Pride of BikeRight!

How could we resist these gorgeous guys cosying up to Ed Clancy at the Velodrome last night?  It almost deserves a caption competition.

Talking of taking cycling seriously, the hours are ticking away towards the Ride London - Surrey 100 following last year's Olympic road race route, which Liz and I have a coveted place on.  Only 11 days to go, and wondering if our confidence is due to utter naivete or the cockiness that's the preserve of the experienced cyclist? Only time will tell. It will be a change from the Manchester 100 which we've done for the last few years; a welcome change?

Rob at BikeRight! did the Liverpool - Chester - Liverpool (through the Mersey tunnel) on 7th July, and now intends to sign up for the Manchester to Blackpool night ride in September. Personally a night ride seems a bit pointless to me, as you can't see anything.  I'd rather be tucked up in bed, apart from the sunset - which I 'm prepared to admit has the chance of providing a substantial Wow! factor.

Another Rob from Newcastle described his 24-hour charity cycle ride last year.  "We started off watched by office workers eating lunch. At 5pm I imagined them going home while we continued cycling. As it got dark I thought why can't I go to bed like they are? During the next morning, having stayed awake ALL NIGHT while those lucky people were sleeping peacefully, my thoughts drifted to them again: they were looking forward to another lunch and we were STILL CYCLING!"

This Rob heads up The Grand Scheme, a bike share/bike hire company.  We spent two delightful days together on the pavement in front of Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral (known as Paddy's Wigwam locally) demonstrating how the Grand Scheme system works.  Liverpool City Council's publicity campaign has obviously worked, since most passers-by had heard of the planned hire scheme, dubiously dubbed Scou-cycles by the Press.

So, taking cycling seriously can take many forms, from loving the sport, to leisure rides with a purpose, to providing facilities for many more people to adopt the cycling habit - involving individuals, organisations and public authorities.  All have a stake in cycling, and all need to invest in it too to saturate our culture with cycling.

The last word goes to Mark, one of our new instructors.  "I was cycling to a school in Crosby, and I passed a little girl I recognised out cycling behind her Dad, so I introduced myself to him.  'Since you taught her to ride on the road last month, she's had me on my bike constantly' he said. That's why I love this job" said Mark.

Women wow the track coach

It was my birthday.  What better way to celebrate than to watch 30 women whizzing round the Velodrome track, many for the first time.  Our coach, a British Cycling old-timer was superb in explaining, instructing, persuading, directing and generally being a fantastic advocate for cycling for all the Team Glow riders.

            "I've never had so many women on the track at once!"

Well done women of Team Glow, and a big thanks to Sarah Griffiths for organising my birthday entertainment!

Two ways of looking at teenagers cycling

My latest article on maintaining the cycling habit amongst teenagers is on totalwomenscycling. It came out on Wordle like this. Teenagers no doubt would think this is a much better way of expressing my thoughts than a boring 1,000 word article. However, to translate this jumble into cogent thoughts, you might want to read the article.

Jo Somerset provides some top tips on how to maintain the habit of cycling with teenagers.

My 16-year old turned up at our house last night on her bike unannounced. It’s 5 years since she rode a bike. She’d cycled 4 miles along the busy dual carriageway, got frightened, and at one point rode facing the traffic but was soon put right by a stream of time triallists out for their evening spin.

        She hadn’t told anyone what she was doing and secretly she was really pleased with herself for having sorted this all out and done it herself. I sent her back to her Mum’s with a jacket (why do teenagers always go out without a coat?) via the back road?.......read more

 

Luscious Lake District and lovely Lancashire

Holiday is over. What a treat, a whole week in blistering heat in our beloved Lake District.

It was a week of leisure, combination of getting out and doing stuff, and reading Sandi Toksvig's novel on my birthday present Kindle. The doing stuff consisted of:

• Half-marathon run with Lakeland Trails.  Hot but I did it.

• Ascent of Helvellyn - descent including a refreshing dip in the beck on the way back to Gillside campsite

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• Guided walk across Morecambe Bay

 

 

We did dust the bikes off one day for a ride through dappled sunlit lanes of Silverdale, fuelled by bread and cake from Arnside bakery (highly recommended).

