It’s lockdown again, although due to circumstances I didn’t really leave it earlier. With a wife working at the hospital, elderly parents-in-law and kids at university I had to stay safe, to semi-isolate. Thankfully I’m a solitary person, but at times it’s been demotivating. I need to refocus and the rollers are an excellent way to achieve this.
I like a challenge – I’m still a competitor at heart. But the distance involved in travelling to practice and, the onset of colder weather means my training has to be adapted. Yes, I can go out into the smaller hills in my local National Park, the Dales. They’re truly beautiful, but the winter is coming. Yesterday we had snow! My wife’s parents sent a picture of it.
Yes, I’ll be back onto the rollers again I guess, spinning away and wiping away the sweat, as I try to retain my legs in readiness for spring or a crisp winter day. It won’t give me the strength though, just the stamina, which as a former distance athlete God or my parents already gave me.
Pirelli returned to road cycling just a few ago, going back to their heritage and using their knowledge and skills developed in a formula 1 to great effect. Now sponsoring UCI World teams at both road and mtb disciplines, their latest tyre ranges take things to a whole new level, like the new 28mm TLR road tyre.
A classic Lancashire road cycling route that works you into the hills and up to Jubilee Tower, before descending for tea and cake
I’d better open up by saying that I wasn’t on a drug crazed trip in our capital city. No, I’d simply gone down to London to spend time with our son, a photographic artist who lives in the south of the city. Yes, a man after my own heart, whose apartment is filled with bikes and bike parts, all fixed gear machines, including a folding one! He has other bikes… numerous at the family home, but London is for riding real – and that means fixed gear.
The Bowland Badass, whilst starting in the quiet village of Garstang, is an epic 167 mile road cycling route in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with a series of epic and tough climbs. It was run as a sportive, and we’ve included the route here, so that you can ride it yourself at any time, either in a one day adventure, or as a cycle tour over a weekend.
Telegraph Hill in London is a secret viewpoint with one of the very best views over the city. Take a cycle ride from Central London, along the Southbank to this amazing small park.
It’s time to ride. The air outside is cool and a slight dampness hangs as the sun is still warming the earth. Fixing the bottles into the cages, I clip the pedals and place the gloved palms of my hands onto the bars.
It is possible to find country lane road cycling routes in Sussex and London. The classic Ditchling Beacon road cycling climb is an example, cycling from Balcombe to Brighton.
There are places in the world that are not only still relatively undiscovered, but that also have road cycling climbs that rank alongside any cycling climbs in the world – welcome to Romania cycling, or to be precise – it’s time to be transfixed by Transylvania!
Philip Platt 
Ben Thorpe Photography