Louise Minchin a couple of weeks ago at a triathlon. Seemed like a lovely person (and pretty quick)
Seen Jeremy Paxman in the Chilters too, nickc.
Rick Wakeman too
Seen Stephen Fry a number of times when he is at his Norfolk home as i ride past to the in-laws and used to see Roger Lloyd-Pack quite often too before he died, he had an old GT Aggressor he'd pootle to the shops on occasionally
The most famous (at the time of meeting) was Richard Hammond on a bridleway not long after his massive Jet Car crash. He was out walking one of his dogs, had a little chat about the nice weather - figured he'd be bored of crash talk - and went on out separate ways. Got home to see on the news that he was meant to be a gibbering wreck who couldn't put a sentence together 😆
Others met include:
Ben Deakin
Manon Carpenter
Tahnee Seagrave
Charlotte Church
Lucy Owen (Welsh newsreader)
Katherine Jenkins
Prince William And Kate Middleton (back in their early courting days)
Prince Charles
Took a few well-known theatre types out for a ride in the Beacons ages ago but can't remember any of their names, they weren't household names but known well in their circles.
Can add a lot of bike journo's on that list too. See the Dirt boys regularly and the MBR testers an awful lot. Nearly ran over Rowan Sorrell at BPW when
he was hobbling around on his broken foot! See the GMBN boys regularly at FOD thinking about it too but never gone over to say hello as they're always busy filming when I pass them.
Pretty big list that. but it helps that I ride midweek to avoid the crowds which I'm guessing they are trying to do too! Most of the main list have been just popping to the shops or commuting.
Got to ride a bit of gisburn with Steve peat and Hans rey earlier this year.
Had just sat down ready for a bite to eat before starting a ride when Stephen Roche handed me some keys that had dropped out of my pocket - top bloke
Rene Wildhaber in Moab, Mike Hall in Wales. Glad I got to meet Mike.
Seen Jeremy Paxman in the Chilters too, nickc.
he held a gate open for us once and we stopped and chatted about the spectacular sky - after effects of the Buncefield oil refinery fire.
Also got out of the way on a climb when him and (I assume) his kids have come barrelling down it on BSO MTBs looking slightly nervous 😀
Kate Bush
*drops mic*
🙂
Got to ride a bit of gisburn with Steve peat and Hans rey earlier this year.
No Way!
Bob Mortimer at Bedgeberry, on a ride with the kids, embarrassingly managed to kick my shoe off up the trail in front of him and had to ride with one shoe to retrieve. Still don't know how I managed it. Didn't speak, just burst into flames.
Got to ride a bit of gisburn with Steve peat and Hans rey earlier this year.
No Way!
Way!
Guy Martin (at HtN and MM), Mark Webber (at MM), and Steve Peat at Whernside.
I briefly spoke to Gary Fisher at the first TwentyFour 12. In addition he rode past me shouting encouragement as I and several other riders were pushing through one of the bits that had become horrendously muddy after it rained.
Jason McRoy in the early 1990's when he still rode for Hardisty Cycles. I was out on a ride around Wetherby and got to the top of a track and he was there with a few other guys.
My wife met Douglas Bader.
Like most people who've ridden in Vancouver for any length of time, bumped into Wade Simmons a couple of times.
also Brett Tippie, but you never just 'meet' Brett Tippie, there's always some sort of excitement, like him literally sweeping all 85kg of me off my feet in a club when someone told me my bike had been stolen (I don't know why picking me up seemed the appropriate response, but I think the guy pretty much bleeds Red Bull so who knows). I was also marshalling a race on Fromme and he stopped to party for a while (I had tunes and whisky, although he wouldn't touch the whisky...).
