From stage four cancer to getting back on the bike, with a little help from Lachlan Morton

Confounding doctors’ expectations, Chris Riley is back on his bike and savouring every moment, more than a year on from a devastating diagnosis

Chris Riley
(Image credit: Andy Jones)

The last time I’d spoken to Chris Riley was January 2020. We chatted about how his fitness had progressed since he took part in CW’s Training Makeover series the previous spring.

The changes to the 28-year-old’s schedule were proving beneficial, he told me; he was feeling much fitter and even more motivated. It came as a sickening gut- punch, therefore, when just seven months later I received an email from Riley’s sister-in-law informing me that he had been diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer and given only months to live.

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David Bradford
Features editor

David Bradford is features editor of Cycling Weekly (print edition). He has been writing and editing professionally for more than 15 years, and has published work in national newspapers and magazines including the Independent, the Guardian, the Times, the Irish Times, Vice.com and Runner’s World. Alongside his love of cycling, David is a long-distance runner with a marathon PB of two hours 28 minutes. Having been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in 2006, he also writes about sight loss and hosts the podcast Ways of Not Seeing.