Meet the instructor – Phil Keymer

How old were you when you started cycling?   

I think I was about 5 or 6. I grew up in Norfolk, rural Norfolk and I learnt in a farmyard, which I’ve been back to you since, and it was really good place for learning actually. When I was a child, I just used to get on my bike and just cycle off around the countryside on my own. And it’s quite funny as a parent, I don’t think I’d let my kids do that now. 

What motivated you to become an instructor?

I was looking for a career change and I really enjoyed teaching my own children to ride a bike. My wife had a friend whose husband was a Bikeability instructor in the Manchester area, so I knew it was a thing.  

I hadn’t done cycling proficiency myself at school or anything, so I hadn’t really experienced it, but I just thought, ooh, that sounds fun and I did a quick Google search and found that there was a community instructor in the same town, Jackie Eason, and she got me into it and trained me up. 

What’s your favourite part of the job as a cycling instructor?

Well, I’m tempted to say it’s the commute, because all the schools I teach at are in really beautiful places all around the North Coast of Cornwall. So it’s actually really good for cycling to work here. But that’s probably not the best bit. 

The best bit is that moment when a child gets it, and you realise that they understood that this is really good fun, and they know how to do it. I think that’s very exciting. When you see someone falling in love with cycling. 

Teaching a kid to cycle is fantastic, I mean that is really good fun. But actually when you see them out on the road, maybe they’re really nervous, and then they suddenly realise that if they do a few things, they can keep themselves safe and they don’t need to be quite so frightened. And actually this is a viable way of getting around and enjoying yourself. 

What’s your favourite cycling memory or experience?

There’s a few. There’s lots of different things I like about cycling. I’ve done some cyclocross racing and I really enjoyed that. I haven’t done that for a few years now, but I absolutely love that. That was really good fun. I’m also in a club. We started the club in the town a few years ago and I do enjoy riding with the club and the sort of camaraderie of that. 

But I actually really enjoy just cycling on my own. Just sort of exploring on a bike. 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I enjoy walking, so we do quite a lot of walking around on the coast path and up on the Moor and stuff around here. And if I’m stuck at home, I like making models. 

Where is your favourite place in the world?

I would have to say Cornwall. I’m not from here originally, but we moved here in 2013, so I’ve been here for over 10 years now and I do love it. 

I love it up on Bodmin Moor, there’s a lot of ancient archaeology, amazing Iron Age and Bronze Age settlements. I love being up there and kind of feeling the history. But then also the scenery and the sea and the beaches and the coast path, and yeah, I do love it here.  

Do you have any top tips for people who want to start cycling or cycle more?

I think I would say finding a place that you love to do it is the key thing. During lockdown, I thought right, I’m going to get Zwift and I’m going to get on my exercise bike and I’m going to get really fit and use this opportunity. And I actually realised that I really hated virtual cycling. It just made me miss being outside in the beautiful countryside and that made me realise that what I like best about cycling, the thing that I think motivates me to do it, is doing it somewhere where I want to be. 

I know that’s easy for me to say somewhere like this, but if people can find somewhere that they enjoy, somewhere they feel happy and they like to be, I think that makes a huge difference. You can explore on a bike in ways you can’t do any other way. I go to places on my bike around here that I’d never walk to because it’s too far, and you’d never drive there because it’s not on the way to anywhere. But [cycling] you discover all sorts of wonderful spots that you otherwise would never come across. 

Do you have a a cycling hero?

I think Cav’s [Mark Cavendish] great, and it’s been wonderful seeing him carry on with his career and this summer getting his record on the Tour de France was awesome. 

I’m a big fan of Chris Boardman as well, both from the sporting side of it, but also his campaigning. I think he’s a very impressive guy. 

If you weren’t a cycle instructor, what would your dream job be?  

I’m quite creative, so I would love to have done a career that was a bit more creative. I’ve done a little bit of work as an extra on TV things and I find that sort of industry quite interesting. We took the kids to Harry Potter World earlier this year and I saw all the models they’ve made for those films, and I thought that is a job I would absolutely love. So yeah, making models for film sets, I think that would be awesome, I’d love to do that. 

I’ve been an extra in lots of Doc Martin [episodes]. They wanted some cyclists for a Doc Martin episode and so they contacted our cycling club, so that’s how I started. And then recently, I was a con man in Beyond Paradise, that was quite fun.  

They had to have me as a last-minute replacement because the actor who was supposed to be playing the part was ill and they’d already described what he looked like. So they had to find someone that looked like him. It was a bit weird actually, because the agent phoned me up and said ‘Oh Phil, we really need you because you look like William Hague.’  

I spent the whole day with people coming up to me saying ‘You don’t look like William Hague’, but I’m bald and roughly the right age. I watched it back and it sort of works. It was really good fun. 

Are there any projects or things you’re doing that you’d like to tell us about?

Something I’ve been doing for a few years now, which I do in conjunction with my cycling club and the local centre for older people, I run a weekly cycle ride for people with disabilities or health issues, or who are not very confident on bikes and and want to ride in a group. We just do a very gentle ride every Friday morning, and we go and find a cafe somewhere.  

We’re very lucky here, there’s a a bike trail called the Camel Trail, which runs from Padstow through Wadebridge to Bodmin and up onto Bodmin Moor. And there’s various cycle hire shops in Wadebridge which have bikes for people with disabilities. We’ve got some lottery money and we hire bikes for people who need them. And then we just go out and do these little rides together. That’s a real joy, I really love doing that. 

And there’s been some people who’ve come along to that who’ve got back into cycling. And quite a few people who, as a result of it, have gone off and got their own bikes and started cycling independently as well. It’s really lovely to see not just how it’s helped people with physical health issues, but really helped a lot of people with mental health stuff as well. It’s a real privilege to do that.