About me

I’ve always liked bikes, as a distraction, a method of transport or as way to be competitive. I remember eagerly pulling the “wrapping” towel off my first bike and the feeling it gave me as I saw the potential in the bright yellow paintwork covering it. From there came the Raleigh Nitro, which was cool to me because it was called a Nitro, that was used to ride the CamelTrail in Cornwall and circumnavigate Alice Holt Forest in Surrey at an ever increasing pace.

My first proper mountain bike was a Ridgeback which got heavily customised as I became more focussed on dirt jumping. Eventually the only remaining part of the Ridgeback was the frame and on the untimely death of that I invested in a custom frameset. Here I am back in about 2000 walking the custom steed back to the start ramp at Penshurst Off Road Club (PORC).

Just before finishing secondary school I managed to smash my coccyx and halt any further cycling. I lent my bike to a mate and it was stolen from his house. After a 10 year break from two wheeled activities I found myself working 10 miles from my house and, with the stimulus of having the bill to tax and insure my car come at the same time, looked to cycling as a way to get to work. I committed, and like usual for me, I committed completely. I SORNed my car and bought a bike so that it forced me to ride to work daily, whatever the weather. I went for a hybrid as I'd only ever ridden flat bars up until then. I was off to Halfords (gasp) with my mate Tom and the Boardman was bought. 

I set a target for myself - If I managed to cycle to work for a year I would invest in a better bike. A year past and about 3500 miles were notched - time for a new toy. 

This was my first foray into real drop bar road bikes. She served me well and got me out exploring routes to find out where that road ended up. I also started riding with East St Cycles and Hoops Velo. With the addition of my Garmin I was really into finding interesting and challenging places to propel myself to. After putting about 5000 miles through her I settled on my, now current, steed and sold this one. This is my trusty steed...

Joining my cycling club, VC Meudon, came next and that got me into my first races. I've enjoyed racing round the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold and competing in other crits.

I'm a sucker for punishment. Cycling related pain zone punishment and these races made me realise that. The only thing was that when I finished the race - I felt that my legs had more to give. I started looking into bigger challenges and, in keeping with my usual spirit, decided to get fully stuck in. I was keeping very close tabs on the Trans Am and the Transcontinental races and found myself glued to the tracker screen wishing names I'd only just heard of on! After the end of the Transcontinental I turned to my wife and said, tentatively, "I wouldn't mind competing in that" expecting to get that idea shut down immediately. Against all odds my amazing wife has supported and encouraged this mental aspiration I now have.