10 mins with... @BritishCycling

It can be difficult to develop new content on a daily basis for a blog. Especially when its of such high quality and chock full of devastating insight. Frankly, I don't know how some of those blogger do it! 
I, on the other hand, write any old rubbish which springs to mind: the rain, falling off, puncturing, the rain etc.
So, in a bid to bring some new dynamism to these virtual pages, I offer to you the first Outstanding Natural Cycling interview.
I recently had the pleasure of catching up with Scott Dougal who is the Grande Fromage at British Cycling's communications department. He kindly agreed to answer a few questions.
I know this isn't critical interviewing but this blog is supposed to be a celebration of being on two wheels rather than a misery fest. Enjoy.

What was your first and what is your current bike(s)?

First bike was a Grifter, although I think I’d have rather had a Chopper. I've got a Trek mountain bike which is perfect for trails near where I live.

What’s the biggest challenge facing cycling in the UK?

Sustainability. Cycling has come a very long way in the last 10 years – a good indicator of which is the membership of British Cycling. Having rattled around 15-20,000 for much of our history, we shot past the 80,000 mark recently and we've seen 50% year on year growth since Brad won the Tour  last year. But the challenge is to make the gains sustainable – both in terms of popular interest in cycling as a sport as well as people using their bikes for fun or to get around.

Will cycling ever become as mainstream here in Britain as it is in the Netherlands or Denmark?

It’s certainly possible. I've been professionally involved in the sport for just over 10 years and where we are now is extraordinary compared to where we were then. And at British Cycling we remain very ambitious and I think the key thing will be to create a better environment for people on bikes out there on the roads.

We've been consistently successful in meeting our targets for elite success and increasing participation – what will make both of those sustainable is that once we've done our job of getting people on bikes, the habit sticks because using a bike is as easy as possible. British Cycling has significantly stepped up its campaigning work in the last two years and we’re seeing real dividends already, particularly because the growth in our membership means we have real clout.

Should we expect Britain to produce more star Olympic and pro cyclists in the coming years or are we living through a golden age?

The talent pathways are there and just this year we've seen significant success for Becky James, Simon Yates and Liam Phillips among others. But, again, key to sustainability of elite success is having as many people on bikes as possible, whatever their ability.

2014 should be spectacular for UK cycling with le Tour and Giro both visiting our shores. How much of an opportunity for the sport is this in your view?

Next year will be huge but this year, which you might have expected to be quiet compared to 2012 and 2014, has been pretty lively too. In 2014, we've got an international stage race for women, the Tour de France in England, Glasgow 2014 and the Tour of Britain. In amongst that, there is the national road race championships which broke new ground this year in terms of the spectators it attracted. So taken as a whole, there is a four-month period when cycling will really capture mainstream attention again. Can’t wait.

More people cycle in the UK now, right? @roadcc know, I think.

Are we cycling more or less? This question lies at the heart of many of the current debates affecting cycling. The discourse goes that more people are riding so we need better infrastructure and then even more people will be encouraged to ride which will lead to a healthier society, less congestion and wall to wall happiness and glee.
It's undoubtedly true that if you go to the smoke, more people are riding there than have been in recent years. While not exactly looking like Amsterdam, Euston Road has a good number of riders on it whenever I hop off the train. The bike racks too are testament to the increase in popularity.
All this is simply a bit of context behind an excellent piece over on Road CC relating to Sustrans' interpretation of the self same figures which led British Cycling to wet themselves over last year.
Sustrans' interpretation is rather more downcast as it describes the figures from the ONS as 'bitterly disappointing'. The problem for Sustrans is that they say the figures show no increase in the numbers of cyclists in the year to October 2012 whereas British Cycling reckon the same figures show that every journey in the UK is now completed by bike. Yes, every single journey. Including the one which takes a first class parcel containing a marble bird bath and plinth from its distributor in Watford to the home of Elsie Thristwistle in Baxenden.*
Who's right? Well, Road CC have  good go at explaining the stats but ultimately, nobody really knows.

*not really

In my humble view, I think there are a few more wheels on the road but not that many. and fewer when it rains. Devastating insight there I know, but accurate I reckon.

Manchester City likes the cut of cycling's jib

So, despite the damage that Lance has done to the sport, the Wiggo effect coupled with the sheer volume of participants, means that cycling has finally been let into the VIP lounge after years of queueing up in the rain and claiming to know the DJ.
This was confirmed today when Man City became the latest organisation to sidle up alongside cycling in a bar, wink, ask it if it came here often and if it wanted a drink.
With its big doe eyes and down to earth demeanour, cycling had no defence against the flashy vigourous charms of Premiership football with its sharp Italian suit and its illegally parked uber car with tinted windows.
For today, well yesterday, football got its mits all over cycling's pristine chamois leather and sucked it into a whirlwind romance laced with celebrity and charity.
The near neighbours of the National Cycling Centre in East Manchester are The City (sitteh) who perform their soccers at the Eastlands Ethiad Enormodome.  It was all built in the early 90s when The Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games.

