Cycling - Simon Daw

Although it is no longer my "entire life", as it once seemed to be, cycling has been my most important interest. I began cycling seriously when I was in my late teens, and started competing not long after. As is usually the case in this country, I started out by time trialling, and then moved on to road racing, gaining my first category licence and racing at national level in the early 90s. More recently I've begun competing again, this time to offer a bit of a distraction from teaching, which had been displaing the potential to take over my life to the distinct detriment of my health.

One of the key influences for me was certainly the Grand Prix of Essex. The race was held each March from 1954, and from 1964 onwards started and finished in Halstead, the town where I was born and grew up. In the 70s and 80s “The Bike Race” was a big event in the town, and the High Street would be lined with a crowd several deep for the uphill finish. It was probably the sight of riders like Steve Joughin and Paul Curran crossing the line that fired my enthusiasm for racing.

Sadly, the race was last run in 2000 (although an Espoirs race was held the following year, on a different course, I don't think that anyone would pretend that it shared more than name with the original). Traffic and Sunday trading were nails in the coffin, but it's also true – and a statement on how society, and the way it entertains itself, has changed – that the High Street's crowd had thinned. The race organiser, Derek Worsley, had the distinction of being the longest-serving race organiser in Britain, and sadly passed away on October 5th, 2001: so close on the heels of his race.

I rode the Grand Prix twice – the picture above shows me in the bunch at White Colne – but was certainly never in with a chance of winning at this level!

Some of my best performances, and happiest memories, are of grass track racing. It doesn't make the headlines, and few riders actually ever give it a try, but it would, in my view, be a much better way to learn to race than dodging the lorries in time trials. My best result was a bronze in the 1993 National 8km Championship at Mildenhall (above). Max Pendleton, Victoria's dad, was (and is!) a contemporary of mine. I've now started doing a bit of grass again, and am currently sixth in the 2010 National Endurace League. However, my legs tend to scream their age much more when riding on the grass compared with time trialling!

I started racing with Cycle Club Sudbury (and have actually just rejoined them twenty-five years on). Later, I moved to Anglia Sport and Ipswich Bicycle Club. It was whilst riding for Anglia Sport that the picture below – of me and my (superior) team mate, Toby Pinn - was taken; I don't know why I humiliate myself with pictures of a time when I still had hair...

I can't finish my “Cycling” page without mention of Buckley-Saxon Cycles, where I worked until starting my teacher training – seventeen years in all, with just eighteen months out at Hedingham Castle. The shop allowed me to escape adult responsibility for a long time, and, whilst I'm glad to have made the switch to teaching now, the combination of working at the shop and racing meant that cycling really did seem to be my life. Sadly, the shop closed in November 2002.

Although I no longer live, eat and breathe cycling it remains a real passion. I've started to get close to the time trial times I managed twenty years ago, albeit assisted by modern technology, and have climbed back to a Second Category license. I use a Garmin Edge GPS unit (how I'd have loved one of those when I was racing properly!), and am saving the traces of the courses I ride; I hope that they may be of some use to others.

I instruct children at my current school under the Bikeability training scheme. I also ran a couple of grass track sessions for some of the children during the 2008 summer term. Unfortunately, one boy broke his arm in a nasty fall, which was, I think, probably the worst inury I have witnessed during grass track racing!

One of my main aims in doing this will always be to inspire a love of cycling in my pupils. Those who don't know the thrill of descending a hill at speed, the sense of achievement at beating a previous best time (whether in competition or not), or the feeling of satisfaction that can be gained when looking backon a long ride whilst checking the route on a map have missed a golden experience.