Bryce’s Story

My name is Dr Bryce Dyer, I’m a cyclist and an Associate Professor in Sports Technology at a UK university. In my day job I have developed equipment or supported the performance of elite athletes at competitions like the Paralympic Games but I’ve also been a competitive athlete myself for 30 years.

I have always loved the freedom cycling gives me, but I feel that one of the secrets to staying motivated and keeping a healthy relationship with sport over such a long time has been constantly seeking out new experiences or undertaking new challenges.

There’s a widely held (and, in my view, completely wrong) assumption that any kind of cycle other than a traditional ‘normal’ bike is only for those who are a bit odd or have some form of disability. That view totally misses the point….. and the opportunity. For me, I’d always had an interest in trying a recumbent cycle. The sensation of being closer to the ground and more connected to the terrain reminded me a lot of when I used to surf or sail a lot. And, honestly, being sat in a seat rather than perched on a saddle is considerably more enjoyable. I can get off a conventional bike after three or four hours and feel like I need family members to haul me back inside the house on a stretcher. Get off the trike? - I’m not immediately reaching for my physio’s number.

To be honest, I think tradition, rules and assumptions have sent bicycle design in the wrong direction and I was more than ready to explore avenues outside of those. I’d had my eye out for an ICE VTX for a while and finally got hold of one during spring 2026 because human powered racing had been on my sporting bucket list for years and I fancied having a crack at racing at the World Human Powered Championships that were going to be held in the Netherlands in July. I’ve competed at world championships in six different sports over the years and this was going to be number seven.

I knew that the ICE VTX was a well-respected competitive and reliable platform for both riding recreationally or racing. My friends had also told me it also had a very low learning curve to get the hang of which was going to be essential for me because I didn’t have a lot of time to get to grips with it as I had to fit it in with my normal cycling race season and both my coordination and attention span are abysmal. Whilst I probably do around 14 hours training per week for cycling, my race training on a trike was going to be limited to only a ride or two per week (as it turned out, it was only once per week and only for the 6 weeks before the championships but this is a story for another time !).

It was a privilege to go to the worlds because whilst riding a VTX trike was literally easier than learning to ride a bike, I got to learn so much about how to ride and enjoy one more by watching and speaking to many of the VTX riders there. I think it’s also fair to say that I discovered the full capacity of my VTX by reaching speeds at times of over 30 mph as well as getting mine up on two wheels when cornering (not always voluntarily !) and finally ‘discovering’ the different muscles recumbent riding typically uses (which I clearly hadn’t developed beforehand !). Despite my inexperience, I seemed in the thick of the action at the Worlds but this wasn’t really the point of the exercise. In my day job, I’ve spoken to a lot of athletes and of those that are still competing as they age, the word that seems to keep coming up a lot in conversation is use of the word ‘fun’. I found that careering round a circuit with like-minded souls on three wheels was certainly that. It’s something I want to keep going with a bit more training, I’m hoping to go again next year.