Members

New members are welcome at any time of the year. For new cyclists, GBCC has run a beginner cycling course annually since 2017. Our latest one was held in April 2022. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for notices of the next one or contact us at [email protected].

In cycling youths are U16 and younger, while junior is 16-18 years of age. Youths/juniors can join club spins only with prior club approval and parental consent. Anyone interested in joining as a youth or junior should contact [email protected]

Below you can find a selection of profiles of GBCC members:.

Lifetime Members

GBCC member Sean Kelly is an Irish former professional road bicycle racer, one of the most successful road cyclists of the 1980s, and one of the finest classics riders of all time. From turning professional in 1977 until his retirement in 1994, he won nine monument classics, and 193 professional races in total. He won Paris–Nice seven years in a row and the first UCI Road World Cup in 1989. He won one Grand Tour, the 1988 Vuelta a España, won 4 green jerseys in the Tour de France and had multiple wins in the Giro di Lombardia, Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège, as well as three runners-up placings in the only 'Monument' he failed to win, the Tour of Flanders. Other victories include the Critérium International, Grand Prix des Nations and shorter stage races including the Tour de Suisse, Tour of the Basque Country and Volta a Catalunya. Kelly twice won bronze medals (1982, 1989) in the World Road Race Championships and finished 5th in 1987, the year compatriot Stephen Roche won gold. Kelly was first to be ranked No.1 when the FICP rankings were introduced in March 1984, a position he held for a record five years. By total career ranking points, Kelly is the second best cyclist of all time after Eddy Merckx. In the 1984 season, Kelly achieved 33 victories.

GBCC member Eoghan Clifford is an Irish Paralympic racing cyclist who competed in C3 classification events. Clifford has represented Ireland at both road and track disciplines and is a multiple UCI Para-cycling World Champion, winning the C3 road race and the C3 time trial in Greenville in 2014, the scratch race at the track world championships in Apeldoorn in 2015 and the time trial event at Nottwil in 2015. He also won a bronze medal at the track world champions for the C3 pursuit in Apeldoorn in 2015 and Montichiari in 2016. In the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Eoghan won Gold in the C3 Time Trial. He backed this up a few days later with a bronze medal in the Individual Pursuit. Eoghan continues to race today in league and club events.

Other members

GBCC member Yvonne Dillon took up cycling aged 68 and has never looked back. Yvonne didn’t previously come from a sporting background, although was a regular hill walker. However, around eight years ago, when an old knee injury increasingly impacted on her ability to do much walking, she began cycling instead. She started with a Bike for Life course, gradually building up to 60km. Yvonne subsequently joined Galway Bay Cycling Club and now cycles around 150 km each week. While Yvonne loves the group spins (including enjoying when her average speed is higher) she was nervous at the beginning. ‘If you want to do it, you have to get over the fear, simple as that. When I first started out with the club, I used to be a nervous wreck thinking I’d be slowing the group up. but I don't have that now. They're fine about it actually and everyone watches out for each other, which is lovely. It really does my heart good to see how happy people are to be out on the bike, chatting away. I just wouldn’t meet a lot of these people if I wasn’t cycling. I love the social aspect of being in the club and look forward to going out. It definitely lifts your mood and gives you a boost. You have a real sense of achievement when you come back and say to yourself - That was brilliant - I’m not feckin’ dead yet anyway’!

GBCC member Valerio Di Bacco Valerio first got into cycling aged 2 when he kept stealing his sister’s bicycle instead of riding his tricycle. Aged 6, his father - exhausted with him asking - bought him his first road race bicycle, a mini orange Vicini. The following year when he finally reached the age to start racing, he had probably his best season with 6 wins and always on the podium. He joined GBCC just a month after moving to Ireland in December 2012. As a cyclist from Abruzzo in Italy, for Valerio, cycling means climbing and is not afraid of mountains. His favourite Italian climb is the Block Haus, considered among the top four toughest climbs in Europe. ‘It’s in those moments that you realise cyclists are like eagles and their bicycle are like wings to take off’.

GBCC Member Liam Buckley’s first cycling memory is from the early 1980s watching the Spring Classics on TV at the weekends and when he first heard the name Sean Kelly. In 1986 he got his first bike and started going out for spins with a few friends joining Corrib Wheelers the following year. Liam then started racing - going to Connacht league races during the week and to open races around the country at weekends, loving every minute of it. After about 25 years of doing nothing on the bike, he decided to join GBCC in 2016. "Joining the club was one of the best things I have done for a long time. It has helped me to get relatively fit again and shed a few unwanted kilos. I have made a lot of new friends since joining GBCC and it was also great to see that some of the guys I was cycling with back then are still going strong today. The regular organised spins by the club are great for keeping the motivation going and for building confidence to ride in a group. A recent highlight for me was meeting Sean Kelly on a GBCC training spin. It was a great feeling to finally meet and talk with your childhood hero and every time I have met him since the feeling is the same."