From the Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Kirstie Grace and Nina Quinlan

Two university lecturers have cycled over 500 miles across Europe to raise money for charity. David Spereall from Leeds Trinity University reports …

Nina Quinlan and Kirstie Grace, who both teach the Sport, Health and Nutrition course at Leeds Trinity University, completed the challenge with the Ultra 6 Challenge Team as part of the Lord Mayor’s Cycle Ride between April 28 and May 4.

The route took them from Dortmund in Germany across to the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France. The team then took a ferry back to Hull and were joined by around 60 other riders in a 70 mile dash back to Leeds.

Nina, 44, describes the team’s effort as a “big achievement”.

“It was a really good experience and very challenging,” she says. “I think the biggest challenge was the relentlessness of the cycling, rather than the cycling itself.

“It took a couple of days for us to work out the pace of the group, because some were faster than others. But there was no competitive edge to it – it was purely a group ride.”

Although Nina, as an experienced amateur cyclist, was used to the demands of a long trek, it was a new experience for 34 year-old Kirstie, who had only started cycling on a regular basis in the run-up to the event.

However, she describes the experience as being “a lot easier than I was expecting.”

“The hardest thing was probably the tiredness of the long days and the fact that you didn’t get much leisure time,” she says. “You’d finish cycling, and then you’d have a shower and eat and then you’d be shattered and it’d be time for bed.

And when you weren’t cycling you were eating just to give yourself the energy to keep going, so eating became a bit of a chore in the end to be honest.”

Nina agrees, adding that “It was probably on the ferry back to Hull when for the first time we could all just sit down and relax a bit and talk about how it had gone.”

The Lord Mayor's Cycle Ride Team

Around £12,500 was raised for the Lord Mayor’s chosen charity, LOFFTY, which aims to provide after-school activities for young people and children to do in Leeds.
And it was this that the pair insisted had made the fatigue and the sore legs they suffered all worth it. “After three days it got a bit tiresome because it became a flat ride and you were just sat in the saddle,” Kirstie says.

“It’s much easier to ride when you’ve got lots of little hills to go up and down. It’s the same principle as when you’re running because you’re using different leg muscles if you’ve got hills so it’s easier.”

Both lecturers are now planning to resume a regular cycling schedule with some gruelling rides in more British and less exotic climates now on the agenda. They are also quick to notice the difference between the UK and the content in attitudes towards cyclists.

“In Belgium the drivers are so much more courteous,” Nina claims. “If we were approaching a junction they would give us plenty of space or in some cases even reverse to give us the time we needed.

In the UK it’s very different because they go too close to you and too fast.”

And Belgium was the trip’s highlight from a scenic perspective too, according to Kirstie.

“Brugge was beautiful,” she says. “We saw some really great sights and the people were extremely polite and friendly.”

Both Kirstie and Nina, who have worked at Leeds Trinity for a combined total of eleven years, are now looking forward to the Tour de France and will be travelling to different parts of the route to soak up the increasingly feverish atmosphere.

But first things first, they are booked in to do a Q & A session with Leeds Trinity students next week to talk about their experience, with a particular focus on the message “anyone can do this if you put your mind to it”.

Kirstie’s example is particularly pertinent: “I started cycling just a few weeks before Dortmund as Nina got me into,” she explains. “It’s great fun when you do it so I’d encourage anyone to have a go at doing something like this.”