Cycling uphill

Cycling, mood and happiness

January 24, 2014 by tejvan

It’s not often I get too excited about 20 minutes on the turbo. But, after a few weeks off the bike any kind of exercise is welcome.

One of the attractions of cycling is the benefit to general mood. After a day spent working at the desk, going out for a bike ride can blow a lot of the mental and physical cobwebs out of the system.

There is the basic chemical benefit of exercise, the slow release of serotonin – the natural ‘high’. Nature’s reward for overcoming lethargy and the hard work of exercise. Given that exercise can significantly improve health, it is perhaps unsurprising evolution has given some reward to those who partake exercise.

50mph-speed-limit

Cycling in the sweet spot

One of the best types of rides is a constant couple of hours, at an intensity which may be loosely be described as the ‘sweat spot’. It’s an effort level below lactic threshold and close to aerobic capacity. This intensity of exercise is not excessively painful nor does it do any real damage to muscles. You are not overly stressing the body, but giving it a very good work out. It’s a good training session because it can give high training returns, but doesn’t require extensive recovery.

This kind of session requires concentration to keep the pace high. If you don’t have concentration, you can slip off the target intensity and end up a level 1. But, when you can get in the groove and spend two hours of cycling at this intensity, there is a real buzz. Especially, if the weather is good, the road smooth and you’re in good shape, you can do an impressive average speed without killing yourself. This session gives everything, the feeling of speed, movement and all the chemical and mental benefits of exercise.

In terms of legal, natural mood enhancements, there aren’t many better suggestions that cycling for 1-2 hours in that ‘sweet spot’

Racing

Many people would be happy to cycle at a steady pace, rarely doing anything more than training at their aerobic capacity. But, others are drawn to the extreme of racing and training at the maximum intensity. The whole point of racing is to see how far you can test yourself. By nature it is physically painful because you are trying to push past the bodies warning signals of what is comfortable. Dealing with this pain and discomfort can be mentally challenging. But, at the same time, there is a underlying sense of satisfaction and a different kind of happiness. Some people say that when racing, it really feels like you’re living on the edge, there is a heightened sense of awareness and living. It may be torture when you’re doing it, but there is usually a welcome afterglow of achievement.

The mind and the mood

Not all cycle rides are the same. Sometimes you go out and everything slips into place. It is one of those proverbial float days, where the cycling is exhilarating and you get a tremendous benefit. Other times, the ride can feel hard work, and rather than improving your mood, it feels a struggle to get round and you begin to wonder what you are doing.

To a large extent, we can just get on the bike and cycle, but there is also a need to be aware of the train of thoughts we allow into our mind. If we become absorbed in a negative train of thought, like ‘this is a useless ride’ ‘why am I so slow?’ ‘Why can’t I beat X?’ – the joy of cycling evaporates. There have been the odd times when I’ve stopped by the side of the road to restart my mind and get ride of a certain train of thought. I often used to be out cycling, and I’d get worked up by Lance Armstrong getting away with taking drugs or something. It used to really eat into me. I had to make a conscious effort to get away from that and not even start to think of that topic. Otherwise when you’re cycling on you’re own you can start thinking in circles and the ideas get stronger.

Cycling in Huddersfield

January 21, 2014 by tejvan

Apart from cycling my other hobby is visiting towns by trains to take photos of cyclists and the cycling infrastructure in that town.

Recently, I went to Huddersfield by train. It’s quite an impressive train station, and in recent years it has seen a big increase in passengers using rail services across the Pennines. Huddersfield train station was also worth visiting for a bit of rugby league history. It was at the nearby George Hotel, where several northern rugby clubs, back in 1895, broke away from the ‘toffs’ who dominated the amateur rugby game. They formed the Rugby League, allowing professionalism and introducing new rules. For many years, I followed Leeds RLFC. Unfortunately, the George Hotel went into receivership in 2013 and is now covered in scaffolding, but ‘Welcome to Hudddersfield‘ I guess.

Anyway, I’m digressing from the main theme of this blog, which is usually cycling.

huddersfield-2 — Where are the cyclists?

The problem is that during my two hours in Huddersfield, I didn’t actually see anyone cycling. This is a bit of a stark contrast to a ‘cycling city’ like Oxford, where a cyclist is always visible whatever the time of the day.

huddersfield-congestion — Lots of congestion, but no cyclists

I walked around the town centre, camera at the ready, but I didn’t even see so much as a parked bicycle to take a photo of Admittedly, I didn’t wait forever – somehow standing outside the ranks of betting shops and pawnbrokers, waiting for an elusive Huddersfield cyclist to pass by wasn’t the most enticing way to spend a cold January morning.

