{"id":281811,"date":"2025-11-25T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/281811\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T04:00:11","slug":"swindon-cyclists-give-100th-birthday-surprise-to-keen-biker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/281811\/","title":{"rendered":"Swindon cyclists give 100th birthday surprise to keen biker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Rex Hutchins, who lives in Wroughton, was given a ride-by by <a href=\"https:\/\/swindonwheelers.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Swindon Wheelers<\/a> on Saturday, November 15.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cDad didn\u2019t know anything about it. The cyclists started arriving and it was just incredible,\u201d said Pete Hutchins, Rex\u2019s son.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cHe was absolutely buzzing, he had never seen anything like it. The emotion was amazing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Both Rex and Pete are former members of Swindon Wheelers, formed in 1923, which runs rides across Wiltshire and the surrounding counties every weekend, for people of all abilities.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Swindon Wheelers Vice President and Historian, Howard King, said: \u201cOur President Steve Dutton set up the event after meeting Rex&#8217;s son Pete at one of our weekly cafe stops.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe usually have about six organised rides on a Saturday to different cafes around the Swindon area, but thought we would surprise Rex by all riding to Wroughton instead to wish him a happy 100th birthday!\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cMost of our 50-odd riders were quite motivated to see Rex looking active and still riding his bike on occasions!\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWhen they all turned up, they sung Happy Birthday and gave three cheers. They got a card for him,\u201d said Pete.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cAll the riders were so enthusiastic about it \u2013 it was just a magical moment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Rex has been cycling his whole life, and has passed on the passion for the sport to his son.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cCycling is in our family. My dad and my mother spent their honeymoon on a tandem. And they used to cart my youngest sister round in a sidecar on the tandem.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt\u2019s a family thing. I\u2019ve always cycled. He used to take me out as a kid. It\u2019s just always been there,&#8221; said Pete.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Rex\u2019s love of the sport has not diminished over time \u2013 he still goes out cycling on the weekends.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Pete said that the buzz of cycling is something \u201cyou can\u2019t quite explain.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cDad will always ring me on a Sunday morning when he\u2019s out and stopped for coffee. I can hear it in his voice when he calls me and says: \u2018what a beautiful morning, it just makes you feel good to be alive.\u2019\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cIt\u2019s just a lovely feeling,\u201d said Pete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rex Hutchins, who lives in Wroughton, was given a ride-by by Swindon Wheelers on Saturday, November 15. \u201cDad&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-281811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}