BRITAIN'S OTHER MEDAL FACTORY

South London club VC Londres has an extraordinary number of international champions among its alumni. James Shrubsall speaks to the members to find out the secret of its success

- James Shrubsall

High on the wall in the pavilion that doubles as the VC Londres clubroom hang the rainbow bands. Not a photo, a painting, or a replica top – this is a bona fide world champion's jersey, won by a club member just a few years ago.

The place is, of course, the Exodus Travels Pavilion at Herne Hill Velodrome in south London, and the jersey was won in the team pursuit at the 2018 Apeldoorn track Worlds by Ethan Hayter.

With four wins this season for Ineos Grenadiers already, Hayter is very much VCL's man of the moment. The broad-shouldered 22-year old is clearly a considerable talent and looked very much at home romping in ahead of the pack at the recent Ruta del Sol. It's easy to forget that only a few seasons ago Hayter's racing colours were the striking red and blue jersey of VCL.

I’ll be back

For Hayter, VCL was formative, and while he has gone on to international success, the experience he described when Cycling Weekly caught up with him not long after he won that Worlds jersey is typical of many of the young cyclists who come through the club.

I started with a couple of Saturday morning sessions, he said. I just did the youth sessions for quite a while. They had holiday clubs during the summer when you basically just mess about, ride your bike five hours while your parents are at work. You do a lot without realising it.

While the jersey takes pride of place on the back wall, when it comes to international success VCL has much to choose from. A photo collage on another wall, for example, features Joanna Rowsell Shand – she was a club member as a youngster, and her various champion's jerseys would probably cover the entire pavilion wall space.