1. What bike do you ride (road)?
Trek Madone 5.1
2. What would be your dream bike?
Something Italian. Anything from Matt's shop
Trek Madone 5.1
2. What would be your dream bike?
Something Italian. Anything from Matt's shop
3. What's your day job?
Plant Manager of an Air Liquide Cryogenic Air Separation Unit.
4. What's your favourite ride?
I enjoy our round the block ride on Saturday mornings in the summer. I am sure locals take the route for granted but being a foreigner (and often being reminded of this fact in the M1 blog) I try not to, and constantly remind myself how lucky I am to be here in Queensland. I could never see too many gum trees, or too many Kangaroos behind the Calliope Historical Village, and watching the sun rise as early as 05:00 each morning still fills me with wonder.
In Scotland I used to ride alone. It may have been because my bike was not adorned with the prerequisite mudguards for group riding but it was more than likely because I was a mediocre rider. I did the occasional group ride but was often left alone many miles from home. A ninety minute circular route in the Scottish Borders on my trusty Cannondale was the order of the day back then.
I look forward to my Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rides with a group of people whom I neither work with nor socialise with, but for a few hours each week I can hang out with, both on the bike, and on Saturdays over a coffee.
5. Most memorable biking experience?
Although I have struggled to cling on to the coat tails of the group at times, I am thrilled how far I have progressed in the twelve months I have been riding. Being able to complete a Saturday on the Targinnie Road with the hitters was memorable in itself.
6. Least memorable biking experience?
It was a Saturday morning in 2008, not long after I had started cycling with the group and I had braved the cold, wet weather to be at Tank Street for the 05:30 start. As it happened Marty (aka Farm Boy) was the only other person who had dared to venture out. At that time I had no idea that Marty was a former astronaut and had been severely injured in a space ship crash and whose body had been repaired at a cost of six million dollars. So when Marty enquired if we should ride the route together I naively yes. Forty kilometres later I was relieved to be sitting at McDonalds with Marty and a coffee after spending the previous 75 minutes trying to stay on his wheel.
Oh, and there was also the time I went over the handlebars at the marina. That cost me the price of a new helmet. Oh, and the time I was about to win the McDonalds sprint when Big Dave glided past me. That was not very memorable at all.
7. Bike rider you admire the most?
Robert Millar is a tiny Scottish climber who in 1984 became the only Briton to win the king of the mountains completion in the Tour de France. His fourth place in the 1984 Tour behind Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond is Britain’s best ever result. Millar is the nearest Britain (or should I say Scotland) has had to a winner of one of the three major stage races. He finished second in the Vuelta in 1985 and 1986, second in the Giro in 1987 and fourth in the Tour in 1984.
Around 2005, he disappeared however. Rumours, seemingly unfounded, circulated that he had had a sex change – an easy claim given his love of long hair and his slight build – but their origins seem to be in a grudge by someone in Millar’s past. The truth is that nobody but Millar knows about that or what happened in his life, or even if he is still alive.
It was Robert Millar’s performances in the 80’s fuelled by Phill Ligett and Paul Sherwin’s commentary that inspired me to invest in my first road bike and my admiration for him has nothing to do with his penchant for women’s underwear.
Plant Manager of an Air Liquide Cryogenic Air Separation Unit.
4. What's your favourite ride?
I enjoy our round the block ride on Saturday mornings in the summer. I am sure locals take the route for granted but being a foreigner (and often being reminded of this fact in the M1 blog) I try not to, and constantly remind myself how lucky I am to be here in Queensland. I could never see too many gum trees, or too many Kangaroos behind the Calliope Historical Village, and watching the sun rise as early as 05:00 each morning still fills me with wonder.
In Scotland I used to ride alone. It may have been because my bike was not adorned with the prerequisite mudguards for group riding but it was more than likely because I was a mediocre rider. I did the occasional group ride but was often left alone many miles from home. A ninety minute circular route in the Scottish Borders on my trusty Cannondale was the order of the day back then.
I look forward to my Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday rides with a group of people whom I neither work with nor socialise with, but for a few hours each week I can hang out with, both on the bike, and on Saturdays over a coffee.
5. Most memorable biking experience?
Although I have struggled to cling on to the coat tails of the group at times, I am thrilled how far I have progressed in the twelve months I have been riding. Being able to complete a Saturday on the Targinnie Road with the hitters was memorable in itself.
6. Least memorable biking experience?
It was a Saturday morning in 2008, not long after I had started cycling with the group and I had braved the cold, wet weather to be at Tank Street for the 05:30 start. As it happened Marty (aka Farm Boy) was the only other person who had dared to venture out. At that time I had no idea that Marty was a former astronaut and had been severely injured in a space ship crash and whose body had been repaired at a cost of six million dollars. So when Marty enquired if we should ride the route together I naively yes. Forty kilometres later I was relieved to be sitting at McDonalds with Marty and a coffee after spending the previous 75 minutes trying to stay on his wheel.
Oh, and there was also the time I went over the handlebars at the marina. That cost me the price of a new helmet. Oh, and the time I was about to win the McDonalds sprint when Big Dave glided past me. That was not very memorable at all.
7. Bike rider you admire the most?
Robert Millar is a tiny Scottish climber who in 1984 became the only Briton to win the king of the mountains completion in the Tour de France. His fourth place in the 1984 Tour behind Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond is Britain’s best ever result. Millar is the nearest Britain (or should I say Scotland) has had to a winner of one of the three major stage races. He finished second in the Vuelta in 1985 and 1986, second in the Giro in 1987 and fourth in the Tour in 1984.
Around 2005, he disappeared however. Rumours, seemingly unfounded, circulated that he had had a sex change – an easy claim given his love of long hair and his slight build – but their origins seem to be in a grudge by someone in Millar’s past. The truth is that nobody but Millar knows about that or what happened in his life, or even if he is still alive.
It was Robert Millar’s performances in the 80’s fuelled by Phill Ligett and Paul Sherwin’s commentary that inspired me to invest in my first road bike and my admiration for him has nothing to do with his penchant for women’s underwear.
