The story of Brompton Bikes is one of those heart-warming tales of one man’s obsessive drive, determination and belief in himself and his invention. It’s one of triumph over adversity. The funny-looking folding bike that was born in a bedroom in South Kensington is now a British manufacturing success story and design icon. Ride Velo went to their new factory in Greenford to find out more about what has been described as the best folding bike in the world.
Read MoreSven: The Final Year Reviewed
When the cyclo-cross world championships took place in Luxembourg a couple of weeks ago, there was one notable absence from the list of starters: there was no Sven Nys, the legend of the sport who had dominated it for the best part of two decades. With two world championships, seven world cups and over 140 competitive victories to his name, he’s widely regarded as one of the greatest cyclo-cross racers of his generation and of all time.
Read MoreLemond: “I won’t trust any victories in the Tour de France.” 60 Minutes show exposes mechanical doping
60 Minutes, the American current affairs programme, broadcast a report on mechanical doping in professional cycling last night. CBS reporter Mark Whitaker went to Hungary to meet Istvan Varjas the inventor of a discreet motor that he believes is being used in races like the Tour de France. Former Tour winner Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong’s teammate at US Postal, Tyler Hamilton, and doping controller at the Tour, Jean Pierre Verdis, were also interviewed.
Read MoreLands End to John O'Groats on an Exercise Bike
Not many people can say that they’ve cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats. Aaron Puzey did it in his free time…sort of. In fact he never left the front room of his house as his was a virtual reality expedition across the length of Britain on his exercise bike.
Hailing from Australia but now living in Dundee where he works in video game development, Aaron found that he was getting bored during his daily work out routine on the indoor bike. “To be honest I’m someone who finds exercising quite boring. I just cannot be bothered and I found staring at the wall as I pedalled away mind-numbing.”
Read MoreA Tour de France Winner on a Steel Bike?
It’s been 22 years since the Tour de France was won on a steel bike. But because of the great advances made in recent years, might we see steel overcome carbon in the world’s greatest bike race soon? For many it would hark back to a romantic and nostalgic era of the likes of Hinault and Merckx winning great races on elegant, beautiful bikes that offered both comfort and durability. Sam Lawson of Genesis Bikes thinks that, “We’re not a million miles off.”
Read MoreBuilding a Classic Hill Climb Bike
The old adage, “It never gets any easier, you just get faster,” is no truer than in the niche world of competitive hill climbing. Joe Norledge from Bristol is one of those masochists who loves to take part in these lung busting, lactate inducing events that take place at the end of the cycling season. For 2016 he thought he’d go even faster if he did it on a fixed gear bike.
Read MoreTour Down Under 2017 Preview
Summer’s past is a distant memory in these dark January months, yet summer’s future remains beyond reach. Despair not, however, if you want to catch sight of some proper road bike racing in sunny climes. January 17th sees the first UCI world Tour event of the season as the professional peloton roll out of Adelaide for the Tour Down Under.
Read MoreRide Velo 2016 Highlights
With political turmoil and the sad death of some of the greats of the music, art and entertainment world, 2016 seemed a bit bleak at times. But, as HG Wells once said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair of the future of the human race.” So, while the year had its tricky moments, we were lucky enough at Ride Velo to see plenty of adults (and children) on bikes as well as ride a few ourselves. Here are some of our highlights of the year.
Read MoreTour de Celeb Round-Up Week 2
Channel 5’s TV show Tour de Celeb continues to amuse, frustrate and entertain in equal measure. It follows the fortunes and otherwise of eight ‘celebrities’ as they train for and attempt to complete the 2016 Etape du Tour from Megeve to Morzine in the French Alps.
Like all these shows the term ‘celebrity’ can only be applied in relative terms. I remember Austin Healey as a rugby player, Darren Gough as a cricketer and I think I knew that Jodie Kidd was a model a few years ago. Louie Spence is that camp guy from ‘Strictly’ and Hugo Taylor is from ‘Made in Chelsea’. We then start to get into more obscure territory: Angelica Bell is a TV presenter that I don’t recognize, Amy Williams won a winter Olympics medal in the skeleton and Lucy Mecklenburgh is a model.
Read MoreGino Bartali, The Reluctant War Hero
“Some medals aren’t to be worn on your shirt but on your soul.” (Gino Bartali)
Gino Bartali is best known as one of the greatest Italian riders of all time. He performed the incredible feat of winning the Tour de France twice with a ten year gap in between the years of 1938 and 1948 while Europe and the wider world was torn apart by the ravages of war. Like many cyclists from that period, he was unable to make the most of his prime years. That didn’t stop him accruing the most impressive palmarés that includes, as well as those two Tour de France victories, three Giro d’Italia, three Lombardia and four Milan – San Remo titles. He is regarded as one of Italy’s greatest sporting heroes as a result.
Read MoreEtape du Tour 2017: What, Why, When, Where, How?
For many cyclists the unveiling of 2017’s Tour de France parcours this week, on 18th October, was even more eagerly awaited than the average cycling fan. Because this was also when the organizers, ASO, announced the route of the Etape du Tour, the sportive for amateurs that follows one of the key mountain stages that the pros will undertake. Get 16th July in those diaries and start looking for a hotel in the Briancon area now!
Read MoreRobin Williams Bike Collection Auction
"When I see a beautiful bike, I know a guy worked really hard to make those welds, to make it not just functional. And I think it's the same with acting. It's the details, the sense of a craftsman at work, getting it right." (Robin Williams)
Robin Williams’ bike collection went up for auction through the online house, Paddle8 yesterday. You can bid on a wonderful collection of 87 bikes which will be on sale until 25th October. His family are making the sale to raise money for two charities, the Challenged Athletes Foundation and the Christopher and Dona Reeve Foundation, both of which are organisations that Williams supported throughout his life.
