How Cycling Changed My Life

I can still remember the moment my life changed; it was an instant. It took 3 or 4 rotations of the pedals on my rental bicycle through the forest to know I had stumbled onto something magical.

That’s how long it took me to rediscover my love of cycling and realise I had found a way to conquer the dark clouds that would build slowly but surely on the horizon every so often.

Suddenly I’d found a way to explore the world on my own terms. A way to push my body to its limits whilst taking in new and old sights from an elevated perspective.

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), author of Sherlock Holmes

Cycling changed my life.

That’s some statement but absolutely true. It’s also quite peculiar when you consider the life I had at the point. I had recently become a dad and in fact on the dreary October afternoon I decided at the last minute to wander into the forest from our local bike rental store, I was due to pick up my daughter from nursery.

My wife and I were enjoying married life as well as raising our daughter together. Work was work but providing us with what we needed. I had my health, good family and a few good friends.