How did you become interested in cycling?

[Major Taylor]

Public transportation was so bad in Atlanta I was willing to try any crazed idea to get to and from the Uni. Latter I found I could beat the train pretty and I was hooked.

Interest in the other recreational aspects of cycling developed from that.

 

[barn yard]

i thought it would be good to legitimize my sitting around at coffee shops

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Not one single thing really...
1. Greg LeMond
2. 1994, 40yo... cholesterol 250, single heart bypass surgery
(fortunately, no heart attack)
Today... 56yo... cholesterol 150
No problems mate.

 

[kelvedon wonder]

My husband used to watch the TdF on channel 4. I tend to 'catch' sports from him (although I seem mercifully immune to rugby). In 2007 we got into the habit of watching the Channel 4 highlights on satellite while on holiday in Portugal, and when we moved on to an apartment without UK TV I realised I really missed it. 2008 found us on holiday in the South of France. After cheering Cavendish to his first stage win in a bar in Arles (flanked by bemused locals) we went to Nimes to watch him take the stage live (although of course at 200m from a bunch finish what we actually saw was the race on the big screen). My interest has been growing steadily since, enough to leave me distraught when I discovered that the tour of Britain will be passing through the village where I work.....while I will be a couple of thousand miles away on a beach

My own bike riding really picked up in 2007 as well, after I set up an annual charity cycling event in memory of my friend's daughter who died of leukaemia. I soon found that 5 miles quickly turned into 10, then 20, then 30.....then a 120 mile jaunt round the Netherlands. I'm hooked now.

 

[53 x 11]

My parents till me that when I was two we were driving past a bike shop and I just started kicking a screaming about a little red BMX that was out front. They say I didn't stop until they went and bought me the bike two days later.

Since then Ive raced BMX, MTB road and even recumbents (I'm sick) worked as a Messenger for many years and now hope to be involved in bike manufacturing/design.

 

[Offtheback]

my parents took me to a 6 day in Germany in 1957: just a social night for them, but I was blown out at the speed and the huge legs of the cyclists. I was in awe. My mates all had bikes and we rode a lot.
Later moved to England and joined a club and spent a few years doing Sunday Club Runs, averaging 70-80 miles over a long day. Sometimes handed out sponges to riders doing 12 hour races and at around 15 started time trials and then mass start road races.

First real bike was a Raleigh Gran Sport till I had Harry Hall make me a real bike with Full Campag Record. Even as juniors we rode in teams and had a car in front and at the rear of our races. (We felt like pros!)

Also did rowing and rugby at school, but cycling was my favourite sport. Read Cycling & Cycle Sport from cover to cover with Rudi Altig, Rik Van Looy and Tommy Simpson as my heros.

Uni, travel and marriage then and no cycling. (Just weights and karate). In 1994 the World Masters Games came to Brisbane and I bought another bike and trained up for it. Raced club for another 10 years.

I now have a 10 year old steel LLewellyn and mix a bit of riding with gym and Kung Fu.

In the next couple of years I want to go to Europe and watch as many of the Classics as I can. LOVE the sport.

 

[Hawkwood]

As a kid I lived in Frodsham Cheshire for a few years and used to go birdwatching on the marshes there. I used a Raleigh 14 to cycle to the marshes which by the age of 12 was clearly too small. My dad bought me a secondhand Dawes Dalesman which was a bit of a wreck so I started doing it up. With the new bike I cycled further and further with friends. We then moved back to West Kirby on the Wirral. My biology teacher was married to a member of Birkenhead North End CC and suggested I go cycling with them which I did. I finished my O-levels in 1975 and about a week later rode my first 10. By that stage I had progressed to a secondhand Harry Quinn. I raced off and on up to 1999, and then spent ten years ticking over, however I've recently started cycling with a local tri club, and now intend to get fit again.