Jul

9

Do you wear a walking helmet?

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I love cycling. Some people may have noticed this. I love the freedom, the pain, (perhaps more particularly, the sensation when the pain stops at the top of a climb), the speed and the countryside. I love having to think about what I’m doing in traffic. I love the great feeling of being alive that […]

Feb

14

Across the Trough

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The February half-term weather having been unusually kind, I set off for my third 50km ride of the week in cool, almost windless conditions under a glorious blue sky armed with six Geobars, a multitool and inner tube, a credit card, a car key, my trusty Garmin Edge (and paper map in case of technical […]

Jan

20

Precipitous cycling

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I blogged the best part of eleven months ago about various of my feeble reasons for not cycling and followed up by suggesting that I might achieve an Eddington number of 30 by the end of last summer.

Dec

27

Edgy cycling

Category: Cycling | 1 Comment | Trackback

Christmas had, for me, rather a cycling theme to it this year: a stylish Solo cap, a substantial saddlebag and a Garmin Edge 305 GPS cycle computer.
Potential purchasers of the Edge are cautioned that it is a better training device than a navigator and Frank Kinlan has a handy guide to using it for navigation. […]

Dec

3

Self-service cartography

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News reaches these parts of a project to map Britain’s cycle routes using the user-edited OpenStreetMap. It looks like an interesting project. If only I had some sort of GPS device to attach to my bike I could have a go at mapping some of Preston’s local routes.

Jul

30

2007 Tour De France Winner Stripped of Title

Category: Tour de France | Comments Off | Trackback

I have belatedly come across the following important news from early April which demonstrates that the UCI, ASO and WADA have been taking the issue of doping in cycling seriously all along.
Fat Cyclist » Blog Archive » 2007 Tour De France Winner Stripped of Title
2007 Tour De France Winner Stripped of Title
“Really, it’s very simple,” […]

Jul

24

Bloody annoyed

Category: Tour de France | Comments Off | Trackback

Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for blood doping. Astana have withdrawn from the Tour de France. Maybe now’s the time for the UCI to get really serious about drugs in cycling.
The current leader of the Tour, Denmark’s Michael Rasmussen, has been suspended from his national cycling team for having made the ‘administrative error’ of failing […]

Jun

10

Hannah goes cycling

Category: Cycling, Family | 1 Comment | Trackback

It’s now nearly two weeks since we removed the pedals and stabilisers from Hannah’s bike and encouraged her to start learning to balance and steer.
A couple of days ago, Hannah completed her first few feet of unaccompanied cycling on a bike that was a little too big so today we went back to the monkey […]

Jun

4

Eddington numbers

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Over on Peter’s bike rides, I learn of Eddington numbers.
My Eddington Number is now about 14, which is great; considering it must have been about 4 at the start of 2006 I’m really pleased!
“The physicist Arthur Eddington was something of a numerologist in later life, as well as a keen cyclist. He kept a note […]

Jun

1

60 miles

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For the first time since I can remember, and possibly ever, I cycled almost 60 miles this morning. (OK, it was only 57.1 miles.)
I might even have gone further had my left STI lever not come adrift outside Pilling, requiring me to head back for repairs. According to Cicerone’s guide to the Lancashire Cycleway, […]

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