Canadian Club
Bringing together riders of all disciplines in Edmonton
United Sport & Cycle Cycling Club
Although Edmonton is referred to as the City of Champions, it doesn’t i mmediately spring to mind when you consider Canadian cycling. Its t wo-wheel pedigree, however, includes hosting stages in all five editions of the muchmissed Tour of Alberta, as well as the 1978 Commonwealth Games, where Canadian Jocelyn Lovell bossed the velodrome boards to win three gold medals. Alex Stieda, the first North American to wear the Tour de France’s yellow jersey, is in the neighbourhood. Helping to continue the Prairie city’s two-wheel legacy is the United Sport & Cycle Cycling Club. Fun and cycling’s diversity are at United’s core.
The club is sponsored by the United Sport & Cycle store, which occupies a colossal building on Gateway Boulevard. Starting life as a shop race team, the club was once known as the United Cycle Grassroots Cycling Club and then United Cycle and finally United Sport & Cycle. In 2014, it pivoted to become a recreation club.
“That allowed us to expand the focus of the club and attract new members encompassing different disciplines,” says Jason Gay, United Sport’s bike department manager. Embracing both mountain and road biking, United Sport & Cycle holds special nights during which club members can experience track and cyclocross riding as well.
After Alberta thaws, United holds women’s mountain bike rides with around 30 riders of varying degrees of experience. Starting at the end of May, an offshoot instructional club called shred holds women’s mountain bike clinics with a final course in drops and jumps at the Emily Murphy Park.
Other United Sport & Cycle clinics are Alex Stieda’s very popular Ride Clinic, an annual bike maintenance clinic led by United’s senior mechanic, Harry Korol and stretching instruction hosted by Erin Kathan of Wellness Solutions.
Beyond the fundamentals, the club holds several events and regular rides. Every October, Alberta’s cyclocross community embraces the United in Cross race, guaranteeing a big turnout. Gay says, “This year, we also plan on spending a weekend in the mountains accommodating both road and mountain bike riding in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.”
United takes pride in its policy of no-drop rides, both on the road and the trails. “We work very hard to ensure that there is someone to fall back with any riders who may find themselves unable to keep up with the group for any reason on any day,” Gay says. On the dirt, riders group
“This year, we also plan on spending a weekend in the mountains accommodating both road and mountain bike riding in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.”
up at the end of every trail, and sweepers make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.
Not an Edmontonian but visiting the city and looking to take a spin? Gay recommends one of the club’s regular road rides: a beautiful loop around Antler Lake east of Sherwood Park, a hamlet that lies just outside the city’s Highway 216 beltway. For the knobby tire folks, he suggests Terwillegar Park and Strathcona Science Park, which both have networks of trials. But the best dirt is in what he calls the river valley’s treasure trove. “You would be very surprised and impressed with the number and the quality of trails,” Gay promises of the routes littered along the North Saskatchewan River.