‘Overnight my limbs stopped working'

Just getting back into cycling after a dalliance with motorsport, Ted Reddick was struck down by a debilitating neurological condition

- David Bradfoard

A keen racing cyclist from the age of 18, Ted Reddick was still riding at a good club standard in his early 30s when work commitments started taking over.

“I’d clocked 21 minutes for 10 miles and 56 for 25 – all on steel bikes, none of this carbon stuff,” recalls the Colnago devotee. “Cycling for me was everything. But in the back of my mind I knew I couldn’t give it my all because of work.”

In the Nineties, after taking a break from cycling to save energy for his career in property development, Reddick turned his attention to car racing – with notable success, becoming a regional champion. He didn’t return to cycling until 2004, when aged 40 he treated himself to a Colnago Dream.

Three years later, his partner Su was diagnosed with cancer, and getting out on his bike became a coping strategy.

“Every morning, I’d ride out from Su’s home in Eastbourne, over the marshes or up to Beachy Head. I got fit really quickly.”

After Su died, in 2008, Reddick had to rebuild his life – and cycling again dissolved into the background.

“I’d bought a [Colnago] C50, but I put it in the garage, put a cover on it and didn’t touch it again for years.”