Tag Archives: Cycling

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Peak Performance – L’Eroica Britannia – Festival & Ride Report

“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer fear for the human race” – H.G. Wells

For quite some time I have thought that bicycles have semi-magical qualities. Riding one can make you happy when you are otherwise sad and they can make you believe that you are someone else – usually someone far better at riding a bike. They can make you fitter and more sociable and, as Mr H.G. Wells says in his wonderful quote above, they can change the destiny of the world. It’s a given then that they are wonderful things. But, until this weekend at the sublime L’Eroica Britannia event, I had not realised that they are also capable of enabling time travel. Perhaps that’s why old H.G. (who knew a thing or two about Time Machines) loved them so much.

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Stoller’s Départ – Douglas Cowie & Matthew Shaw

I am lucky to be old enough, and to have arrived in London just in time, to have enjoyed the considerable pleasures of the old Reading Room at the British Museum. The circular space at the centre of the Great Court, which attained almost sacred status to the Capital’s writers of yesteryear, was just about the most evocative place one could imagine to read or write. The Victorian desks, low glowing lights, the curved bookshelves lining the perimeter walls and the elegant clerestory windows were all suitably impressive but so was the archaic ticketed entry system which made you feel as much a part of the ancient furniture as the often impenetrable tomes in the room. Pushing open the low gate and entering the hushed arena of that literary sanctum was about as good as it got for me back then and I mourned the closing of the old Reading Room in 1997 like the loss of an old friend. It remains my favourite London space, despite not being open for 17 years.

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Happy Birthday – Greg Lemond

Happy Birthday Greg – 26.06.1962

  • TdF Winner –  1986, ’89, ’90
  • World Champion 1983, ’89

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One of the most popular Tour winners of all time, Greg Lemond’s epic battles with his team mate Bernard Hinault and then with the life-threatening injuries he suffered in a freak shooting incident to come back for his second and third Tour wins are truly the stuff of legend. Boyishly enthusiastic, good-looking and yet determined to bring a new professionalism and outlook to the sport, his 8 second win over Laurent Fignon in 1989 remains one of the most memorable of all time. Somewhat sidelined and overshadowed during the Armstrong era, Lemond has recently re-emerged to take his rightful place as an icon of the sport.

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Portrait of ‘The Cycling Podcast’ – with Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie & Daniel Friebe

It’s just after 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon in Hackney and Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe are looking for a bit of peace and quiet. The trouble is that around the busy East London streets of Broadway Market and London Fields school kids are heaving out onto the hot pavements and the nearby building sites that are sprouting up yet more flats in this trendy part of the capital are still in full swing. Add in the chatter of the many achingly cool characters lounging outside myriad cafés and coffee shops and, despite the lovely summer afternoon weather, things are looking, and most definitely sounding, pretty bleak.

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Climbs and Punishment – Book Review – Felix Lowe

For some reason books about epic cycle rides often struggle to maintain sight of the reason behind the particular journey. Caught up with geography, mileage and the inevitable misfortunes that happen along the way, we are quickly left to forget what the point of the epic ride was in the first place. Context is quickly abandoned in place of stories about encounters with mountains, deserts and (usually) wild coyotes or bears. 

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Happy Birthday – Eddy Merckx

Happy Birthday ‘Cannibal’

  • TdF Winner –  1969, ’70, ‘ 71, ’72, ’74
  • Giro d’Italia Winner – 1968, ’70, ‘ 72, ’73, ’74
  • Vuelta a Espana Winner – 1973
  • World Champion – 1967, ’71, ’74
  • Paris-Roubaix Winner – 1968, ’70, ’73
  • Milan-San Remo Winner – 1966, ’67, ’69, ’71, ’72, ’75, ’76
  • Winner at Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Flèche Wallone, Giro di Lombardia
  • World Hour Record 1972

Eddy Merckx in action during the 1970 Tour de France

A uncompromising winning machine, Eddy Merckx bestrides professional cycling as an unassailable colossus. His palmares is without compare, his dedication to victory without parallel. Quite simply The Greatest of All Time, Merckx has no match; modern, historical or contemporary. On every surface, in every season, over every distance, across every parcours, Eddy was, is and will always remain the man to beat.

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Not Folding Under Pressure – The London Nocturne by FACE Partnership

We often hear about the unique element of cycling that says it is the only popular sport where the general public can readily do the same challenges in the very same arenas as their professional heroes. The fact that anyone can take a bike out on the roads used in the world’s biggest races is shown as proof that cycling – more than football, rugby or motorsport to name just a few – is truly the real sport of the people.

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Competition Time – The Cycling Anthology Volume 4

It’s another Jersey Pocket Giveaway! This time I have a copy of the latest Cycling Anthology up for grabs. UK postal addresses only this time I’m afraid though…

The Cycling Anthology series is intended to give cycling journalists a greater amount of freedom and expression than they might not otherwise enjoy. Editors Ellis Bacon and Lionel Birnie actively encourage some of the best writers to pen a chapter about something that the contributors themselves want to write. This means that, as well as there being a lot of love and knowledge in every story, it’s often something out of the expected and sometimes downright obscure. Which is all to the good as far as I am concerned.

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Volume 4, the first to be published in a new jacket design by Yellow Jersey Press, features 10 chapters from Ellis Bacon, Keith Bingham, Lionel Birnie, Orla Chennaoui,Peter Cossins, Alasdair Fotheringham, William Fotheringham, Daniel Friebe, Richard Moore, Tom Southam, James Startt and Matt Stephens.

Seven of the authors introduced their chapters at the book launch in East London last night, demonstrating the varied nature of the writing. From memories of the 1974 Tour de France visit to the UK, through investigations into whether former pro-rider Iban Mayo really did become a long-distance truck driver, to the musical manifestations of cycling culture, it’s the usual rich mix of easily digestible, high quality writing.

To win a copy just answer the following question: Before the book launch I spent the afternoon with three of the contributors as they recorded ‘The Cycling Podcast’. Which three of the authors were they?

Name and address to thejerseypocket@gmail.com  and a name will be picked out some form of randomising receptacle on Monday 16th.

The Cycling Podcast Volume 4 is published by Yellow Press for £8.99 RRP. Volumes 1-3 are also being re-issued with new jacket designs.

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Yorkshire’s Grand Depart – Interview with Head of Media – Andy Denton

With the Tour de France less than a month away, all cycling eyes are turning to Yorkshire as final preparations are made before some of England’s most green and pleasant land is turned yellow for the couple of crazy days that will be Le Grand Depart.

Leading the team charged with communicating the story of Yorkshire’s time in the spotlight is Head of Media, Andy Denton. The Jersey Pocket caught up with this Kentish Lad who found his home in the Yorkshire Dales and then helped win the bid to bring Froome, Nibali, Contador and everyone else to England’s largest county.

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The Tweed Run 2014 – Ride Report

I often find that preparing for a ride is almost as much of a joy as the ride itself. The slightly ceremonial laying-out of bibshorts, jersey, bidon and snacks the night before helps to mentally prepare for the task ahead. The selected attire acclimatises the brain to the likelihood of inclement weather, whilst the amount of food and water required conditions the mind to the degree of hardship ahead. When the laying out includes plus-fours, woollen tie, pipe and hip-flask though, you know it must be time for the many pleasures of The Tweed Run.

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