Lockdown Week 27, 25th September 2020
[Editor’s note: This week marks 6 whole months since the UK entered lockdown.] In the week we’re preparing for our Barry Covington memorial rides, I’m not sure we needed reminding that we sometimes take our lives in our hands when we go out on our bikes, mixing it with impatient drivers and imperfect roads. We certainly
Easing of Lockdown Week 26, 18th September 2020
I’ll get to this Sunday in a minute. First, I want to talk about Sunday 4th October 2020. Part of what makes a club, or any insititution is its history. Out of its history, its traditions. Barry Covington Memorial Event 3 years ago, we created a new tradition to honour the memory of one of
Easing of Lockdown Week 25, 11th September 2020
I’ve rather got out of the habit of using this Friday email to give free reign to my self-indulgent ramblings with the vaguest possible connection to cycling. If you’ve missed these, then get a cup of tea and join me for ten minutes. If your heart just sank, feel free to cut to the chase
Easing of Lockdown Week 24, 4th September 2020
The Chairman, James Hanscomb, is away again which leaves you all in my sort-of incapable hands this Friday. Last week, James mentioned the administration of Sunday rides, which is something I’ve been trying to address since I was appointed to this role last year. It’s been a slow process but I am now beginning to
Easing of Lockdown Week 23, 28th August 2020
I think we are all a little frustrated by the continuing restrictions on group riding. I tried to find out if it’s actually illegal for us to ride in groups of more than 6 people, but all I can find are fairly ambiguous statements about ‘guidelines’. Illegal or not, it doesn’t seem to be the
Easing of Lockdown Week 22, 21st August 2020
Very occasionally, getting on my bike and going for a ride feels like conquering a mountain. Impossible. Which is… weird. because riding a bike is one if the things I do best. I have endurance; I have plenty of routes in my head; I have loads of kit; and I have more than one bike.
Easing of Lockdown Week 21, 14th August 2020
Don’t ever remember looking forward to being cold and wet. I used to think the southern European thing of shutting down in August was madness but I do wonder who’s got it wrong. One thing I have noticed is that if you’re the one left in the office and everyone else is away, you definitely
Easing of Lockdown Week 20, 7th August 2020
One of the things we have been denied over the last few months is variety. “Boo hoo,” you might say, “get over yourself.” Fair comment, because for the majority of us, lockdown has been a reasonably pleasant experience. Time with the family, less time wasted commuting, some lovely cycling. Is it therefore greedy to want
Easing of Lockdown Week 19, 31st July 2020
We’re often accused of being the snowflake generation. Well, maybe not my generation, more the millennials who are my children’s cohort. We’ve not really seen war and pestilence in our lifetimes, and you might have expected such a so-called soft generation to have been somewhat broadsided by this wretched Covid thing. I actually think we’re
Easing of Lockdown Week 18, 24th July 2020
I shouldn’t be surprised I suppose, I’ve been riding bikes long enough. How is it possible that something as simple as a ride to the coast and back can produce such an overwhelming sense of wellbeing? That group thing, albeit sensibly small and distanced, a road trip, a cafe, some comic interaction with locals, including the