Simon Worsley

Simon Worsley’s interest in road cycling began in 1989, when he watched Greg LeMond beat Laurent Fignon by eight seconds at the Tour de France. Initially focused on the Tour, by the mid-1990s he was also following the Spring Classics and Grand Tours.

At this stage, Simon was still an occasional cyclist himself. Road cycling was a relatively niche sport in the UK, and his biggest annual ride was the British Heart Foundation’s 40-mile Cotswold charity ride.

Simon began cycling seriously in 2011 after his rugby days came to a premature end in his mid-30s. He joined Cheltenham and County Cycling Club that year and started riding with the club every Saturday and Sunday. He completed his first Marmotte in 2012.

In 2018, Simon started racing and gained his Category 3 racing licence after picking up points in Masters and Category 3 and 4 races at Maindy and Odd Down. He also competed in several road races in 2019. More recently, his racing has mainly been at Castle Combe circuit races during the summer, with occasional appearances in Cheltenham and County’s annual road race.

Simon typically rides around 10,000 kilometres each year and aims to complete the Marmotte alongside one or two other cycling trips. In recent years, he has completed the Gran Fondo versions of all the Monuments except Paris-Roubaix, as well as Strade Bianche. His cycling trips have taken him to the Alps, Dolomites, Mallorca, Girona, Tenerife and Calpe.

He is also working towards completing the top 100 UK climbs, based on Simon Warren’s book, as well as ticking off as many of the top 100 Tour de France, Italian, Spanish and Belgian climbs as possible. So far, he has ridden 11 of the 100 UK climbs, as well as 10 in France, nine in Italy, 15 in Spain and 19 in Belgium.