About Us
Cyclosport is run and managed by cycling fanatics. We love to see the sport grow, be professional, safe and fun. To maximize the quality of experience; we like to bring riders, organisers and sponsors together from all over the world.
We aim to give our rapidly growing community immediate and full access to all that is happening in the cyclosportive scene globally - whether rider or organiser.
Background
Cyclosport was founded in 2003 when we were looking for a way to train and prepare for the Etape du Tour. Information on events was scarce and per chance we stumbled upon the Fred Whitton Memorial, which had its first edition in 1999 making it one of the the first sportives in the UK. (The first edition had less than 200 riders and now 10 years on is one of the top sportives with 1,000 riders).
Realising that there were some great events, but many were largely unknown, we set up Cyclosport with the aim of providing an online meeting place for riders, sponsors and organisers.
The site's usage has grown dramatically since 2003 and has become the leading global web site for cycling events for amateurs. Cyclosport.org is managed by HOTCHILLEE, the global marketing and events company.
About the Editor:
Adam Tranter 
(@adamtranter) After a relatively mediocre and short-lived attempt at cycling racing, Cyclosport's Adam Tranter rapidly discovered a passion for journalism and the media. He found focus in maintaining his passion for his sport and sharing it with others, as well as building on cycling's increased mainstream interest into viable businesses.
He is Director of cycling media services company Fusion Media, as well as working as a freelance journalist for magazines such as Cycling Weekly and T3 magazine. He also contributes on cycling to BBC Radio 5 Live.
Sportives provide a new and exciting target for him, and there's no better way to spread the word about the attraction of sportives than to run the world's leading cyclosportive-specific website.
In his spare time, Adam likes to visit new places on his bike. He's also developed a rather worrying interest in trains. His favourite colour is orange.
About the writers:
Holly Blades
Holly (@lifeofholly) does not ride a bike well. Crippling vertigo means her saddle has to be low enough for her feet to touch the floor at all times, and a sense of balance rivalling that of a toddler means even the most sedate ride turns into a white knuckle affair. It is bearing this in mind that she took on the role of avid spectator.
Holly has worked in Internet related journalism for many years now, in everything from a hugely popular East London music e-zine, to the Official website for Monty Python's Terry Jones.
She brings an intense love of the world of professional cycling to Cyclosport.org, not to mention over 12 years of secretarial experience. If you need an email answered, or a kettle putting on, she's your girl.
Holly lives in Derbyshire with too many books and not enough furniture. She likes drinking tea, eating cake and pretending to be a Dark Elf.
Howard Johnson
Howie's (@thehowiejohnson) passion has always been cycling, riding and racing as a schoolboy, junior and senior in the Merseyside Region. This passion was supressed by time spent in the Army, and once demobbed he had found women, beer and cars.
Years of travel around the UK and Far East added the pounds to his waistline, by the time The Tour came to London in 2007 he was over 26 stone. On doctors orders he had to fight the flab and a return to cycling was the only choice. Luckily Cycling Plus magazine included him in their first readers team and the rest is history.
With a coach and a renewed passion the weight came off, speed went up and writing about his exploits flourished. 4 seasons into the sportive arena has seen our regular blogger travel the length and breadth of the UK and Eire.
A recent heart scare and a move to Cambridgeshire has not diminished Howie's obsession of sportives and writing about them.
His favorite colour is blue off the bike, white on the bike. favorite food is curry and enjoys a bottle or two of classy red wine when the mood arises.
Mark Tearle
(@_BLIXA_) A dilettante, a dabbler and fabulist of inexact facts - but an expert, a genius and an original with it!
Father of The Two and addict of the Other, all lodging with the bi-polar cat.
Owner of a small house with a small garden and some bike bits that make up a bike or two.
By day a formicidae for the National Health Service and at all times a strong advocate of cycling for health, for fitness, for the environment and for the love of it.
Caven O'Hara
Caven (@caveno) started out working in computing but has left IT behind to combine his love of sport with his career. A degree in Sport Journalism obtained later in life has led to many great chances to witness sport and cycling up close. Having spent most of his adult life following sport, predominantly from the comfort of my armchair Caven discovered the joy of cycling.
Working with Evans Cycles allows Caven to spend more time not only on his bike but talking about them 24/7 – what’s not to enjoy? Many great trips have combined terrific cycling – on and off road – with some great craics in the company of mates. He started off-road but has found himself drawn to the dark stuff, not only the Guinness, but also the tarmac. The huge explosion in the number of sportives provides even more reasons to get out and ride.