Tapering for cycling

November 1, 2016January 20, 2014 by tejvan

Tapering is the art / science of trying to peak for a particular event. This can be a major taper, where you try to gain maximum performance for a major race (usually once or twice a year) There are also minor tapers, where you try a shorter taper for races of medium importance throughout the year.

The basic principle of tapering is that there are two main aspects of training:

Stress – where you do the training and stress the muscles and body. This leaves fatigue and possible muscle damage, but the stress causes the body to adapt to higher levels of fitness. Without this stress, the body never tries to adapt to greater fitness.
Recovery – where you rest and give time for muscles to recover and adapt to higher levels of fitness.

The idea of a taper is to gain the optimal amount of fitness, plus freshness. If you train too hard, you will enter the final competition too fatigued and unrecovered. If you rest too much, then you start to lose the fitness gains. The peak taper is to get best combination of fitness, plus freshness.

Generally tapering involves reducing the volume of training, but maintaining a similar number of sessions of the same high intensity. This reduction in training volume can be anything between 5-21 days.

Some people racing every week may do a mini weekly taper of reducing training towards the end of the week. But, I wouldn’t really call this a proper taper.

Out of interest, in 1954 Roger Banister, took 6 days off before his successful attempt to be first man to run the mile under 4 minutes (3 min 59.4 sec) (link)

Benefits of Tapers

Different studies, suggest that a taper which reduces fatigue from an endurance athlete can boost performance by between 3-11%.

VO2 max capacity is largely unaffected by taper.
Hemoglobin blood values have been shown to increase by up to 14%
Hematocrit values have been shown to increase by up to 2.6% (Correspondingly at the end of a long tour, blood values are expected to fall. Hence athletes which show rising Hemotcrit levels at the end of a three week tour, is a strong indication of blood doping)
One of the biggest increases in capacity after a taper is in sport specific muscles. Increases in swimming-specific power, of 16–25% have been reported in both men and women (9, 53)

How to develop a taper

A taper will depend on several factors. Firstly, it depends on how much you are training. If you are training less than four hours per week, a taper is unlikely to have any benefit, because at the level of training, fatigue is unlikely to be an issue. The greater the training volume, the greater the accumulated fatigue and the greater potential benefit of a taper.

One suggested rule of thumb:

6-10 hours training – major taper – 7 days
10-15 hours training – 14 days
15+ hours – 21-30 days

CTT awards dinner

January 20, 2014January 19, 2014 by tejvan

The last time I got invited to a black tie dinner, I think we were in a different millennium. Actually the CTT event wasn’t strictly black tie. The dress code said ‘black tie or lounge suit’. I still had to look up ‘lounge suit’ on my modern friend – google.com. From what I could make out, a ‘lounge suit’ is just a posh way of saying suit. Fortunately, I did have a suit – albeit with several layers of dust; I’ve been toying with giving it to a charity shop for the past five years. I’m kind of glad I kept it now. At least it still fitted me – I suppose one advantage of being a hill climber is that you don’t have that nasty shock of not fitting into clothes that used to fit you 10 years ago.

Actually, when I say fitted me, it was really quite baggy – they just don’t make too many suits for 6 foot 3, 61 kg, lanky hill climbers. I guess the market is pretty small. Anyway I broke a habit of a lifetime and spent some money on smart clothes. I bought a skinny fit, £28 jacket, from Primark. It did the job and I felt regally dressed, even if my trousers didn’t match and I was wearing the same woolly socks I wore in the National hill climb championship back in October. No one noticed, fortunately.

I can’t say I was bubbling with anticipation at an awards ceremony. I love cycling and it’s nice to win. But, I’ve never been particularly enamoured of the getting awards aspect.

tejvan-ctt-dinner — 3 hill climb champions.

In many ways, I rather like the cycling time trials tradition of winning a race and getting nothing more than a cup of tea just like all the other 120 competitors. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the sport of time trials, and it was important to be part of the annual event. To use a cliché, it’s not every year you win a National Championship (unless you’re Michael Hutchinson, of course.) I thought it great that the MC for the prize ceremony was Michael Hutchinson. “And the winner of the National 10, er… well that was me again… Queue presenting himself the trophy! nice touch!” Michael did give a very nice introduction to the achievements of his competitor Matt Bottril, Matt had a very successful 2013, perhaps overtaking Hutchinson for the first time in his career.

