I know I know
That you know the Liverpool sporting fans and cgc they they wear that they wear their man united jersey with pride that yeah is there uh we see we see people in like the pink colorway and the the gray colorway um is there like a is there a reason behind that yeah there is
I think um well short story um is couldn’t really design decide on one definite color and so the the gray was the first rendition and then the pink came about and then really couldn’t narrow down between like Le go with one or the other like I was always going to
Get both personally um but but where we landed was there there’s there’s really two sides to the club right there’s um what what we tend to call the the inner circle of the club um the core members of the club right people who have been um consistently riding um from its
Infancy in the group right they’re they’re in the the the core WhatsApp group and that’s about 100 people strong and and then there’s the community side right any one who wants to come and join one of our rides is welcome to they sign up through the straa and so um I didn’t
Want to have just one kit um for um just a core members right I wanted it to be accessible to anyone who wanted it and so we went with the gray being accessible to everyone and the pink being more exclusive to the core members of the
Club M I just need to say that your 40th birthday Green Oh Jersey oh my God I think Chris has a nice blue one and then you got the old black as well for when like you got to go stealth mode yeah yeah so so and this is this I
Guess like again one of the ideas with that kit design was um rather than having to design new kits just run a new color right like you can you can keep the same print and just right now all yellow bang all green bang um and to your point Cameron yeah for my birthday
I was blessed with um a deep green colorway um which is probably my favorite color Rafford kit um I used to wear it all the time so I’m imagining that’s where um you guys took inspiration from with that color right which is amazing the cappo Jersey love
It so good you spoke about inner circles what do you prefer Regent Park or Richmond Park um do you know what I I think um they’re both great for different things right I think um I think region part for me is probably my my staple my go-to um
Is it’s it’s it’s closer for me to get to um it’s it’s flat right and so if I want to just go and get my head down and just do laps consistent speed um that’s the go to and and to be frank Tuesday is probably my favorite day of the week um
We do hot laps um I’m out at 6:00 a.m. um I’m back home by half eight and I’m getting ahead of the Working Day and I’m ready to go right so um Regents is definitely the staple however I’m learning to love Hills right and Richmond gives me that
Elevation um that I need um to continue to practice on right so it’s a it’s a hard divy it’s a hard divy give me both oh no no you only get one Regent yeah yeah hang on here’s the other thing that NJ and I talk about all
Time do you think regent would you think’s more Pro is Regent is more Pro than Richmond right Regents is definitely more Pro if you’re there in the morning before seven F absolutely absolutely so as you was talking about I guess learning to love climbs do you have a favorite climb I
So I don’t yet love claims right so I wouldn’t quite like you’re in the bargaining stage yeah I’m get your excuses in now fine right I I am not a h climber I’m just not um genetically set up for that um but um clim wise do I
Have a favorite I think um I think that um I think I think Jona um has some amazing CLS we did um rocker corbar I’ve done it twice we did it this year as a club and that’s probably the favorite just because it’s got a lot of emotion
Attached to it right we had 27 people do it and 27 people completed it so it was a real surreal emotional end like rocker corob is like an hour long climb here you are saying I don’t like climbs your favorite one is like an hour long right and and I was going to
Top that by saying I just got back from the dolomites not long ago and um Paso was um was was the whole climb itself with the start was like 22k right it’s even longer double Rock what’s the average gradient on that I think it was like about 6.57
Average it was brutal we we did a 28 time in the morning before that so it was pretty brutal um it was tears of joy at the finish so were you um were you stopping when you go for a coffee where are you going usually if if I’m in central
You’ll find me at Raa right um if it’s if it’s getting that discount getting that discount in right if it’s a day I’m at fortitude if I’m by Richmond I’m at list no it’s got it locked down it’s got it locked down that’s like the power
Three to be honest with you isn’t it what would you say is the most overrated cycling product that can be like anything oh yeah the most overrated cycling product um that’s a big question I think what doesn’t work for me yet um is is probably um like chaff cream bum cream oh shammy
Cream [ __ ] right bull I’ve tried I’ve tried it a few times but I still gets so bum oh no so does it work does it not work the jewelry is stood out for me I never know if you meant to rub it on the bib or you just rub it on your
Skin that is both I just rub it all over all over maybe you need to like add in pseudo cream as well for like a ultimate mix oh my God so Yan maybe the last question for you MH am I ever going to see white bib shorts I’m trying you know the
Revolution is coming people are aware I think for on white bib shorts are you going to maybe be debuting 2024 white bib shorts can we also add that Yan also said you can get cgc kit in any color so surely the allh cgc kit hey now I’m
Gonna turn up to chat UPS looking like the Pope I think um yeah white bib shorts I don’t think you’ll see me in white bib shorts but but but I’m aware that this is being recorded and can be played back to me at any time so so I’ll caveat that with my current
Mindset is you won’t see me in any bib shorts however um if if you did then I’d probably be wearing a matching outfit with my man Cameron when when Cameron we white bip shorts to cgc laps what is what emotions did you feel I think um I think there was a a whole
Debate Envy is fine Envy is fine there was a whole debate about cam wearing white bib shorts um because you put it out there and to be honest when you turned up in white bib shorts I looked at the bib shorts and I thought looks pretty good mate looks pretty good he’s
Done it for the listeners what happened was everyone’s going you know anticlockwise as you do in Regent Park Cam went clockwise it was like you know you’re at one of those air shows and it was like a flyby and even like was waving like the queen
Uh the boys on the flyby I think I got a message from cam in the morning like today’s the day mate I’ll be there shorts out yeah where your best outfit I’m coming in hot yeah yeah K where did you get your white bib shorts from undisclosed undisclosed the funny thing
Cam is I’d never seen anybody wear w whb shorts until you said you’d wear them and since since that day I think I’ve seen about at least five people rocking white bibs so you might be on to something there hash white bib Revolution baby yeah when you wear white
Bib shorts you have to either be the fastest person in the park or you have to be like riding at a Cadence so crazy that you just look Pro and wear wear double gay as well you definitely put yourself out there as a as a Target right
Well Yan mate it’s been really good talking to you like the work that you and Chris have done on cgc about diversity inclusion how you’ve gone from not cycling to being one of the biggest clubs in London um it’s a real pleasure how NJ and I met that’s how most of my now
Close friends have actually met um so thank you for putting the group together thank you for inviting us to on it and thank you for being on our podcast um places to find you straa Instagram fast Laps on a Tuesday chat Laps on a Friday Yan do you have
Anything last you want to say on the Pod now listen guys I I really appreciate um joining and being a guest um I love seeing um you guys working together um I look forward to to hearing and listening to Future additions um always always happy to to
Support and help in any way possible um it takes um it takes opportunities like this it takes you guys speaking to different people within the sport and the industry so that the the the new generation of grassroot entries can really get visibility and transparency into what’s happening where to go to
Right so it’s a beautiful thing that you guys are created and I wish you guys the best of luck thanks thank you very much Yan everybody that was yanic white bye Bye
1 Comment
Man like El capo