Toby Green

A keen club cyclist for most of his life, Toby has ridden with clubs in London and Scotland and raced across the UK. When he tells you he has not done much training, you know he’s about to rip your legs off. Toby just completed Lands End to John O’Groats in May 2010 and has plans for many other touring expeditions.

1. I own seven bikes
2. Favourite bike – Now that’s a hard one. My Ridley Excalibur? It’s fast, light and responsive. My 1984 Falcon is so smooth it’s like riding a pint of Guinness. My Genesis steel MTB, rocks off road. My touring bike? With Brooks saddle is like riding a thousand miles on an arm chair.
3. Best ever cycling moment – Has to be my first time riding up the Alpe du Huez
4. Worst ever cycling moment – When I’m on my bike i’m happy, so can’t think of one
5. I like cycling in Scotland because – Cycling in Scotland gives mountains, great views, not much traffic and some of the most beautiful and challenging rides in Europe

As I put on layer upon layer of clothing, I started to wonder why I was commiting myself to ride 500km between the 23rd and 30th Dec 2010. I’d also decided to ride the 500 on my fixed wheel. Something I had read way back, mentioned better traction in the snow on a fixed.

It was 7pm, dark, minus 10 and seriously icy.

My ride started gingerly as I wasn’t sure how slippy it was going to be, but as my confidence grew so did the speed. The trick was to stay in the hard packed car tyre tracks, which although slippy with my Skinny Tyres were better than riding on the ice encrusted ruts between the tyre tracks. As I ventured further off of the main roads, the conditions got worse and at points it felt like I was riding on the pave as solid lumps of ice made the road seem like a single track more suited to mountain biking. At one section heading down to Pitcairngreen this caught me out and I was bounced around until the back wheel slipped out and I landed on my hip. I was thankful now for the extra layers of clothing.

As the ride progressed I became more confident of riding over the ruts and staying upright, although my heart was in my mouth a few times. As I headed back up the last mile to the house, the moon was rising high and everything was glowing white. I had only seen about 5 cars on the 27km ride and I was already looing forward to tomorrow’s ride.

With the pounds piling on and every excuse in the book coming out for not riding his bike just now, Scot at Skinny Tyres was in desperate need of something to spur his motivation through the festive period.

That spur came from a Twitter message by @filles_a_velo http://www.filles-a-velo.com/ who mentioned the Rapha Festive 500.

Now not normally one for these sort of things, Scot decided that his expanding waistline needed some attention, so has committed himself to riding the challenge set by Rapha of 500km in the period between Dec 23rd and 30th 2010.

Scot is never one for making things easy on himself and had pointed out that due to family commitments and a Wedding Anniversary to attend to, the actual days available for riding were going to be limited, allowing approximately a four day window to complete the 500km (125km per day). Just to make it even more difficult, Scot has said he is going to try and do this on his winter fixed wheel bike in the snow covered roads and ice of Highland Perthshire.

Check out his progress on this website and via Twitter @SkinnyTyres

The William Hill Sports Book of the year was announced yesterday (30.11.10).

This got us thinking about the cycling books that had won and been nominated.

Only two books about cycling have won:

“It’s not about the bike” by Lance Armstrong in 2000

and

“Rough Ride” by Paul Kimmage in 1990

However, there have been two other cycling books nominated:

“The Death of Marco Pantani” by Matt Rendell, 2006

“Push yourself just a little bit more” by Johnny Green, 2005

These are all good books, but there is a multitude of very fine bike related writing out there. We struggled to choose only ten and many of our favourites were left off of the list, but the list below represents some absolute classics.

So here in no particular order are ten of Skinny Tyres favourite cycling related books.

1. “The Rider” by Tim Krabbe
2. “French Revolutions” – Cycling the Tour de France” by Tim Moore
3. “Cycling is my life” by Tommy Simpson
4. “In search of Robert Millar” by Richard Moore
5. “The Escape Artist” by Matt Seaton
6. “Tomorrow we Ride” by Jean Bobet
7. “One more kilometre and we’re in the showers” by Tim Hilton
8. “Kings of the Mountains” by Matt Rendell
9. “The Hour” by Michael Hutchison
10. “The Flying Scotsman” by Graeme Obree

If you’ve got a favourite cycling related book, let us know by leaving a comment below.

A new film on Swiss champion cyclist and 1950 Giro winner, Hugo Koblet received its world premiere in August 2010. Directed by Daniel von Aarburg, it tells the story of the cyclist, who died only aged 39, after crashing his Alfa Romeo. He became one of the first post war cycling superstars, which brought a lavish lifestyle. However his health suffered through use of drugs and in retirement his business almost brought him to bankruptcy.

