There are various ways to get into cycling. The most common is through friends and hopefully meeting up with others that are into cycling as well. However, for a number of people this can be either intimidating or not a structured enough approach.

How do we help? I'll start off by saying that Gold Coast CATS Cycling Club is first and foremost a racing club. With that context set we do facilitate riders joining into cycling and riding safely with the hope that at a later date they will start racing.

Does this mean we want you to join our club? Yes. But we will help you out if you want to join our club, someone else's club or just to get a handle on how to ride safely or ride for fun.

Will we turn you away? No. We will try to ensure that you are given the support you need either from ourselves or other parties that may be better suited to helping you.

Here is how we normally are engaged:

A rider will give a club member a phone call asking where they can meet up for the club ride and that enquiry will normally be directed to a committee member. From that we normally will try and set up a meeting and go for an informal ride. This is to do a number of things. First we need to get an idea of what you want to achieve. This is hard to do in the middle of a large group ride. We also need to get an idea of your level of fitness and also an idea of what part of the Gold Coast you live on and how much time you are wanting to put into training.

From there we can suggest a few ideas on training, road skills, bunch etiquette, and try and match you up with a relevant group that is local to where you live and that heads off at about the same time that you want to train/ride. For riders with very clear competitive goals we engage our Club Coach to assist in goal setting and putting together an idea of what training program format is right for you and to provide you with the best chances of you succeeding with your goals. We also forward on rider information, with their approval, to other training programs such as Sara Carrigan's Cycling school for riders who meet the criteria. We also support talent identification for AIS and QAS.

There are a number of training activities that our riders undertake and by joining in with people wanting to achieve similiar goals we try and ensure that new riders are motivated to keep going and that riders are supported.

As mentioned above a large number of riders on the Gold Coast are not racing riders. The ability for clubs to provide official 'Club Rides' is limited to invited riders who hold Cycling Australia or UCI licenses. These restrictions are all to do with rider and club liabilities, insurance issues etc and are valid to protect riders and the associated organisations. As such informal training group rides are the most common method of introducing new riders to cycling , whether for leisure, fitness or competition.

Gold Coast CATS are also able to run 'J Cycle' events which are a formal cycle skills training format sanctioned by Cycling Australia. Where a group of individuals, a school or some other organisation wish to undertake standard road safety and cycle skills awareness we may be engaged to facilitate this on their behalf. This is generally at not charge other than the 'J Cycle' fee from Cycling Australia and any facility hiring fee. The 'Recreational License' provided by Cycling Australia that supports 'J Cycle' entitles a rider to ride in any club events of any club in Australia but not race. There is a 'top up' option for riders who have been successful in completing the 'J Cycle' events which provides a 'Full Racing License'. The 'Recreational License' also entitles riders to Cycling Australia insurance for identified training rides. 

If you are interested in cycling and would like more information please contact the club secretary (Robert Craig) on 0409 626 727 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it