'To be able to do these challenges… it's almost like kicking the ass of mental health': Meet the man riding over 500 kilometres off-road – on a Brompton

You’re 50 miles into the RideLondon 100 and you’re knackered. Your legs are burning, your heart is heaving…and you hear a bell cut into the air around you. Not one ding, but a series of jingly, high-pitched chirps. James Pocock is on the overtake – aboard a Brompton.

“People would dread me turning up [on the Brompton], because I would kick people's asses,” Pocock says, his Cotswolds accent thick with a smile about to erupt into laughter. “I probably wasn’t making any friends; you’ve got a bell on a Brompton and I used to ring the bell as I was passing people, especially if they were on a Cervélo or something like that. And I would smile.”

Pocock is no masochist, however. He’s the opposite. For the last 17 years, he’s raised nearly £19,000 for Movember as a Sports Ambassador. Now he’s about to take on a triple off-road Brompton challenge for his last – and biggest – fundraising campaign with the charity, heading for Northumberland’s 200km Dirty Reiver, the Frontier 300 and Gravel Rocks.

Pocock is a Brompton-expert by now. He’s climbed the height of Everest on a fold up bike on Zwift and has ridden the length of Wales over 17 hours. But it took time to get used to the weight of the bike, and to take it on terrain it was never designed to traverse.

Pocock first got his hands on a Brompton to ride the London 100 for Movember. He’d reached out on a whim and at first wasn’t accepted. Then, after a last-minute drop-out, he joined the team, and he began to better understand his own mental health.

“I had suffered with my mental health, but I wasn't really aware of how much things got me down,” the 48-year-old said. “When I was at school, there was no real way to talk about your feelings. I was always one for bottling things, and letting things get on top of me.

“I just thought it was me, I just thought I'm a bit soft or whatever. And when I started doing the Movember stuff and started hooking up with other people that have mental health issues as well, I started realising that actually, other people are the same.”

Over the last 17 years, bike challenges and fundraising campaigns have been both a way to give back to a charity that had become his community, and also incentives to get out of the door.

“When you suffer with your mental health, you can struggle to do some day to day stuff,” Pocock said. “To be able to do these challenges…it's almost like kicking the ass of mental health, because it is sometimes a struggle to just get out the door.”

Pocock will start the first of his challenge races on Saturday 25 April, on the Scottish borders aboard a Brompton G Line. Not only will he be racing on a Brompton, he’ll also be wearing a bright orange helmet. It is a kind of code: if you’re struggling on a ride, the person wearing an orange helmet will always be up for a chat. The rules of the crew are simple: be visible; ride your own ride; offer help where needed; smile – and don't ring your bell when you're overtaking!

You can follow Pocock's challenge via his Movember page here.