EVERYONE knows the old saying: “You never forget, it’s just like riding a bike.” Well, seemingly if you know how to ride

a bike quickly, you don’t forget that either.

Cycling Weekly has caught up with three riders who each had impressive junior palmarès, then gave up the sport for the best part of 20 years before rekindling their riding, racing and winning ways all over again. And the amazing news is: the experience is even better second time around.

Andy and Chris EdwardsAndy and Chris Edwards, now 39 and 38 respectively, grew up within the passionate cycling culture of the North-West and rode for Nelson Wheelers CC and Leek CC as youngsters. Chris was divisional champion as a junior while Andy was in the West Midlands Centre of Excellence squad. Like Don Parry, exams, university and careers brought about a change. Their bikes — once their constant companions — faded into the background.

“Back then, once you stopped racing there wasn’t really that much to do; there wasn’t a sportive scene,” Andy says. “So, slowly over the years, we rode less and less. We never really lost our interest in cycling but it

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IT’S ALWAYS TRICKY trying to get back in the saddle after a lay-off, but how do you do it after a 20-year break?

Don: “I’m a great believer in getting the base level of cycling fitness. And there’s no shortcut to that unfortunately — you’ve got to get the miles in. Then you’ve got to ride with people who will extend you physically.”Andy: “I did everything in blocks and I didn’t think much further than six or eight weeks ahead. I’d think about what I wanted to do in the next six weeks or so, and then think about how I’d want to build up to it. Then when you achieve that goal you set the next goal. I started riding with a club again last September, and initially I was getting dropped on some of the easier rides. But, week by week, I got better, and by December I rode my first race as a third-cat at Hillingdon and finished ninth.”Chris: “Last year was spent doing relatively short rides, and I only did longer rides towards the end of the year. But what has really made the difference has been riding with more intensity this year, a bit more frequently. That has helped drop my weight down and improve my fitness a lot, and it’s also brought on my speed and my power.”

How do you make a successful comeback?Q&A

Don: “Equipment and clothing is fantastic now — I used to train in a pair of jeans and a combat jacket. Also, using a heart-rate monitor and power meter now helps immeasurably. Not only do they improve my understanding of training and fitness but they add another dimension to the sport. They enable me to make the maximum use of the time I have available.”

Andy: “The biggest difference with my training these days is that I go to the gym and do weights now — that has been very helpful. Also, Chris and I now have Garmin 705s. Although my training hasn’t really changed that much fundamentally, I think the Garmins help show you how you are getting on and where your strengths and weaknesses are.”

Chris: “When I was a junior it was all about quality over quantity and that’s still the rule of thumb. Now you’ve got different ways of measuring your performance and tracking that. Twenty years ago, I didn’t have a cycle computer — I knew roughly what routes I was taking and how long it was taking me, but now I can tell you exact times, lap times, distances, heart rates, etc.”

How has your training changed?Q&A

DESPITE living at different ends of the country — Andy in London and Chris in Liverpool — going on the comeback trail together has been a great experience.

“We got to a point in our lives where we weren’t talking to each other that much; not because we didn’t like each other but because we were so busy,” Andy says. “A year ago, we might have talked on the phone once every three weeks, but now, because of cycling, we chat to each other two or three times a week

“There is still a bit of sibling rivalry. Chris

was the champion when we were young, he was the better sprinter, but I was the better climber. So I get a bit annoyed now if he beats me to the top of a hill. There’s also the encouragement aspect and we swap tips all the time. But it’s just been a great experience to go

through together.”

FAMILY TIES

Brothers in arm-warmers

We’re back: Chris (left) and AndyA little sibling rivalry was always good motivation

gradually took up less of our time. It got to the point — this time last year — where I hadn’t ridden my bike for 18 months. I was out of shape — 14 stone — and Chris was also quite heavy.”

Challenging times“I had done some little challenges over the last few years,” Chris continues. “Things like walking the Three Peaks. But then, last year, a few friends and I entered the Liverpool triathlon as a team. I was going to do the cycling leg and I thought I had better get myself a bit fitter. So I treated myself to a new bike.

“The goal of doing the triathlon was what kicked it off for me and I realised I liked cycling on the road again and feeling fitter. So once I got the triathlon out of the way I started doing a few longer rides in the summer and ended up

44 SEPTEMBER 16, 2010 www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

Parry: national champ again

FITNESS | Once a cyclist... FITNESS | Once a cyclist...

Do you really never forget?

Don: “I definitely have a lot of the skills I learnt as a junior: how to follow a wheel, how to ride in a group, how to shelter from the wind. I also still have a fast finish, but I fear this is disappearing quickly now!”Andy: “It all came back very quickly, and once you have those skills they never leave you. I learnt everything as a junior from Duncan Horsfall at Nelson Wheelers CC with his very advanced techniques about training, riding skills, and race craft. I think if you are taught well as a junior it sticks with you.”Chris: “I think my first few races after coming back took a bit of getting into in terms of finding a good position and staying in a good posi-

tion. But I think my basic riding in a group skills really didn’t take that long to sharpen.”

