‘Female members formed a virtual choir to sing Queen's Bicycle Race'

The club is swapping evening group rides for virtual quiz nights

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How are you doing?

I have recently retired (end of March 2020) after 39 years working in the NHS. Due to the restrictions, the retirement hasn’t quite been the celebration and ‘turning pro’ experience that was expected, but that is of no significance compared to what is going on in the world.

How do you keep yourself motivated to ride right now?

Cycling has been the tonic to life’s stresses and strains in recent years and so the motivation, if anything, has increased.

What has the club done to keep people connected?

As a club, we have 264 members. From the start of the restrictions, we’ve taken a proactive approach to living and cycling through the lockdown. Our view is that ‘social distancing’ as a term doesn’t quite suit our club and its members. We prefer ‘physically distanced, but socially connected’.

From a cycling perspective, we have harnessed our social media to support club Zwift and RGT Cycling group rides, particularly for members newer to indoor training and racing. We have a great personal trainer and spin instructor, who has been running virtual classes (following the cessation of the winter spin studio-based sessions).