live-cycle

Love London, Go Dutch: the video

Dennis — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:03:17 +0000

Pendleton’s power to deliver ….

Dennis — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:57:43 +0000

I don’t see the connection, but maybe that’s just me. My friends at Halfords say a television show called “Call the Midwife” has delivered a “bouncing success” for Victoria Pendleton. Apparently a character in the show – a midwife, one presumes, having never seen the programme – rides a bike not unlike the eponymous range endorsed by the Olympic gold medallist.

The delightful Victoria with her eponymous Pedalton bicycle

[Editor's note: Unfortunately this blog failed to report earlier this year when Pendleton launched her personally designed range of retro-styled bikes. That serious error of judgment - and consequent failure to take the opportunity to publish a gratuitous picture of our favourite lady track cyclist - has been reported to the management. We hope this posting goes some way to making up for that shortcoming.]

Halfords credits the “midwife effect” for an unprecedented run on Pendleton’s pedals. That could be. Or maybe it’s just panic buying – you know, a fallback for when the world runs out of fuel after some government minister tells everyone to go out and fill their jerrycans. But back to the bicycle. Victoria “wanted to help create a bike that you could just jump on to go down to the shops or the park without having to change into cycling kit. I do recognise that most women don’t want to squeeze into lycra before they get on a bike and I am pleased to say you can definitely wear a dress to ride these cycles.” That may be so, ladies, dresses are always nice. But sometimes, squeezing into lycra is just that little bit nicer.

[Yes, it's a good thing my better half doesn't read this blog.]

The Cape Epic, right in your living room

Dennis — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:32:00 +0000

My other favourite stage race began in South Africa yesterday – the Cape Epic. Unlike the Tour de France, even amateurs can ride this one – I’ve managed to finish it on both my attempts, but don’t think that it’s easy, it’s probably the toughest undertaking I have ever made. And don’t take your lightweight racer, because it is all off road.

Over the eight years since its inauguration the Cape Epic has been innovative, and every year it has brought something new. And this year is its best innovation yet – it has brought the race into my living room. Well, to my computer, really, wherever that might be. The race as regularly been televised live in South Africa, but overseas followers have had to pick up bits and pieces of coverage online. Now it has introduced live streaming for overseas watchers. I don’t know if the stream is broadcast daily, but certainly I could watch the Prologue yesterday. It’s well worth a look.

Just in: 2010 Tour de France results (maybe…)

Dennis — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:25:36 +0000

In the summer of 2010 I spent three memorable weeks travelling around France. It was a wonderful time, driving south through champagne country to the Alps, traversing the Massif Central to the Pyrenees, up to Bordeaux, and finally, frantically, fantastically, finishing up in Paris, as one does. Along the way I indulged my passion for cycling, riding a velowave of enthusiasm, soaking up the ins and outs and idiosyncracies of the sport.
I was, of course, following the Tour de France. But it was more than just following it – I was covering the race as a journalist and had full press access to the course, officials, sponsors and, most wonderfully, to the riders themselves. That was how, on a hot Sunday in late July, I found myself right on the finish line on the Champs Elysees to see Mark Cavendish throw up his arms in triumph to win the stage, followed shortly by a beaming Alberto Contador, the overall victor.
Those three weeks seemed like a lifetime, an endless stream of towns and hotels, press conferences and mountain passes. The rollercoaster ride came to one wonderful conclusion on the cobbles of the Champs Elysees. My last sight of Contador was the next morning at breakfast in our hotel, where his smile was still as broad as the day before. And that was the end of it. All over. Let’s go home to bask in the memory of it all, in the knowledge that, in my opinion, the right man had won. Or so I thought.
But it wasn’t all over. Two months later the Tour authorities announced that a trace of a banned substance, clenbuterol, had been found in Contador’s bloodstream. Farmers sometimes use clenbuterol as a fat-burning and muscle-building supplement to fatten their livestock, and it is also used by body-builders. That is the opposite of what Contador would want when he was cycling up the Pyrenees in the middle of the Tour. Contador said the clenbuterol must have come from eating tainted meat on a rest day in the Pyrenees. Just over a year ago the Spanish cycling federation proposed a one-year ban on Contador, but cleared him a month later on appeal. UCI (the international cycling union) and WADA (the World Anti-Doping Agency) asserted that the contamination was the result of an illicit blood transfusion, and appealed to the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS), which, after many delays, finally announced its decision yesterday. The court rejected Contador’s assertion that the clenbuterol must have been the result of eating contanimated meat. Equally, it also found that the UCI’s blood-transfusion scenario was unlikely. He was proven neither innocent nor guilty – Contador’s conviction comes because the burden of proof remains with him to explain away the presence of the substance. The CAS, in a 98-page report, concluded that the clenbuterol probably came from contaminated food supplements taken by Contador. The CAS has banned Contador for two years, retrospectively from August 5, 2010. If Contador had accepted the Spanish federation’s year-long ban, he would free to ride this year’s Tour and the Olympic time trial. But Contador maintained his innocence, and now he will able to return to racing only in time for the Vuelta a Espana (Spanish tour) in August.
The most obvious fallout from this debacle is that Contador forfeits his 2010 Tour victory, his 2011 win in the Giro d’Italia, and about a dozen other victories during that time. The 2010 Tour victory now goes to Andy Schleck, who rode for Saxo Bank at the time. He has since moved to Radioshack Nissan Trek, while Contador now rides for Saxo Bank-Sungard. So there is some irony in the fact that Saxo Bank-Sungard could lose its licence and place in the World Tour if the UCI decides that it no longer qualifies – Contador earned 68 per cent of the team’s qualifying points.
Many people have commented on this case, and opinion is riven by spite, politics and misinformation. But the most poignant and pertinent comment comes from Andy Schleck, who said: “First of all I feel sad for Alberto. I always believed in his innocence. If now I am declared overall winner of the 2010 Tour de France it will not make me happy. I battled with Contador in that race and I lost. My goal is to win the Tour de France in a sportive way, being the best of all competitors, not in court. If I succeed this year, I will consider it as my first Tour victory.” I wish him luck.

