Riding with Lael

Photography @calvinoooooo @honorelliott and @jenniferjanedawson

Lael Wilcox is my hero, an ultra-distance legend, winner (overall!) of the Trans Am Bike Race in 2016 and the women’s record holder of the Tour divide. Hailing from Alaska, and me from the south of England, I had never even considered the possibility of actually riding with her.

But Rapha London announced that they would be holding an evening with both Lael and the mighty Emily Chappell, first woman to cross the finish line of the 2016 Transcontinental, and I jumped at the chance to get tickets for this and a pre-breakfast ride the following morning. Plus I also found out Lael would then be coming down to the New Forest to do a ride with the New Forest Off Road Club.

We decided that really, the only fitting way to get up to London was to ride the 80 or so miles to the hotel. Our route took us through the usual stunning Hampshire countryside around Alresford, on through Surrey and then 20 miles of off-road canal tow paths and the Thames Path, popping out at Hampton Court Palace, through Richmond Park and on into the city. I would highly recommend this route to get to London, it’s super diverse and so much fun.

The talk was the following evening, we spent the day riding a very urban loop around the city (highlight for me the tourist was getting stuck on Tower Bridge for 15 minutes to let a boat through!) The talk, with Emily asking Lael questions about everything from a recent ride together through Italy to climate change, was very engaging, honest and of course very inspirational. You can watch it here.

The next morning, pre-6am, after managing to scrounge a coffee (with an extra espresso shot) from the hotel staff setting up for breakfast, I set off for laps around Regent’s Park. As the dark faded into daylight women started gliding on road bikes towards the meeting point. I managed to slip myself into a small riding group with Lael and her wife Rue. What do you say when you finally get to chat to a legend, who’s YouTube videos you’ve watched over and over? Well it turns out she’s completely lovely and we talked about loads of random things from kids on e-cargo bikes to Stonehenge,

We went back to the Rapha store for coffee and breakfast, I chatted to so many awesome female riders, I loved listening to how people had started cycling and how it was now such a positive part of their lives.

Home time for us then, but I only had to wait another day and a quick wheel change with more knobbly tyres, to get to ride with Lael and Rue again in the New Forest. Meeting at 11am at The Woods Cyclery, I had never seen so many gravel bikes in one place, and the vast majority were women too! Completely awesome! This was by far the biggest group ride I have ever been on, around 60 people, spinning gently past the ponies, on the glorious gravel paths of the forest, all grinning simultaneously in the autumnal sunshine. Perfection. Oh and getting to riding with Lael again. This time chatting about Sunday Roasts (me) and the fluffiness of bears (Lael). The “party pace” ride was over too quickly for me, but I was left with a whole bunch of new lovely people I can do some New Forest riding with in the future, and the knowledge that Lael Wilcox is just as delightful, genuine and hugely inspiring in real life as all those videos I’ve watched.