Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling Pledge
I completed the Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling Pledge over the weekend, and got the following (fantastic) response:
Dear Mr Ball
Thank you for your email.
Lambeth Council has already taken the ‘Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling’ pledge which ensures that lorry drivers who are directly employed by, or contracted to, Transport for London and five London councils, will in future all be given cyclist-awareness training on a bike.
We have, in fact, been at the forefront of this campaign since 2009 and the new one-day cycle training course for HGV drivers is based on Lambeth Council’s original driver cycle awareness training scheme set up 3 years ago in partnership with Cycle Training UK.
We are now providing practical on-bike training to 120 fleet drivers who operate Lambeth cars or vans, including drivers from Pest Control, Parking, Cemeteries and housing and all FM Conway HGV drivers contracted to work with the council. The training will also be completed by other Lambeth contractors who operate HGVs or vans.
Through our continuing support of the Safer Lorries, Safer Cycling campaign we hope to achieve a marked reduction in the numbers of lorry-related cycling accidents and deaths on Lambeth’s roads, making the borough’s streets safer for all cyclists to use.
With best wishes
Cllr Pete Robbins
Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services
I’m really happy to read this, and would also like to point out that CYCLISTS have to take steps to be responsible too… I stop at all lights, I signal, I wear high viz, I wear a helmet, etc. Safer cycling is everyone’s responsibility
Cycling Vacation in Italy (Riccione and San Marino)
I spent 7 days cycling in Italy last week, based out of the Adlon Bike Hotel in Riccione, Italy. The hotel is located on the beach, with access to the surrounding mountains within 30-45 min of cycling. By the end of the trip, we figured out that we could head straight through town towards Ospedaletto and largely avoid any heavy traffic.
The pros of staying in Riccione, and the Adlon hotel: great bikes, fantastic food and a cyclist-centric hotel.
I rode a Specialized Roubaix Elite for the week for 150 Euros and some change. Outstanding value for money. The hotel only charged us 58 Euros per night which included full room and board – breakfast, afternoon brunch (basically late lunch, with starters, pasta, and cold meats, etc – very filling) and dinner (a four-course buffet style dinner). You also got free drinks – coffee, beer etc on the all you can eat plan.
If you’re traveling as a family in the summer, I can see how Hotel Adlon would be ideal – it’s sitting on the beach, which is perfect for entertaining kids while a parent is away cycling in the morning, then is full of entertainment, dining etc in the afternoons for both parents + kids to enjoy.
The staff were incredibly friendly, nothing was ever a problem – even walking into the hotel dripping wet, in cleats, was met with smiles. As a plus, daily overnight laundry service was included for free.
If you’re thinking about cycling training in Italy, Riccione is definitely worth a look. I’m going to explore Tuscany next – which also offers cycling holidays. I’m looking for something a little more remote than Riccione, but taking it for what it is, it offered great cycling at a great price.
New Year’s Training Plan
It’s a new year, and I’ve got an updated training plan for 2012.
I was lucky enough to get tickets to this year’s Dragon Ride in Wales. The Gran Fondo is 206km with approx 3300m of climbing. That’s a lot of riding for one Saturday. So, I need a plan of attack that’s more focused than ever before.
Here are the pillars to this year’s training program:
1) Follow the Ride Yourself Lean program. I followed the plan last year and the increase in both power and endurance was astonishing. My friends were all green with envy as I blew past them on the hills. It takes about 8 weeks to develop truly impressive power. I spend an hour in the gym everyday to get through the plan. I highly recommend it.
2) Follow a “single ingredient diet”. That means if you can’t recognize the food item you’re eating as coming from nature, you shouldn’t eat it. Pizza is not a naturally occuring food item. Broccoli is. Fish is. Pak Choi is. These are the foods I’m going to be putting into my body. The most “processed” food I plan on eating right now is greek yogurt – topped with a variety of seeds to keep my joints moving well.
3) Stop using protein shakes. This is the big departure for me. I weighed about 180lbs 4 years ago before I started working out and cycling. Over the course of 18 months I dropped to 157lbs. Protein shakes played a large role in changing my diet and helping me lose those pounds. I put a lot of weight back two summers ago using a creatine + other stuff protein powder – getting back up to almost 180lbs (but was muscle + water, vs fat like my previous 180lbs). I peeled my weight back to 170lbs by summer of this year, but I’ve fluctuated between 172 and 175 for the bulk of the year. I’m dropping protien shakes completely to see if I can’t finally drop below 170. 165lbs is my ideal target weight.
4) Bodyweight Strength Training and Flexibility. Part of me getting down to the 157lbs point was a plan I followed called the “Bodyweight 500“. It’s all bodyweight training, and it makes you lean and tight- no added bulk. It’s also a serious cardio workout once you get to week 7 or so. I’ll be following this plus the flexibility excercises in the Ride Lean book.
If I put in the weekly miles, follow a good diet and do my strength training, I should be able to finish the Dragon Ride in June. It will be at least 8 hours in the saddle. I’ll post updates over the coming months on this experiment.
Happy Riding in 2012.
Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Review
Best bag I’ve bought. Period.
Pros: Roomy , High Quality
Best Uses: Cycling, Commuting, Computer, Airplane travel
Was this a gift?: No
This bag has become my new best friend. For a recent trans-atlantic trip, it held 2 laptops, an iPad, 2 phones, my garmin, Bose headphones, and a few magazines easily. For daily life commuting on the bike, it has enough pockets to keep multiple phones + gadgets and laptop organized, plus room for shoes (Toms, they pack flat), your lunch, a rain jacket, etc. Great workhorse bag. My only regret is that I didn’t order a custom bag all tricked-out.
(legalese)
My Review of Classic Messenger
Best bag I’ve bought. Period.
Pros: Roomy , High Quality
Best Uses: Cycling, Commuting, Computer, Airplane travel
Was this a gift?: No
This bag has become my new best friend. For a recent trans-atlantic trip, it held 2 laptops, an iPad, 2 phones, my garmin, Bose headphones, and a few magazines easily. For daily life commuting on the bike, it has enough pockets to keep multiple phones + gadgets and laptop organized, plus room for shoes (Toms, they pack flat), your lunch, a rain jacket, etc. Great workhorse bag. My only regret is that I didn’t order a custom bag all tricked-out.
(legalese)
Tracking your training – Strava.com
I started using Strava.com recently to keep track of my daily miles. The site offers an iPhone app for easy tracking – and more importantly, easy upload – it’s all self contained in the app itself.
The metrics you can track are all the standard ones – avg speed, max speed, elevation gain, etc. What sets Strava apart (aside from being Cycling only vs multi-sport) is the climbs section. For any given climb, strava will rank you against other strava users.
I used the app last weekend in Richmond park on the Saturday morning London Dynamo ride. Turns out I’m #25 for the Richmond Park Climb Sheen Gate (Sawyers Hill). The app also shows me who else was riding in the park that morning, and what their times were (faster than me).
It’s a free app, and free site (for 5 rides a month). If you don’t have a Garmin, it’s a nice alternative, and if you do have a Garmin, apparently, it plays nicely with it. I’ll be testing that functionality once I get my Garmin 800.