The Times is right: let’s get on our bikes, safely

Dennis — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:38:26 +0000

I’m pleased to see that my former employer, The Times, has begun a concerted campaign for cycling safety. The Thunderer – as once it was known (and I hope it again proves to be) - is not the first newpaper to launch such a campaign, but certainly it is the most influential, so we can hope that there will be an enduring impact on this country’s dreadful disregard for cyclists. To show how seriously it is taking this, the paper devoted today’s front page and a double-page spread inside to the safety campaign, and it promises more. It is just a huge pity that it took a serious accident to spark this move: Mary Bowers, a young Times reporter, is still in a coma three months after a cycling accident involving a lorry.

For years there has been a cycling sub-culture bubbling under at The Times – the basement has always been full of bikes of all makes, shapes and sizes, and their riders have had to endure the sarcastic comments of car-driving or Tube-hopping colleagues. James Harding, the editor, was one of the pedalling pen-pushers before taking over the top job (which, unfortunately, comes with a company car, not a Times tandem). But the paper itself has been slow in recognising the importance of cycling in general. As a sport, cycling comes well down the league table of priorities, and the back pages give serious attention only to the Tour de France, the Olympics and world championships. The front pages have been much the same but now, with the London Olympics looming large, things could be changing. If Britain’s cyclists dominate once again, we could as a consequence see a lot of Britons getting on their bikes (in more than the Norman Tebbit sense), so the timing of this campaign could not be more important.

Campaigns such as this are only the beginning of what is needed. It will take years of education and promotion to ensure the change in attitudes that will enable cyclists and motorists – and, indeed pedestrians - to co-exist peaceably, even amicably, on our roads. There also has be be substantial investement in the infrastructure so that we have better cycle paths, more space on our congested roads, and a more concerted training programme for lorry drivers, motorists in general, and cyclists.

In the meantime, we must do our best to support ventures such as The Times’ campaign and the London Cycling Campaign. You can lend your voice by joining the Times’s “Cities Fit for Cycling” campaign. But more importantly, cycle safely, because we know that this is one issue that will never go away.

Leave me out of the deep freeze, Helen

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:27:59 +0000

So Helen Skelton, the Blue Peter presenter, has set off on a 500-mile ride to the South Pole. On a special bike. Made for riding on snow. (What else would you expect?) I’ve done a few crazy rides in my short lifetime, but certainly nothing in this league. Mainly because I hate the cold. If it was me riding across ice and snow to the bottom of the world, it wouldn’t be Blue Peter I was presenting, it would be Blue Somethingelse.

: Helen Skelton (courtesy the Beeb)

Of course, although it is summer time at the South Pole right now, it’s not quite T-shirt and shorts weather. Unless you’re really nuts. The average temperature at this time of year is a balmy -25C. But there is one big advantage to a ride during the summer months – you don’t need lights, because it is daytime all day long. If you get what I mean.
Although I hate the cold, I’m not a total wimp – I’ve ridden in snow more times than I can remember – to work, training for the Cape Epic, and even just because it’s there. And it really is fun, especially when you know that, half an hour after finishing, you will be in a hot bath with a big mug of steaming tea in your mitt. But when you know that at the end of your long, sweaty cycling day your only shelter is the tent that is somewhere on the sledge that you’re towing (you DID pack the tent, didn’t you), it’s a totally different story. And when it comes to the call of nature … well, I don’t even want to go there.
So all I can say, Helen, is good luck. This challenge is certainly one that I wouldn’t want to take up. But a run across the Namib desert … hmm, now there’s a thought.