Cycling on pavements – problems and solutions

August 12, 2022January 17, 2014 by tejvan

I have been reliably informed that if there is any discussion of cycling on internet, it is inevitable that, some poster (or several) will bring the conversation around to the stock comment – that cyclists use the pavement and are a real nuisance. It can be about any topic related to transport, such as improving road safety, the dangers of using mobile phones. But, the fact that some cyclists use the pavement is used ad nauseam – as a sweeping statement to tarnish all cyclists and negate any sensible discussion. I’m sure that somewhere in the Bacchanalian depths of the Daily Mail comment section there is the logic that since some teenagers cycle aggressively on the pavement we should ban all cycling on the road.

sheldonian-pavement — I have no idea why the guy on a foldup is using the pavement. There’s hardly any traffic on this road.

The law on pavement cycling

Firstly, it is against the law to cycle on the pavement, unless it is a shared footpath

It is illegal to cycle on the pavement, unless there is a sign indicating a shared use cycle path. Cycling on footways (a pavement by side of a carriageway) is prohibited by Section 72 of the Highway Act 1835, amended by Section 85(1) of the Local Government Act 1888.(Highway Code)

This includes children. Children are not allowed to cycle on the pavement. Though the police are generally advised to use their discretion and not prosecute in this instance.

Why do people cycle on the pavement?

Safety. Many roads and junctions are dangerous to cycle on. Cycling on the pavement can be a way to make a journey safer for the cyclist and avoid dangerous roads / junctions.
Ignorance of the law. A study by researchers at Lancaster University found many people (especially children) were not aware that cycling on the pavement is illegal.
Laziness / impatience. Sometimes you see people cycling on the pavement because they want to get their quicker and are too impatient to wait at a light or they see the pavement as a short-cut. This motive may be mixed in with the first motive about safety. Also, you get the impression with some road users that they just don’t care if they inconvenience other people.

Problem of cycling on the pavement

Cycling on the pavement is one of the most frequently raised local issues to the police. Many people really dislike having the pavement space threatened by fast moving cyclists. Even if there is no accident, old people can feel uncomfortable when a bicycle passes by at close speed.
Accidents. Accidents can happen when fast moving cyclists collide with pedestrians. In rare cases it can be fatal or lead to serious injury. Very roughly, on average one pedestrian is killed by a cyclist per year.
It creates ill feeling towards other cyclists. When a drunk driver kills a pedestrian because he is speeding and loses control, we don’t go around hating other drivers. But, it does happen with cycling on pavements and it is a problem because it exacerbates tension between different road users and makes non-cyclists less sympathetic to any cyclists.

Sense of Perspective

In terms of fatalities and serious injuries, it seems that the threat posed by cyclists is exaggerated. Pedestrian and motorists are quick to complain about nuisance cyclists, but it is motor vehicles which are responsible for the vast majority of serious accidents. In 2011, there were 480 pedestrian fatalities. (cycle stats) These were not caused by cyclists on the pavement. It’s not just cyclists which invade pedestrian areas, but also parked cars and cars which lose control.

Stages power meters

January 16, 2014 by tejvan

Stages power meter promise reliable power meter recording at a relatively cheap price. Whilst many SRMs can go for over £2,000. Stages power meters will be £599 (For Shimano 105) to £799 (Shimano Dura Ace 7900). Not only that but they are lightweight (20grams) and easy to switch between bikes.

This summer I spent quite a bit of time researching power meters and I came to the conclusion, I wanted to get the cheapest one. For me, this was Quark, I ended up spending £1,400 and it was a big hole in the cycling budget.

Quark Elsa

Firstly, the Quark experience has not been so good. A few weeks after buying (and after one race) it broke. We spent ages trying to fix the power meter reading, but the problem was in the crank arm itself so with help of Beeline we sent it back to the distributor. After a delay they sent it back saying it worked. But, it didn’t work, and they hadn’t even put a battery in it. Then we had to send back again. Eventually, four months after it stopped working (Sep 15) I’ve finally got it back in working condition yesterday (Jan 15). It would have been interesting, if not useful being able to use for the hill climb season. It was a lot of toing and froing between the bikeshop. Though in retrospective, I was glad I bought it from Beeline, as they were very helpful in dealing with the Quark distributor.

