[Closed] Riding with a pro

[b]Riding with a pro[/b]

best to wer protection and dont let the wife know 😳

yip... with all the athertons at lladegeda last year 😀

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amazing experience ...

I rode with Emmeline Ragot &Ffion Griffiths a few years back. Supremely talented ladies without any pretentiousness or big egos. It was just a ride out with mates. Ffion advised me to put a few quid on Emmeline for the worlds... I didn't & she promptly won. Smoothest rider I've ever seen.

I know a guy who dated a pro rider, so he definitely has.

I've done a skills day with donny, not sure we did he same things as the guy I know and the pro though?

We have an ex-world masters champion on our club run. Don't think he was ever professional.

Nope, and indifferent.

Lots.

Both in training and racing (on the road). Got hammered by lots in the early days of mountain bike racing; Grundig at Strathpeffer anyone?

I've ridden with a few Pros.

I have very briefly followed, then caught up with once he stopped, Ruaridh Cunningham a few times. Ridiculous. "Why don't you try the faster line?" "Because even now you've told me it exists, and even though I just saw you ride down it, I couldn't tell you where it is"

Lots of riding in the vicinity of, at races, but that's not really the same thing.

Rode the short bus with Danny Hart at Antur He seemed quite overawed to be in the company of the famous Northwind off the internet.

Yes in training.

Both depressing and awe-inspiring at the same time. Their ability to float over bumps and take meters out of you round every corner is out of this world.

Did a guided tour in Chamonix with an ex pro who'd (apparently) ridden for Gary Fisher some yonks before.
Probably the best all rounder I've ever seen, jumps, techy climbs (all in middle ring) downhills, the lot. He went all day on a couple of drinks of water from horse troughs. Awesomely talented bloke. (his English was as bad as our French which made for an interesting day)

Yep, Sean Kelly and Ian Stannard 😉

Yep, my mate in Canada is an ex-Norco factory DH team rider and I couldnt see his 'arris for dust when I last rode with him 😳
The annoying thing is they can tell you where you're going wrong without even seemingly looking at you! 👿

Killed him on the uppy stuff tho *takes respite* 😀

I rode quite regularly with a number of local pros in Merseyside back in the eighties. As a roady if that counts.

Ridden with Nick Craig a couple of times, silly fast in places where I just couldn't work out how it was possible to be that smooth.

A kid in the club I used to ride for set off with what he thought was our group (first ride with us) for what he thought was a Sunday jaunt with a cafe stop but had ended up joining Malcolm Elliots Sunday training ride.

He sidled up against him and started going on about how he wanted to get into racing etc and had Malcolm ever done any racing himself.

Malcolm to kid - 'Have you heard of the Tour de France...'

The kid said he thought the pace was hotter than he was expecting!

Cheers

Danny B

Pro? **** off, I've ridden with GW!

A few, reminds you how shit you really are. 😀

speckledbob - Member

I rode quite regularly with a number of local pros

😯

Won a training day with shaums march. Legend.

Me and mini-aracer rode with Tracy Moseley and Liam Killeen last week. 🙂

"Why don't you try the faster line?" "Because even now you've told me it exists, and even though I just saw you ride down it, I couldn't tell you where it is"

😀

Rode some backdoor trails at Sunn with Anne-Caro and Francois Gachet. They were really rather good.

I wasn't.

jambo - Member
Won a training day with shaums march. Legend.

Me too, amazing rider.

Was that at the old ski slope just south of Bristol?

No, Stainburn.

I have rode with an ex pro who retired a couple of years ago from the roadie scene. Bloody hells bells he is quick and I mean damn QUICK.

Italspark and I went skinny dipping with Jacquie Phelan midway through a ride while hiding from the park ranger.

Showed Rob Warner around our local trails. Funny man. The amateur fell off too - clipped in, on a 29er 😆

Yeah a few have been on Reliability rides on the road that I've done.