City and one of its gerberas

For years they've ignored each other but now, finally, they've been struck by cupid's arrow. Rumour has it that Man City even popped in to The Asdors (Asda) during its dinner and left a bunch of gerberas on cycling's door mat before ringing the bell and running away.
For next March, the two lovers, still gazing wistfully into each others eyes, will entwine themselves in a selfless and very public act of love with the Velocity event. That's Velo (bike) and city (sitteh) combined into the word velocity (measurement of speed) incase you didn't get it.

Cycling was magnetically attracted to soccer

Quite what will happen at the event, I'm not sure.  Some people will definitely ride bikes - for 24 hours it seems.  And there will be some sitteh players there too - obviously they don't fancy the FA Cup anywhere near as much as they fancy the shapely form of British Cycling.
Registration costs £250 per rider and opens tomorrow - Wednesday 19th December.
I'm off to buy a hat.

Maintenance lessons with @BritishCycling in Manchester

This Saturday, British Cycling is hosting an intermediate bike maintenance class at the Velodrome.  Coming in at a pretty steep £125 per person, you'd expect it to be absolutely bob on in terms of advice and guidance for how to get the very best out of your bike.
The day long event, including lunch and refreshments, covers basic stuff like changing an inner tube and some other set up stuff.
Building your knowledge of how to maintain your bike and keep it moving when events conspire against you, is a great skill to have.  There's nothing worse than puncturing on your ride home from work in the rain.  However, with a bit of knowledge you should be back on the road again in a few short minutes.

Stiff link anyone?

I hope the people who go get their money's worth and make the most of it.  At the time of writing the link above says there are eight places remaining.
It reminds me actually, I need to clean my chain.

Cycling: Manchester's Other sport?

It's been raining for about 18 hours solid now but I'm determined to not let it get to me.  I've not had much opportunity to blog of late and as I dry out from this morning's commute, I've been thinking about Manchester and what the city offers cyclists.
Manchester is no worse, or better, than any other typical UK city for cycling infrastructure - it's generally shite with the odd decent bit thrown in where it can be retro fitted into the existing road network.
Manchester should really be much, much better though.
The civic leaders are quick to extol the virtues of having Team GB holed up in East Manchester and point to their presence with pride - rightly so too.
It was, after all Manchester City Council, or rather its council tax payers, which stumped up the money to pay for the Velodrome and British Cycling's electricity bill back in the day.
But there's could be so much more which could be done.  So, what, I hear you ask am I going to do about it?  Well, other than occasionally blog about the region and tut at things I don't like, I'm going to check out the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign with a view to getting involved in their activities.
I'm also going to ask Trinity Mirror why the Manchester Evening News does not have a dedicated cycling section on its website.  Surely if there's enough going on in Golf and Basketball in the region, cycling deserves a place outside of 'other sports'.

Ride safe

Hit the North

I've always counted myself to be very fortunate to live in the north west.  Not only for the famed hospitality, humour and fine baked pastry products, but it you have an enjoyment of the great outdoors, you really are spoilt for choice in this neck of the woods.
Within a couple of drive you can get to pretty much anywhere in North Wales, the Lake District or England's best attempt at wilderness around Kielder Forest in Northumberland.
Other parts of this sceptered isle will no doubt lay claim to similar fortuitous locations but if you add in the fact that an hour's ride from Manchester city centre, you can find yourself lost in the magnificent surroundings of the Derbyshire Peak District which bleed seamlessly into Staffordshire and the plains of Cheshire, then the North West does have a great claim to being the UK's best cycling region - especially which you factor in the the wonderful roads around the Trough of Bowland.
It appears that I am not alone in this view.
Every week, Cycling Weekly publishes a training ride with a significant figure from UK cycling.  The idea, presumably, is to provide a bit of insight into the rides 'the pros do' and to inspire and educate the enthusiast to try different routes or expand their horizons.
While the feature covers all four corners of the North West is regularly represented with this week's entry being a case in point.
Russell and Dean Downing take the Weekly readers on a ride along the Hope Valley in Derbyshire along familiar roads to club cyclists from the North West - although we'd usually approach from the west.

Route around Derbyshire in this week's Cycling weekly

Now maybe the region has an unfair advantage as British Cycling is based in Manchester with much of the squad being based here too.
But they're here for a reason or reasons.  One of those must be the access to tough but relatively quiet roads.
Ride safe

How is Manchester's Brompton Dock doing?

Back in March Brompton, in partnership with Virgin Trains, launched its Brompton Dock hire scheme at Piccadilly Station - a dead easy and convenient way to hire a lovely Brompton for the day.  Six months on, it'd be interesting to know how it's been going.
The first half of 2012 in the north west has provided a superb test bed for widening the participation in cycling with two huge forces pulling in opposite directions.
In one corner, is the hugely enhanced profile cycling is currently enjoying thanks to Team Sky's successes and to Team GB's Olympic successes.  With Manchester being home to both organisations, you would hope that the Brompton Dock would receive wholehearted backing of commuters.
Pushing in the opposite direction has been the wettest April, May, June and July on record [this mightn't actually be the case but it's felt like it].
While the set up of the scheme can't really be faulted and the lockers are well positioned, unobtrusive and have a certain industrial chic, I have to confess that I don't see many people whizzing round the city.  But that's just my impression so I've written to Brompton to ask them how it's going.
Hopefully they will give me a line to say it's going 'very well' or 'initial take up has been encouraging'. I really hope they tell me it's oversubscribed and they are installing more but we'll see.

