Starting a cycling club during a pandemic
How it began
The Last Drop was born during the pandemic, after some friendly competition between cyclists in Stanley Park. Today we interview one of the founders, Nathan, about starting a cycling club during the middle of the pandemic.
Nathan shares some of the insight he's gained from joining the cycling community, and building this amazing network of riders.
"I started cycling at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, to have something to do with my friends from work.
Since starting to cycle, I've learned a that regardless of age, race, fitness level, if you want to be a cyclist, you can be. You put in the time and the work and you can reach incredible goals. Whether it’s to lose 20lbs or to climb a mountain. These are all within reach."
What makes The Last Drop special?
The Last Drop is so much more than just a riding group. Within less than 8 months, it’s grown to this massive community of amazing individuals, each bringing their own love of cycling, wisdom, network, and more to add value to the group.
Our first big club ride with nearly 20 people coming out together on one morning. For someone as inexperienced in this space as me, I was completely in awe of how many people this club brought together, and how happy everyone was to be riding together.
Everyone supports each other, and the trust with each other is so high when we take on epic rides together.
It's incredible to see the bonds and relationships that come out of bringing strangers together, and seeing how much more we can achieve collectively than we could have done on our own.
What have you learned about cycling?
To me, the best part of cycling is that it can be whatever you want it to be. You can ride in solitude to escape reality and destress, you can ride competitively and train to race, or you can just ride to explore new places and make new friends.
Cycling lets you see the world from a different perspective. It makes the world feel smaller, and the moments more special.
Of course, like everything, there are good and bad sides. The worst part about cycling, well, I think everyone has a different opinion.
For me, when the culture in a club becomes more about being the best, or having the 'best things,' egos take over and people stop supporting each other. That's the opposite of what TLD stands for.
what is your biggest cycling achievement?
Besides creating an amazing network of riders in TLD, climbing Prospect Point in 2:26 at Stanley Park after nearly 100 attempts... When I had started at well over 10 minutes when I first began in June 2020.
It's also been incredible to get the club sponsored by MBO. Their bold designs were the first thing that caught my attention. No other brand on the market seems to have these unique patterns. Adding to that, I think the quality and cut of the pieces is comparable to bigger, more well loved brands.
The ability to design custom kit is also really great and we now have a custom kit just for our club. I'm so grateful for MBO's support of the club.
What are your future goals?
This year we are taking on racing competitively in Vancouver. This is the immediate goal. Secondly just bringing more awareness to our club and to find more like-minded riders to let them know there is a crew of people out there just for them.
Personally, I'd love to one day ride in Mallorca or many of the other great routes in Spain or western Europe.
Get started with The Last Drop here.
