New member!

Welcome to Lorne Callaghan who joined up last week, here is his story:

I’ve always enjoyed road cycling since being enthralled by the Greg Lemond – Lauren Fignon battle that was the 1989 Tour. However I am ashamed to say that as soon as I passed my driving test in 1992, I didn’t have anything to do with bikes for another 12 years.

I returned to cycling in 2004 when my wife Liz and I moved out to Linlithgow for the birth of my son, William. I had been playing American Football for the Edinburgh Wolves and topped the scales at 20stones, but with family commitments, I needed to find a way of losing the weight without spending hours in the gym. I bought a cheap Raleigh town bike and began commuting to work in Edinburgh, taking the train home with the bike in the evenings. As the weight fell off I began to rekindle the passion I had once had as a child and started to ride longer distances.

I entered Pedal for Scotland in 2006, after buying a Specialized Tri-Cross and completed the ride in just over three hours. Rode this again in 2007 and 2008 before deciding to set my targets a little further for 2009, when I signed up for Action Medical Research’s London to Paris trip. In preparation for this, I also entered the Trossachs Ton, completing it in 7 hours (6 hours 10mins ride time) and regularly rode variations of the Two Bridges route on weekends, followed by a busy day of looking after my daughter, Sara born March 09. London to Paris itself was a great experience and I got in with a good pace-line which saw our daily average speed increasing from 16mph on day 1 to 20mph on the final day into Paris.

I am planning a return to Paris in 2011, but this year will concentrate on the Etape Caledonia (May), the Trossachs Ton (June) and the new Cross Border 100 (September). I also hope to be competitive in the club time-trials.

In addition to the Specialized Tri-cross, I have a 2009 Specialized Allez Elite and recently splashed out on the Specialized Tri-cross Singlecross with a fixed gear for my winter commuting.