We ride with Marlow Riders
We soak up the joie de vivre of a Buckinghamshire club born out of a birthday ride to Paris
Many clubs featured on these pages speak of an all-inclusive ethos that, regardless of your cycling background — be you fresh off the stabilisers or a seasoned whippet with an envy-inducing palmarès — will see you welcomed into the fold with open arms and never left behind. For Marlow Riders this friendly approach is so important it’s become their strapline. ‘Cycling for all’ is their slogan, and when, at the commencement of our ride this week, vice-captain Ken Mccrorie hands me a bag of club goodies which includes a mug, a neck buff and a keyring, each bears their motto in black and white. The bar has been raised.
Today I’m heading out with the Leopards, and before you hurriedly flick back to the front page to check you haven’t accidentally clasped hold of a copy of National Geographic, I should explain that the club is divided into groups denoted by big cats — these include: Lions (beginners), Easy Tigers (social rides with less emphasis on hills), Jaguars, Leopards, and Cheetahs (obviously the fastest group).
Kite watching
So we slink out of Marlow Sports Centre and into the Chilterns for a semi-brisk bimble in the midst of a glorious spring morning. With today’s ride taking place in an Area of Natural Beauty, it isn’t long before we are encompassed by just that — natural beauty — and after heaving in unison up one of the route’s more precipitous appointments — much of this part of the Chilterns comprises long shallow drags — we come to a pause and take in the vista which has opened up before us.
Umpteen shades of green belonging to neatly nibbled fields, dense thickets and sporadic woodland clumps are bordered by a blue sky, and, given our location, it’s taken for granted that the sky is spotted with the impressive form of red kites, swooping in and out of the shot.
Apparently, for those affiliated with the club, this particular spot affectionately goes by ‘Ken’s favourite place’ — for reasons fairly easy to fathom. “It’s just a fantastic view,” says Mccrorie, who back in 1998 was the Formula Three world powerboat racing champion. “It’s a very special place for me which I love to share with my fellow members.”
Continuing on our ride I learn that as a result of the Chilterns’ picture-postcard beauty it has featured as a location for many well-known television and Hollywood productions. The list of shows shot here is a long one and includes The Vicar of Dibley, shot in the tiny village of Turville, and Midsomer Murders, filmed across the region. Brad Pitt even made his way to the Chilterns to film part of the big-budget movie Fury.
Birthday ride
The final miles of the route I spend riding alongside Jonathan Smith, the club’s very own superstar. His claim to fame? He’s the Marlow Riders’ founder, of course. Smith goes on to tell me the story of the club’s first unofficial ride.
“The club was set up as a result of me wanting to share my 60th birthday with many of my friends, sitting down in Paris enjoying some good food, which I would pay for on one condition, that they would cycle there with me. The seed was sown and many had to buy bikes before they could even start the cycle training which began in January 2010 on a weekly basis on Saturday mornings. The first ride was only 22 miles long but the
distances grew, as did the number of riders who turned up over the next few months.
“By the time my birthday came round in August, 43 friends were fit enough to ride the 250 miles from London to Paris.”
And so bonds were forged, thigh muscles were tempered, and the Marlow Riders went from strength to strength.