Say hello to the members of The Easy Riders cycling club, who according to their newest member, Mark Nichols, are weird, dreadful, insecure people who should take the money they waste buying lycra and spend it on therapy.

Mark is a man whose hatred of sport and exercise is rivalled only by his distrust of those who participate in it. Mark’s wife, Dawn, used to feel that way too, but in the last year she took up cycling and got hooked. Fearing being left behind on the sofa watching box-sets, Mark decides to buy a bike and join her group hoping that having a shared activity will bring them and their marriage closer together.

Once he’s ingratiated himself with the group he realises that, like any club, there is a clear pecking order, and whilst Dawn is often out in front with the fitter cyclists like Handsome Jack and group leader Francis, Mark is at the back, bringing up the rear with the slower riders Sue and Brennan. Mark discovers that not only was he pretty much right about cyclists being insecure and easily angered, but that he’s fast becoming the worst of them all.

In this opening episode Dawn (Lucianne McEvoy) laughs at husband Mark (Greg McHugh) when he suggests joining her cycle group, so he buys himself a bike and invites himself along anyway, “How hard can it be?” Mark soon finds out just how hard it can be as he puffs, pants and punctures himself alongside a group of cyclists who just don’t want him there.

CREDITS
Mark: Greg McHugh
Dawn: Lucianne McEvoy
Brennan: Richard Gadd
Jack: Richard Rankin
Francis: Robin Laing
Sue: Sally Reid

Written by: Steven Dick & Chris Grady
Script Editor: Niall Clark
Sound: Micheal McKinnon
Producer: Gus Beattie

Saddled is a Gusman Production for BBC Radio Scotland. Show less