The wheels will fall off another sporting institution if the cycling club doesn't get more members.

"We've only got 15 to 20 at the moment," committeeman Danny Bourke said. "I would say it's the lowest we've had.

"We want to keep the club going."

To keep it going, WCC has organised weekly rides and is planning to run some big races with prizemoney next year.

The weekly rides start Wednesday, with juniors to complete an eight-kilometre course before Warrnambool Veterans Cycling Club clocks up 16 kilometres on the road.

The veterans club has a healthy 83 members, with the WCC the main concern.

"We want to make it real big and get it going," Bourke said. "We want riders from Port Fairy to Camperdown.

"Anyone who has a bike and wants some exercise can come down.

"It's not about poaching young riders from anywhere else, it's just giving them another place to race."

Bourke explained young riders were the key ingredient for both clubs to continue.

"If we don't get juniors, we eventually won't end up with veterans and that will end up closing down too because of lack of numbers," he said. "It would be sad to see them go."

Bourke traced the dwindling membership to about 15 years ago, when insurance problems didn't allow the WCC and veterans club to race together.

They still aren't able to, with Bourke hopeful that introducing WCC races next year will boost its numbers.

He conceded it was hard to believe the club was struggling since the city hosts the finish of the Melbourne to Warrnambool Cycling Classic ? the world's second oldest bike race ? and was involved in two stages of this year's Herald Sun Tour.

Warrnambool's Stacey Hocking competed in the 2009 three-day women's Honda Hybrid Tour.

She finished 57th in a field of 80.

"I was really happy considering I was up against people who had just come back from racing overseas and they were a lot older than me," she said.