Riding with Joy

Hi my name is Joy Bolton and I have been cycling with the Wheelie Wonderful Women for about 4 years. My first memory of riding a bike was when my sister and myself received bikes for Christmas when I was 12 which I was to ride to High School in the following year. I loved the freedom of being able to go out on the weekends and explore.

I did not do a cycling class with the City of Stirling but my friend Alison was doing one as we had been talking about buying a bike each to do some cycling. Although I had not ridden for many years except for the trips to Rottnest I felt confident on a bike. Once I went down to part-time work I was looking for something to be involved with which required exercising and would be social as well and I found the perfect outlet in the Wheelie Wonderful Women Group. Once Alison had completed the course she told me about the different riding groups within the City of Stirling program. So we started riding with Sally in the Saturday group and Marie in the Sunday group.

From then I went onto ride with the Wednesday group and once I had retired from work I started cycling with the Friday group as well. I still enjoy the freedom of being on a bike out in the fresh air and hopefully will be cycling for many more years to come. My most favourite ride is anywhere around the Swan and Canning Rivers.

Before joining the group I used to visit the gym regularly so I suppose I was quiet fit. Although my first day out by myself on my new bike did test me from Hillarys to Burns Beach which I had to turn back because of the hills and my longest ride to date is 100km so I have come a long way. I usually ride a minimum of 3 times a week and that has really built up my stamina. Sometimes I ride solo when I am training for one of my cycling trips away but normally I like riding in a group. I have been to New Zealand in 2014 and cycled the Alps to Ocean Trail. In 2015 I went to Victoria and cycled the Three Rail Trails and 2016 I cycled for two weeks along the Danube River from Passau to Budapest all of these trips with ladies from our cycling groups.

On 24 February, I will also be travelling to Tasmania with some of the ladies and a few husbands as well and we will be cycling from Launceston to the East Coast and then down to Port Arthur over 10 days. We also have long weekends away in Albany, Margaret River and Rottnest Island so there is always something in the planning. I bought a mountain bike a couple of years ago and have also done sections of the Munda Biddi from Manjimup to Northcliffe over 4 days and many day trips on the Railway Heritage Trail.

I am so lucky to have found this great group of ladies. We all love our cycling and coffee stops for a chat and the girls are very supportive of each other. I would like to get my husband involved in doing some cycling with me but so far it has been baby steps. It would be great if we could do a trip together sometime.

2 comments

  1. Marg Dudley says:

    Well done Joy. Nice story. I didn’t realise you came to join the www group via Alison. You learn something new every day. Its as pity Alison doesn’t still ride.

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