Are we Brits becoming a bit complacent about our fellow countrymen winning stages of and leading grand tours? The cycling cognoscenti certainly aren’t, as can be seen by the deluge of praise on social media for Simon Yates who wears pink at this year’s Giro. One just wishes that the wider British public were aware of what a fantastic achievement it is.
Read MoreCycling Record Breaker Skips Rest Days to Make Royal Wedding
You would have thought that the prospect of breaking the world record of cycling from Patagonia to Alaska would be enough motivation to pedal as fast as possible. But for Dean Stott the invitation to attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding meant that he had to push himself even harder so he could get to the church on time.
Read MoreSean Conway, the Bearded Adventurer Cycling Across Europe
As Sean Conway enters his third week of a record-breaking attempt to cycle across Europe unsupported, we take a moment to check on his progress, discover what makes him tick and find out how he gets through his ultra endurance challenges.
Read MoreParis-Nice 1933-2018
This year’s Paris-Nice has had its two flat stages and a time trial. The peloton have leap-frogged across the Massif Central and are already in Provence for the final 4 days of racing. One suspects that they were more than happy to leave the frozen wastes of the north and get down south as soon as possible. It is, of course, known as “The Race to the Sun.”
In its first edition back in 1933 it was named “Six Days of the Road” and was designed as a way of easing bike racers back into road cycling after the six day track season. It was the brainchild of Albert Lejeune who owned two newspapers “Le Petit Nicois” based in Nice and “Le Petit Journal” whose offices were in Paris.
Read MoreBrailsford Teeters over the Edge
In the wake of the publication of the parliamentary committee’s report on doping in sport, the question on everyone’s lips seems to be whether Sir Dave Brailsford will survive the end of the day as boss of Team Sky or whether he’ll drag it out for the whole week.
One suspects that Brailsford is composing his own resignation speech this very moment. Chances are it’ll be one of those letters reminiscent of the recent slew of politicians’ statements that both deny culpability and fail to offer a real apology but instead refer to what’s best for the country/department/party/team/sport.
Read More10+1 Of The Best Cycling Twitter Accounts
The younger generation may have dropped Facebook and Twitter in favour of Instagram and Snapchat ages ago, but Twitter remains at the heart of cycling gossip, banter and news. Check out this selection of Twitter accounts for some of the best chat, jokes and laughs as well as one or two more serious accounts that challenge the cycling establishment.
Read MoreOmloop Het Nieuwsblad Heralds Arrival of Spring Classics
Let’s leave the deserts of the middle east and the sun-soaked southern hemisphere of Australia for some traditional, attritional, hardman cycling. Omloop Het Neuwsblad rolls out on Saturday and with it heralds the arrival of the long-awaited spring classics. Expect: cobbles, short and sharp climbs, rain, sleet, mud and pure grit. It’s time to go into battle.
Read MoreA Day in the Life of Brighton Bikeshare
If you’re a user of a bikeshare scheme it probably hardly ever crosses your mind what goes on behind the scenes to ensure that you can easily hire a bike in good working order from a convenient location. But there’s actually a complicated and sophisticated logistical operation that goes on to ensure it all happens smoothly.
Read MoreCycling Diaries: Crystal Palace to Tunbridge Wells
A good friend of mine said to me recently that he doesn’t do winter cycling – “unless the temperature’s above 15 degrees, I’m not coming.” Sage advice as a group of us cycled from Crystal Palace to Tunbridge Wells on a particularly biting Saturday recently. One of the best things about this ride is the relatively short time it takes to hit “proper” countryside once you leave Crystal Palace station.
Read MoreEritrea: 86 Years of Cycling Heritage
Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka is now entering its third year as a World Tour Team. It’s the first ever African team to reach that status and one of its main goals remains producing the first ever African world champion – nearly half of its riders are African born and bred. Four of those Africans are Eritrean. What is it about this country that is producing such a roster of talented young cyclists?
