Paxman twice, once he was walking and held a gate open for us, second time he was on a BSO riding down the trail we were riding up, chasing (I assume) his kids and looking terrified.

Got passed by Rob Warner last time I was out riding Watlington way.

Terrahawk, yesterday afternoon 🙂

To be fair though he covers that much ground, I’m surprised everyone doesn’t see Terrahawk on at least a couple of rides 🙂

Harry_the_Spider – Member
Didn’t we see Andy Kershaw once too?
Oh yeah, there has been 20% of Elbow in the pub too.

and yet, we’ve never seen hora 🙂

Neil Donoghue , @ Llandegla on the trails he had been doing a fast lap and stopped for a quick chat. nice guy.

As I rode out of some woods and onto a road a rod went past, Jeff Beck
was driving.

Jerry Hall in Richmond Park a good couple of years back and both Boris and “Call me Dave” quite a few times while stopped up at traffic lights on the run into town from West London. Have also seen John Snow off C4 a few times as well.

Locally, a Mr Offiah (quite possibly a former england ball-chasing professional as he apparently lives round here) has cut me up a number of times in his black range rover. The “OFF 14 H” numberplate removes any doubt about who is driving it – that and the fact the driver it is normally too busy shouting into his phone to pay any attention to what’s going on around him.

Not sure I’ve ever recognised anyone, pretty much anywhere 😳

think I may have “met” brian lopes in california once – was certainly near to where he lives

Today a very nice guy called Phil (just some random mtb) and a bugger load of bike journalist at CwmCarn testing out the new Whytes T-130 & T-129. Admittedly I only recognised Jon Woodhouse and Doddy, and they were chatting amongst themselves, though Jon had time for a quick word with us…. before they got on the uplift van! (barstewards the lot of em! 😀 )

Met Gary McAllister of Leicester city, Leeds and Liverpool whilst on the bike once.

Not on the bike, but, me and Mrs aa met some band in south America in a bar in a town square. They were heavily tattoo’d, American and had a stream of young locals going up to them. We said hi, chatted about the town but i didn’t ask them who they were. It makes me wonder to this day….

they looked blink187 (whatever theyre called)or green day ish.

Brendan Fairclaw was out on the Mendips one day last summer. That was exciting.

OH MAN !

I forgot this one………. about 3 Years ago at the Chippy in Peebles John from “Johns Not Mad” Fame !

We had ridden GT In the morning and then the red at Innerleithen in the afternoon, i was so tired i didnt know wether to laugh, cry or just admire him, in the end i think i did all 3.

He was on Top form and going for it Big Style !

Hannah Barnes, Joe Barnes, Dudes of Hazzard etc are all local and a common site.

Jason Plato. A lot.

Chipps and Jamie Hibbard on a tandem in Brown’s Folly.

I rode with Danny Hart at Foel a few years ago, before he had won anything big. He was checking out 2Stage bikes, giving them some feedback on the bike, and I just happened to be one of the other people to be riding that day (4 of us in total), so we just did lap after lap of the track in the pissing rain. For anyone who knows Foel DH, it is a steep, rooty, tech-fest.

Up until that point it sounded as if I ‘rode’ with Danny Hart. Did I bugger! We started at the top together. By the time we got to the bottom, the uplift truck was at the top, and he was on his way back down again. So, I saw about 50m of him riding: the first 20m or so, and the last big drop-in. Every second uplift we shared, and it was genuinely impressive to hear the feedback from him on the bike, the track and everything else about riding. Lovely guy.

Not on the bike but keep seeing Arya Stark wandering around 🙂

Muriel Gray originally of The Tube fame. She rescued my broken collar boned friend in the Scottish highlands in her Chinquicento car about 5 miles from the nearest tarmac road. Her husband Hamish then drove him to a Fort William hospital and back. Their neighbour then drove us back to Dalwhinnie to pick up our cars so we could all get home.

We took them a bottle of malt as a thank you and ended up drinking it in their living room. Amazingly nice people indeed.

Brendan Fairclaw

Glad his new name is getting traction.

🙂

I met Rene Wildhaber in Utah. He caught us up near at the end of Porcupine Rim trail. We’d seen him earlier in the day and I’d been half wondering if he was Hans Rey (Red Bull helmet, Go Pro, Germanic accent, nose).

I looked behind to see his blue T shirt a way back and watched him get off his bike for a tricky bit (and thought “Ha, I just watched Hans Rey get off for a tricky bit!”) I carried on, then heard Mrs R say “guy behind”. I rode on, meaning to stop a bit further on: “Yeah, I saw him, I know where he is”

Wrong! VOOM – straight past, an unfeasibly short time afterwards. Felt bad not to have moved over and confused how I’d misjudged things.

We saw him again in the car park and he came to chat about the bike I was riding and ask for a spin (hired fatbike – Mukluk) Mrs R had a chat with his friends in the van, they mentioned her towards his blog (buffalo soldier) and we found out who he was from there. 6 time Megavalanche winner, that would explain it!

