Featured Rider Neill Kemp
One of the very best bits of the Tour of Tours, is the fact that it’s attracted many of our wonderful Alumni back for a second (or 3rd, or 4th …) crack at the whip – some after a break of several years.
So when we saw Neill’s name pop up we did a little jump for joy. Neill was a member of the self-titled ‘Velobus Ecosse’ in 2013 – a band of Scots (plus a few honorary members) who forged a tight bond on tour by working together, laughing together and supporting each other through the good days, and the tough ones too.
Neill blogged daily and back at HQ I waited eagerly each day for his latest brilliant, entertaining post. His blog remains my top TDF blog of all time (I’m allowed favourites!) and still features on our Riders’ Blogs Showcase.
Meet Neill
NAME: Neill Kemp
AGE: 50
LOCATION: Glasgow
EXPERIENCE:
I rode the whole route of the 100th Tour in 2013 — a “lifer”, which sounds rather more like a sentence than a holiday. At times, the distinction was marginal. (Ed. a few years ago we switched to calling those who ride all 21 stages ‘Grand Loopers’).
Before signing up, I hadn’t done a huge amount of cycling. I’d always played competitive sport, but I was only beginning to dabble in bikes. I’d joined a club and tried racing the previous summer, which provided a useful introduction to just how quickly other people could disappear up the road.
Signing up for the Tour changed things. I got a coach, started training properly and spent the winter preparing for a season of racing followed by three weeks around France. My theory was that if I could get race fit, I’d be fit enough for the Tour. Which seemed a perfectly reasonable approach from the comfort of my sofa.
HE SAYS:
That summer in France, and the lead-up to it, made up one of the best periods of my life. There were adventures, misadventures, crashes, mechanicals and enough wonderful memories to fill a book. So I wrote one. Shadow Boxing with Major Tom. It’s really good … You can find it at https://neillkemp.com/books/.
If I had to choose one memory, it would be our climb up Mont Ventoux. It’s a place of pilgrimage and suffering, joy and despair. A little slice of heaven, especially if you like your heaven served with a generous helping of hell.
Riding the Tour is an extraordinary privilege. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to being a professional cyclist, and the organisation from Sarah, Kate and the team is nothing short of astonishing. All you have to do is get up on time and pedal your bike. Although, admittedly, there is rather a lot of pedalling.
I can guarantee there will be numerous days when you climb off your bike and declare to anyone willing to listen, “That was the best day I have ever had on my bike.” You will get tired of saying that…
My advice? Prepare properly, bring some determination and give yourself the chance to discover what you can do. There will be dark days when you’d rather be almost anywhere else. But they’re far outweighed by the glorious ones: riding through magnificent countryside beneath what I remember as a permanently azure sky, with very little to concern you beyond the next climb and what’s for lunch. And even the bad days are wonderful.
It’s hard, of course. But the hardest day of the whole experience is undoubtedly your first day back at work. Nothing in the Alps adequately prepares you for that.
WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
The Tour was the springboard for a love affair with my bike. I went on to race all over the UK and as far afield as Norway. Along the way, I won the Etape Caledonia, set the course record and, a couple of years after the Tour, managed to get onto the podium at the Masters World Track Championships. Things had escalated somewhat from just “dabbling”. But I can trace it all back to the decision to sign up to ride the Tour.
Then life got in the way and the bikes took a back seat. I’ve kept myself fit, but they’ve spent the past few years in the garage, presumably wondering what they’d done wrong.
When I saw that Le Loop was staging a Tour of Tours, I couldn’t resist. As a 50th birthday present to myself, I decided to find out whether my legs are still as strong as they were thirteen years ago. Who knows what the answer will be? But I’m going to have a great time finding out.
Some people buy a watch when they turn 50; others get a motorbike or find themselves a blonde. I got myself a seat on the best adventure there is.
And I can’t wait.
Thanks Neill for being our first featured rider of the 2027 tour. See you in Nice!
Vive Le Tour!
