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Some of you will have seen my efforts at the Brompton World Championships; it was a great event with some talented competitors and I absolutely loved it.

The whole day was just good fun and the racing that was on show was excellent. If I had not been riding, I would have been entertained just watching the action. The event really did showcase every reason why people love cycling in all its forms.

Beforehand, in a scene which will be familiar to many a weekend racer, I found myself in the wrong part of the country at a social event – in my case a wedding – the night before the race.

This meant I had to get up at half-past four in the morning the next day and spend almost three hours on a train to London. I then had to ride across London (first proper ride on a Brompton), then catch another train to Chichester and then finish the journey with the second proper ride on the Brompton to Goodwood!

I have only recently returned to doing a bit of racing after stopping in 2001 due to the amount of work that needed to be done at British Cycling at the time. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t possible to keep training and racing. The work/life balance went out of the window for a while, again something familiar to many cyclists I’m sure.

After over 10 years out, I realised I was missing out on the very thing that got me into working in cycling in the first place – riding my bike and my love for the sport. So I started again and got back to two of my favourite things – the Notts and Derby Cyclo Cross League and the Three Peaks Cyclo Cross. I’ve now completed the Three Peaks eight or nine times in all and the plan is to complete it 25 times which will take me until I’m 60!

Getting back into the sport has been amazing and the two things that strike me the most is the sheer numbers of people now involved and secondly, the amazing volunteers. All the people that get involved are a massive credit to the sport. From the people signing on, the marshals, the organisers, the commissaries and the club coaches, they all deserve a big pat on the back.

Without all of these people putting in the hours of support, British Cycling would not exist. We wouldn’t have the medal success, the growth in events and the growth in membership. Everyone who does something in our sport should share in every single bit of success or growth that British Cycling achieves and they should feel very proud.

I finished the Brompton World Championship race in 36th place, 15 kilometres in 25 minutes and 49 seconds, which I was a pretty pleased with considering I had gone for so long without racing on a regular basis. Especially so given I’d only ridden the bike for the first time the night before. I’d caused much hilarity at the start when someone spotted the fact that I still had the packaging on my gear cabling!

There is a thriving scene for people of my age who still want to race bikes, whether that’s a fun event like the Brompton championships or something more serious and I would encourage anyone to give it a try because I can guarantee that they will enjoy it and feel a real sense of achievement. It is incredible how many strangers you meet when riding your bike but each cyclist has a different piece of advice and a different story to tell so you will soon get used to making new friends every week!

Ian Drake