A mate I ride with occasionally sees Sam Hill at a certain location in the North West.

I’ve heard he’s been at a particular spot, might camp out there this week with the weather being nice.

That’s not stalky at all is it?

Muriel and Hamish are top guys. I was at their wedding. I didnt get to the single malt before Ally Bain.

I met Charlie Kelly and some Klunker freaks on the trails above Fairfax. They showed me some trails and scars sustained after smokeables.

Bumped into a lot of big names but actually rode and talked with,Cadel Evans and Nicholas Roche seperatley.Roche passed me on a climb and we got talking I told him to keep going if I was interfering with his training so he rode upto the top of the climb then came back down and rode up with me at my pace.

I’m surprised no-one’s mentioned seeing Jared Graves, Richie Rude, Hannah Barnes and Rosara Joseph at Cannock Chase on the weekend of 14/15 June this year. When I was at the Yeti Tribe meeting they were all there (I’m not claiming to have ‘seen’ them as I was attending an event which they were advertised as being present!). They spent most of the weekend charging about the trails at high speed all dressed in team turquoise.
Surely someone non-Yeti saw them that weekend? Or did someone see them and thought they were a bunch of wannabees!

I was in JE James Rotherham about three years ago, saw a guy sitting about chatting while dressed all in Sky team colours. A poser I though, then someone mentioned it was Russell Downing…

I wouldn’t say ‘met’ because that indicates positive identification and some kind of interaction. But I’m pretty sure I passed Russell Crowe in Swinley one time. I know he has (had?) a house nearby and i know he does ride a MTB, on the other hand I’m somewhat prosopagnosic* so he could have been almost anyone with a beard.

* I don’t recognise faces very well, I can do the ‘he’s familiar’ thing but getting a positive ID and putting a name to a face is often a miss. Can be embarrassing, for example when i failed to identify someone my parents had lived next door to for 30 years and who i grew up seeing every day; on the other hand can be very (deliberately at times) annoying, for example when the wife and I watch a serialised TV show like Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad, I can usually remember the main characters who you see a lot but the peripheral ones who pop up occasionally but have some critical backstory element, she has to pause and do a potted biography for me.

Not on the bike but keep seeing Arya Stark wandering around

On a GoT theme, I used to regularly see Tywin Lannister shopping in my local supermarket.

Rode past Divina McCall at Swinley a few years back.

Mate pointed it out afterwards, should’ve turned round to follow her and called “I’m coming to get you Divina”.

But from that sport relief thing she did, she’d probably have dropped me pretty easy.

I overtook Chipps at the 3 Peaks CX a few years back

I overtook Chipps at the SS Euros in Thetford Forest.

Then one of my riding team utterly blew up (hey – it’s a social event too!) so two of us nursed him through his final lap, and Chipps (and most of the field) came past us.

Such is life. 🙂

Bumped into atlaz from here last summer at the bottom of the Chatel bike park. He had also just come down the same run and recognised my bike! It’s good to be different 😉

I’m sure he was muttering something like trying to keep up… 😉

chakaping – Member

A mate I ride with occasionally sees Sam Hill at a certain location in the North West.

I’ve heard he’s been at a particular spot, might camp out there this week with the weather being nice.

That’s not stalky at all is it?

NO POINT Chakaping as he isn’t on these shores for the foreseeable pal, he was however over here for a month or so up to early June, Amazing rider!

2 miles further on, stopped at the Square and Compass

Is this the square and compass near Langton Matravers? Spent a couple of summer holidays there a few years back….cracking place.

Back to the question in hand…….Danny Hart in the Buddha bar, Morzine a couple of weeks ago, and Dan Atherton on the flight back home.

Bregante – hora rides one trail. Ladybower. nothing else ever.

Josh Bryce at Cannock, Danny Hart in Mamma’s Morzine as well as Needles, M Gatto and Tahnnee Seagrave also in Morzine. Oh and Bernard Kerr with Elliot Jackson in Morzine too this year.

A few years ago now but Badger baiters. With guns. It was a tad scary, they had our phones off us straight away.

Johnny Depp, he was filling his car up at the petrol station in Burnham Deepdale, we had stopped for some scoff mid ride

2retro4u
Marin County, Cali

I ran into McMoonter on the trail in California.

Jess Douglas 3x world 24hr solo champion at a couple of races, Paul van de plough eliminator word champion and his dad. Plenty of fast xc guys round here and on the mainland too. Keep seeing Richie Porte round town in the off season.

Bumped into Manon Carpenter not too long ago when they were making the latest BPW video. I showed her my mad skillz (I crashed pretty hard). I will admit that when I first saw her in the cafe I did briefly wonder who the poser in full team kit was, then I saw her face 😳

I will admit that when I first saw her in the cafe I did briefly wonder who the poser in full team kit was, then I saw her face

Same thing with Gracia in the full Cannondale Siemens kit a few years back and Richie Porte drinking coffee.