So I’m 40…

A lot has happened in the past 27 years, but nothing involving a bicycle, in fact nothing involving fitness of any sort. And you can tell!! Worse, several of my good mates have decided to get fit themselves. I’ve watched on actively, partly thinking they were mad, partly wondering what the point was, and partly,  jealous!!

For me half of the last 20 years have been about trying to be a pop/rockstar. I think I was more succesful in emulating the lifestyle than I was on the musical talent front!! But to some degree I lived a bit of the dream and drank most of it too!

Following on from that ‘wasted’ 10 years, I’ve settled into working. Again with varying degrees of success! I’ve found more success in continuing to emulate the rock star lifestyle, and I think now ,having hit 40, a few changes have to be implemented.

A couple of my colleagues have got bikes on the UK Govt cycle to work scheme. A great scheme whereby your employer purchases your bicycle up to the value of £1000, which they then deduct in 12 equal payments direct from your bank account, before tax. That’s the great bit, meaning you save tax on the value of your bike. Eventually I decided to take the plunge and purchased a Specialized Sirrus Sport (Pictured at the top of this page – Known as Tommy Zoom and Billy Rae – depending on who you ask).  Like most things with me I jumped in with both feet, almost immediately cycling to work, through Central London, most days. I looked incredibly stupid:

I suspect if you asked some friends at the time they would have told you that this cycling malarky would go the same way as golf did 2 years earlier!! That is to say I bought clubs, got lessons, tried to play very couple of weeks, but in the end preferred the 19th hole rather more than the golf itself! The clubs are in the cellar and haven’t moved in way over 18 months!!

But it hasn’t. I spent best part of 2013 cycling to work and in October signed up to ride from London to Paris in April 2014.