It’s mid-afternoon and Emily Willcox is in Richmond Park practising to clip-in. She’s come here, to London’s largest royal park, because it’s wide open and safe. It’s all she sees on Instagram too, videos and videos of cyclists riding expensive bikes in perfect outfits, lapping the park for fun.
Willcox is the kind of person who goes all-in on new skills. Once she’d decided to aim for a half Ironman, she went straight to Sigma Sports to buy a mid-range road bike, with all the extra trimmings. She swapped out the seat, got the handlebars adjusted to her size and took herself off to learn.
