The rider
The first thing to say is that I’m not a cyclist; well not in the way you might expect. Since I’ve been doing some cycling (really over the last year) I’ve been surprised at just how many people I’ve met who either are or were pretty serious cyclists. And whilst obviously I’ve become a lot better over the last year, I’m far from being that good.
So that’s who I’m not; but who am I? My name is David Gallagher. I was born and bred in Yorkshire but have lived in differing places in the East Midlands for the last nearly 20 years. I’m 37 years old; am married to Sarah and have two children. When I start the tour, my son Shem will be nearly 3 years old and my daughter Sylvia will be nearly 3 months old.
I’m a qualified chartered accountant and, for the last 10 years have worked for Mercia Group Ltd., a company that provides services to independent accountancy firms. My role involves, on the one hand, a lot of travelling up and down the country delivering lectures on audit and accountancy (including one of my specialisms; charity accounting). I also undertake a lot of editorial work on various audit and specialist assignment manuals that we produce.
When not at work or being at home with the family (or indeed, recently, stealing some time to do some training on my pushbike), for the last 5 years I’ve been a volunteer of the local branch of the Samaritans in Leicester. In addition to being a listening volunteer, I have served as a member of the management committee for the last three years (sooner or later with my accountancy background I was always going to get roped into that one) as well as doing a stint on the On-Going training team.
In my youth, I was an avid swimmer. My competitive performances were nothing at all special but I did train alongside some people (particularly at my last club; Darlington) that were. Like most people, I had a bike as a child but I don’t recall cycling much as a teenager.
When I was first thinking about doing something memorable during my three month sabbatical, swimming the channel crossed my mind (this is before that chap from "Little Britain" did it). But for reasons that I don’t remember, the idea of a long cycle trip appealed to me. Anyway, that’s who I am.