Barney Dalton

I have always loved bikes. I was particularly fortunate to go to a junior school that allowed us to keep our own bikes, so break times were always an opportunity to muck about on two wheels. Mostly this was focussed on tricks and jumps and ultimately this was the undoing of my beloved Grifter whose front forks really weren’t designed for airborne antics. I transitioned to a BMX which was still my preferred method of transport for my first year at University. Being 6’4”, still on a BMX, and out of my teens I think It’s safe to say that I looked like a bit of a ****.  In later life I commuted to my PhD lab through sunny Kings Park in Perth Australia and then continued to bike when I started work in London.

Despite all this I never really saw cycling as a form of exercise and didn’t really understand what all these thin wheels, fancy frames and Lycra were all about. However, having hit forty and moved out of London my transition to MAMIL began to take place. I’m now fully signed up to carbon fibre, garish Lycra and ridiculous shoes that you can’t walk in. Sadly, none of this has made me go up hills any faster and as a result, multiple days of climbing in the Pyrenees fills me with a genuine sense of dread. However, the fact that we’re cycling for such a great cause, surrounded by nature which Cameron cared so deeply about, will be more than enough tonic to get this brick up a few French and Spanish hills.