Cycling has been many things to me over the years — freedom, travel, adventure, challenge — but in the last couple of years it has also become a way of carrying grief.
I lost my father, and then not long afterwards, my sister. Around the same time, a close friend and colleague was diagnosed with cancer and was gone within a matter of months. It was a hard season of life, one of those periods that seems to change the shape of everything around it.
Through much of that, I rode.
Sometimes hard. Sometimes just to clear my head. Sometimes because turning the pedals was easier than sitting still with my thoughts.
That eventually led to a charity ride in Baghdad: 200 miles in a day around the British Embassy compound, raising money in honour of my father, my sister, and my friend Joseph. It was a small thing in the scale of loss, but it felt like the right thing to do.
It also drew me closer to the world of Audax — the idea of riding a long way, steadily and self-sufficiently, not for spectacle but for the quiet satisfaction of covering ground under your own power.
From there came another ride to Geneva, this time faster, stronger, and shared with an old friend. Then came structured training, bigger goals, and the sense that perhaps this mid-life cycling journey was becoming something more serious.
This video is part ride, part reflection — and part explanation of how endurance riding became not just something I do, but something I lean on.
The Long Way Strong
This channel follows my journey from 110 kg occasional rider to mid-life endurance cyclist, preparing for longer and more ambitious rides — including ultra-distance events and eventually a ride from the UK to the Land of Two Rivers and the City of Peace.
Because the best way to explore the world is slowly…
and under your own power.
Endure to Explore.