Born in a stable, Christmas 1941
A group of young cyclists from Rutherglen and Dalmarnock areas decided to form a cycling club. The first meeting was held in a stable at polmadie, during the meeting it was agreed to name this new club GLENMARNOCK WHEELERS CC. Glen from Rutherglen and Marnock from Dalmarnock.
The new club attracted many people into the sport of cycling, initially introducing them to the delightful countryside around Glasgow during Sunday club runs, later as experience was gained many members joined the Scottish youth hostels association and began to extend their horizons by cycling all over Scotland for the weekend or longer duration trips.
A group within the club started to enter races, time trials on road and track races at sports meetings. John Storrie,(a founder member) was the first member to gain success by winning on both road and track.
The second world war was a setback to the progress as many members were called up for duty in the forces. By 1944 the british league of racing cyclists(B.L.R.C) was formed in England, started by percy Stallard, a top international cyclist to promote cycle road racing as we know it today.( the only racing on the open roads until then was time trialling).
In 1944 an open meeting was held between all the Scottish club with the object of forming a scottish section of the B.L.R.C. Only three clubs had the courage and foresight to break away---the Glenmarnock wheelers, the Glasgow Wheelers and the now defunct Gilbertfield Wheelers from near Cambuslang. The three clubs became rebels and started to run races on the open roads, this generated interest and soon the general public started to spectate these events. One of the key figures during these early pioneering years of road racing was Arthur Campbell(MBE) of Glasgow Wheelers, in 1952 he became the president of the Scottish cycling union, later the president of the british cyclists federation and finally emerged as a leading and respectful official at world level in the Union Cycliste International.
The First major road race to be promoted was the "Brighton to Glasgow"(Victory Marathon). This was organised to celebrate the end of world war 2 in 1945 and had a large entry of cyclist from all over Britain plus a contingent of free French riders also competing. Thousands of spectators lined the race route each day through to the finish on Edinburgh Road, Glasgow. The event was a huge success, road racing had arrived.
From then on cycle racing on the open roads had come to stay and as more clubs decided to join the rebel three clubs it was decided to re-form the old Scottish cyclist union. At a general open meeting the remaining clubs came over with the Scottish Amateur cycling association ceasing to exist. The new Scottish cyclist union had made the grade and went on to promote and compete in international competition, gaining many successes.
After the war and through into the 1950's John Storrie continued to keep the clubs name to the fore at both domestic and international levels.
Norrie Drummond was the next "Force" to arrive on the scene representing the Glenmarnock. Norrie had many successes at domestic level and also whilst representing his country in international events(e.g the peace race, between Warsaw, Berlin and Prague). In the recent past Norrie has also been the clubs sponsor and continues to sponsor the annual "Drummond Trophy" race, Scotlands richest single day race.
A contemporary of Norrie's was Gordon McNaught who won many road races throughout the UK. He represented Britain in such races as - The amateur Tour de France, The peace race(W/B/P), the tour of Poland etc. Gordon was both Scottish Road race and Time trial champion.
The Glenmarnocks policy of bringing new blood into the sport paid off starting with schoolboys and at one time had 103 members. This eventually had a negative effect causing many promising young members to leave the club and join smaller a smaller club in order to get a place in road events where entry was confined to one team of four riders.
We are proud to say Robert Millar of International fame and who was king of the mountains in the tour de France started off as a schoolboy and became their Junior champion. Robert later joined the Glasgow wheelers and after many wins in this country went to race as an amateur in France. Robert returned to Britain and won the British Amatuer championships in consecutive years, 1978-79. In 1980 Robert turned professional for Peugot and his achievements have made him a household name.
Other members who became Scottish champions are Billy Gibb, David Gibson, Martin Coll, Russell Scott, Andrew Young, Andrew Ferry, Martin Lonnie, Lee Anderson and James McCallum. Ther are many cyclists who started in the Glenmarnock and are often listed in the first ten riders in races today, very often as winners.
The glenmarnock were the first sponsored club in Scotland and are proud of their record of introducing more young people to cycling than any other club in Scotland maybe even Britain.
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