As part of our initiative with local primary and secondary schools DHF are proud to announce we are supporting Charlie Bailey, a cyclist from Hinchley Wood school. Here is Charlie’s story:

My Name is Charlie Bailey I am 17 years old and I compete nationally as a cyclist.

I was a late starter in the cycling world, age 14, with most people starting when they were 10 years old or younger. I started off my cycling career at Hillingdon Slipstreamers where I was lucky enough to have great coaches there that helped to teach me the more technical side of cycling and introduced me to time trialling.

After coming 7th overall (and 2nd for my age) in late 2018 at the National Youth Championships 10-mile time trial I was hungry for the win. In 2019 the course was extremely windy and technical playing into my strengths, and I managed to take my first national win by a margin of 1 second over two Team GB academy riders.

Following onto the 2020 season, after a long winter of training, I headed back to Belgium for the LIERDE kermess with my new team Lee Valley Junior Team. I took the biggest win of my career ahead of 150 other riders.

My long-term goal is to become a professional cyclist. I am only at the start of my journey, but I am so thankful to have the Dylan Howells Foundation helping me reach my goals. This funding will really help assist me in travelling to and funding my events when they restart. I am also very proud to represent the Foundation especially because I started off as a triathlete at Thames Turbo and have partaken in the DHF fundraising events there.

Thank you so much again for the funding and I also look forward to meeting you as soon as possible.