Good morning, it’s 05:50 on a Friday morning and I’m up having a coffee, writing a cycling blog and sending start sheets for a Time Trial on Sunday. If someone had said to me five years ago that I would be so heavily involved in cycling, I would have laughed at them.
I’m Diane, a 51-year-old Advanced Nurse Practitioner. I work full time in a GP practice. I’m married with two grown-up boys. My husband is a very keen audax cyclist – cycling mega miles every year.
Where did it all begin? I’ve always enjoyed exercising and taking part in local events running or cycling. In 2015, I had a brain wave to enter Ride the North, a two-day cycle event – you had to cycle around 90 miles each day, with 6000ft of climbing. I had never been on a road bike and did not own a pair of padded shorts. I purchased a road bike on the cycle to work scheme and started to train.
I only managed to get up to around 40 miles before the event, but I completed it. It was challenging and a great experience, and it gave me a buzz; I was hooked.
I began to build up my miles, joined Elgin Cycling Club and started to develop a great passion for cycling. I started to develop a new friendship group, helped organise two charity rides, and went on cycling holidays with groups of friends, enjoying the social side of cycling.
In March 2019, my life changed – my best friend passed away suddenly from a cardiac arrest while out running. She was 45 years old; we had been friends since birth. I felt my life had ended and I needed to get out of the black hole of grief; cycling has helped me get through the last six years. It has become my passion. I am full of enthusiasm, especially for getting females into cycling. I’ve put my heart and soul into building cycling in my local community and am probably now more well known for my cycling involvement than as a nurse.
Over the past six years, I have become a very active member of Elgin Cycling Club; supporting the achievement of gaining a 50/50 male/female membership split, helping us to become Scottish Cycling Club of the Year in 2023. I’ve been a Breeze Champion since 2021, setting up Elgin Breeze Group. We now have nine Breeze Champions offering a great range of cycle rides for ladies.
I set up a charity called Get on a Bike with some friends. Get on a Bike provides led rides for adults to start/re-start cycling to encourage mental health and wellbeing.
I also started Bike n Blether cycle rides at Elgin Cycling Club. These are cycles where the focus is on chat and wellbeing, not on speed. This involved completing an online training course with Scottish Cycling and Scottish Action for Mental Health. I thoroughly enjoy doing these cycles and recommend the training to others, if you get an opportunity to do it.
This year I am also involved in the planning and delivery of She Pedals Scotland, to inspire as many women and girls as possible to ride their bikes on June 14th. It doesn’t matter if it’s one mile or 100 miles, what type of bike or cycling discipline — the goal is to celebrate and create a buzz around women and girls cycling. I hope we can get loads of ladies on their bikes on the 14th. Please register to take part. Everyone can follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
Lastly, I would like to leave you with a little thought on the power of cycling – this is a quote from a Bike n Blether Friday cycle:
“I really enjoyed it … it definitely delivered on the feel-good Friday title. I was really needing that cycle today.”
Thank you, Diane, for sharing your story for this month’s BlogHer feature. If you would like to share your cycling experiences for our monthly Scottish Cycling BlogHer article, please email Melanie, our Women and Girls Development Manager, on: [email protected]