Introducing...
Every month, we introduce one of the Kingston Wheelers but for the New Year, we are introducing two members. Richard Evans is here for January 2008 alongside Emma Dews.
Richard started cycling as a way to get to school. Presumably school was a long way away given the length of rides he's now racking up...
Name: Richard Evans
Age: 46
Significant Others: French wife Pascale and two kids: Julia (18) and Mark (13).
What made you start cycling?Cheapest and fastest and most fun way of getting to school.
Why did you join Kingston Wheelers?I bought a fast road bike for the first time in my life... and want to learn how to ride it fast (enough to do Étape in 2008).
Date you joined the Club: First club ride on 9 September 2007; joined club 16 December 2007.
What bike do you ride? My new fast bike is a Pinarello Galileo, bought second hand in September 2007, with Campag Chorus/Record groupset. Daily commuter / shopping / almost everything else bike is a Roberts fixie; also ride Kingcycle recumbent on Audax rides for extreme comfort; 15 yr-old Dawes MTB; and a 70s-era gents upright single-speed that I found in a skip, useful for leaving outside dodgy pubs. Oh, and a tandem for fetching and carrying the kids about, though they don't seem to think that's cool any more...
Give us a brief cycling background: Cycled to school, cycle touring/ camping/ YHA during school holidays around UK and France, joined London Cycling Campaign in 1992. My first first long-distance night ride was Dunwich Dynamo in 1998 (190km Hackney to Suffolk coast), joined Audax UK in 2003 to do Paris-Brest-Paris, 2005 did London-Edinburgh-London, 2007 P-B-P again.
What was your best performance?I'm always happy just to finish the Audax events within the time limits - finishing P-B-P and L-E-L is a fantastic experience!
What was your worst day on the bike? To enter the PBP you have to do a series of ever longer qualifying rides - 200km, 300km, 400km, 600km. My 600km in 2007 went from Waltham Abbey to Taunton and back. Time limit is 40 hours for a 600, and it rained for about 17 of them, all the way back from Somerset to Essex, getting progressively stormier with whippy bone-chilling headwinds. The road was flooded at one point, and blocked by a fallen tree at another - we had to scramble with our bikes through the branches.
Who is your favourite pro or inspiration? A few personal friends in the cycle campaigning world who came back from apparently impossible epic events like the Étape du Tour and Paris-Brest-Paris.
What is your favourite bike food? Bananas, dark chocolate and cereal bars on the move; full three-course carbo-heavy meal as served at PBP controls every 80km or so.
Where is your favourite cycling location? France without a doubt, where drivers are civilized, cycling is a noble pastime, and the food is so good.
Most likely to say: "Fancy a swift half?"
Least likely to say: "Let's go by car."
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