Coventry crops up

It's such a delight to see an article that's clear and explanatory about learning to ride with skill and confidence in ordinary traffic conditions. Reporter Mary Griffin has her first experience of cycle training and finds it an empowering experience.  Well done to instructor Tom, and good for Mary in slowing down a speeding BMW driver with her gimlet gaze.



http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/free-course-turned-savvy-cyclist-4864668

Snowdonia weekend

We spent last weekend in Snowdonia with six women from Team Glow doing a 52-mile circular ride Nantlle - Llanberis pass - Prenteg - Nantlle, taking in

3784 feet of climbing

 

Drizzling when we woke up after a wild night. By good fortune, and the fact that everyone was up late last night, we didn't get off till 10.15 and the rain had stopped.  But the wind was still severe, blowing and gusting.

It meant a tailwind up Llanberis pass, easy to negotiate. Snowdon and Crib Goch were in cloud as we descended the other side.  It was hard to keep steady against the cross-wind, we couldn't get up any speed, pushing against the force of it.  Pedalling downhill is a strange feeling.  We sheltered from the Welsh summer at our favourite cafe in Nant Gwynant (butternut squash soup, venison burger, chocolate chip cookie) then pedalled alongside a blowy lake, waves flowing, remembering my New Zealand trip in 2008,  nine miles along a lake with black swans against a head wind thinking  "I can't do this", but I could and did.

We decided to head for Prenteg and up one of Simon Warren's  "Another greatest cycling climbs" graded 8 out of 10 (Llanberis was 6 out of 10). Shocked by the steep 1 in 6 at the beginning.  The whippet-thin Simon claimed to have done the 2-mile climb in 9 minutes. Heather had done it last week on the Etape de something with other Glowies, and her and Nadia chased his example, whooping at the top.  I got off 4 times, worried that I'd topple off  in my clipped in feet, so then tried one free foot unclipped, but had to stop again when my front wheel left the ground, it's dangerous when there's air between the wheel and the road.  To my credit I got back on each time and faced the twists and turns in the road, charging into the headwind. I was so far gone that I just thought it was refreshing to my over-heated head rather than a barrier to progress.

At the top we were triumphant - who cares whether we walked some of it - Team Glow rules for bagging the 100 climbs state that we can claim the peak regardless of how we got there.

From there we pedalled along the top, emerging from the hills onto a plateau populated by sheep with fleeces hanging half off them - where are the shearers? - looking quizzically at red- , and yellow-clad speedsters silently sprinting across the landscape past a tempting dew-lake (not tempting at all in this weather).

Descending back to roads with traffic (well, one yellow mini) we decided, bearing in mind the strength of the wind which was still a real challenge, to take the fast way back to Nadia's: main road then Lon Eifion cycle route then back through Penygroes where people socialise on the corner by the Co-op and down past the vineyard and the piles of slate back to Nantlle.                 

 

What a Bike Week it was!

It's been a fantastically busy Bike Week  - overall we ran 71 events and 69 Bikeability courses in Manchester, Newcastle, Warrington, Merseyside, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country.

Chris Boardman joined Liverpool city councillors for a cycling tour of highway facilities and plans for regeneration in North Liverpool, and how this will affect cyclists and transport in general.

Our mission of creating new cyclists continues, with around 800 'conversions' this week amongst all the children we've trained and a number of adults, including:

- Councillor Claire Glare, Liverpool

 "a big thank you to you and your team for Tuesday and Saturday. I really enjoyed the training and the bike ride and learnt loads!"

- Colin - our star pupil at level 1 session at BikeRight! Birmingham


and John - Learnt to ride last week and now taking part in level 1 training.

 

 

AND BIG CONGRATULATIONS  to seasoned cyclist 10-year old Ed Diamond who completed his football-themed 100-mile Anfield to Albion charity ride, supported by his Mum Annie, and                BikeRight! on Saturday.  Starting out from Anfield Football Club (Ed’s Team) to West Bromwich Albion (Annie’s Team) they raised funds for Zoë’s Place Baby Hospice in Liverpool and Walsall HeartCare                                                                                                                                                   

Wet but finished - Ed and Mum after 100 miles

 Of course, Bike Week wouldn't be Bike Week without some traditional rides. Canals were popular this year in the West Midlands; and Liverpool's canal ride ended up at Crosby Marina. Well done to all the cyclists.