Istarted cycling about 20 years ago after graduating from university – Iwas living in Oxford and bought a £250 road bike from Halfords for commuting to work. Over the next couple of years my wife and I bought Thorn touring bikes and went to New Zealand for six months, cycling around both islands. While touring, I was overtaken by a road cyclist who seemed so effortless and it made up my mind to buy a new road bike when I got home.
After getting back we moved to Manchester, I joined Manchester Wheelers and did a few races and TTs. Though I didn’t do very well, I really enjoyed it. That stint of racing ended when we moved to the south of France for four years, but in 2014 we moved back to the UK, to our current home in the New Forest. I joined Sotonia, started taking training more seriously and did better competitively: I won a race in Portsmouth and got my third-cat licence.
This purpose-built training room was luckily finished just before the pandemic hit. It has a pent roof and composite cladding, with bifold doors that open out onto the garden. Half the space is for cycling, half for weights. Having a specific training room has put everything in one place and removed all the barriers.
Since lockdown, I haven’t returned to racing but continue to use the training room regularly. I’m not keen on riding on the road on my own, so I’ll do two or three indoor sessions during the week and occasionally a group ride at the weekend.
TWIN SCREENS
I make sure I’m hitting the numbers on TrainerRoad on one screen while watching football or cyclocross racing on the TV
THE TURBO SET-UP
I use a Saris H3 smart-trainer, run via a PC, and my platform of choice is TrainerRoad, as I like their training plans – I’m not really into virtual racing
