Alan joined the club around 2007 and hasn't looked back - improved performance and great friendships!
Alan took up cycling after being asked to take part in an Adventure Race in 2001. After 4-5 years doing miles and miles on my 26” mountain bike, Alan got passed by someone on a road bike between Blairadam & Cleish and thought “....hang on”. Alan then went home to put my business case to his wife Julie for a road bike...and so it began!
After joining the Club around 2007, as although he was enjoying cycling he felt he wasn’t making much progress, he had taken part in his 2nd 100mile Cairngorm Sportive & took a depressing 7hrs. Ryan, from a local bike shop, suggested he joined a cycling club. The following year he took part in the Cairngorm Sportive with DCC and finished in 5hrs 40mins. That was the difference!
Alan enjoys Road, Gravel & XC Mountain Biking and has dabbled in CX too and last year he cycled over 10,000km. He is generally out on a Saturday & 2-3 times a week on a long commute.
Alan enjoys multi sport events so the cycling / biking is just one aspect of the events I do.
What stands out for Alan most is sharing cycling experiences with like minded friends so the DCC trip to Mallorca last year was terrific, as was the Cairngorm Trip he went on for fellow club members 60th birthday. Cycling up Mont Ventoux in 2015 on a brutally hot day after being ill all night would be right up there too.
Non Cycling related interesting fact:
Alan was mistakenly taken as being Hollywood Actor & Director, Ben Affleck (& therefore Julie would have been subsequently mistaken for J-Lo) when arriving for dinner at a flash mountain top restaurant in Canada. Apparently Ben was known to be filming in the area so when their hotel booked the restaurant for them a VIP cable car was sent down and staff were all lined up at the door when we arrived. Alan couldn’t work out what was going on and the staff looked so disappointed when we confirmed our name! Brilliant!!