As per my previous post in Pro Cycling:
A couple of years ago we were doing a Sportive from Malvern. The Cycling Weekly Mad Hatter Sportive. We left on the second wave, and caught up with this bloke who was looking for company at a decent speed, and liked the pace and company, so stayed with us for the rest of the ride. We got chatting, and he told us that he worked in Automotive, but was looking to retire.
For some reason, my cycling companion decided to have a better look when he got home. Easy to find his name in the list of finishers, did a quick search on the internet, and found a few articles with his name and photo. Turned out that "worked in automotive" meant a bit more than that. He was head of VW North America after being Managing Director of Jaguar cars.
This man is now
head of British Cycling.
Met someone who said that he cycled with Paul Smith (and others). It seems that (other than a few exceptions) that cycing is a great leveller, in that people like Ian Wright and Jonathon Browning, who wouldn't otherwise talk to someone like us, given a few hours away from it all, in need of a distraction, and with a clear common interest, are quite happy to chat away like they are just regular people.