She actually said it 20 years too late, but still amazed me beyond comprehension, “you know that you don’t need to be a preacher Robert, don’t you?”.

Aged 99 years, my Grandmother Thomasina Crowe still spoke very clearly while very old and frail with transparent skin and only weeks left in her life here, she finally passed on this incredible fact.

“Even though your (late) father is a church minister, and his father’s father’s father were too, your great great grandfather was champion cyclist of Ballymena Cycling Club in Northern Ireland in the late 1890’s – it’s in your bloodline to ride your bike”.

While this is an amazing underlying truth in its own right (because I faced quite a bit of fair resistance from my parents for swapping Carnegie-Caulfield Cycling Club criterium racing in place of attending my father’s sermons on Sundays at 9am in the late 80’s), there is an even more incredulous feature about this story.

What remains unexplained to this day lies in the fact that, while racing those first few dramatically developmental cycling years from novice to Olympian between 1988 – 1992, the very amused riders of the club racing scene at the time did nickname me after a rather large clumsy but ever so strong ‘Baby Huey’ cartoon character.

The strange part is, Grandma did not know of a current day astonishing coincidence……. (drum-roll) …… that being, old Great Great Grandfather Crowe was also named Huey in his own full name – Robert Hugh Colville Crowe.

It’s a fancy story and even more quizzical coincidence of events, but the take-home message is more of a philosophical question >

QUESTION: Is advanced cycling ability stored in the genes, or is it borne out of motivation-driven yearnings, or was it more of a destiny in a passion for cycling discovered luckily through the journey of life?

Either way, if it feels like its in your blood to ride bikes too, then all you have to do is commit to persisting enough with cycling to develop your engine capacity for more distance and pedal-pressure.

Building the human cycling engine requires strength training at some points along your cycling journey (i.e. using more ‘loaded-muscle’ or resistance training) to develop pedal-stroke torque and explosive power fitness. I know that using baseline-interval training schedules and fixed-wheel Ridewiser Ergo machines, we can help you achieve much greater strength, through persistence. Ridewiser Ergo series sessions currently sell to do this for $330 over 10 weeks of mornings or nights on weekdays.

Contact Ridewiser Administration for more info    0422 297 805    admin@ridewiser.com.au