Post Commonwealth Games, #PeopleoftheSU special edition!
We are delighted to introduce Birmingham 2022 athlete, former Junior World Champion & European Short Track Champion Charlie Aldridge.
Charlie is one of our many high performing athletes, receiving support from the University of Edinburgh Individual Athlete Scholarship Programme. Though most importantly to us he is one of our Edinburgh University Cycling club members!
See below for what Charlie had to say.
“I’d say mountain-biking came to me, living at the foot of the Highlands in Crieff, there is plenty of spots to try mountain biking. All it took was an advert in the local Strathearn Herald to entice me to join the local Strathearn bike club. A guess that was the start of my sporting journey, other than a little bit of skiing when I was younger, cycling has always been my main focus."
"Coming to Edinburgh has been great for my development. Allowing me to combine my Mechanical Engineering degree part time enabling me to focus on my sporting career. Joining up for rides and socials too, with the cycling club has given me a sense of community. The support I receive from my club mates has been immense especially leading up to the Commonwealth Games. In the winter period when racing takes a break it has been great to have people to train with from a variety of abilities and experience.
I am a big advocate for switching up training as much as you can. It has got to be exciting. Even though some might think I am an elite athlete robot, I can assure you I am not. I do try to join in with the social side of the club when I can. The cycling club’s minibike pub crawl has been a special highlight for me!
I’ve even had some Intramural sport involvement with the Engineers rugby team. Playing on the wing for a game against the History boys rugby team was super fun. It has been great to see sport being played at Edinburgh, that gives everyone a chance regardless of ability or experience. I am very grateful to be connected with them, being an Honorary Member of the club.
The run into Birmingham 2022 was a hectic one. I knew I was in a rich vein of form leading into the games, so I was chuffed to bounce back in the road race after my crash in the cross-country final. The full experience was really cool meeting athletes from different sports, especially the wrestlers who lived amongst the cyclists in our satellite village. They were a really fun group of people to be around, though I had to watch what I said to avoid being put in a headlock in 2 seconds”.