Down to earth, without a baseball bat

Dennis — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:06:53 +0000

It’s strange, isnt’ it? The moment you start to feel a little self-satisfied, perhaps even smug, you get brought down to earth with such a bump that you can’t ever imagine how you started out with those wonderful feelings.
For me, Wednesday evening was such a time. All was good with the world as I walked down Blackfriars Road towards the Transport for London building. I was feeling perhaps just a little self-satisfied because I was on my way to a meeting with SkyRide and British Cycling. It was a session for ride leaders and British Cycling officials to look back on the past SkyRide season, and to look at how it can be improved in future years.
I stopped at the traffic lights on Southwark Road. It was nearly 6.30, dark already, and everywhere was filled with commuters – cars, pedestrians, cyclists – trying to get home as quickly as possible. I waited for the lights to change, and as they went green I stepped off the pavement. I never knew that a cyclist had come round the corner, through the red lights, until I felt him brush past my coat and the chap next to me said “Whoa”. How he missed us, I have no idea.
Usually I support cyclists and cycling unfailingly, but suddenly I was on the other side, and now I know what it’s like. I had no contradictory feelings: I just wished that I’d had a baseball bat so that I could vent my feelings on the cyclist and his unlit machine.
I know that there are laws in place to deal with this type of offence (jumping the red lights, that is, not the baseball bat thing), and I know they are difficult to enforce. Pedestrians need to know they have the protection of the law, and so do cyclists (have you ever seen a motorist reprimanded for encroaching on an advanced stopping area, or for driving or parking in a cycle lane?)
But if cyclists (and I know – I hope – that this is the minority) cannot show proper consideration for other road users, they can’t expect to be respected in return. If we hope to survive and co-exist in the urban jungle, that is a law we have to learn quickly, and pass on to others. Preferably without the need for a baseball bat.

Heard today, and I have to pass it on: “You know you’ve had enough coffee when you can thread a sewing machine when it’s running.”

One good reason to wear a cycle helmet …

Dennis — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:33:20 +0000

… or maybe you just think you can buck the trend!!!

Once again, it’s all about the bike

Dennis — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:43:32 +0000

Edinburgh-Manchester by tandem: the final word

So,who should have the final word about our long ride? Me? or Chich? or the spouses who gave us unstinting support while we moaned and groaned about our collective aches and pains? Well, it’s none of the above. It seems that The Beast – our trusty steed – has had the final word. Yesterday, the day after finishing our ride, I was collecting my bits and pieces off the tandem before heading back home. One of these bits was my saddle.

A bit of The Beast - perhaps we were the last straw ...

I removed the front seatpost (and rear handlebars) and took off my saddle, replacing it with the original. I then put the seatpost back, but it would not go into the tubing. Well, if you have a look at the pictures on the right, you will see why.

Suddenly I am forced the wonder whether it was divine intervention that caused our little campervan miShap at the top of Shap (altitude: 1,400ft). Can you imagine riding down from that altitude at speed and hitting one of the many potholes that make up the A6? No doubt Chich and I would have parted company in a rather unexpected manner.

And now, the final wordplay: of all the silly things that go through the mind while churning out the miles, the silliest that occurred to me is this: O TANDEM is an anagram of ED TO MAN. (geddit? EDinburgh TO MANchester).

The two of us, harder than the Tour of Britain

Dennis — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:20:22 +0000

Edinburgh-Manchester tandem ride: the final day

The Holy one and the Rood one, at their final destination

Well, that’s it, done and dusted, in a manner of speaking. We left Holyrood House, Edinburgh, on Monday, and arrived at Holy Rood Church, Manchester, this afternoon to a rousing reception. What happened in between, well you don’t want to know. At least, you don’t NEED to know. Oh, you do? Really?

Well, it went something like this. We set off from Edinburgh and quickly found ourselves riding into the teeth of the remains of Hurricane Katia. It might no longer have been a hurricane, but it wasn’t far from it. I have since learnt that Monday’s stage of the Tour of Britain was cancelled, so while Cavendish and Co wimped out, we soldiered on for as long as we could, until finally we were blown halfway back to where we came from. That was day one, a mere 27 miles instead of 40 that I had hoped for.

Day two was a little better, but still tough weatherwise. We lost half a day’s riding just getting back to where we should have been, so our 34 miles was some way short. Day three was the big day: we covered a full 60 miles, but our mishap with the campervan forced us, for security and logistical reasons, to decamp back to Manchester for the night.

And so we come to today, the final day, and what were we to do? We knew we would never catch up on all the miles we needed to put in to complete the distance, but at least a 30 mile out-and-back ride brought us pedalling into Swinton at the appointed time, to be welcomed by the reception committee.

We cycled 150 miles in all, 30 short of the quickest route from Edinburgh to Manchester and 60 short of what we had planned. Some of those miles were without doubt the hardest I have ever ridden in all my years. But I am convinced that, had the weather been clement, we would had achieved our goal. So, even if we didn’t pedal all the way from A to B (well, from Ed to Man) I still feel that, by my slightly immoral reasoning, we achieved a moral victory, and that’s good enough for me. And, of course, we shouldn’t forget that the biggest achievement is that we did it for a good cause.