Pro Cycling

While never quite attaining the heights reached by Alberto Contador, for a short time in my life many years ago, I was a professional cyclist, with the somewhat rare accomplishment of placing in the money in every event in which I competed. I specialised in criterium races rather than the more traditional road races because a) they were shorter and b) if I needed to drop out, it wasn't so far to go back to the car!

These days, I don't even bother to watch most of the Tour de France, having become more and more disillusioned with cycling after the seemingly never-ending doping scandals that hit the sport. It's one thing to waste 10 seconds of your life watching an Olympic 100m race which turns out to be illegitimate, but it's quite another to watch for a period of three weeks only to find out months later that it was one big cheat (TdF 2006).

OK, time to come clean myself about my pro-cycling career. While technically accurate, the first paragraph of this post is now repeated with a few more details.

While never quite attaining the heights reached by Alberto Contador, for a short time in my life (about an hour) many years ago (in 1994), I was a professional cyclist, with the somewhat rare accomplishment of placing in the money in every event in which I competed (one). I specialised in criterium races rather than the more traditional road races because that was the one event I competed in.

The facts are that I used to race in amateur races, and one wet Sunday morning I cycled down to register for a Category 4 race later that day, and timed my registration so that I could watch the pros race. After I'd signed up for my event, I happened to notice the entry form for the pro race which was about to start. There were just four names on the sheet, and I knew the event paid prize money to fifth place, so after a quick look around to make sure there were no late-comers heading over, I asked if I could enter. No problem. So I added my name, paid the entry fee, and lined up alongside the pros. I hung with them for all of maybe 100 yards before deciding to conserve my energy for my real race later in the day, but continued to ride around finishing fifth (OK, last), soaking wet, and having more than doubled my money in the process. A value investment, and a mildly amusing story into the bargain.