Whilst the Quark was in the workshop, getting returned , I came to hear about a new power meter called Stages which you just fit to a crank arm. I soon started to regret buying Quark and thought if I’d waited I could have saved £800 and the pain of my Quark not working. Stages seemed to give everything I want from a power meter.

Advantages of Stages

Very light 20 grams! (important for hill climbers)
Easy to put on – Even easier than Quark. Even I a self-confessed non bike mechanic could move Stages around without even having to drive bike to bikeshop (something I dislike having to do)
Much cheaper than other power meters.
You don’t have to worry about changing wheels / changing bikes. As long as you have same crank arm (which I do) it is quite easy to take off and put on another crank arm. This is a big bonus for me, because I have so many different bikes and wheels.
Reviews suggest consistent power meter readings.

Too good to be true?

I’ve already splashed out £1,400 on a Quark, but I plan to leave this on my time trial bike. Once you get used to riding power, you want to see what you do on your other bikes. Even though I only used it for four weeks, I would like to have power meter on road bike to measure hill climb interval efforts. The problem is that I often change from road bike to TT bike almost every day. If I was a pure time triallist one pm may be enough. But, I’m not. Stages seems the obvious choice for a second power meter. Only £700 or £800 so it’s pretty enticing because it doesn’t blow the budget completely.

Patience is a virtue on the road

January 15, 2014 by tejvan

One thing about being a British road user is that it teaches you patience. Well, it’s either you learn to be patient, or you become really quite angry and irritable. I was dropping my bike off at Beeline this morning to re-fit a power meter. It took a long time to drive the one mile during rush hour; it’s so much slower than cycling. I realised now why I never drive in Oxford, unless I can avoid it. It takes considerable patience to drive the one mile down Cowley Road. The problem is that most of the roads around here were not designed for two rows of parked cars and heavy traffic.

They were designed in the halycon days of the 1930s, when everything was in black and white and people couldn’t afford a motor car.

cyclists-leaving-work-bw — The good old 1930s. Workers leaving factory. What happened when all these workers bought a motor car?

But, if you start off with the mindset of being patient and expecting it to be slow, it’s much easier to retain some equanimity. If you can’t enjoy the drive into town, and least at doesn’t leave you agitated.

As a cyclist, you often have to be patient. You could look at the top picture and get annoyed. Why are cars taking up so much space? If the other person was on a bicycle, there would be no delay. “Why can’t you be nice and thin like me?” But, if you start thinking like that, you don’t end up in a good place. A little patience goes a long way; sometimes you have to wait a few seconds for a 4WD to carry its great hulk through the road. But, that’s fine, we all share the road – even Chelsea Tractors.

Returning to cycling after injury

June 7, 2014January 14, 2014 by tejvan

One thing about cycling is that you will always have time off the bike due to injury, illness e.t.c. In my case, these enforced breaks have been anything from one week to several years. Returning to cycling after a lay off can be a great feeling, but you have to be careful to manage it in the best way.

Firstly, it can be very frustrating to be sitting on the sidelines, nursing some injury – These periods off the bike always seem to correlate to the best beautiful weather. Outside it’s sunny and dry – perfect for clocking up the miles, but you’re still hobbling up the stairs trying to detect any slight improvement in your strained muscle.

How much fitness do you lose when you’re off your bike?

After one week, you will begin to lose top end speed quite quickly. As soon as training stops, you find anaerobic threshold and VO2 max drop off fairly rapidly. Though after a few weeks, the rate of decline tails off.
After two to three weeks, your endurance capacity will also start to fade away too. In one study, Madsen et al, cyclists who stopped training for four weeks found their ability to cycle at 75% of VO2 max dropped from about 80min to just over 60min—a 20% decrease. This is a good approximation of basic endurance fitness. Still 20% reduction from four weeks of rest is not the end of the world.

Taking a month or two off the bike is never quite as devastating as it feels at the time. The body is adaptable – what you lose you can regain – there just needs to be a degree of patience.

Difficulties in coming back after Injury

There is always a danger you could do too much, too early and aggravate rather than help the injury to get better. There are no hard and fast rules about how much you should do because it depends on type of injury and recovery. In some cases, light exercise can help get blood to the affected area and speed up healing. For want of any better advice, if you feel pain, it is a sign you might be pushing too early. If you can ride without pain, then it is a guide signal to begin lightly.
During injury, some muscles will have wasted causing imbalances in the body. This can cause knock on injuries, due to over stretching other parts of the body. One thing I’ve noticed about recent injuries where I mainly landed on left hand side, is that I’ve gained muscle strains on my right hand side in my back because I’m overcompensating on the other side.
Also, because I haven’t been using my left leg much, I can feel the muscles are really declining in power. When I wake up I feel my left leg involuntary stretching because the previously strong muscles are becoming much weaker due to non-use. Unfortunately, this has aggravated the imbalance between my left and right leg.