Ridden with a few pro roadies and trackies.
Ride with Nick Craig every once in a while and I've raced with Barrie Clarke, Ned Overend, Sue Thomas etc. Probably the best MTB race experience was doing a lap at Mountain Mayhem with Ned. Fastest lap ever, at the end of it, going round the campsite in towards the finish I was proper ****ed and Ned said in his quiet American drawl "Hey, I'm doing a second lap here, you coming with me?" I gasped no, I was handing over to a teammate and Ned goes "Oh, well all the best, have a great race, nice riding with you".
Nice riding with ME? Ned, I was [b]honoured[/b] to be sharing the same trail as you.

The most memorable one is probably doing a Derny training session at the track with Marianne Vos. Holy shit, she was amazing. SO smooth, absolutely thrashed all the regulars, rock steady behind the Derny yet quiet and completely unassuming. She posed for a couple of photos with some of the regulars afterwards.

You really notice that all the pros are just quiet and modest, never bigging themselves up. It's all the wannabe Elites that are the cocks.

ridden with ex olympians - roadies- a couple of times

Way out of my league

I was once just ahead of Tracey Moseley at the top of Innerleithen DH during the practice for a race (this was some years ago). I graciously allowed her to start her run first and set off less than a second after her to see how long I could keep up. She was out of sight within seconds, before either of us had even hit anything difficult.

Crawford Carrick-Anderson
Andy Parks

I've ridden with Tracy Moseley, and regularly ride with a few of the elite Enduro riders like James Green, etc...

Yep - for the past three years , Mick Ives joins us for a few days on the works Lejog. Multiple world championships and current Masters Cyclocross World Champ. The stories he tells about the people he has worked with and knows are outstanding, and all in a matter of fact manner as conversation. He has a list of championships as lonf as your arm and a few worlds under his belt. Plus he doesn't mind a few emails asking for info. Good for getting how team kit from as well.

Check out www.miracing.co.uk

I've done a skills day with Chris Ball, so I guess that counts as yes. Ridiculously smooth, just made it look so so easy!

Fabien Barrel at a demo weekend, chased Rachel Atherton down the pleney (for 6 corners till she took the mad as hell route through the woods) some of the current Womens DH lot.

I've been out with binners and hora....does that count?

topic is PRO rider not POO rider
HTH

Did an uplift day that Neil Donoghue was also on - not sure seeing him disappear in seconds really counts as riding with him though. Chatted to Fabian Barel and Remy Absalon while doing the Avalanche Enduro at Kielder a few years ago. Also did a skills day with Andy Barlow - dunno if that counts.

Quite a few pros a row or two in front of me in the Mega qualifier.

So, er.... no not really.

Dannybgoode...just realised who you are Danny B fixie brooks handlebar tape. I bought a,shimano rear wheel off you.....?

Well yesterday I passed Contador on a ride, he was going the other way 🙂

As a junior in the seventies I used to clip onto the back of two chain gangs that went through our area. One was led by Hugh Porter and one by Les West. Both were tolerant of people joining as long as there was no disruption of the pace and flow. I was never there long enough to do either. Various others other the year. The single factor I'd comment on is the smooth application of power. Nothing flash, calm extreme power.

Was in a group of four at one of the old Kielder Moore Large Enduros in the early 90's.. I somehow managed to get stuck behind Caroline Alexander for most of the ride.

I pussied out of a training ride with UK youth last season. All nice guys but not a chance, I've been in the car and when they drop it its fast and very constant.
My good mate that I ride with is a previous malverns winner at sport level and has clocked top times at mayhem and the like. So so smooth, just never loses speed through anything. Coupled with climbing power it's quite awe inspiring. I sometimes wonder why he even bothers riding with me! Always a good learning experience.

teethgrinder - Member
Was in a group of four at one of the old Kielder Moore Large Enduros in the early 90's.. I somehow managed to get stuck behind Caroline Alexander for most of the ride.
POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Athertons training day at llangdegna - very informative and impressive, learnt a lot!

