The Beach Bum - Peter Bryant — Velo Club Traverse

I do not need much of an excuse to give Peter a call, I always enjoy our conversations. It was particularly interesting though to press him on the early days and his time as a water skier; he does not really like to talk too much about this. as he is rather modest. More importantly, it is far more interesting than the computer software and early retirement years.

Like Treve, you are a pivotal member of Ripcor. They call you Lord Hampshire, why?

Well, I used to live in Hampshire and our house had a very long driveway. Back in the day, I hosted a ride and most people were impressed with the length of it and joked that it was pretty much the size of Hampshire and that they expected a coffee stop halfway down the drive.

Apparently Peter could travel 53.80m in this position

You were a world record holder once upon a time. What was that about?

Actually I was a World Champion in water skiing way back in 1980 in Bordeaux. The format was a 3 man team event, knock out rounds. We all had to do slalom, tricks and a jump discipline. I was also a European Champion 3 times, these were in Stockholm, Bilbao and somewhere in Austria! Actually for the Worlds, it was the first time that US had ever been beaten in a team event.

Can you explain the disciplines a little more, were the tricks off of jumps?

No, the tricks were all off of the wake. You had 2 x 20 second runs and you had to fit in as many as you could in this time. The judges looked at execution and awarded points accordingly for each manoeuvre. The most points won! Then for the slalom, it was sort of sudden death, the boat speed and buoys were kept constant and with each round they shortened the rope, making it harder to make the turns, the last man standing pretty much won. The jumping was done with a constant boat speed and rope length and it was up to your technique to go the furthest off of a wooden ramp.

So were you a professional? Did you get to see the world?

I was full time from 77 to 84 but it was not really professional, I did it with grants from sports councils and the like. In the Springtime, we used to base ourselves in Florida and I would help out with teaching in return for water time myself.

I know that you love to watch all the cycle racing. What are you doing this year to fill that void?

Watching last years again!

There are rumours this week that Chris Froome will leave Ineos soon, do you think he should?

Did you see that someone hacked the Israeli Cycling Academy’s twitter account and said that he had joined them! Yes, he should leave Ineos, I doubt that he will ever be their team leader again so he may as well chance his arm somewhere else.

What was the most impressive thing that you could do on water skis?

Well I was the best at jumping, my furthest ever distance was 53.8m. Tricks wise, I did 720s and occasionally a 900, no flips like the kids do these days. It has been influenced a lot by wakeboarding over the past few years.

Why did you stop waterskiing and what got you into cycling?

My rate of progress was slowing and I started to get more injuries! I decided it was about time to get a job; I was 24. It was funny, I met Lorraine, my wife, in 84. She came to one tournament with me in Austria in the summer and I think that she was buying into the lifestyle - I quit after that competition! Went into computer software!!

In late 2004, my friend Steve convinced Nick, Rob and I that we need to get fit. He said that we should enter a Sportive and work towards that, he put our names down for the Time Megeve! We got bikes in the January and then booked a trip out to Megeve 2 weeks before the event to test out the route. We did it over 3 days, loved it but realised that the Sportive was not within us so we did not come out for that!!!

Are there any other hobbies that you have got into since stopping the skiing?

Golf… Sailing… Tennis - Lorraine and I have played at the Annecy golf course which is stunning.

What is you favourite local, regular ride?

I love the Ripcor Henley Trips which includes Stelvio, not the Italian one but the Marlow Stelvio!

He has come a long way from the skiing days…

What is you most memorable ride?

By far the biggest achievement was when I did the Etape in 2018 from Annecy to Le Grand Bornand - it made up for wimping out of the Time Megeve! I also remember one of our cycles up the back of Semnoz. I remember being about 5km from the top when I heard a small child’s voice calling from a shady rock just off the road. It was you! You had blown up and were begging for energy bars! It was funny.