Oct 242014
 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been tipping you off on how to survive the winter commute by being visible in the dwindling light, keeping yourself warm and dry and making sure your bike is ready for the season’s inclement/biblical weather. All well and good and sure, no one wants hypothermia, but there’s really no substitute for being aware on the roads and cycling safely.

The chances are, many regular cycling commuters have probably experienced at least one incident on the roads that was hairier than a back-combed member of ZZ Top. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you can do about the taxi driver who doesn’t actually understand basic principles of driving or the woman posting venomous Tweets about #bloodycyclists while at the wheel of her car. There are, however, a number of ways you can lessen the probability of becoming another grim statistic, besides illuminating yourself like the Blackpool Tower.

Continue reading »

Oct 242014
 

trottBritish cycling star Laura Trott successfully retained her omnium title at the European Track Championships after another last gasp victory.

Trott battled back to claim the gold medal on Sunday by winning the very last sprint of the event. This moved her one point ahead of her Belgian rival Jolien D’Hoore (we’re not too sure how it’s pronounced either) and secured a second successive win to reclaim the European title which she gained last year.

The win capped a successful week for the ever-mighty Great Britain team as they claimed six gold medals at the championships in Guadeloupe.

Continue reading »

Oct 172014
 

eddy

Belgium. Famous for chocolate, waffles, waffles with chocolate on top and… not much else really. Cycling perhaps isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when most people think of Belgium, but perhaps it should be. Belgium, after all, produced the greatest cyclist of all time.

Edouard Louis Joseph Merckx, Eddy to his mates, was born in June 1945 in Meensel-Kiezegem (we’ve never heard of it either, it’s sort of near Brussels). After acquiring his first bike at the age of eight, Merckx subsequently showed that he was destined for greatness by beating all comers in local amateur races. His phenomenal will to win, no doubt fuelled by a healthy diet of chocolate waffles, was clearly apparent even in these early races.

At the age of 19, while most of his friends were still battling with acne and the mystery of the opposite sex, Merckx announced himself on a global stage by winning the world amateur title in France. Eddy turned professional just a year later in 1965 and won his first Milan-San Remo after a typically frantic sprint finish. He would go on to win the tough one-day classic an unprecedented seven times throughout his career.

Continue reading »

Oct 152014
 

There’s so much to this cycling lark, it seems. Especially when the inclement Great British Winter kicks in, with its rain and wind sending you perilously close to a very different path than the one you may actually have chosen, i.e. upright on the road. Not in a ditch/gutter/under the wheels of a bus. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been giving you handy hints on how to make your winter commute more bearable, by making yourself visible and kitting yourself out to get the better of the elements. This week, we’re talking about getting your bike ready for winter.

Continue reading »

Oct 032014
 

As the nights draw in and we move to the end of the summer road racing season it seems appropriate to reflect on the twilight of two of the peloton’s big personalities. Both David Millar and Jens Voigt have been possessed of mercurial talent at times, have had the mental strength to push their bodies to incredible levels of torture in the name of glory, but are also both characters about whom everyone around the world of cycling has an opinion. Continue reading »

Oct 022014
 
Photo courtesy of Raleigh

Like it or not, e-bikes are slowly but surely becoming a more mainstream product in the UK.

Chances are a large percentage of people who read the term ‘e-bikes’ in the opening sentence ran (or should that be cycled?) a proverbial mile, muttering something about cheating along the way. So kudos to those of you who are still with me.

Traditionally of course used by OAPs to teeter along to the Co-op, e-bikes are starting to enjoy something of an uplift in popularity. This is thanks in no small part to a rather surprising new target audience. Continue reading »

Oct 022014
 

When I started cycling last year, nothing could have prepared me for the senseless pain I experienced on a twice-daily basis, commuting through the howling wind and lashing rain of the Great British winter. The bad news is that this is largely as a result of the one thing you can guarantee (apart from death, but let’s not go there just yet), which is that winter in the UK is going to be cold at some point. The good news is that the way you prepare for that eventuality is going to have an enormous bearing on the level of pain you experience. Continue reading »