THE LONDON BIKE SHOW – DRIVEN BY SEAT
What was your first bike? It was a second-hand bike my parents bought from a jumble sale in Edinburgh and it was £5 – that shows how old I am! My Dad stripped it down and sprayed it black and put some BMX stickers on it. It looked amazing and I absolutely loved it but I broke it after about two months because once I learnt to ride I immediately wanted to do stunts and jumps. I used to build ramps in the back garden that got higher and higher and the bike just wasn’t designed for them. My parents realised that I had to get a bike that was going to actually stand up to the abuse that I was giving it so I got a Raleigh Burner when I was about 7 and that’s when I started racing BMXs.
Now that you don’t have to focus on the track, are you enjoying different kinds of cycling? Yeah definitely. I used to race mountain bikes when I was 15, 16 and 17 and I loved it, but I wasn’t very good at it as I’m a bit heavy to get up the hills. When I was racing the track I didn’t do it at all as it’s a very different kind of skill and fitness required, so mountain biking is one of those things that I’ve really enjoyed getting back into. It’s so much fun, you get up to these beautiful
parts of the country and just enjoy riding your bike, it’s really great.
Have you got a favourite spot you like to head out to? The Pentland Hills around Edinburgh are my favourite. They’re only half an hour from the city centre so considering they’re so close to a major city they’re pretty cool.
It’s great that participation in cycling is increasing – is there anything else that could be done to encourage people to get out on two wheels? I think the biggest thing is you’ve got to take away the barriers and the common things people complain about are traffic and the lack of bike paths and adequate provision on the roads for cyclists. Then there are other things like getting a bike fitted correctly – you see so many people with the incorrect saddle height and you won’t enjoy cycling if it’s uncomfortable or gives you a sore back or knees. If people are cycling to work, employers can help by providing somewhere to get changed and shower and somewhere safe to lock up their bikes.
How has cycling changed over the course of your career?
It’s gone from being very much a minority sport and a minority activity to being pretty much mainstream. So many kids want to get involved, and a huge growth area is what are called MAMILs – Middle Aged Men In Lycra. They’re the guys who used to spend money on new golf clubs or a squash club membership and are now cycling. Look at city centres now and bike
racks are absolutely full. It’s just become so much more a part of British culture. It’s going to take a long time to really cement those changes and there’s a lot of things to be done to make it more appealing to people but we’re definitely on the way there. To keep having success in the Tour de France and the Olympic Games really helps and to have people campaigning and lobbying the government to try and improve the provisions for cycling for the general public is a really important part of it.
You were at the top of your game for years, how do you maintain that level of performance, both physically and mentally? You have to enjoy the whole process – not just winning the medals – because you don’t race that much, so you have to enjoy the routine and the process of
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