Some people are members of multiple golf courses and county clubs. Others are members of multiple synagogues. Me, I am a member of multiple cycling clubs, and by extension, closets full of club kit. I am a one of the charter members of the Bartali Cycling Club in Toronto and a pretty new member of Velo Club La Pomme Marseille. I am just they took pity on me and invited me in.

The first cycling club that I was a member of was the Windsor Cycling Club. I was in University at the time and really not terribly active. I only have two recollections. The first was an outrageously hot wool or fake wool club shirt and the second was a group ride over the Ambassador Bridge, through downtown Detroit and around Belle Isle, before returning home. Someone fell while riding on the bridge. That is all I remember.

But the BCC is very different. It is “our” club. We like it the way it is. We have known each other in many instances for over 40 years. And some are new relationships – say 10 years. We are still getting to know each other. Early days.

The first order of business for our club was deciding on a name. It not take long to agree that whatever the balance of the name, it would include “Bartali” in homage to the great Gino Bartali, a two time winner of the Tour de France and a three time winner of the Giro d’Italia. But more than that, Gina Bartali is honoured at Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre) in Jerusalem as a Righteous Amongst the Nations for his activities during the war in Italy in hiding and aiding Italian Jews.

The further orders of business were designing Club kit, now in its second version. It is as much a wardrobe as it is a cycling club. Why do I seem to order each set of kit in increasingly larger sizes? What is it with that?

We get out together when we can, usually weekends. And for the BCC, it is not a ride unless there is a bakery involved. In fact, it really is all about the bakery much more than the ride. There is the bakery ride on the west side of the city and the bakery ride on the east side of the city. One day we should really just do a B2B (bakery to bakery) ride. We have travelled together to each of Israel and Italy for cycling. We were to have gone to Spain this past fall, but that of course never happened. Next year. We even had a movie night a few years ago when we attended a screening of MAMIL – Middle Aged Men in Lycra. We met for dinner beforehand of course.

It is always a pleasure when we go for a ride. It is like an abbreviated three or four hour canoe trip. It is a time to get caught up with one another and continue the witty banter that has gone on for years. And yes, have something to eat. The eating certainly seems to be a theme. In fact, the event that garners the largest turnout is of course our annual award banquet, which for the past number of years has taken place in a private room of an Italian restaurant. We are the Bartali Cycling Club after all.