Tips in Coming back to Cycling from Injury

After long break, start with short distances and a very steady pace. Build up distance and intensity gradually. The last thing you want is to over-stretch yourself. The good thing about cycling is that it is ideal for taking it gradually. You can cycle a few kms whilst maintaining a very low effort. It becomes nice if each day, you can add a few kms, taking it step by step.
Be careful of setting goals too early. We are tempted to start thinking. ‘Right this injury is going to be over in 2 weeks.” But, you can’t put your own time scale on it. If you have a deadline, you are likely to suffer from failed expectations.
If you have a target for a 100 mile sportive 3 weeks after injury, it can become very tempting to push too hard. To achieve a big target requires great determination, but recovery from injury requires listening to the body and patience rather than stretching yourself. Once you have a fixed goal, it’s hard to be patient with yourself.
Manage expectations. To use the oft-quoted line from A Fish called Wanda ‘It’s not the despair I can’t stand, it’s the hope’ Be wary of giving yourself unrealistic expectations of recovery. To use a footballer manager cliché just take each day as it comes and do what you can with that.
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Highlights of 2013 and targets for 2014

January 13, 2014January 13, 2014 by tejvan

This is the kind of thing you only have time for when you’re lying on your back with an injury. Well, I’m not quite lying on my back, but there’s only so much internet browsing you can do, before you lose the will to live. So this is a recap of results from 2013 and a look forward to 2014.

Before the hill climb season, a few things stood out.

Buxton Mt TT 1st and getting close to Stuart Dangerfield’s course record.
Taking 9 minutes off my personal best for 50 miles. At the start of the year it was 1.49. In July I reduced it to 1.45 (up in Yorkshire). Then on the super-fast B50/6, it reduced to 1.41. (and it may have been a 1.39, but for a wrong turning)
I also set a pb for 100 miles in the national 100, up in Lake District. It was a good honest course, and 5th sounds pretty good, even if some of the fast guys were chasing faster courses down south for the BBAR.
I also enjoyed doing the National 50 down in Wales, where I finished 9th. I think this is the first year, I’ve done 3 Nationals in the same year. I hope to do more next year.
I also set a pb at 10 miles, though it was a case of shaving off a few seconds (19.02) on the superfast V718- course, at the end of the M65.

For the hill climb season, obviously winning the national title, was probably the most significant achievement in 9 years of racing. But, the season leading up to hill climb was also good fun. Setting course records on Snake Pass, Cat & Fiddle, Leith Hill, Porlock, Mow Cop, Guise Edge and finally on the Stang. 12/13 1st places was good. But, it was hill climb number 13, which was really the one that counted. I wouldn’t say it’s the national or nothing because that diminishes the open events. But, I’m glad not to end up with the title of ‘person who won the most open hill climbs, without winning national title.’

Mileage

I did a total of 10,570 miles during 2013. The biggest month was June – 1,263. The shortest distance was Feb – 412. There were 717 miles done in races.

I don’t want to calculate how many miles I did driving to races. I should just be grateful to my parents’ B&B up in Yorkshire.

Targets for 2014

The stand out target for 2014 is to retain the National hill climb title on Pea Royd Lane. I think it is possible, though perhaps a little more difficult than the Stang. Setting course records on Leith Hill (3.33) and Guise Edge (3.23) is encouraging in that I reckon the winning time in 2014 will be around that mark. I would love to have another go at Horseshoe Pass, I was 13 seconds off the course record – that would be a special one to get.

The other big target for 2014 will be to have a go (injuries permitting) at the BBAR competition. This is a long standing competition which involves getting the best time and average speed at 50 miles, 100 miles, 12 hour. I enjoyed the 50 and 100 miles this year, and am really looking forward to (finally) having a go at a 12 hour. I will also try to do the National 50, National 100 and National 25. I think it’s quite possible to improve on last year’s positions. I was definitely getting faster towards the end of the season.