Credits

Recently “Cycling Plus” magazine did a feature on some the best cycling cafes in the UK. Unfortunately there were none featured from Scotland, so to remedy that here is a list of some of the best I have been to. This list is not exhaustive and certainly only our opinion. We all have our favourite places to stop, so leave a comment below with your favourite.

1. Corrieri’s Cafe - Stirling. Owned by the Tuscan Corrieri family for over 40 years, this cafe is a regular haunt by cyclists. The pile of bikes outside on a Sunday is testimony to this cafe’s popularity with cyclists. Corrieri’s also sponsor an early season TT and inside paintings of the “Golden Age” of cycling adorn the walls, including a stunning picture of Fausto Coppi.
2. Bridge of Balgie Post Office – Glen Lyon. Possibly one of the most scenic cafe locations. Certainly one of the best rides to get to it. You can either ascend the four mile road that goes over the shoulder of Ben Lawers and drops into Glen Lyon. Or you can head up Glen Lyon from Fortingall. Either way, the cycling is top notch and the cafe provides a fantastic stopping off point to savour some of the best cycling in the UK.
3. Katie’s tea room - Birnam. A regular haunt for Perth United CC and clubs from Dundee and further afield. Katie’s tea room is basic and simple, but cheap and tasty too. Perfect for a stop mid ride.
4. Laggan Wolftrax – Laggan. Part of the Laggan forest MTB trails. the Wolftrax cafe is primarily for MTB riders, but just off the main Dalwhinne – FortWilliam road, provides an ideal stopping off point for road and touring cyclists. It has the benefit of a bike shop next door, as well as a bike wash facility, bike racks and the best off, stunning cheesy beans on toast. What more could you ask for?
5. Escape Route – Pitlochry. A bike and outdoor shop that has a small seating area indoors and outdoors. The shop sells fresh coffee and cold drinks and if you’re lucky you may get some homemade baking too. Bike wash and racks are all available too. Escape Route is the meeting point of several clubs in the area and the central point for a great number of cycling routes in Highland Perthshire. Inside the shop has a great selection of cycling gear that you can peruse.
6. Debbie’s Cafe – Islay. Bruichladdich Mini-Market, known locally as Debbie’s, serves easily the finest designer coffees this side of Milan. It is also the start of the annual Ride of the Falling Rain and the approved coffee stop of Velo Club d’Ardbeg. Thanks to Baz for the info on this.
7. The Hub Cafe – Glentress. Another one for the off-roaders. Thanks to Mark from www.bicycles.org.uk for highlighting this cafe. A great cafe, set amongst stunning trails with lots of stuff going on all year round. Well worth a visit.

Now it’s your turn. Let us know your favourite cycling cafe stops in Scotland.

Flavio Zappi rode as a professional cyclist in the early 1980s, wore the king of the mountains jersey in the Giro d’Italia and finished 12th in the 1984 Milan-San Remo Classic, which was won by Francesco Moser, before quitting cycling and concentrating on a career in the catering industry.

Zappi has lived in Oxford since 1997, where he now runs a coffee shop. However, he only got back on his bike in late 2007 when he rescued an old bike from a skip and after a few outings met up with the Oxford University CC for a ride – although he didn’t reveal his illustrious pedigree first time out.

Zappi now has his own club in Oxford and offers an opportunity to be part of a club and enjoy clean cycling, sharing a  passion and spreading the word to  young people about the virtues of cycling.

You can find out more about Zappi’s CC here

Under the bicycle’s influence, wholly or in part, have wilted chaperones, long and narrow skirts, tight corsets, hair that would come down, black stockings, thick ankles, large hats, prudery and fear of the dark; under its influence, wholly or in part, have blossomed weekends, strong nerves, strong legs, strong language, knickers, knowledge of make and shape, knowledge of woods and pastures, equality of sex, good digestion and professional occupation – in four words, the emancipation of women.

- John Galsworthy, Forsyte Saga

Skinny Tyres are about to release our dates for our Ladies Only cycling trips.

For details visit our Ladies Only Cycling Trips

To keep up to date with Skinny Tyres trips, sign up to our news letter via the link on our homepage

Bealach Mor Sportive 2010

If you like your cycling to be packed with hills, then the Bealach Mor sportive is made just for you. For starters it features the ascent of the Bealach Na Ba pass on the Applecross peninsula; at 6 miles, the longest continuous road climb in the UK. Before that there are two other big climbs and to follow it a stunning rollercoaster of a road that packs in at least 20 short sharp climbs and descents into 25 miles.

