Dame Laura Kenny
The Sigma Sports Cafe Ride
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Matt experiences a day in the life of Dame Laura Kenny and gets put straight to work in this edition of the Sigma Sports Café Ride. No stranger to the lanes of Cheshire, former police officer Matt Stephens returns to his old beat to spend a day with a local kingpin with a lot of gold around her neck.
Laura might have five golds and one silver Olympic medal to her name, but you’d never know it. Matt learns that Laura is a down to earth and busy mum, managing a farm, a family and a post-pro cyclist’s media career. That doesn’t leave much room for Café Ride, unless Matt is happy to muck out the chickens, take the alpacas for a walk and put the ducks to bed. It’s all in a day’s work, right?
The route
A great British bike ride. Matt Stephens revisited some of his old training roads for this episode, as he embarked on a rolling route around the Cheshire lanes. With quiet, tree-lined roads and gentle undulations, this was the perfect cafe spin. Enjoying a well deserved pitstop at Bidlea Dairy, Matt and Laura sampled some of the establishment's finest milk based beverages before clipping in for the final roll back home.
The bike
Two legends of the sport, two Van Rysel road bikes to have fun on in the Cheshire lanes. Yes, both Laura and Matt clipped in for their spin on rather fetching Van Rysel bikes, with Laura opting for the endurance focused, EDR and Matt, the slightly more performance driven RCR-R.
Both Matt and Laura's bikes were equipped with Shimano's highly capable 105 Di2 groupsets, while finishing touches on both bikes came courtesy of Continental, with ultra grippy rubber.
The EDR sported carbon fibre Van Rysel wheels, while the RCR-R had SwissSide hoops and a full Deda finishing kit.
The kit
Alpaca approved, Matt and Laura's kit ensemble for this Cafe Ride was brought together with the help of Van Rysel and Universal Colours.
Sporting Van Rysel's fantastic range of helmets, shoes and eyewear, the duo both looked the part, while keeping their safety in check.
A brisk day in Cheshire meant layers were the name of the game and Universal Colours' highly capable autumn and winter range delivered, providing excellent comfort as well as eye-catching style.
Want to explore the series? Find out about the other Sigma Sports Cafe Ride guests and watch all the episodes.