Cycling blog and skills coaching
Often referred to as Scotland’s Route 66, the North Coast 500 is an incredible, unbroken loop of tarmac that starts and finishes in Inverness. It does what it says on the tin, in that the 500-mile trip hugs the coastline of the most northerly chunk of Scotland taking in beautiful and unspoiled views. And while…
At 1.15 on Sunday 15 May a field of around 40 riders rolled out for what was the first women’s event at the Cotswold Veldrijden Road Race. Taking place pretty close to where my parents are based and on roads I’m relatively familiar with, I made the journey down from the north west and was…
Now into its second year, this Skipton-based event treats participants to a lumpy route through the Pennines with some pretty spectacular views. It’s also managed to keep an intimate, small-scale feel, which is surprising given the big name (and equally big legs) it’s attached to. Speaking to some of the team running the proceedings, I…
Spending my childhood in the Borough of Swindon (a ceremonial county of Wiltshire) is not something from my past that I actively volunteer when it comes to personal information. While I have nothing against it personally, there was an episode of Room 101 where a minor celebrity banished the whole town to the show’s shameful…
Waking up at 7.30am in a decidedly rainy South Derbyshire, I thought back to the optimistic submission of my card details and clicking of the ‘Enter’ button on the British Cycling website in order to get a place for the Beeston RC Nottingham University GP. Through breakfast and the trip to the campus, I religiously…
The Cycletta series of women-only bike rides now boasts six events from Scotland down to the New Forest and a few locations in between. With Victoria Pendleton at the wheel of the marketing and PR push, the calendar of events (organised by the very experienced Human Race) seems to grow in popularity every year in…
On Sunday 11th August 2013 at around 7.30am, I arrived to the very optimistically named Victory Park in the town of Barnoldswick on Lancashire’s eastern borders. The last few brave souls taking on the 160km ride were just setting off and there were hundreds of others milling around who were, like me, about to start…