 The Dark Blue Bicycle Club (taking its name from the identifying sporting colour of the University, known otherwise as Oxford Blue) was founded in 1873.Its stated objects were "the holding of meets and races, the arrangement of tours, and generally to facilitate and encourage bicycling in the University".Those local aims were soon to have national application as the club became centrally involved in forming and shaping the bodies that would organize competitive and recreational cycling in England and Wales in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.