Ride safe

Sky. Why?

I find Sky's association with cycling in the UK a fascinating conundrum.
Sky is the trading name of British Sky Broadcasting which came into being with the merger of News International's Sky TV and BSB in the early 1990s when they were both haemorrhaging cash. 20 years later, with Premiership football rights sewn up, the company now has a revenue of £6.5bn.
So, what's this got to do with cycling?  Well, that's a good question.
Why would a company which wants to sell us television subscription channels, actively promote a sport in which it has little or no broadcast interest? An activity which, by definition, takes you out of your home and away from your TV?  Just what is the motivation?
It seems to me that there are three plausible explanations:
1. What's clear is that Sky has tried to take ownership of the sport in the way that Red Bull for example try to own 'extreme' sports like base jumping, flying planes through hoops and stuff.  Maybe Sky simply took a flyer at cycling hoping that it would turn out to be successful and that millions more people would get involved.  This would reflect well on the company and hopefully help them sell more HD boxes.  If this was the case, why didn't they outbid the competition for Tour de France coverage, the spring classics or even the Tour of Britain? Maybe they did but I can't imagine ITV4 and Eurosport could have outbid Sky if Sky really wanted an event to concentrate on.
2. So, probably something else is at play.  Sky's involvement in Cycling really consists of two things:  sponsoring the pro team and being the principal partner to British Cycling.  Sky's first involvement dates back to 2008 with the sponsorship of the British track team based in Manchester, the establishment of the pro team came a year later. The pro team sponsorship provides them with the marketing cut through to promote the brand on a national level.  Think about how much more commercial the riders are these days: Mark Cavendish's embarrassing shampoo advert for example.
Their other strand is centred on public activity such as the sky rides - closed road city centre cycling events for all comers.  There's a clearly a corporate responsibility function being played here for Sky.  They altruistically set up these events to get people off their couches and out on their bikes in return for a high viz bib.

3. The final explanation is what a former colleague described to me as 'Chairman syndrome'.  That being when the chair or other senior party of an organisation decides they are doing something without reference to any kind of marketing strategy. So could Sky's involvement be down to a whim of one senior executive?  Or a result of a relationship between senior Sky and British Cycling people?  Well, possibly.
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on a mixture of two and three.  I think somebody in British Cycling has done a superb sales job on Sky and that Sky can see how they benefit from it.
I must state that I'm not against Sky's involvement in cycling, I just find it curious.
Ride safe

...always believe in your soul

The Olympics in London have been superb.
Despite the rabid commercialisation of everything and the disaster with the security company, the real stuff (the events) have been superb; and not just from a Great Britain (Team GB) perspective.
British cycling has been the undoubted star of the show in my view. On the back of the Wiggo show in France, cycling has eclipsed the swimming, rowing and even track & field. The design of velodrome is considerably more attractive than the main stadium - although the flame cauldron is a triumph and on two wheels our team have really delivered.
From a marginal sport, cycling keeps being catapulted onto the front and back pages with superb and emotional performances from the team.
Of all the great successes one stands out: the women's team pursuit.
Setting five consecutive world records on their way to an overwhelming performance in the final, it was refreshing to see competitors be genuinely emotional with their win.
The question for British Cycling is how to turn the surge in interest in the sport into a lasting (cliche alert) legacy.
This is a tough one but there has to be more marketing, better facilities and, ideally, less rain.
But more than that, if the country is to really embrace cycling, then lots needs to be done to encourage more participation. And not just 30-something white blokes on £1500 carbon bikes. There are many under-represented groups when it comes to bike riding - as opposed to cycling - and too many still drive their cars 1/4 mile to the shop or to visit friends.
A real legacy would be to see this type of behaviour change and see all sorts of people choose their bike for diverse journeys - without being considered a loony.

Trials of a nation

So, here we are. Following the disappointment of the men's road race when plan A didn't work and, in homage to George Osbourne there was no plan B, Britain's (Team GB) cyclists today carry the hopes and expectations of the nation.
Both men's and women's time trials take place today and our riders are expected to figure.
I find watching Olympic cycling unusual for one reason: the kit. You get used to seeing the riders in their pro team kit and it looks odd when they pull on the national garb.
If you ask me Belgium's riders have got the best deal with this classic jersey.
Britain's Stella McCartney abstract job is nice too.
It'll be interesting to see the bikes too. The tight rules on olympic sponsorship mean that manufactures are limited to how many logos they can use on their products. This is a problem for bike makers and might explain the hideous paint job on Vino's Specialized which he rode to victory in the road race. There's a review of it over on bike radar.