During the first period of the bicycle, because there were no official institutions who technically organised the new sporting modality, the champions of the casual sport gathered into clubs with the intention of applying order to cycling. The first bicycle race in Portugal was organized by the Club Velocipedista Portuense, founded in 1880 in Porto. This club had its first headquarters in a pavilion annexed to a railroad company, it later transferred to a building on the street Restauraçao in what functioned for many years as a bicycle store.

The first sports clubs that started including cycling activities were the Real Ginásio Club, and the the Ginásio Club Portugues. This is how a cycling “class” began to take shape, cyclists from well-off families who succeed in the hippodromes were the ones to create the first cycling clubs: the Clube Velocipedista de Portugal, in Lisbon in 1891 and the Real Velo Club, in Porto, in 1894. It was a golden time for the bicycle, magazines such as O velocipedista (1893), A Bycicleta (1895), O Velo-Sport (1896) and O Sport-Velo (1897) are created to portray and promote cycling champions and news about organized tours. In commemoration of the 5th centenary of the birth of Infante D. Henrique, some members of the club wanted to request for the club the title of "Real" from the King. This provoked divergences which lead to the departure of members who founded, in 1893, the Velo Club do Porto, with head office at the old Crystal Palace. It became a club of great dynamism and relevance in the city, boasting the designation of Real, by mercy of King D. Carlos who became the honorary president with Prince D. Afonso as his partner