I’M A RIDER AUSTIN HEALEY
Former England and Lions rugby player rides his bike to clear his head but worries about the attitude of some drivers
I see a memory of my first bike on the side of my head every day. It’s a big scar. As a kid in the ’70s and ’80s you didn’t wear a helmet, it wasn’t the sort of thing you did riding around a caravan site in North Wales. We’d been swimming and were riding back from the beach and I was holding on to my towel with both hands, hit a speed bump and went over, splitting the side of my head.
My first bike was a Raleigh Boxer and it had a supersonic gear. Every time you turned, the chainring made a noise. The only way to stop the noise was to ride really fast. It felt like mechanical doping at the age of eight. The only time I’ve had that supersonic gear since is when I’ve had a 40mph tailwind.
Cycling or using Wattbikes weren’t in vogue when I played rugby. You’d either go out for a run or row. They used to think cycling would make your hamstrings too short. Guys who were quick and had long hamstrings were actively discouraged from doing any cycling. I didn’t do any serious road biking until I retired.
I was raising money for Sport Relief by doing a triathlon with a team. Being the competitive idiot I am, I wanted to do really well. I knew I was a terrible swimmer. My legs were so big from playing rugby I would sink after two lengths. I could barely run because of sciatica and a bad knee, so I thought the only place I can drive hard is on the bike. I got into it pretty heavily and am now out riding most days, I’ve gone from zero to 200 or 300 miles a week.
It’s not always about ‘big’ achievements. An achievement could be something like beating your mate up a hill, or going out on the chaingang with your club and crossing the line first, or second, or tenth in my case.
People think I’m outspoken on social media, but I’ve never abused someone first. What I have done is put a few people in their place after they’ve had a go at me for no reason. I don’t believe in trash talk. I’d rather go out with the lads on my bike, ditch social media, and have a chat and a laugh.
Strava to me is more of a scrapbook, a log. It’s great as a training diary, to see how you are getting on, how your average speed compares to last time. It’s also cool looking down the segment [leader boards], not necessarily comparing yourself with other people but with yourself. In cycling, you can compete with yourself a lot longer than you can in rugby. In rugby at 32, you’re nowhere near as good as you were at 26. In cycling you can still be as good at 44 or 46 as you were at 40.
I’ve just picked up my new bike, a Specialized S-Works Tarmac with Zipp 454s. I bought it from Sigma Sports, where I’ve learned a lot from its scientific approach. I had my first bike fit in about 2006/7. I never thought about getting another fit, but since then my body’s changed - I’ve got older, I’ve got another knee injury and I’ve actually got a more flexible lower back so I can take a better position. I had another fit and just changing my crank length and saddle position slightly saw my watts go up.
It’s only since I retired that I’ve started to appreciate the social side of cycling, it’s gone beyond fitness
There’s been a discernible change in the attitude of motorists towards cyclists for the worse. I’ve just come back from Tenerife and couldn’t believe how polite motorists were to riders, and vice versa. You come home and cars swerve towards you. I go out with a couple of cameras now. I experience a close pass about five times every day.
Drivers sit in their cars and they see a cyclist, they don’t see a father who’s responsible for the upbringing of his kids, their education, their welfare. We are all entitled to use the roads and respect has got to be shown both ways. We’ve seen a generational boom in the number of cyclists on the roads. That means a lot more motorists are having to slow down more often, and there has to be a protocol or law put in place which states how you interact with each other. Being a cyclist has certainly made me a much better driver.