Number 5

Here they come, juddering through the narrow pass between bollards and boutiques. Their bikes rattle on the uneven bricks. Cables slap frames. Disorderly, they jump and jitter as they near the tight bend, gingerly.

Then a shout: “Coming through!”

Cav wins!

I watched the final stage of the 2011 Tour de France at look mum no hands!, the cycling cafe in central London.The reaction as Mark Cavendish won on the Champs Élysées – for the third year in succession – was fantastic. The picture was taken over my shoulder as I punched the air – I think it captures the excitement of the moment, though.

Welcome back, real cycling

All sport is romantic, but cycling is more romantic than most, I think. Baseball is obsessed with figures, cricket with figures and style. Football has the promise of the intrinsic beauty of a team working perfectly in co-ordination, engineered by individual excellence. And these are wonderful things – there is reason to love all of sport. But cycling stands outside of all of this.

A conversation on cycling with a football-loving friend

“Cycling? That’s a boring sport.”
 
“Boring? I don’t think so.”
 
“It’s just a bunch of blokes riding bikes as fast as they can and the first one over the line wins. It’s boring.”
 
“Far from it. It’s Dallas on wheels. It’s the most Machiavellian sport on the planet.”
 

British Masters Track Championships, in (dodgy) pictures

It's all about the race, but there's plenty more going on...

British Masters Track Championships, Newport Velodrome, 4th July 2010

Another cold, another time trial

I had a particularly runny cold when I rode my first ever individual time trial (I’d already attempted a two-up, but there’s no need to go into that). I hadn’t intended to ride it at all; it just sort of happened.