Rider Stories | Jo

We’re back with our Sunday Series of Rider stories and this week we’ve got a fantastic piece from Jo to share with you all. 

Jo has been riding bikes since he could walk, which now at 49 means he’s got a few years of life on two wheels under his belt. Mountain bikes became too much hassle for him so he turned to the dark side - got some Lycra and tried being a roadie!

He first rode with us here at UKCE back in 2012, so he’s seen a few iterations of the UKCE team as well as the growth of our event offerings. Over the years Jo was finally convinced by the roadie life, bought a proper road bike and progressed up to our 60-mile routes. Then in  2019 he decided to set himself the goal of doing the UKCE New Forest 100 and ended up doing four 100-mile Sportives in 2019 and was fitter and faster than ever.

However, a week after the New Forest 100 mile Sportive Jo had a stroke. 

The consultants who cared for Jo said he’d be lucky to be able to ride a bike again, at best for 10 minutes, let alone 100 miles. And so the challenge was on!

Jo then had heart surgery in June 2020. But by September 2020 he was back riding with us at the 60 Mile New Forest Sportive and raised money for stroke and brain injury charities.

Since 2020 Jo has carried on riding despite some serious challenges of riding long distance such as brain fades and there being sections of the route he struggles to recall. However, with a lot of physical and mental training, Jo is determined to come and join us here at UKCE for the New Forest Tour 100 miler in September this year, as a celebration of the 5th Anniversary of the stroke he suffered. Not only will Jo want to complete the New Forest Tour event he also wants to better his 2019 time! 

We can’t wait to see how Jo gets on in September. We’re just thrilled he’ll be joining us on the start line, but we know that Jo won’t just settle for that. We have loved this story of how bikes have helped Jo recover and how our Sportives have been a crucial part of the healing and recovery process. 

Check out Jo over on his instagram : @jostark6 ! 

A huge thank you to Jo for sharing what he's up to! We honestly really enjoy hearing from you all. So if you ever have anything you want to share then drop Elyse an e-mail on elyse@ukcyclingevents.co.uk no matter how small it might be, be bold and hit send!