A good cycling blog is hard to find and this one won’t stop the search!

 

Hello, it’s me ‘int it.

So, I’m Marcus and, no prizes for guessing, I’m a thirty-something cyclist. I’ve not always been thirty-something (thank the Gods) and, I’m sad to say, I’ve not always been a cyclist! Like most of us, I had bikes as a kid and loved them but I can’t say I’ve been as keen on cycling as I have been in recent years.

My ‘cycling life’ started when my employer started the Cycle to Work scheme and I bought a GT mountain bike and clung to this whilst throwing myself down forest trails for a season with a friend. I used this bike to commute the 2.5 miles to work for a bit and one day I got talking to another Cycle to Work victim colleague who had just bought a Bianchi road bike to commute 16 miles to work. At the time I remember thinking this was complete madness and he was a bit tapped (sorry Paul)! This conversation led to me giving him a lift to the bike shop to collect this ‘Bianchi’ I’d never heard of and things took a turn for the worse from thereon in!

I started by replacing the tyres on my GT with hybrid tyres and added a few miles to my commute each day - feeling the new found efficiency of these strange new tyres. I did this for a few months until I’d paid off the bike on the scheme and then I cracked.

I promptly bought myself a stunning Bianchi Via Nirone 7 in celest, black and white through the Cycle to Work Scheme, once again, and my road cycling life/obsession had, unbeknown to me at the time, began to grow in earnest!

My Biachi doing it’s best catalogue pose for eBay…not sure I’m obeying Rule 44

I used this to do, what I considered at the time, as my first serious miles over the end of that summer and the feeling of speed - and looking frickin awesome - well and truly had me hooked. I remember the freedom of being self-powered and feeling able to go anywhere just making me want to ride and, just as I was getting fitter and used to that “stupidly-hard seat” I went and seriously damaged some nerves in my right arm from a shoulder dislocation whilst learning to ski! I was completely devastated and it then took me 5 weeks to get the feeling back in my arm and hand and then a further 3 months of pretty intense physio before I could think about getting on the bike again. I think the God’s felt sorry for me after this because I was barely back on the bike for 3 months when they presented me with an offer I just could not refuse….

….I’d been looking at carbon frames (as any self-respecting road cyclist should and let’s not forget Rule 4) and happened to come across a guy selling an unused 2012 Kuota Kebel with SRAM groupo. I’d not heard of Kuota but the price had already got me interested so Googling it was only going to fuel this costly interest and before I could say Muck-off, I was driving down to Northamptonshire and had parted with £1500 for a brand-new, full carbon beauty. Now, weeks of discussions then ensued with my Fiancée as to exactly why I needed this bike when I’d barely ridden the Bianchi…but all of this is now moot point since I was then ‘encouraged’ to sell the Bianchi and that conversation promptly went away when we parted company. That was a sad, sad day – we won’t talk about that any more on here – fact!

So, that’s a not-so-brief intro to me and my cycling puberty. I’ve come a long way since then and had so many, simply incredible experiences on my bike since the start and I feel like I’m only just getting started – which I am!

The next question is likely going to be “why write a blog about it” and the answer is simply because I can and because I like to keep a diary of my experiences to account for the beer-induced memory-loss I seem to be experiencing in increasing intensity! I also have another blog over at www.alittlebitaboutnotalot.co.uk and I think its only fair that I blog about my other obsession with as much gusto!

With all of that out of the way, on to blogging about some actual stuff.

That is all.

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