Mike Cuming grew up around cycling. His dad, Dave Cuming, owned a bike shop in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and he first started racing when he was 15 or 16 years old, competing in local time trials and criteriums.
His dad was also a professional cyclist in the 70’s 80’s, and rode in some classics like Het Niewsblad, Tour of Flanders, Gent-Wevelgem and the World Road Championships in Venezuela.
Mike never quite reached the highs of riding some of the races you grow up watching and dreaming of doing but he had a good old crack. Some achievements include winning the U23 National Road Championships in 2012, winning the overall classification in the Tour of Korea in 2013, winning a stage of Tour of Korea in 2014, winning a stage of New Zealand Cycle Classic in 2016 and not quite a win but a good memory was a 3rd place in a stage of the Tour of Yorkshire and getting the Mountains Jersey in 2018. The Tour of Yorkshire is a special race for cyclists in the UK, and the crowds at that race are probably the best he’d ever experienced as a bike rider from the UK.
Other great experiences in Mike’s road career include riding in 5 years of the Tour of Britain, a few big races in Europe and racing in Australia, Asia and even the USA at the USA pro challenge in Denver (where he spotted Lance out watching on the first stage).
Mike’s last 10 years of racing on the road has been awesome. It allowed him to meet some great people, traveling to incredible places and to make a living from doing something he loves doing! Hard to complain about that!
His first ride on Zwift was back in 2018. While normally he spent the UK winters in Australia in the sun where his wife is from, Mike had just signed with British Continental Professional team Madison Genesis and decided to spend winter in the UK. So one grey, rainy morning, he signed up for Zwift and did 3hrs in his first ride around Watopia. The time flew by when normally he struggled to do 30mins on a trainer. It wasn’t long after that a teammate introduced him to racing and he found it so much fun! From then on, he actually looked forward to horrible rainy days.
Since the pandemic shut down the UK, Mike has introduced multiple family members to Zwift: his mum and dad have both taken to the platform, and the family has even done a few family bunch rides! The game has been a really neat way to connect this cycling family during the lockdowns.
Now that Mike has finished racing on the road, and he has a full-time job as a bartender at a pub -- so Zwift fits in perfectly to scratch that competitive itch and for being able to jump on at any time and ride or race with some of the best athletes from all over the world!
“The fact that you can make new mates and have a laugh doing something fun and competitive is super. I’ve only just started to get to know and race with my new STPC teammates but they’ve made me feel part of the family already.”
Interesting facts about Mike:
Intimidated by Holden’s sprint. If Holden is in the group leading into finish, Mike doesn’t even bother contesting the sprint
Met his wife while racing the Herald Sun Tour — She was working as a Soigneur 6 years ago and he dragged her back to the UK with him
His favorite food is easily pizza — he hasn’t missed a “two for two” Tuesday in 4 months
Big Liverpool FC fan — he goes to as many games as he can (not so much since a certain pesky virus turned up)
Favorite TV show is The Office (yep, the US one)
Used to run cross country for his county before he took up cycling
Lived in Brittany, France for 6 months, racing bikes when he was 19. The only French he learned was “où est la boulangerie”…”where is the bakery”.
Avid gamer, saving up bartending tips for a PS5