Paying our respects to Nick Smart following his family’s unexpected breavement was something that beautifully brought together Nick’s family, neighbours and one of local cycling’s oldest clubs, the wonderful Uxbridge Loiterers, as well as it’s newest, West London Cycling.

The ride started at the Polish War Memorial, the spiritual home of West London Cycling and ended at the Rusty Bike Cafe in Uxbridge, passing Nick’s home along the way.

The ride stopped outside Nick’s house where his family came out and listened to a wonderful tribute from WLC’s Leon Evans before riding out and finishing at the Rusty Bike where the Loiterers’ Tim Oakley delivered a second tribute.

A wonderful opportunity to find out more about Nick from both the great speeches and meeting his family. Paul Saunders generously provided black armbands for the riders and we suspect it was a revelation for Nick’s family to meet all those cyclists they’d only heard about before. Special thanks to the Rusty Bike Cafe for hosting us all.

Nick was a popular, well liked, rider and this was a special day we’ll all remember for a long time. We hope he was looking down and enjoying it too.