Have you ever gone for a ride with a celebrity? Let’s see photos of who you rode with that the rest of us might know. I’ll kick it off. Back in 2012, when I was living in Singapore, I got to go for a ride with Formula 1 star Jenson Button (he was in town for the Singapore F1 race). He was training for triathlon and so a small group of us took him out – he’s pretty fast on a bike, too!
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If we can be flexible with the definition of “famous” then I’ve had the opportunity to ride with a whole bunch of famous knights including Sir Nathan Koch, Sir David Juarez, Dame Jo Ganley and Dame Ruby Zambrano, and the magnificent women of SUF camp 2019
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lol I think technically I’m infamous, not famous 
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SUF Camp was so fun! You were all so amazing, I definitely felt like I was meeting SUF-celebrities!
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Unfortunately I don’t have any pics from proper rides but I’ve had a couple of celebrity run ins at sportives
Favourite one was at the start of the first Ride London on 2013. Started in a pen alongside Laura Trott, Dani King and the rest of the then Wiggle Honda squad. Rode next to Laura Trott for about half a mile. She’s so tiny, but even just rolling along you could tell she had a ridiculous amount of power!
Also started a couple of Sportives next to Martin Johnson who was England’s captain when we won the Rugby World Cup. He’s like the polar opposite of Laura as he’s the size of a mountain!!
But my true moment of glory was when I won a pass to an Oakley launch event in London and got to meet and race Mark Cavendish. Best bit was, I beat him!! 
think he took one look at my lard arse and thought he’d just beat me a bit, he looked at bit surprised at the end after I unloaded a Suf smack down on him :-
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Dame @janis.denning that London event was so cool, getting to meet you guys and watch you ride “hard” in that race was pretty awesome!!
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I rode with David Millar for about a millisecond. I was grinding up a local slope in my granniest gear when this rider pulled up alongside, gave me a brief greeting and shot off like a scalded rabbit. It was DM . He looked so smooth and effortless with a fast cadence. My gears were not low enough to pedal that fast. I wanted to chase after him and ask how he did it, but he was gone in a flash.
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I somehow came across this thread again. I love that Jenson has the rainbow bands on his shorts. It wasn’t cycling, Jenson, but we’ll let you off…
The only celeb experience I had was running a Nike 10k event in London many moons ago. Paula Radcliiffe was the official starter, and she then donned her kicks and joined the hoi polloi on the course. She was running next to me (who am I kidding, I was running next to her) for a minute or so. I was going race pace, she was floating along and chatting. Then she scalded someone for shoving, put her foot down and disappeared.
She won’t know it, but it was pretty cool for me. She was the inspiration for me to get in to running - I used to live on the London Marathon course are seeing her put down the Suf in 2002 made me sign up for the following year. I didnt get in the ballot but I did then get to see her DESTROY the field in '03. I did however get in to Paris that year, ran 3:11 and lost 19kg in the process.
If you ever feel like watching a Sufferlandrian running smack down watch Paula in her prime.
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I was at the Billy Bilsland bike shop last time I was in Scotland. There’s a lot of pride in David Millar in that place and SUF ton of memorabilia.
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No photos, but Georgia Williams (2x NZ National Road and TT champ and rides for GreenEdge) lives down the road from me. I got to ride with her on a day or so after she won NZ Road champs the first time about 4 years ago. She was knackered but climbed like a Mountain Goat and thrashed us all. Just an all round humble, lovely person. Great fun riding with her.
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