The Ride Of Your Life

What could be better than a luxury cycling trip on a sultry Mediterranean island? One where your biggest hero in the sport is right alongside you.

- Ben Oliver

It’s a balmy afternoon and I’m riding my bike around an idyllic island in the Mediterranean. I keep glancing at the cyclist next to me—partly to make conversation but also to check that he’s really Geraint Thomas, winner of two Olympic gold medals, three world championships and a Tour de France. I can’t quite believe my luck. I’m wheel-to-wheel with one of the sport’s greatest living athletes, and to top it off, he has a bruising hangover, enabling me to keep pace with him as if I were a professional. And yet, this extraordinary experience was not that hard to achieve.

Want to shoot threes with Steph Curry, have a kickabout with Lionel Messi or catch a pass from Patrick Mahomes? Get ready to write a sizable cheque. The opportunity to rub shoulders with your sporting heroes—whether as part of a fantasy camp afternoon or, for truly unfettered access, by buying the teams they play for—comes neither easy nor cheap.

The exception, it seems, is cycling. Consider my recent long weekend on Ibiza with Thomas. I might also have joined Eddy Merckx, the Pelé of cycling and probably the greatest rider to have turned a pedal, or six-time Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy, or any one of a litany of elite athletes who have rolled out side by side with guests on a LeBlanq tour.