On Sunday, 9th August the Tour o’ the Borders sportive will be back, for it’s 4th edition. For 2015 this firm favourite Borders biking event has (in Tesco Bank) a new headline sponsor and a new route. Continue reading “Tour o’ the Borders 2015”
I learnt in-the-saddle etiquette from my peers at Elgin Cycling Club, back in the late eighties. Whenever we, either as a bunch or in small groups, passed another cyclist we’d give a wave and/or (depending on our oxygen requirements) say hello. We’d even offer these cheery (cheer was weather dependent) greetings when the other cyclist was a complete stranger, and a complete stranger who was also a member of a rival club.
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| Waving Cyclist poster from: cafepress.co.uk |
Coffee not included.
I live my life by the season. That’s not a spelling mistake, I don’t mean seasons, plural, I mean the cycling season.
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| (pic: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com) |
I was chatting to a friend about the Giro. It was the day of the stage to Aprica. We had (separately) concurred that whilst the racing was in some way entertaining we weren’t cheering on any of the riders. Continue reading “Watching Through The Holes In The Net”
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| Pic: retrobike.co.uk |
When I were a lad … I imagined that I climbed like Tim Gould and descended in the mad manner of John Tomac.
I’ve recently built up a fully rigid MTB that’s like a super-powered version of the bike I used to do all that dreaming on, the kind of steed I dreamt about riding back in the late eighties. It’s not been off road much but its few jaunts have been around my old haunts.
We’ve all been there (presumptive, I know), riding along, legs whirring round all showy souplesse or (more likely) painfully pedaling squares, and with a head full of chatter:
It’s a tailwind. I’m not as fit as I thought. It’s just the wind. Wait til I turn back. I’ll be struggling. Why do I always get a headwind; why is it never a tailwind? Bloody wind. I’d be flying without the wind. What’s that strange noise? That clicking. Sounds like termites. Termites, in carbon fibre? I should have cleaned my bike. I should clean my bike more often. Why am I so lazy? My legs hurt. So few miles covered and already my legs hurt. I should be fitter. I should train more. Why don’t I train more? Why am I so lazy? Continue reading “Mindful Cycling & The Power of Now”
You’ve got your turbo set up in the spare room or shed, there’s a towel draped over the bars to catch the sweat, a fan set to overdrive to imitate that cooling headwind. All you need is to choose the soundtrack to this session of suffering. There’s no doubt that turbo training is amply aided by good music but in these days of shuffle does anyone ever listen to an album all the way through? Here’s a prod in the direction of five albums to coax you out of shuffle and onto the evil turbo.
1. “Tour de France Soundtracks” by Kraftwerk
Electro pioneers Kraftwerk recorded what must surely be the Großvater of all cycling-related albums. Tour de France Soundtracks takes the spirit and concept of their 1983 single Tour de France as its hub and expands eleven spokes outward to form an unashamed, spinning celebration of cycling’s greatest race. You only need to take a glance at the track listing to find yourself on familiar ground. From the opening Prologue, through Tour de France Etapes 1, 2 and 3, onto Chrono, Aéro Dynamik, and Titanium, this is an album that covers all bases, taking your turbo-session on a mini grand Tour adventure. The track Elektro Kardiogramm even has samples of a heavy-duty heartbeat and some laboured lungs at full puff, just in case you aren’t working your own hard enough. If cycling is poetry in motion then this album contains what is perhaps the best cycling poetry ever written:
“L’enfer du Nord Paris-Roubaix, /La Cote d’Azur et Saint Tropez, /Les Alpes et les Pyrennees, /Derniere etape Champs-Elysees.”
On a follow up to my last blog about a Heath Robinson-style mechanical hack I thought I’d share my “recipe” for homemade chamois cream.
Why did I decide to try making my own chamois cream? You could suggest that I’m Scottish and miserly by nature but such stereotyping would be in poor taste. Or perhaps not. I was in my LBS one day, picked up a small pot of Swiss-branded chamois cream and was shocked to discover that I wouldn’t get change from a tenner – I’d barely get a bawbee back for a twenty. (What’s the Swiss for daylight robbery?) Continue reading “Homemade Chamois Cream”
Rolf Rae-Hansen 