Don: “I am learning all the time — it keeps the ageing process at bay. The understanding about hydration and eating has changed massively in recent years, and getting the balance between endurance and speed training is light years ahead of where I was as a junior.”Andy: “I think the whole ‘time crunch’ approach of placing more emphasis on high-intensity, low-volume

cycling is very helpful for people who have jobs and commitments to get a decent level of fitness. The concept of interval training hasn’t really changed much in the 20 years since we were juniors. What has changed slightly is the emphasis on having a bit more rest in-between.”Chris: “The thing I have learnt is to use lower gears on climbs. I think my old racing bike has a

lowest gear of around 42 x 21, which is completely different to the bike I’ve got now. When Andy and I did the Marmotte, we just used double chainsets and really suffered compared to people using compacts. So then we got compacts for the Etape — we were riding a 34 x 26, or something like that — which is a totally different gear to anything I have ridden before but it felt great.”

RACING FOR VETS

The LVRC“I THINK we’re a prime organisation for people who are returning to cycling,” says Don Parry in his role as the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists chairman. “We provide an infrastructure of racing and social events to anyone over 40, male or female, with about 2,000 members and a calendar of about 140 races around the UK this year.

“But our unique selling point is that we offer peer group competition, so you race against your five-year peer group. There’s a 40-44 age group, 45-49, and so on. It means that when you race you are actually racing against people of a similar age, which is a nice thing to do.”

Q&A

Q&A

What have you had to learn?

doing some sportives, which I thoroughly enjoyed — they were excellent fun.”

“It was really Chris buying a new bike that started things moving again for me,” Andy recalls. “We started talking about riding the Etape this year and it really just went from there. It was a gradual process. If you’d said to me this time last year: ‘Do you fancy racing again?’ I would have said you were nuts. I always said I would never ride a race again. But in the last 12 months I’ve joined a brilliant cycling club — Kingston Wheelers — Chris has joined Liverpool Mercury, and we’ve both started racing again.

“I started getting points quite quickly — I got a win and a few top 10s, and I’ve been a second cat as of April. I’ve found my form has come back quite quickly, but we both started gently. This time last year, I was only doing a couple of laps of Richmond Park;

ALL three of our cycling returners are in agreement when it comes to the negative aspect of advancing years: recovery.

“I don’t really remember taking so long to recover from a big ride when I was a junior as I do now,” Chris Edwards says.

While Don Parry explains: “Recovery is so difficult to judge, and that means it takes longer to get racing fit because you cannot do so much intense stuff without adequate rest between training sessions.”

And they all have the same idea when asked what the

positives of having an old head on your shoulders are: experience and knowledge.

Andy Edwards says: “In races, what has made the difference is what I call ‘race craft’. A lot of guys start racing in their 30s and they can be very fit — probably fitter than me — but they don’t have so much race craft. It’s partly technical ability but it’s also knowing how to position yourself and conserve energy. For somebody coming back into the sport who had a good grounding previously, it puts them at an advantage.”

A LONGER ROAD TO RECOVERY

The pros & cons of age

“It was bloody hard work starting with a club

again, particularly the racing side. I said to my

wife after about three months: ‘If I don’t start finishing races soon I’m going to pack this in’. Unfortunately I started to finish races again and then had some influence on the outcome — even if I wasn’t winning I felt like I was making a mark. I was always challenging myself to be as good as I had been. Because I was a national champion as a junior, I decided I’d like to be a national champion again. I achieved that last year when I was BC road racing champion for over-60s — so it’s taken me 43 years to repeat it! And I’ve held on to the title again this year.

“I think I probably get more from my bike now than when I was young. If you’re out on the road by yourself, and you’ve got some problems nagging away at you, it’s surprising the clarity of thought you can get. Also, it’s great being able to appreciate and enjoy the huge benefits of being fit. Somebody said to me recently: ‘Cycling at your age seems to be the elixir of youth’!”

“I always said I would never ride a race again”

Andy racing with Kingston Wheelers Don Parry: proud of his involvement with the LVRC

LVRC races

The LVRC has a calendar of around 140 races across the

UK, with membership open to anyone, male or

female, over 40.

my cycling, 20 or 25 years after starting. That’s something quite special.”

Andy agrees: “It’s just been really great, really positive.”

Don ParryDon Parry was national junior road race champion in 1966 and a member of the British youth team before racing successfully as a first cat for a couple of years. Then, he chuckles, he was “ambushed by college life and the sins of the flesh” and his cycling life came to an end. Now 61, he’s national champion for his age group and chairman of the League of Veteran Racing Cyclists.

“I was off the bike from about the age of 21 for roughly the next 20 years,” Don says. “I put on a bit of weight but I played a lot of squash, which helped my fitness and I always retained good aerobic ability. I think if you’re a good cyclist when you’re young you keep that cardiovascular ability as you get older.

“I had a bit of trouble with my knees playing squash. I was getting to 40 and I thought: ‘I was good at cycling, I’m just going to give it a try again before I’m too old’. It was as simple as that, really. I went out and rode by myself for a year and a half, just to get the rough off, then I joined a cycling club.

now we’ve just done the Etape and the Marmotte.”

New perspectiveChris says coming back as an older rider has opened up whole new areas of the sport that he never knew existed.

“Our recent trip to France for the Etape was so amazing. I don’t think I have ever done anything that was that tough but also that much fun. I have to say, I am so glad I returned to cycling because we have been able to experience things that we never did previously. Riding in the Alps and the Pyrenees for the first time has been incredible. It has really given me a new perspective on

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