On route to Scotland for the Gravity Enduro R2 I was invited to visit the Giant Headquarters just outside Leicester. This was very much unexpected and an amazing insight to the brand I have always been a huge fan of (Thanks to Ray!) I arrived at lunchtime and was greeted by a lovely young lady who made me a cracking cuppa and gave me a tour of the building. I then met up with Ray and Matt from team CyclePaths who were there for a bike fitting training course.
The building itself is like walking into NASA HQ! It is state of the art and is immaculately clean. After looking at the full range of bikes in their ‘shop like’ room I went for another cuppa and continued my tour. I met a friendly gent in the kitchen who was as keen to talk about bikes as I was! We chatted for 20 minutes before I asked the simple question ‘who are you?’ His reply was equally as friendly ‘I am Ian the MD’! This came as quite a shock as I would have expected a boss like gentleman to be in charge who would not have time to talk with pesky cyclists like me on a day trip. 
I could not have been more wrong! Ian was the kind of guy you expect to find in a good pub and chat to for the evening about bikes and blokes stuff! He gave me some wonderful advice on how to make my next move in the direction of becoming a professional cyclist and told me the things the were as equally important to avoid doing. The visit really did come as a shock to me and I hope to return soon for some further advice from that nice bloke called Ian!
