Pros seen while out for a ride,

[rogerzilla]

Steve Bate (blind paralympic cyclist with 10% vision) was on a local hillclimb last year - he came past myself and two Juveniles (my son and one other) like a steam train downhill afterwards, just missing a car coming up .

Terrifying! I thought at 10% vision, he'd be a tandem stoker.

 

[DCLane]

Terrifying! I thought at 10% vision, he'd be a tandem stoker.

He is on the track. This was a hillclimb as a solo rider up Cragg Vale.

 

[lazybloke]

No-one I recognise, but have occasionally used Strava Flyby to see who that 'freakishly fast' person was that I couldn't keep up with, and found they were some pro rider.

Was once surprised when Marianne Vos appeared on a leaderboard for one my local segments.

 

[palinurus]

I saw Tobias Ludvigssen (now with FDJ) when he was a young rider with Giant Alpecin in about 2015. The only reason I knew he was pro was that he was wheeling his own bike bag and kit bags out of arrivals at Schiphol Airport, emblazoned with Giant branding and his name, and of course, I googled him.

My overall, lasting impression of him is that he is bloody tall.

Tall: that reminds me. Conor Dunne rode for the same club as I did for a while before becoming professional, he'd often ride the evening 10.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

In June last year, I rode from Le Bourg d'Oisans up to Col du Sabot on a very hot day in the middle of the European heatwave ( it was 37 degrees at the col, which is the same altitude as Col du Tourmalet: 2115m ). When I was within a few km of the col, I was passed by the various members of pro cycling team AG2R La Mondiale.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The whole of the Quick Step team apart from Cav (sick) on a col in Spain in Jan 2014. We’d stopped for a piss, and so did they! We beat them up by a few mins but set off approx two days earlier...

 

[palinurus]

I probably wouldn't notice. I pushed off Gordon Mcauley at a local time-trial quite a few years ago while he was riding for Plowman Craven. Made him a cup of tea afterwards (he was pretty quick so was back at the clubhouse before the tea guy)

Was looking for something on the club website today and found the results from the event.

It's not a quick course, 22 minutes would be a good time, the top 9 riders in the event were good club riders and one of Mcauley's teammates.

 

[Algarvecycling]

A lot of Pro's do winter training here in the Algarve before the Volta ao Algarve.
Being a relatively small place, sharing a road briefly with teams out training isn't uncommon - Lotto Soudal several times this year, Ineos I caught a glimpse of and while going for a PB up a climb in Alte the entire FC Porto team overtook me.

 

[NorthernDave]

A+J Brownlee bombing out of Bramhope Leeds

I've also seen the Brownlees a few time around Bramhope and Otley.

And as we are including triathletes, Non Stanford has also had the pleasure of overtaking me.

 

[Toshiba Boy]

Late 1990's, out on a Sunday ride, from my then home in South Warwickshire. Headed out towards Northants, and coming the other way was recently retired Robert Millar (Phillipa York).

Being aware he could be a little "prickly" plus if I'd have turned round I would never have caught him anyway, I rode on, in the knowledge, that I had, for a fleeting second, shared the road with one of the country's greatest ever riders.

 

[Algarvecycling]

I have been know to try and hang on to the Sporting Tavira team for about...........20 yards!!!

😄 I know the feeling well. The Porto guys made me look like I was going backwards.

On Sunday a local Pro from Portimao dragged a few of his friends around over quite lumpy terrain for 160km and I did 140-odd of that so compared my segments and overall - my average was just on 30km/h, theirs (his, mainly) over 34km/h.

 

[Bobario]

I stopped at a traffic light close to home many years ago. A guy pulls up alongside me on an expensive bike wearing all the roady cycling gear. We had a chat for a minute or two and as he rode away he said something along the lines of "now you can tell people you have met me". Unfortunately I had no idea who he was, even after he told me his name. I looked his name up when I got home and found I had just been speaking to pro TdF rider Chris Boardman. So now I'm telling you lot about it.

 

[Starchivore]

Me and my Dad saw one of the Yates' bikes outside a tea-room in Heptonstall- this was ages ago, before they got their big TDF results.

I'm not sure which one was in there and didn't see them. Just the nice bike with the name on it. But that's my big claim

 

[Starchivore]

The whole of the Quick Step team apart from Cav (sick) on a col in Spain in Jan 2014. We’d stopped for a piss, and so did they! We beat them up by a few mins but set off approx two days earlier...

Still a win, you caught them napping

 

[Sharky]

I stopped at a traffic light close to home many years ago. A guy pulls up alongside me on an expensive bike wearing all the roady cycling gear. We had a chat for a minute or two and as he rode away he said something along the lines of "now you can tell people you have met me". Unfortunately I had no idea who he was, even after he told me his name. I looked his name up when I got home and found I had just been speaking to pro TdF rider Chris Boardman. So now I'm telling you lot about it.

I raced a couple of times against his Dad or rather, I was in the same race as his Dad. He was fast as well.