BBC Radio Gloucestershire: Talking Turkey cycling and motherhood with Nicky Price
BBC Radio Gloucestershire: Talking Turkey cycling and motherhood with Nicky Price
As heard on BBC Radio Gloucestershire: Our Turkey cycling adventure featured on Nicky Price’s programme on 21 October 2026, just before we headed off with two toddlers, two e-bikes and plenty of unknowns.
Watch the interview
My friend Tori Williams and I are spending 25 days exploring Turkey with my daughter Skyla and her son Leo. We’re aiming for more than 1,000 km and over 21,000 metres of climbing, carrying camping kit and adapting each day around the roads, our bodies and the toddlers.
For me, returning to a bicycle for this adventure carries particular meaning. A cycling accident in Oxford in 2014 led to seven surgeries, a reconstructed hip and ongoing chronic pain. Adventure helped me rebuild my life. Now, motherhood means finding new ways to bring my daughter along.
“Motherhood doesn’t mean adventure has to stop. It just means adventure looks different.”
We’re also raising money for Leukaemia UK in memory of Tori’s mum, Wendy, who died aged just 39, when Tori was ten and her little brother was nine. Now a mum herself, Tori is making memories with Leo while honouring the adventurous spirit of the mum she lost.
Read more about our Turkey expedition and support our Leukaemia UK fundraiser.
Thank you to Nicky and the BBC Radio Gloucestershire team for helping us share the adventure and the cause behind it.
If you’re new here, I’m Vanessa Ruck, The Girl On A Bike — a motorcycle racer, adventurer, motivational speaker and mum living with chronic pain. Read about the cycling accident that started this journey and how adventure helped me rebuild my life.
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. Comments and shares help more people discover the fundraiser. For safety, our social updates will run roughly one week behind real time.
The Girl On A Bike thegirlonabike
I'm a bike loving, free spirited adventurer born and raised in England. Life took a turn in 2014. In a single moment life as I knew it was taken away by the momentary lapse in judgement of a red-light-jumping car while I was cycling. My recovery to fitness took a little over 7 years with 7 major surgeries and since that day I've made it my goal to make the most out of life. My biggest goal is to help encourage others to get up and get out there. It doesn’t matter what it is, but we all start somewhere and if I can do it, so can you! Let’s make the most of life, what we do have around us and have fun doing it.