Also won a comp to ride with Rapha condor sharp - spent a lot of the ride chatting to Johnathan Tiernan Locke about mtbing and Uni's and various bits and pieces, really nice guy and hope he makes the step up in Sky this season

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/video-six-readers-ride-with-rapha-condor-sharp-33095/
That's me in the windy milla top!

Did a ride with Dean Downing around the Yorkshire Dales. Top bloke too!

Josh Bryceland and some of his mates, So fast, so smooth, commitment in corners ,outrageous skills.
Inspiring and depressing as some one said earlier!
But a real privilege to ride with such talent.

I bumped into Ian Stannard mid ride, he'd stopped for some reason. He said hi, asked if I was enjoying my ride then before I could get clipped in was 200m over the top of the hill in front of us. 😯

Nice chap.

ridden with lots of cycling pro's but it wasnt until I did a training day with Graham Jarvis that I had to stand back and just go "wow"

He is just unbelievable.

totally in awe of the man

...I wasn't stuck as she was slow BTW. I was 14/15...she was well fit.

😈

I beat Ben Swift a couple of years back.

(When I say "beat", I mean the event stats had DNF against his name rather than mine!)

Ridden with a few Pros and been in races with them. Sean Yates (at the end of his career and just after he retired)used to come to the local thursday handicaps. One night I jumped out of the bunch and got a gap, to see a rider coming across. I almost went back to the bunch. 15miles with Yates and me doing a two up from then on. Ouch!

I've ridden chain gangs with a Rapha pro rider on EPO, Dan Staite. Couldn't meet a less pleasant person. Made me smile when he was caught cheating and banned for 2 years....

Roadies or MTB'ers?

I've ridden with

Cav - at Hog Hill
Magnus Backstead - on the London to Paris ride. he did us a leadout for one of the sprints, which was pretty awesome!
Stephen Roache - on the London to Paris again, sat next to him in the bunch but was to shy to chat to him!
Lucy Garner - Was back home and riding the local club run and she came along. She was 'just' Junior Cyclo Cross champion at the time.

I was in Belgium last month to see a friend who mechanic's for a Pro team. He asked some of the riders if I could go out for a ride with them so I ended up riding with Emilie Moberg (who rides for team Hitec Products), Audun FLØTTEN & Sondre SØRTVEIT ) who ride for Team Joker Meridia. Emilie was reccying the Mollenburg cobbled climb for the womans Tour of Flanders, so got to climb that with them (and I wasn't last!).

Rode at Hillingdon last night and we had half of the Sigma Sport team there.

matt Illingworth (commonwealth gold medalist - so I guess he counts) - used to live locally and Id love to say I used to go out riding with him, but I used to start off with him and then him and Jason White (currently in Halfords TOB) used to bugger off and Id never see them again?!

I've done a few Gran Fondos, there are quite a few ex Pros in these, some take the event quite seriously indeed. Me and my mates just try to kill each other..

matt Illingworth (commonwealth gold medalist - so I guess he counts) - used to live locally and Id love to say I used to go out riding with him, but I used to start off with him and then him and Jason White (currently in Halfords TOB) used to bugger off and Id never see them again?!

He Matt Illingworth came out on the Beeston Chaingang I used to do back in the day when I was at Derby Uni

I often go on out on some road training rides with some ex German road pros. Two of them were Olympic gold medalists.

Rode with this very nice Lady in October, I was awarded an Olympic medal in "Belly sucking in"

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Also a previous [in yellow] winner of the Vuelta, even at 73 kept to the front at average 18MPH for 80 Miles.

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Year before that it was a Tour winner, not friend Helen but the geezer behind, btw he out sprinted me to the finish.

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Rode with this man 2 years ago

Just remembered another one - I've ridden, run and kayaked with Emma Pooley. This was before she was a pro cyclist, and she was actually a better runner than cyclist at the time - I was pacing her up the climbs on the bike.