1. Tell us a bit about yourself
I was born in Sydney and went to Pymble Public school but my family moved about a lot when I was a child. I lived in the UK for 18 years. When the kids came along we decamped again and came to Sydney less than two years ago.
I have lived on 4 continents and worked in shops, offices, schools, pubs, restaurants, farms and factories, knocked doors as a salesman and spent six months as a volunteer in the third world. I like to get about and try new things.
2. What got you into cycling?
I had a bike with twisty-change gears and back pedal breaks in the 80s.. My dad bought me a mountain bike for my 17th birthday when all my mates got cash towards their first car. I almost never rode it.
Then I came to Sydney! Why wouldn’t you cycle here? I did 1000ks in February this year: more then I have done in my life up to last year when I joined ERs.
3. How did you come to join the Easy Riders?
In Jan 2013 I commuted for the first time to the CBD and was warmly accosted by Admin, Sat Nav and Half at SHBN. I was still not sure of my ability to keep up and rode alone for another week until on the way home one afternoon I witnessed Big Goaders being playfully cheered/abused by the peloton up Tinsdale hill. That convinced me that ERs were a bunch worth riding with immediately.
Schleck lent me his egg and tomato for last years Bobbin Head race and I burst the zip…. I have lost 10kg since then!
4. Tell us about your bikes.
Who can forget the basket bike? That is now proudly affixed to the wind trainer.
I rode a hybrid flat bar with front suspension a lot last year and have also purchased some carbon: Cube Agree GTC. I recommend the bike but not the company or its distributors!!
My favourite biking hobby is custodianship of Old Gold: the single-speed steely owned originally by Horatio’s dad. I bent the front chain ring when attacking on a hill recently! Cant wait for it to come back from TSS.
5. If you could ride anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I haven’t had my fill of Oz just yet: it is a wonderful place to ride. Overseas it would have to be Guatemala. I volunteered there and the scenery is epic, the people friendly to a fault and there are few vehicles on the roads. There are multi-day mountain bike races there through jungle trails, over volcanos and past Indiana-Jones-esque Mayan ruins filled with howler monkeys.
6. Tell us a riding story.
Having only recently started riding on a regular basis most of my stories revolve around stacks. I have never ridden more than 100km without suffering a stack within the first hour. Clip stacks, collisions with other riders and overcooked corners validated my loony toons nickname in 2013.
On the Gong return the race started with Horatio and I locking wheels just before the national park. The saddest thing about that for me was losing my PBJ sandwich in the crash. I released the front breaks to allow for maximum wheel wobble and got it patched up at the end of the national park. It got me 190ks home after that although after Bulli Pass any residual worries about wobbling at high speed were redundant!
7. Do you have any advice for the riders at the back of the ER peloton?
The back of the pack is where I go for advice myself! Not overtaking the captain was a key plank in my bid for a white jersey last year. The best advice I have been given is to listen to your body during a ride, but only those bits above your legs.
8. Lastly, tell us something we don’t know about you.
I am the retired pimp king of Sydney (according to some in the peloton).