Away from cycling Caven enjoys spending time with his family, photography and of course other sports!
Jennifer Trotman
Jennifer (@thecyclingmayor) likes to ride her bicycle. She likes to ride her bike. She likes to ride her bicycle. See where this is going? Yes; she likes to ride it where she likes.
Which, ever since catching the cycling bug a few years ago, tends to be at as many sportives as she can get away with. Given a choice she’d cheerfully do nothing else but ride her bike.
However… In the meantime she edits a local events’ guide, works for Bike Shepherd, and is a Town Councillor. She was even Mayor in 2009 – which is why she’s been blogging as The Cycling Mayor for 3 years now, covering all her training and the many events she’s done since then – 27 and counting.
Her greatest achievement so far was the 2011 Etape du Tour Acte 1 – and she’s now got the bug for single day closed road foreign events!
Future plans include the 2012 Maratona dles Dolomites, and the Etape du Tour again in 2013.
Jonathan Cook
Jon (@CookyBear) has been riding a bike for as long as he can remember, six or so years ago the allure of carbon fibre and skinny tyres finally proved too much and now several bikes adorn his home.
By day he’s a software engineer focusing on sport; when he’s not busy with binary, he’s either spending his hard earned cash on new bicycle parts or searching out the country’s steepest hills.
In addition to his obsession with lycra Jon also has had a long love affair with the great outdoors; this was reaffirmed with a year in Alaska chasing bears which sparked writing about his travels and cycling exploits in his spare time.
After cycling most of the UK’s most popular one day sportives and several of Europe’s closed road events. Jon has found a growing interest and challenge in multiday events. Events for 2012 include Liege-Bastogne-Liege, The Tour of Lighthouses and the Alpes Open Tour.
Tony Pushman
Tony took up cycling just before his 50th birthday and is a member of VeloSport Jersey. After 32 years working as a Chartered Accountant, Tony decided on a change and enrolled on a bicycle mechanic’s course with ATG in Aylesbury and in 2010 qualified as a Cytech 2 mechanic. Shortly after this, he was invited by Nigel Mansell and his team to join them as rider/mechanic in Nigel’s challenge to cycle around the UK to raise both money for, and the profile of, UK Youth, the charity of which Nigel is President - riding alongside not only the Mansell family but also one Magnus Backstedt.
Tony has relentlessly studied the performance enhancing attributes of Guinness and Rioja, taken alone or together and in varying quantities. Having concluded that there is no noticeable enhancement in performance of any description (in fact at times the opposite), he has now moved the focus of his researches to Pinotage and Windhoek lager. This study may also last for some years before any conclusion may be reached.
Tony has re-located to Cape Town with his wife Hazel and has commenced riding the local sportive events. He hopes to cover the sportive scene in the Western Cape for Cyclosport from a veteran’s viewpoint – that being some distance from the front of the bunch.
James Berresford
James (@pudoz) is a relative newcomer to the cycling scene but like most born again converts is about as evangelical as they come. Riding 24 sportives, 10,000km and 115,000 vertical metres in his first Cyclosport season; he eats, sleeps and drinks cycling but only as part of a protein rich, carbohydrate controlled diet. Its all about the Watts per Kilo you see. Raised on good, clean, northern soil but currently residing in South London which can be inconvenient because as a climb enthusiast he'd really like to be spending as much time pushing up a hill or mountainside as possible. A day job in mobile phone research and design also occasionally gets in the way of those all important kms.
Sean Lacey
(@cyclingsean) Having spent the last twenty-odd years doing next to nothing outside of work, the weight had piled on, Sean was seriously unfit and alarmingly knocking on the door of the big four-zero. An alarm sounded somewhere and he made up his mind - it was time to get busy. Big diet changes and regular running shifted the weight and got him fit but it just wasn't motivating enough, so he looked to his teenage long lost love, the bike.
Four months in and he was picked up by Cycling Plus to be part of their new reader team, and with a great coach, back up from a pro related medical team and more rides than he could shake a stick at he was firing on all cylinders and back in the game. That's come to an end, and he needs a new challenge.
Living in Shropshire gives him an ideal playground, fitting riding in with a wife and three kids (all girls!). He spends far too much time playing video games when he's not riding and he loves his food, although it's generally a lot healthier these days.
Cars are another passion, with Sean running a TVR Griffith and writing regularly for the national car club magazine.
