Connect to poetry - on your bike this weekend

There's something very romantic about swanning around on a bike, probably wearing a voluminous white shirt while noticing the beauty of nature. 

Depending on the time of year you might say 'Isn't the blossom splendid' or, 'Don't the autumn leaves look magnificent this year'.

Of course, travelling by bike means that you can take time to appreciate what's around you while covering enough distance for it to remain interesting.
And its for these very reasons that the connect2poetry project is taking to two wheels tomorrow to get creative juices flowing.

Two groups of cyclists will start out on two separate two-hour rides guided by a poet to discover inspiration. Details of start points and times are below or follow the link above. 

Sounds good!

Oldham pot hole festival

Among all the excitement of the Tour of Britain and the pending world champs I missed this story which broke last Friday. 
One of the 'bosses' at Team Sky - Fran Millar - trousered undisclosed damages from Oldham Council after injuring herself by falling off her bike. Nasty injuries too.
The circumstances will be familiar to many. As described by the BBC, Fran '...swerved to avoid one pothole in Oldham's High Street but then injured herself on another.'
Now, I do have some sympathy for the council's view that there is a 'national pothole funding crisis'  but it seems to me that the further east you travel in Greater Manchester, the more threadbare the cycling infrastructure gets.
My regular commute takes me through, Manchester, Stockport, Tameside and Oldham. 

Potholes can be creative too

Using the Fallowfield Loop, I barely notice Manchester and Stockport despite the loop's inadequacies. 
On my route, both Tameside and Oldham have zero bike infrastructure which is pretty poor. Actually, tell a lie, there is 400m a shared bus lane and one advanced stop box.
As cyclists we get to know the road surface intimately and often have to pick our way along rutted and damaged roads - roads that we all pay for.
We have a long long way to go.

Le Tour visits Oldham (nearly)

Even though the Tour isn't actually coming to Saddleworth, it hasn't stopped The Oldham Chronicle getting into a big fizz about yesterday's route announcement.

Something is happening close by, next summer

With the climb of Holme Moss confirmed and the route taking the peleton back to Sheffield along the Woodhead Pass, the ride will actually pop into Derbyshire very briefly and this is enough for the Chron to seek out the views and opinions of the town's great and good.
For example, Natalie Goas from The Old Bell in Delph is hoping to put up the entire entourage of the tour in the 18 rooms she has available, while Tim Mitchell from Saddleworth Clarion is excited because '...it's like having the World Cup of cycling virtually on our doorstep.' and finally Larry Wells thinks its great as the race will be '...more or less on our doorstep.'
Can't blame them for getting excited, I am too, even if East Yorkshire has been sadly overlooked.  Oh well, there's always next year, oh, wait...