Apart from that I will be doing any hilly races I can get to. Circuit of the Dales and Buxton hilly CC are top of the list. Also, I’m already salivating at the prospect of the Dursley Hardriders WTTA 28 mile time trial. According to sales pitch of organiser “Last year just three riders averaged better than 20 mph on a course including four severe climbs. Riders were typically 7-8mph slower than their pb for 25 mile times. This year the finish of the course includes a final climb up the awesome Stouts Hill! So that’s five climbs, three of which have been used as Dursley RC club hill climbs. One thing’s for sure, this CTT event will again have the “slowest” winning time of the year”

Apart from racing, I have very few goals, though I will continue to tick off any hard hill climbs in the 100 hill climb books, I have a trip to Great Dun Fell (Knock, Lake District) lined up. and I’ve even toyed with another trip down to Box Hill.

Tips for commuting by bike

November 1, 2016January 12, 2014 by tejvan

Commuting by bike has several advantages, it can save money, get you there quicker, plus give a useful bit of exercise. I’ve been commuting into Oxford for the past 13 years. It’s not a long commute – only about 2.5 miles each way. Despite the stress of dodging Oxford buses and taxis, commuting by bike is a great way to start the day. Even when I started working from home, I found in practise I preferred to keep commuting into a city centre cafe – rather than stay at home. More than anything a 10 minute cycle ride is a great way to get the brain working.

Over the past 13 years, the main change I’ve noticed is that I’ve become a slightly slower and more patient commuter, but as a result probably enjoy the experience more.

These are my top tips for commuting by bike.

1. Patience. Depending on the city, commuting by bike is likely to be significant faster than most other forms of transport. To a large extent, you can escape the traffic congestion and queues of traffic.

However, it is not a race, if you have a little patience, you can make the ride less stressful and safer. Running red lights is dangerous and can end up leaving you with a fine. You will also annoy a lot of people – both motorists and other cyclists. If you give yourself a little more time, you won’t feel the need to push on regardless. Similarly, if you have a little patience, you won’t take unnecessary risks like squeezing inside buses to save a few seconds. It’s potentially very dangerous. Having a little patience also make the commute more enjoyable. If you treat the commute like a time trial, you are creating unnecessary stress, and you will probably end up riding like an idiot. I’ve nothing against cycling fast, but doing it up the High Street with buses and innumerable traffic lights, is not the best of places.

2. Check different routes

cyclist-up-hill — The best cycling route is often different to the one you would drive. Slow minor roads can often avoid busier junctions

Any commute can be made a little safer and more enjoyable by seeking out quieter roads and better journeys. If there is a nasty section of road or junction, investigate whether it is worth a detour. Planning alternative routes may add a little to your journey distance, but if it makes it safer and less stressful, it is worth it.

Be seen

In an ideal world, cyclists wouldn’t have to dress up like a Christmas tree to be seen. I’m not a fluorescent yellow evangelist, but it does worry me when I see cyclists wearing only dark clothes at night without lights. If you ride on the road without lights and in dark clothing, it really increases the risk of an accident. Also it annoys other road users. If you spend any time driving, you will understand the importance of cyclists being visible.

Be a considerate road user

In any commute, you will come across irritating and inconsiderate behaviour. This will be from any road user, be it pedestrian / car / bus / lorry driver / cyclist. You can not influence how other road users behave. But, the best thing is always to be considerate yourself. If you are considerate and use your common sense, you won’t get into needless dispute, but find it is quite easy to obey the highway code.

Dealing with road rage

Unfortunately, being a considerate road user doesn’t insulate you from all problems. If you commute anywhere in the world, you will face dangerous moments, which are out of your control. It is easier said than done, but there is a lot to be said for keeping calm and not getting drawn into arguments you can’t really win. My general philosophy is generally to have low expectations and let little irritations go. Of course, it is different if you are involved in an accident. In that case, you should take down all the details you can. But, I never expect the advanced cycle boxes to be free. I expect cars to turn into the road, making you slow down. I’m half expecting cars to be on the wrong side of the road. This is all the downside of commuting into town. But, it’s a lot easier to accept as long as you don’t feel it is your responsibility to educate all the car drivers in your city because you won’t be able to!

Maximsing safety

The perceived safety of cycling is often the biggest deterrent to cycling in cities. To some extent you can reduce certain dangers and risk. The big ones include:

– Avoid undertaking buses and lorries – unless you are very certain they are going to be stationary.

– Learn to look over your shoulder and signal before manoeuvring out into the road.