Volunteer Award: Marc de Silva – Rides & Social Media

There will be few cyclists at Bike North who don’t recognize the smiling face of Marc de Silva. A member since January 2017, Marc has been an active member of the club from the outset, a Ride Leader since December 2020 and a founding member of the Social Media Gurus. His contributions across the areas of rides and social media have led to his worthy recognition in a Volunteer Award for 2024.

Marc’s contribution under the banner of ‘rides’ covers many facets.

Having experienced riding with Bike North for several years, Marc decided to participate in the Ride Leaders’ programme to contribute more to the club by not only sharing his passion for cycling but to fill a niche for those who want to push themselves, challenge themselves and improve their cycling skills.

Marc became a ride leader in early December 2020 and led his first ride on 12 December 2020. Since then, he has led 70 rides in the Bike North calendar, stipulating each time, that registrants 'Bring a clean bike!'.

Known for his ‘hard and fast’ rides, Marc was also keen to create new routes for the Bike North rides database that would offer such rides to members. Routes created by Marc which are now BN staples include: Riff RAAF and several variants, Akuna Bay and Duffy’s, Rail Trails and Prospect Reservoir.

                                                                        “As a Ride Leader, Marc provided confident and competent leadership. He willingly provided advice on technical issues and guidance on riding skills.
                                                                         His friendly, open manner encouraged new members to feel part of the group and enjoy their rides.” (Geoff Young)

Marc also threw out the challenge for members to join community rides such as Bowral, Mudgee, Snowy Mountains and more. Organising Bike North teams, Marc encouraged and motivated members to pursue goals that they may have considered out of reach. And for the couch peloton, Marc established a Bike North Zwift club.



Marc states his motivation as follows:

‘I revel at the joy cycling brings so many people and to watch them grow and develop in this great sport.  I like to spread that joy in the hope that more people will come to enjoy cycling like we all did as kids. ‘

Committed to safe and enjoyable cycling experiences, Marc identified a Mona Vale Rd bypass of St Ives for a safer transit from the Northern Beaches back to Turra during peak times. In addition, Marc worked with Advocacy Co-ordinator, David Thomson, on a number of projects in North Turramurra and St Ives which resulted in the creation of better cycle paths along Bobbin Head Rd and Burns Rd.

Finally, when it comes to rides, we can’t forget Marc’s preference for rides that transit suburbs that offer his favourite cycling snack: banh mi!!



                                                       “He is personable, knowledgeable and quietly enthusiastic helping the people on his rides feel confident and supported.” (Phillip Hart)

Despite time spent on his substantial efforts as a Ride Leader, Marc was not slow to agree to contribute further to Bike North when it came to the establishment of the Social Media Gurus. A founding member of this sub-committee, Marc brought a depth and range of knowledge and skills to the fledgling group to help promote the club to members, prospective members, other BUGs and stakeholders. Providing valuable and insightful input into the suitability of various digital platforms to promote Bike North’s activities, Marc then contributed to content development, comms strategies, and campaign deployment. Marc gave of his time to trial and test new platforms such as Strava, LinkedIn and Twitter to determine which suited our target groups.

                                                     “Marc contributed powerfully to our growing awareness and experience of the variety of platforms with how to take advantage of it,
                                                      generously sharing his time and understandings.” (Phillip Hart)

A true ‘all rounder’, Marc’s willing, consistent and broad support of Bike North and its activities, have benefited the club on many levels and we are proud to acknowledge his contributions in this Volunteer Award.


Nominated by Phillip Hart, President
Supported by Geoff Young, Rides Co-ordinator & Sarah Gillis, Communications Co-ordinator