About

A lot of people have said to me that for a site called Non pro Cycling, there is a hell of a lot of Pro Cycling talk. Well, yes. But there is also a fair bit content talking about my adventures in cycling. That is where the Non Pro bit comes in.

I have been interested in cycling since I was a kid.

 

I rode, like most kids, everywhere I could. When I was able to drive, I got a car and riding a bike seemed to be lost in the years between 18 and 22. I then got back into it again on a MTB that ran on high pressure slick tyres.

The European cycling scene wasn’t very well covered in Australia back then, and you would be lucky to get a little segment on Saturdays Wide World of Sports. I remember as an apprentice working with a Frenchman. He had lived in Australia for a few years but still loved cycling. During the Tour de France for a few years, his brother would send him a video tape, VHS for those that remember them, of highlights at the end of each week of the Tour. It would arrive about 2 weeks later and we would go and watch them at the weekend at his place, with him translating a lot of it for us. I was working with a few mates that enjoyed cycling at the time and did some club riding on weekends.

Fast forward a few years to 2005. In the time between my early 20’s and mid to late 30’s, I had gotten married, changed jobs, had a child and gotten divorced. There was virtually no bike riding in that time. In 2005, after a lot of planing, I set of on a solo charity ride between Sydney and Melbourne, via Canberra. 1000kms in 2 weeks.

 

It was a fantastic experience. I fell in love with riding again. I got to spend 2 weeks meeting people, hanging out with some mates and having new experiences, like the one below.

It is times like these that I realised just how much I enjoyed riding. I can tell you, there is a lot of time to think on a 1000km bike ride.

In 2009 I got a new bike. The old MTB could finally have a rest.

I had moved to the South Coast of NSW and the riding is fantastic. I was the heaviest I had ever been, 105kgs, so I needed to do some kilometres.

 

I met some new mates, did some big rides with old mates and started this blog. In 2010, I upgraded to a proper road bike, my first one ever.

Riding it was great fun.It was so much faster and twitchier. Especially for a Non Pro Cyclist.