My @vmcyclone review in @cyclingweekly

It's always pleasing when you get a bit of coverage in the media. Even more so when your words are attributed to you! From this week's Cycling Weekly.

Is £25,000 too much to spend on a bike?

There is of course only one answer to the above: yes. This week's edition of Cycling Weekly has a feature on 'top end' bikes including the absurdly priced item from Aston Martin. Quite why Aston Martin would make a road bike for 25 grand and then put disc brakes on it is, frankly, beyond me. But there you go.
Obviously, nobody is really going to buy one and its just a stunt: a cupid stunt at that. But, there is a serious point isn't there.

Mr Abroamovic, your bicycle is ready

I have a few people ask me for advice on what type of bike they should buy and how much they should spend. Not that my knowledge of bikes is encyclopedic but its OK.
First thing I always as is what are you going to use it for. Lots of people automatically assume they need a mountain bike for riding on tracks only to get frustrated with difficulty of riding on knobblies on the road.
The advent of the hybrid section has given loads more choice and while the technology of road bikes has increased massively, they are still essentially two triangles stuck together.
For everyday use, I always advise to spend as much as you can and think about a second hand bike to keep the cost down.
Unless you're going to get very serious with your riding there's no real need to spend over a grand on a bike in my view.
Of course, there's always the temptation and if money was no object...

Manchester: cycling utopia?

Buried in this article from this week's Cycling Weekly is the stat that Manchester has seen an increase in cycling to work of 25 per cent between 2001 and 2011.
Can't argue with that can you? Well, maybe.
I'm always a bit skeptical of statistics presented in percentages - maybe its working in PR makes you cynical about these things.
The real questions relating to 25 per cent are: from what number did the count start and how does Manchester compare to other cities.
More broadly than that, is there a coherent plan to sustain the growth and, if there is, what objectives is that plan moving toward. Put another way, what does a successful cycling strategy for Manchester look like and how will its success be measured. 
You can find TfGM's Interim Cycling Strategy here on the Greater Manchester Cycling Campaign website - there's even a picture of Manchester's most famous cyclist on page 33. The Interim strategy sets out the city's vision for cycling.

Interim: always tends to be a bit shite

Interim suggests that this strategy is going to be overhauled and I'm pretty sure consultation is on-going although there's no reference to this on the City Council's website.
There are many bold words and a series of targets in the document as I'm sure you'd imagine but I think we all know that the result will be slow, incremental change backed up with headline figured like 25 per cent increase which make it seem like we live in a cycling utopia.

New GB bike kit for 2013

Cycling Weekly has some photos of the 2013 teeem geebee cycling kit and very nice it looks too.  I don't suppose there's much else they could do other than go for the Union Jack design.
Any suggestions that they should incorporate a pathetically inadequate bike lane or a large pot hole into the design are just immature.  

White, red and blue

So, with that in mind, how about they incorporate a speeding taxi motif into the 2014 version? I can feel a twitter campaign coming on.
I'm still looking forward to what Rapha are going to do to the Sky kit.  You'd have thought they'd have it out for Christmas really wouldn't you.

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