Team Bike – Genevieve Expand Genevieve joined the team five years ago from the Co-motion Cycles workshop in Oregon, USA. Weighing in at just 16.5 kg (36 lbs) she is an awesome state of the art tandem. For aficionados of the genre she is a 2012 Speedster equipped with the Performance Pack (disc brakes, lightweight wheels and carbon fork) and S&S couplers.
James Owers Expand James (27) is currently studying for his PhD at the University of Edinburgh on Machine Learning and its application to Music. He’ll be the fresh legs taking the front seat on the second half of this epic tour. His first experience piloting a tandem was with Chris, sleepily navigating the streets of London on the 100km ‘Nightrider’ in 2013, but he has toured many times (mostly alongside Alastair!). His favourite tour was a 6 day anticlockwise loop of the beautiful Scottish Highlands, from Inverness to Fort William in beautiful sunshine. He caught the cycling bug a decade ago when challenged to cycle from London to Edinburgh whilst raising funds for local charity Chennai Challenge. Bar cycling, James has also run the London Marathon, swum the Serpentine, and rock climbed in Kalymnos.
Alastair Heggie Expand Alastair will be piloting the first half of the tour over the Rockies from Astoria to Sioux Falls. Alastair inherited a love of cycling from his father (whether he liked it or not). When he was 14 he went on a tour with his family from Gloucestershire to North Wales. Not put off by this experience, Alastair has since toured thought the UK, but this will be his first ride outside this island. On another trip through the mountains of Wales Alastair developed a healthy respect for oncoming vehicles on narrow roads after a fall from his bike. For this reason he is looking forward to the wide roads of America. Alastair is currently meandering his way through a PhD in Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. In addition to cycling, he is an occasional fell runner, rock climber and sailor. Alastair is a proud member of the Cloud Appreciation Society.
Chris Mairs Expand This ride is Chris’ pledge to cure 60 people of sight loss a day for 60 consecutive days at the age of 60. Chris suffers from a rare form of degenerative sight loss and was registered blind at the age of 18. He has spent his career as an engineer, business executive and entrepreneur working with digital technology. He is currently a Venture Partner at Entrepreneur First. In earlier years Chris competed in various sports including captaining the British Disabled Waterski team to victory in 3 world championships. Chris undertook his first long distance cycle ride in 2012 from Lands End to John o’Groats (end to end across the UK) covering 100 miles a day for 10 consecutive days. In 2014 Chris was awarded a CBE in the New Years Honours list. He is passionate about digital skills education and is a Trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation.