If there's one thing we love more than a public holiday, it is a public holiday with almost guaranteed good weather. It's time to pump up those tyres, grease the chain, roll up your trouser leg and put the fun between your legs. Here's the ibikelondon guide to the forthcoming May bank holiday weekend, to banish once and for all those longest-winter-ever blues;
SPIN London
London has an all-new bicycle show debuting this weekend, testament to the growing interest in all things two-wheeled in town. SPIN London promises two packed days of bike building, DJs, talks, films, fashion, food, bike racing and art all under one roof in the Old Truman Brewery on super trendy Brick Lane. Our mates Vulpine CC will be showing their new wares, and bike builders Foffa, Feather, Tokyo Fixed and Milk Bikes will all be there too.
Tickets are £10 on the door or £7 in advance via the SPIN London website. Saturday, 7AM - 10PM, Sunday 10.30AM - 6.30PM, closed holiday Monday.
ibikeldn nautical ride around the docks of East London
Those irrepressible t-shirt printers and nom de plume of your favourite cycling blog, ibikeldn, are putting on another of their popular, free, social cycle rides. Landlubbers should report for duty at the Royal Inn on the Park at 10AM on Saturday for a guided ride around the greenways, towpaths and traffic-free routes of East London's docklands and waterways (including a ride on the Woolwich ferry!). This 19-mile jaunt is open to all abilities and ends on Brick Lane, where discount tickets to SPIN London will be available to participants.
Here's all the details you need to know, plus a routemap and a Facebook page.
Giro di Herne Hill Velodromo
They're thinking pink up at the Herne Hill Velodrome on Saturday afternoon with a Giro-themed Open Race on the 1948 Olympic track. There will be a scratch race, devil and an Italian pursuit to celebrate the first day of the finest bicycle race in the world, and prizes for the classiest touch of rosa worn. There's £500 and British Cycling racing points up for grabs in this open track spectacular. Spectators and racers welcome from 2.30PM - why not pack some nice Italian wine and a picnic to make an afternoon of it?
See the Herne Hill Velodrome website for the details.
The Giro di Italia is being shown on Eurosport, as well as on the big screen with the best atmosphere at Look Mum No Hands cycling cafe.
Ealing Cycling Campaign's Star Tour of Notting Hill
Never mind that it is one of the prettiest corners of London, it's also packed full with celebrities and salacious gossip! On Sunday, Ealing Cycling Campaign will lead a star tour of Notting Hill, departing Ealing Town Hall at 9.45AM before riding in to the city. Lunch will be in beautiful Holland Park so do pack a picnic. See here for the full details, and who knows, you might even spot a famous face or two. Free. Sunday 6th May.
Rochester Sweeps Festival bike ride from London
May is traditionally a month of fayres, folklore and, um, Morris Dancing. Southwark Cyclists are setting out for a long and testing ride to the Medway town of Rochester for the Sweep's Festival, a celebration of all things folkloric this Bank Holiday Monday. Departing Cutty Sark Gardens (by the southern entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel) at 8AM prompt, the ride will glide south east out of London, down NCN1 to the eery and remote Hoo Peninsula, across to charming Upnor and the river Medway and over the bridge to Rochester - approximately 50kms. There will then be a chance to enjoy the folk festival before either riding home (an additional 25km), or you can raid the beer tent and get the train home.
See the Southwark Cyclists website and this post from ride leader Francis Sedgemore for all the details.
Everything else...
Up in Cambridge they're doing their annual family ride to the Reach Fair, whilst in Oxford children are being invited to take part in a unique production where the theatre is powered by a pedaling audience.
If you're out with your club or cycling with friends over the next three days, now is the perfect time to tell them to sign the Get Britain Cycling petition calling on the Government to act (nearly halfway to 100K names needed so spread the word!), whilst if you don't yet have any cycling plans for the warm months ahead you should make a start with Jack Thurston's Lost Lanes, which is rapidly becoming our weekend cycling bible.
Have fun, ride safe, and enjoy the May sunshine!
Share |
London has an all-new bicycle show debuting this weekend, testament to the growing interest in all things two-wheeled in town. SPIN London promises two packed days of bike building, DJs, talks, films, fashion, food, bike racing and art all under one roof in the Old Truman Brewery on super trendy Brick Lane. Our mates Vulpine CC will be showing their new wares, and bike builders Foffa, Feather, Tokyo Fixed and Milk Bikes will all be there too.
Tickets are £10 on the door or £7 in advance via the SPIN London website. Saturday, 7AM - 10PM, Sunday 10.30AM - 6.30PM, closed holiday Monday.
ibikeldn nautical ride around the docks of East London
Those irrepressible t-shirt printers and nom de plume of your favourite cycling blog, ibikeldn, are putting on another of their popular, free, social cycle rides. Landlubbers should report for duty at the Royal Inn on the Park at 10AM on Saturday for a guided ride around the greenways, towpaths and traffic-free routes of East London's docklands and waterways (including a ride on the Woolwich ferry!). This 19-mile jaunt is open to all abilities and ends on Brick Lane, where discount tickets to SPIN London will be available to participants.
Here's all the details you need to know, plus a routemap and a Facebook page.
Giro di Herne Hill Velodromo
They're thinking pink up at the Herne Hill Velodrome on Saturday afternoon with a Giro-themed Open Race on the 1948 Olympic track. There will be a scratch race, devil and an Italian pursuit to celebrate the first day of the finest bicycle race in the world, and prizes for the classiest touch of rosa worn. There's £500 and British Cycling racing points up for grabs in this open track spectacular. Spectators and racers welcome from 2.30PM - why not pack some nice Italian wine and a picnic to make an afternoon of it?
See the Herne Hill Velodrome website for the details.
The Giro di Italia is being shown on Eurosport, as well as on the big screen with the best atmosphere at Look Mum No Hands cycling cafe.
Ealing Cycling Campaign's Star Tour of Notting Hill
Never mind that it is one of the prettiest corners of London, it's also packed full with celebrities and salacious gossip! On Sunday, Ealing Cycling Campaign will lead a star tour of Notting Hill, departing Ealing Town Hall at 9.45AM before riding in to the city. Lunch will be in beautiful Holland Park so do pack a picnic. See here for the full details, and who knows, you might even spot a famous face or two. Free. Sunday 6th May.
Rochester Sweeps Festival bike ride from London
May is traditionally a month of fayres, folklore and, um, Morris Dancing. Southwark Cyclists are setting out for a long and testing ride to the Medway town of Rochester for the Sweep's Festival, a celebration of all things folkloric this Bank Holiday Monday. Departing Cutty Sark Gardens (by the southern entrance to the Greenwich foot tunnel) at 8AM prompt, the ride will glide south east out of London, down NCN1 to the eery and remote Hoo Peninsula, across to charming Upnor and the river Medway and over the bridge to Rochester - approximately 50kms. There will then be a chance to enjoy the folk festival before either riding home (an additional 25km), or you can raid the beer tent and get the train home.
See the Southwark Cyclists website and this post from ride leader Francis Sedgemore for all the details.
Everything else...
Up in Cambridge they're doing their annual family ride to the Reach Fair, whilst in Oxford children are being invited to take part in a unique production where the theatre is powered by a pedaling audience.
If you're out with your club or cycling with friends over the next three days, now is the perfect time to tell them to sign the Get Britain Cycling petition calling on the Government to act (nearly halfway to 100K names needed so spread the word!), whilst if you don't yet have any cycling plans for the warm months ahead you should make a start with Jack Thurston's Lost Lanes, which is rapidly becoming our weekend cycling bible.
Have fun, ride safe, and enjoy the May sunshine!
Share |
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