Climbing Dover Hill hill climb. On Sunday, it rained all day. Not good conditions for a 2 stage hill climb. Dover Hill 1 mile long, gradient not too steep. Dover Hill will be used for the National hill climb Championships 2010 Matt Clinton, mikevaughan.co.uk cycles won in 4.01. 2nd was James Dobbin 4.05. Third was […]

Top of Dover Hill I turned upto a race, 24 hours too early today. For some reason, I thought race was on Saturday. I drove past the hq 3 times, because I was looking for cyclists in the vicinity. Because I didn’t see any, I thought it must be somewhere else. I was getting quite […]

Just a brief note to say congratulations to Nicole Cooke for becoming World Road Race Champion in Varesse. Nicole Cooke becomes the first female cyclist to win the Olympic Road Race and World Road race Championship in the same year. Nicole won a tactically astute race, to sprint past former world champions Marriane Vos (Netherlands) […]

A real Penny Farthing The Blenheim Palace cycling event seemed a great success. There were 100s of cyclists there – from eccentrics riding old penny Farthings, to the country’s top road racers and time triallists. In the middle, we were treated to the highly entertaining Brompton World Championships. After the official racing, we were able […]

I was struck by the introduction to the introduction to this article in a Canadian newspaper: “Winnipeg • I often get around town by bike. So curious is this behaviour to the Lexus-drivin’, lunch bag-packin’ crowd I encounter in suburban Winnipeg, that it is often discussed, sometimes behind my back. When it is to my […]

In road races, you often hear the advice to take a good wheel. – Basically, it refers to an experienced rider. A rider who will not cause problems, but is safe, alert and probably a strong rider with a good chance of doing well. A good bunch rider will have the following characteristics Physically fit […]

If you have cycled for any duration, you will have been the victim of aggressive, bad mouthed motorists / pedestrians. This is not a dig at ‘motorists’ People who drive are not somehow ‘worse’ than people who cycle. It is just a reflection that in society, some people lose their sense of perspective and vent […]

I was disappointed to see that Dave Moulton has decided to retire his blog because he has some excellent articles on cycling. He admits the reason for retiring the blog was that he found himself increasingly drawn into ‘political aspects’ of cycling; a world that is invariably negative. I sympathise with a desire to keep […]

The last cyclist to win BBC Sports personality of the year was Tom Simpson in 1965 (who won the World Road Race Championships). Interestingly Beryl Burton was second in 1967 Cycling is not the highest profile sport so even successful cyclists struggle to get onto the radar of the general public who vote. However, the […]

“Watch out for Bikes” “Cyclists, watch out for this sign” I think they should put a sign in the middle of the road saying “Watch out for Cars” Crazy Bike Lanes

If you are a regular cyclist you will become aware of how significant is the gap cars will leave when overtaking.  A significant minority will pass too close. It definitely affects the nerves, you can feel a pull of air from the car as its draught affects you. The highway code states a car should […]