A significant chapter in the history of Dubbo Cycle Club is coming to an end and, fittingly, it's finishing with one of the top honours in the country.
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Dubbo Cycle Club was named the best club in Australia in on Monday night at the national awards ceremony in Brisbane.
Immensely proud club president Matthew Gilbert was on hand to collect the award and said it was somewhat ironic the first time Dubbo took home the prize came in the final year of racing at Victoria Park's No. 1 Oval.
"It seems as though old lady Victoria Park wanted us to go out as the number one, and we did," he said.
"It's a huge honour and a big privilege to be given this award. And it's not just for the cycling club, Dubbo is known far and wide.
"I'm very, very proud and very, very satisfied that we did our best and we got rewarded."
It wasn't the only honour for the city on Monday as former Dubbo cyclist Bob Spears, who won the 1920 World Sprint championship, was inducted into the Cycling Australia Hall of Fame.
The Dubbo club was awarded the club of the year premiership prize after another stellar set of results on the national stage across various age groups.
Making all the success more special is the size of the club compared to so many of its rivals.
The likes of Carnegie Caulfield, St Kilda, Brunswick and Port Adelaide, others in the running for the top prize, have up to five times as many riders as the Dubbo club.
Dubbo finished 18 points clear of Carnegie Caulfield in the race for the 2019 award.
Gilbert couldn't speak highly enough about coaches Vaughn Eather and former Australian Cycling Coach of the Year Gus Dawson, who have moulded a massive group of riders into some of the best in the entire country and made all the success possible.
Of the current batch, Danny Barber is the under 17 NSW Cyclist of the Year and two-time Oceania Cycling U19 Champion, Kurt Eather is the current national points race champion in the under 19s and he, along with training partner Luke Ensor, has raced internationally at the Tour of South Korea in recent times.
The pair, as well as Dylan Eather, have been picked up by National Road Series Teams to compete both nationally and internationally in the coming year.
Haylee Fuller, the female NSW cyclist of the year, went undefeated in the NSW under 17 road series before taking two silver medals at the recent national road championships to be declared Australian National Road Series Champion.
Teammates Trent Hines, Zara Fuller and Isabelle Russel, regularly feature as members of NSW representative teams as well.
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In the senior ranks, Australian Masters Champion Simone Grounds also claimed NSW elite road titles during 2019.
Grounds had another incredible year, going close to sweeping the pool in all track and road events she contested and her stunning medal haul was one of the major reasons Dubbo collected the club premiership prize.
Grounds was joined on the national stage by fellow masters riders Tim Hines, Jennifer Raines, Grahame Peadon and Jason Farr, all of whom medalled at the national track championships.
Former masters world champion Darrell Wheeler is also still competing and winning national titles.
All this follows 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Megan Reakes and 2013 World Championship sprinter, Andrew Taylor, developing their talents at the club.
"It's what goes on behind the scenes," Gilbert said.
"It's deeply satisfying for the executive to have the vindication for the hard work of the coaches and riders, and I'm always completely in awe of those two parties. We've never won this before and I'm extremely proud.
"Everyone knows the regional town of Dubbo has an amazing record and punches well above its weight."
Under the leadership of Eather and Dawson, the club has eight trained road and track skills coaches while 16 individuals have undertaken various training programs.
"There were people [at the presentation night] who are going to the Olympics and they all knew about Dubbo and said what a big award this is," Gilbert added.
"It shows what can be achieved and we owe a lot to Vaughn's skill and commitment and Gus' calm and comfortable, but tough, leadership.
"People were asking how a club of 150 or less competitors goes against these huge clubs and the answer is fantastic coaches."
