Our March Rider Interview comes from Richard Bailey, Senior Construction Manager at St. Modwen Properties. Richard was the man responsible for signing up 23 of his fellow colleagues to undertake our Derby challenge, and in doing so, they managed to raise over £20,000 for charity. Here Richard gives us his view on taking part.

How did you hear about Cyclone24?
During a tortuous journey driving between our St. Modwen offices, my mind began to wander on to something more exciting than staring at brake lights, and I suddenly had an idea to see if Derby Arena would allow me to organise a 24hr event to ride the track. I searched the internet for ideas and stumbled upon the Cyclone24 page and realised the tools were already there. I spoke to a couple of guys at work who are road cyclists and the team was formed, our company then offered to fund the event so that we could raise as much money as possible, hence the 4 St. Modwen teams were created.

Why did the challenge appeal to you?
I personally wanted a challenge that would push me, and it seems so did 23 of my colleagues. I had ridden the track before and loved it, and most of our other riders hadn’t so their challenge was even greater. As a company we are always seeking new ideas to raise money for our chosen charity LandAid, and the support for this event has been unreal, we are heading towards £25,000 raised.

How did you prepare for the challenge?
Personally by picking up a cold for the week prior and hitting the worst part of it during the event – I still had no voice 2 days later!!
All of our riders spent hours on turbo trainers, Wattbikes and generally building fitness in the run up to the event. Many of our team members are not cyclists (I recall one of them saying to me prior to their Level 1 session, that they had not ridden a bike since they were 5 years old) so for them to ride the track for 24 hours amongst more experienced riders was an amazing achievement.

What are your stand out memories from taking part?
The highs and the lows! The highs were definitely at the beginning and the end, the worst low was probably around 11pm knowing that we had it all to do again.
Our area was right next to the Derbyshire Blind Support team, and to see and chat to guys that had no sight was touching, but then to try and hang on to the wheel of their tandem at 25mph+ was even more memorable, those guys are amazing!

What was it like coming into the final hours? What were your emotions?
Not that we were counting down how many more efforts we each had to put in!!!!…..but the last few hours was a mixture of relief, elation, satisfaction, tiredness and delirium!

What advice would you offer to someone thinking of taking on the challenge?
Get yourself signed up, it is an amazing event, an amazing feeling of achievement, and make sure you get some training in!

What three words best sum up the Cyclone24 experience for you?
Memorable. Tiring. Rewarding.

The four teams from St. Modwen collectively completed 13,145 laps in 24 hours. They have also raised an enormous amount of money for their chosen charity LandAid and we very much hope they will be back again in 2020!

If you want to know more about what it’s like to on Cyclone24 and how to get your team involved watch our film here