The event has been running for several years now and has a lot of “regulars” who come back year after year to sample the delights of this unique area for cycling.

Traditionally the start is announced by a piper and the riders were keen to get started to escape the clouds of midges that had obviously been tipped off of the free feed at Kinlochewe. The climbing starts from the word go with a long ascent to the head of the glen. This is followed by 30 miles of flat riding towards Loch Carron. This is a chance to get some good, fast group riding and this year was no exception with small groups coming together to form a large peloton. A small group of six of us worked through and off to lead the bunch to the foot of the first climb, where the initial steepness shattered the rhythm and the cohesiveness of the large group. Small groups now crested over the top where the massive buttresses that guard the Bealach came into view towering over Loch Kishorn.

The ascent of the Bealach is timed and riders are required to stop and swipe their timing cards at the bottom and top. The fastest ascent this year was posted by Dave Moran of the Edinburgh RC team at 32mins 29 secs. The climb starts by following the contours of the hillside slowly and steadily before entering the jaws of the corrie. As it does so it steepens noticeably and heads directly towards the hairpin bends at the lip of the corrie. The headwall is steep enough at this point to look down the snaking road and see riders battling with gravity directly below you. The feed station at the summit offers a short respite, for those who need to refuel and at this point for many it is advisable as the challenge has only just started.

The next 20 miles or pack in at least one steep, but short climb per mile. Although not difficult in isolation, the accumulated effect breaks the rhythm and gives the feeling of having just ridden a very steep roller coaster.

At Shieldaig, I decided to stop for a good feed. My legs were feeling empty and I needed to refuel. As well as the usual babanas, flapjacks and water, I was delighted to see that this station was loaded with hunks of cheddar cheese and packets of mini cheddars. I spent a lovely 30 mins lying in the sunshine, enjoying the views into Loch Torridon and passing the time chatting to other riders who were of the same mindset as myself. All thoughts of posting a “time” had now vanished. I had ridden the event several times before and I decided that this time I was going to enjoy the atmosphere. However 17 final miles lay ahead and with the absence of any buses or taxis to take me to the finish, I was going to have to get back in the saddle and ride them. The stop and food had had the desired effect and my legs were raring to go and I soon got back into a rhythm again. A long drag up Glen Torridon, with a final descent into Kinlochewe and all that remained was to fill up on the excellent vege chilli provider by the event organisers and get a massage.

My time was nowhere near previous PB’s, but this year I didn’t care. I’d had a great ride with 500 other cyclists in fantastic weather, in a stunning part of the world.

Perthshire’s mass participation Etape Caledonia race has been shortlisted in the events and festivals category of the Scottish Thistle Awards, set to be held on Friday, October 29, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Created by VisitScotland in 1992, the awards are designed to recognise and celebrate excellence in Scottishtourism.

The Etape has caused controversy in the past and was subject to a high-profile act of sabotage two years ago when carpet tacks were spread along a section of the route.

Meanwhile, some protesters have insisted the closed-roads event has left them unable to get to church on the Sunday in question, stripping them of their “right to worship.”

However, it has proved to be hugely popular with cyclists and visitors alike, garnering an enviable worldwide reputation. It was shortlisted after judges concluded it had successfully established itself as an important event on the tourism calendar.

They also took into account the large amount of media attention it generates, thereby helping VisitScotland and the sponsors to raise the profile of Scotland’s tourism industry.

Jo Dytch of IMG, organisers of the Etape, said, “We are delighted that the Macmillan Cancer Support Etape Caledonia is a finalist for such a prestigious award. 

“The event is now an important part of the growing events calendar in Highland Perthshire, allowing the area and its highlights to be showcased to a wide audience.

“The economic benefits and significant funds raised for charity have grown annually. We look forward to the continued success of the event in years to come.”

Councillor John Kellas, convener of Perth and Kinross Council’s enterprise and infrastructure committee, said, “As a council we are delighted that the Etape is up for this award.

“The council has worked very hard alongside IMG for the last five years to establish the Etape Caledonia as a unique showcase event for cyclists across the UK and beyond. It is now one of the main fixtures in our events calendar and this year generated over £1m for the local economy.”

Richard Pinn, VisitScotland’s regional director, said, “It takes a great deal of dedication, innovation and hard work to operate a successful event. The team behind Etape Caledonia clearly has these qualities in abundance.

“We wish them all the best for the awards and indeed for the future.”