Finally on a wee stroll on an island near Vancouver, bumped into a guy watching his little one trying out some skinnies and dirty jumps in a little bike park, got chatting and I was expressing my disappointment that the sick and skinny style of building was dying out, then it dawned on me that he looked awfully like Dangerous Dan Cowan of the 'Flying Circus' trail fame. Turns out he was the very same, still building away 8)
Gary Fisher. Well, technically it was a shop demo ride & Gary was along, but I'm crap at hills so I only caught up with him right at the end
Colin McRae, we shared a table with him in the Glentress cafe. I think it was about 2003.
saw a chap ahead of me once on the commute and thought ... i'm slowly gaining on him ... so committed to a pass and committed to putting the same effort to show I wasn't just out to pass him for the sake of it.
half a mile down the road and >>>whoosh>>>... he rockets right up beside me with a smile.
Look down at his bike noting its slim steel build and then noting the signature painted onto it... "Obree"Ah...
He jokingly commented about being passed and not letting someone away with it. Then followed one of my favourite commutes chatting away the rest of the way.
Its nice to be able to genuinely say I've caught and passed Obree ...
Had exactly the same experience last night. Was riding home along the a77 Glasgow to Kilmarnock, saw a figure away in the distance and slowly started to reel him in. After about 4 miles I was ready to pass but thought this guy on an old tourer is fair shifting along and he had a very smooth pedaling style. Passed him, said hello, a minute later he passed me, then I passed again but pulled alongside for a chat to then realise it was Obree riding in full superman position! And he jokingly commented about being passed and not letting someone away with it. So I passed him again 🙂
spennyy - Member
Got to ride a bit of gisburn with Steve peat and Hans rey earlier this year.
No Way!
Way!
Swoons 😉
David Schwimmer, but it turned out it was Kryton57.
Wuz disappoint...
Joe Breeze & Edwina Currie, not on the same ride mind. 🙂
Met Joe Gilgun (This Is England, Preacher etc) at Rivi. Stopped and had a chat until my missus asked him why he looked so familiar 🙂
Joe Breeze outside the Marin bike museum. We had just ridden Repack road.
Seeing this mentions from Dan from Nam.
When I crossed paths with Vinokourov I was riding with Dan from Nam whilst he was already from nam then just know as Dan. Dan was my loyal training buddy and domestiwue back in the days.
Dan's grandfather(after whom he was named) is actually a lot lot lot more famous in his home country and South Africa. I have not met the man as he died before I met his grandson. Just met Dan's dad mom and sister. But have the real Dan(ie Craven) actually has statues(we used to meet at one for ou rides) and I went to a Rugby match in the Craven stadium as well.
That man is almost like the Eddy Merckx of (Southern African)Rugby
My father knew Danie Craven, he was the manager of the 1951 Springboks against whom he played.
Out riding at Innerleithen with a mate one day which happened to coincide with practice for the Enduro World Series event. We were stopped by a handsome looking dude who asked where the start of the next stage was . My mate had to leave but I offered to lead him up and we climbed up for half an hour had a great chat, shook hands and bid farewell.
Later my mate phoned to ask me how I got on with Cedric Gracia. I felt like a ****
The IoM Cycling Week used to be great fun back in the 90s. They had some handicap road races with huge fields (sometimes in the hundreds) and one year the Kazakh national team competed. About ten years later one of my friends, looking at an old race programme, noticed that Vinokourov had been riding. He was pretty unknown at the time, and I never actually met him, because the scratch group never managed to catch our second cat group (and we never caught the thirds/vets/women in the front group!).
I was in a break on a stage of the Irish Ras with Bart Brentjens (multi MTB champ). His DS drove alongside to give him a bit of chat and it turned out to be famous 80s/90s dope and mullet fiend Gert-Jan Theunisse. Brentjens was subsequently DQ-ed because the organisers discovered he was double booked for the Dutch MTB champs on the final day, and was just riding the 9 day stage race as a bit of a taper...
This probably strays into the D-list celebrity thread, but while cycling up a hill in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, I was flagged down by Robert Elms for an impromptu interview for the travel programme he was filming. I ended up on the cutting room floor, of course.