Following on from last week’s documentary feature by Kieron Yates is a studio discussion of Paris-Brest-Paris, the world’s most venerable long distance bicycle race. In the studio are PBP veterans Judith Swallow and Dave Minter, and PBP debutant Pete Kelsey. Chris Ragsdale, one of this year’s stars, clocking in an exceptionally impressive sub-45 hour time, joins us down the line from his native Seattle.
For more information about audax in the UK see the Audax UK ride calendar and the audax pages of Yet Another Cycling Forum.
Image credit: Wig Worland, from Pete Kelsey’s short film Towards the Ocean.
The 1200km Paris-Brest et retour was first raced in 1891 and is the oldest bicycle race still in existence, currently held as a brevet de randonneur every four years. Kieron Yates shares the agony and ecstasy of his second outing in an event that is only for the toughest of the tough.
Next week we’ll be talking about the race with a handful of other riders who will share their experiences and tips for anyone considering taking part.
Looking back at the this year’s thrilling Tour de France are Lionel Birnie of Cycle Sport magazine and Alex Murray, London cyclist, amateur road racer and blogger at chasingwheels.com.
Image by Neil Stevens, part of a series of illustrations for this year’s Tour, available to buy at Crayon Fire
Pity Lionel Birnie. For the cycling journalist and regular Bike Show contributor, following the Tour means being stuck in a smelly Skoda with three other hacks for 5+ hours a day, living out of a suitcase, sleeping in tatty hotels with paper thin walls (if he manages to find a hotel room at all) and getting fat eating junk food (all the more galling in the land of haute cuisine). He’ll get a few fleeting glimpses of the racing, but mostly he will be stuck in traffic jams, waiting around in the press centre and trying to get a few moments of face time with knackered or nervy riders who’d rather express themselves on twitter than submit to the questions of a seasoned sports journalist.
For the rest of us who are not part of the media caravan, and thanks to the efforts of a legion of Lionel Birnies, we are spoilt for choice. Here are a few suggestions for getting the most from following the three week festival of cycle racing, the world’s biggest annual sporting event on its grandest stage. Continue reading →
Community bike workshops are a beautiful idea. A place where anyone can learn the basics of bicycle repair by doing it for themselves with the help of volunteer mechanics – and have access to specialist bicycle tools. A stone’s throw from the Elephant and Castle, the venerable 56a food coop and radical infoshop has its own ‘do it together’ Bike Room, open 16 hours a week. Over in France, the Pignon Sur Rue association in Lyon runs a rather larger and more ambitious community workshop project, with 1200 members and support from the local city government.
If a shiny new bike is what you’re after, we hear from Chris Boardman on the recent advances in bicycle technology and the thinking behind his new range of Boardman bikes. Chris takes the view that while Italian consumers are most interested in style, US consumers most interested in good quality service, the British consumer is most interested in low prices. And his bikes certainly offer a lot of bicycle for the money, not least because they have cut out a stage in the retail chain by selling exclusively through Halfords, a combined distributor/dealer.
Studio discussion of four great lives in cycling: Kuklos, the prolific journalist who documented British cycling scene in the first half of the twentieth century; Brian Robinson (pictured, above), the first Brit to win stages in the Tour de France; intrepid cycle tourist Anne Mustoe; and Laurent Fignon, perhaps the last truly great French professional bike racer.
Expert guests are Graeme Fife, author of a newly published biography of Brian Robinson, and Tim Dawson, columnist on the Sunday Times and editor of the Cycling Books website. Plus a chance to win a set of Gavin Turk Les Bikes de Bois Rond postcards. Answers by email to bikeshow@resonancefm.com.
Further reading:
Of Wrigging - Kuklos. A 1927 essay taking on John Ruskin’s opposition to cycling.
Brian Robison: A Pioneer – Graeme Fife (Mousehold Press, 2010)
A Bike Ride – Anne Mustoe (Virgin Books, 1991)
We Were Young and Carefree – Autobiography of Laurent Fignon (Yellow Jersey Press, 2010)
Paul de Vivie (1853-1930), who wrote as ‘Velocio’, was an early advocate of the bicycle, supposed inventor of the derailleur and the father of French cycle touring. Here are his seven commandments for the wise cyclist:
1. Keep your stops short and few.
2. Eat before you’re hungry, drink before you’re thirsty.
3. Never get too tired to eat or sleep.
4. Add a layer before you’re cold, take one off before you’re hot.
5. Lay off wine, meat and tobacco on tour.
6. Ride within yourself, especially in the first hour.
7. Never show off.
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