The Weekly Rider - David McQuillen
David McQuillen is the La Velocita Weekly Rider!
Founder & Chief Suffering Officer at The Sufferfest David is responsible for putting together some of the best stationary trainer videos in the business. We speak to David about why he loves to ride.
Name: David McQuillen
Lives: Hampton, Melbourne
What’s your dream bike? When I turned 40, I told my wife that it was mid-life crisis time, and she could choose my crisis – a sports car, an affair or a Parlee Z5. Luckily, she chose the cheapest of the three and I’ve been with the bike for the past five years. It has got SRAM Red, a Quarq powermeter and Sicasso wheels, so I suppose I already own my dream bike.
What’s your favourite local ride? Nine Hammers by The Sufferfest seems to be what I ride most these days, as well as my commute into South Yarra every day. Since I’ve got three young kids, I don’t have the time to get out for long rides anymore - so if I do get it out, it means I’m on Beach Road.
I’d love to get out more, though. I did go mountain biking out in the You Yangs with Wade Wallace of CyclingTips a while back and that was an awesome day, but I didn’t see much of it because I was trying to keep up!
What’s your current cycling goal? I don’t race any more and I don’t ride outside a lot because I don’t have the time, so my goal would be to have an FTP (functional power threshold) of 300 – I don’t know if I can get there, but that’s where I’d love to be.
How did your love of bikes come about? I was really overweight as a kid and when I was around 15 I started riding as a way of getting some exercise. I’m from a small town in Pennsylvania, so riding was a way of exploring the landscape around where I grew up.
All of a sudden I was riding out through farms and countryside and getting to towns that for me were always over the horizon from where I grew up. It was amazing to do these things by myself or with friends and start to reveal the landscape. I started riding more and more and racing, but it was always the spirit of adventure and discovery that I loved.
Share a cycling memory: I’ve been riding for 25-odd years, so it’s hard to pick just one. One of my best memories was riding my mountain bike up to Mount Everest base camp.
It was part of a ride from Lhasa to Kathmandu with a friend of mine. It’s something I’d always wanted to do and I dreamed about it for years, I did so much planning. That climb up to the base camp was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done - I remember looking down at my computer and seeing 4km/h and thinking ‘I’m still 4km from the top, I can’t keep doing this for an hour’, but when I got up there and could see Mt. Everest, it really was pretty spectacular.
I love to ride because… Deep down, the original reason I started riding is still why I love it. It’s a chance to explore, have adventures and see things that I wouldn’t otherwise see. Obviously I love it for the fitness side of it, but it’s always been a way to escape into the unknown and have adventures.
IWBMATTKYT.
La Velocita Reviews
As we are well into winter everyone is asking me about lights, however, I think you should be riding with front and rear lights all year round, no matter what time of day or night, terrain, country or city, bike paths or roads.