Read MoreWorld Championships: The Iconic RainbowJersey
This weekend sees the elite men and women battle it out for the World Championship road titles in Doha, Qatar. While the Tour de France remains the most famous bike race in the world, the World Championship can be a more intriguing affair as it’s often unpredictable. For a start it’s a one day race, rather like the Olympic road race, and the riders will be competing in their national teams, meaning that there can be untried and untested combinations of team members. It remains the most important one-day race in the calendar, above the one day Classics and Monuments.
The course changes each year and has favoured climbers, sprinters and all rounders equally over the years, depending on where it’s been held. If you hang around long enough, a course that suits your abilities will eventually come round to give you the opportunity to win the coveted Rainbow Jersey.
Read MoreIl Lombardia 2016: The Romantic Classic
This Saturday sees one of the most important races in the calendar as the Giro di Lombardia sets off from Como to Bergamo in Northern Italy. It is, of course, one of the five ‘Monuments’, the most important one-day races of the year, along with Milan - San Remo, The Tour of Flanders, Paris -Roubaix and Liege - Baston - Liege. It may not be the oldest of the Monuments, but it’s certainly the most romantic, nicknamed “la classica delle foglie morte” or translated to the slightly more prosaic, “ride of the falling leaves.”
Read MoreGraeme Obree on Battle Mountain: Fascinating, Disturbing, Extraordinary
"If you’re a tiger you may be a slightly ageing tiger, but you’re still a tiger. The thing is, the stopwatch doesn’t care what age you are. And the power meter doesn’t care what age you are. That speed track doesn’t care what age you are. I want to go and break the world land speed record."
So starts David Street’s inspiring, moving, uncomfortable and revealing documentary on Graeme Obree’s emotional and physically draining journey. Of course, this being Graeme Obree, he doesn’t want to just to break the record. He intends to smash it and from within an extraordinary homemade contraption that will travel ridiculous speeds with its rider’s chin just inches away from the tarmac of a Nevada desert road.
Read MorePro Cycling: What's The Future?
This year’s Vuelta has been one of the most entertaining for years: the red jersey was passed round the peloton like a hot potato in the first few days, some of the uphill finishes have been both fascinating and torturous to watch and we’ve seen the breakaway win through on half a dozen occasions. While the spectators have been enthralled, it’s no secret that there’s been some grumbling from the riders about the tough parcours being set. And with two of the teams taking part, folding at the end of the season, there are some serious questions being asked about the future and sustainability of pro cycling.
Take a look at IAM for instance. The Swiss team was set up in 2013 as a Professional Continental level team and moved up to the world tour in 2015 having raced as a wild card in the 2014 Tour de France. Michael Thétaz, the team’s owner, announced in May that they had failed to secure a sponsor signalling the end of a ‘beautiful adventure.’ Having reached the top flight of the World Tour the only way they could have continued as a team was to take a step down back to Continental level. IAM will no longer exist at the end of this season.
Read MoreTour of Britain Preview
Tomorrow sees the Tour of Britain set off from Glasgow to Port Douglas on the first of eight stages that cross Scotland, the Lake District, Cheshire, Wales, South West England and a finale on the streets of the Capital on 11th September. No less than eight medalists from Rio’s Olympics are taking part, 21 teams, 11 of which are UCI outfits: this is now a highly rated, prestigious and important race in its own right that attracts some of the best cyclists in the world.
It’s come a long way from its humble origins when, in 1945, a group of disgruntled cyclists who’d been banned by the National Cyclists Union set up the Victory Cycling Marathon to celebrate the end of the war. A stage race from Brighton to Glasgow, it was, by all accounts, a disorganised shambles with riders sleeping in barns and sheds in between stages. That first race was very much a French affair: 6 of the top ten finishers were Frenchmen as was its winner, Robert Batot. But it was also hugely popular with as many as 20,000 spectators watching the race set off.
Read MoreLa Vuelta a España - past and present
As La Vuelta a España rolled out yesterday for its 71st edition with a 27.8 km time trial, don’t be fooled into thinking that this Grand Tour is inferior to either the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia. Often relegated to a status as the third best, expect thrills, great bike racing and massive climbs that will test the mettle of the best riders in the world.
Despite being the youngest of the grand tours, La Vuelta is still a ‘Grand Tour’ with a fascinating history and heritage to rival France’s and Italy’s stories of heroism and romance. It’s produced some wonderful bike racing, rivalries and upsets that began 80 years ago and continue into the modern age of professional cycling.
Read MoreFlanders Bike Valley, the New Silicon Valley
Everyone’s heard of Silicon Valley, right: that centre around which the world’s most influential and forward thinking high tech companies congregate, collaborate and compete? Well, Belgium has created its very own ‘Bike Valley’ on the edge of its border with Holland and Germany to emulate America's business hub. When Ride Velo popped over for Eroica Limburg earlier this month, we just had to go there to take a look.
Read MoreChris Hoy - the Olympian Changes Track
With the Olympic Games in Rio just a couple of weeks away, Team GB's most prolific medal winner, Sir Chris Hoy, predicts an impressive haul of 8-10 golds for our talented road and track cyclists. But Hoy, talking at the News International Building in London last week, revealed that it's four wheels, not two, that are currently the centre of his attention.
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