DALEY THOMPSON

The former decathlon Olympic gold medallist has turned to cycling to get his competitive kicks

Charity rides are my new Olympic event. I’ve just completed a 750km ride in Australia, just after doing a stage of a 362mile ride from Holyhead in Wales to Barkingside in east London. That route followed Thomas Barnardo’s path when he arrived from Ireland in 1866. I love doing rides for that charity. I have close friends for whom Barnado’s was a lifechanger and I’ve been supporting them for around 20 years.

The bike bug has bitten me. I’ll do three or four event rides a year and training rides in between. It’s a bit overkill I guess but I’ve got four bikes in all - your readers may think that’s too few! I’ve got three Specializeds and one ‘mongrel’ bike of combined bits that I pootle about on.

I’m a fair-weather cyclist. If it’s raining or windy I’ll go on the turbo. After the Barnado’s ride I flew to Australia to take part in the Captain’s Ride, led by ex-cricket skipper Steve Waugh. I’d packed for sea and surf but we ended up cycling in Thredbo – the only place you can ski in Australia. It was meant to be summer but there was snow everywhere and I only had a pair of shorts with me.

Long rides take their toll. The Captain’s Ride was over six days riding tracks, trails and roads from Sydney through to the Blue Mountains. I had pins and needles in my hands for weeks after I got home from clinging on tight to the handlebar. The longest day we did was 162km and my arse felt every single kilometre.

Going for a spin is great. I run a gym in London and I join the spinning classes there once or twice a month just for a change and for a social whirl. I prefer cycling alone when I’m training and in total focused isolation – no music, no group rides, just pedalling away. It’s only the spinning group I’ll ride with occasionally, just to liven things up. I make a good peloton leader. I do like training other people to ride for events

and bring on their fitness and cycling. I’ve done this a lot with the charity rides, especially the big events I’ve done with the Laureus Foundation. Then I was leading other sportsmen and women who weren’t cyclists on some tough

endurance rides.

I did call for cycling to be banned from the Olympics. After the Lance Armstrong story broke I said they should consider banning cycling from the Games altogether to help purge it of doping.

Now I sympathise with pro cyclists. I feel sorry for the pros that are following in the wake of riders who cheated. These guys may be clean but they’re tarred with the same brush and it’s still very difficult for the sport to overcome it.

The Rio Olympic Women’s Road Race was captivating. I love watching most sports but the Women’s Road Race at the Rio Olympics was up there with the most exciting events of the entire Games – the conditions, Dutch rider Annemiek van Vleuten’s crash, the way the American girl, Mara Abbott, was overtaken at the finish. What a race!

I don’t do cycling holidays. But I do cycle when I’m on holiday. I was in St Lucia this year and almost every day I was there I’d go out on a bike for an hour or so. My friends and I have decided we’re going to cycle around the whole island next time – although it has a mountain or two and I hate cycling up hills.

Cape Town will be my first port of call in 2017. I’m giving the Cape Town Cycle Tour a crack, again! It’s 109km and it’ll be the sixth time I’ve done it. It’s an enjoyable, testing tour with some amazing views. The Australian ride was a first for me. It had great views too, though I spent most of the time looking at the tarmac. Daley Thompson, CBE is Barnardo’s challenge ambassador, barnardos.co.uk

I prefer cycling alone when I’m training and in total focused isolation, just pedalling away