Read MoreCycling's Highs and Lows of 2017
We only have a couple of weeks before the World Tour kicks off again with the Santos Tour Down Under on 16th January. But before we start looking forward to the New Year, what were your highs and lows of the 2017 racing calendar? Here’s a recap of those landmark moments along with a few predictions of what to expect for the new season.
Read MoreTale of a Mountain Bike Obsessed Teenager
Whether it’s road cycling, mountain biking or just the daily commute, that passion for travelling on two wheels gets us through the occasional low moments in the wet and the cold of winter. When Fred, a fourteen-year-old from Brighton, wrote to us about his passion for mountain biking, his piece struck a chord in us. His thrill-seeking ups and downs on the South Downs and trails of Stanmer Park brought back that magical childhood moment of falling in love with the bike.
Read MoreA guide to the Tour de France 2017 Kirby Codec
Carlton Kirby has commentated on the Grand Tours for Eurosport for over a decade. Over that time he has devised a way of recording what happened on each stage of a 3 week race onto a single piece of A4 paper. It’s an extraordinary document that any bike fan will spend hours poring over as they remember each stage of the race. Here’s Ride Velo’s guide to what all those symbols denote and mean.
Read More10+1 Affordable Cycling Gifts for Christmas
Do you get tired of seeing Christmas gift ideas on websites and magazines that are clearly beyond the purse strings of the normal, average person? While my kids always ask me what I want, the latest Garmin is going to be well out of their price bracket. So in the n+1 cycling tradition we bring you 10+1 affordable and desirable gifts from £7.95 to £40 to put on your wish list.
Read MoreBBC Film And Cycling Tips Article Expose Brailsford and Sutton
The BBC documentary broadcast on Sunday, Cycling’s Superheroes; The Price of Success is worth viewing as a reminder of the ruthlessness with which Dave Brailsford and Shane Sutton went about transforming British Cycling from minnows to a cycling superpower. It asks the question, “In their pursuit of glory, did they cross the line?”
Read MoreAmateur Dopers: “All this for two saucissons and three packets of chips”
This weekend an amateur, third Category, 43 year old bike rider was apprehended by a local gendarme in Dordogne, South West France. He was found to be competing in a junior race with a 250 watt Vivax motor in the seat tube of his bike that drives the bottom bracket.
Suspicions about the rider had meant that he had been tracked for some time because his “ability to climb hills was striking.”
Read MoreIl Lombardia 2017: the Romantic Classic
The world championships may be over but, fear not, there’s still a massive race still to be fought for and won. Il Lombardia, the romantic classic will see a star studded cast of climbers and puncheurs battle it out on Saturday 7th October.
It’s one of monuments, the five 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 MoreWhere and How to Use Bikeshare Schemes in UK
Bike share schemes may not be at the 2 million mark that China can boast, but we’re seeing more UK towns and cities embrace this easy, cheap and environmentally friendly way of getting around. London started the trend with its ‘Boris Bikes’ but our provinces are catching up fast. Here’s a round up of where in the UK you can hire a bike.
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Thoughts on Mark Beaumont's Circumnavigation
As Mark Beaumont comes to the end of his extraordinary round the world cycle, one day ahead of schedule today, I’m caught in two minds. On the one hand you can only feel admiration for such an epic feat of endurance cycling. He’s covered 18,000 miles, riding 16 hours a day since the beginning of July. He met his target of covering 240 miles a day and has endured physical and mental exhaustion to get there.
On the other hand one’s left with a feeling of, well…what’s the point?
Read MoreWhat's the Ideal Height for a Professional Cyclist?
One of the most popular riders to emerge from the peloton this season has been the Irishman Conor Dunne who races for Aquablue. At 2.04m tall he absolutely towers over many of his fellow riders. Conor, nicknamed ‘El Alto’, was the winner of this year’s Lanterne Rouge at the Vuelta Espana, the award given to the last placed finisher of the race.
We wondered if height can ever be an advantage to a cyclist in the same way that it can be beneficial in other sports. Clearly, the important figure is the power to weight ratio a rider can produce. But is there an ideal height for cyclists?
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