Although he’s raced the Tour de France six times and has a deep passion for bike racing, it didn’t take long for Stephen Hodge to turn a discussion about Ben O’Connor’s fourth place in the Tour de France around. Within a few minutes, he was explaining his role with We Ride Australia… and how now is a great time to encourage more Australians to ride bikes.

 

– Click the link below to watch RIDE Media’s interview with Stephen Hodge. –

 

 

“I’m the director of national advocacy for the independent sort of advocacy foundation We Ride Australia,” says Stephen Hodge about his current role in the cycling community. The former professional cyclist is passionate about encouraging people to ride bikes – for sport and recreation but also for transport… and for the associate healthy benefits, physical and mental.

 

It takes very little prompting to get Hodge to talk about the benefits of bike riding. He has been doing this for years and, he says, the pandemic has created a setting that has already had positive benefits for cycling.

 

There is a considerable uptake of cycling in Australia and governments at all levels are working hard to make it easier and safer to ride.

 

 

“We have a focus on making Australia an easier place to choose to ride a bike for short trips,” Hodge says, outlining his We Ride Australia mission statement. And he’s not just concerned with the sport he did as a job for many years. Rather, Hodge now wants everyone to ride, for sport or health or transport, “whether you’re an older Australian, whether you are a parent riding with your kids to school, whether you would like to replace some of the short trips you do every day”.

 

Watch the full interview to see how a chat about the TDF can turn into one about lobbying politicians for better cycling conditions.

 

 

– By Rob Arnold