We left the club champion struggling on the annual holly run

Do cycling clubs still hold an annual holly run at Christmas? I recall the Merseyside Wheelers Sunday club run list included a holly run each December in the so-called Swinging Sixties! 

Not much holly left for this school outing -
the Merseyside Wheelers have taken the best cuts.

                                                                

Looking back now, we learn the Sixties was a period of huge change in Britain, with a new individualism and appetite to live in a more liberal permissive society. Indeed, and at barbers shops everywhere men, after the obligatory short and back sides, would find the hairdresser bending to their ear to discreetly ask: “Anything for the weekend, sir?” 

As with most step changes in history, they are not always apparent at the time and it is left to sociologists – or academics with an ‘ology of some sort or another – to tell us some years later what the hell had being going on back then. 

It was the time of the Beatles who rocked the world with their chart topping memorable songs and music. They rode this wave of change and became famous! Oh, yeah, those lads. “Love me do”, was that one of their songs? Liked their stuff, still do. I remember they went past our house in a van, once, before they became famous. 

The Sixties was also a time when people began to stand up for their civil and employment rights. As for us cyclists our world revolved around club runs and races, bit of jazz or rock at the weekends. And on one Sunday each year we expressed our entrepreneurial skills by sourcing our own holly in the wild, instead of helping the local economy by buying it from the local shops! 

To reach the secret place where the holly grew wild meant cycling from Liverpool across the Wirral and across the North Wales border, a round trip of some 40 miles. Who was on that ride with me? Eddie Richards was there. I remember we all ganged up him on the way home, led him a merry dance. Certainly Dickhead Dave Davis was there (that was Eddie's cruel choice of name for Dave, on account of him often being the brunt of his dry wit). And he was the ringleader.  Maybe Tony T-bone Walsh and Steve Six-guns Sixsmith were also on that run.  

On  those runs to Wales we’d meet at the Pier Head landing stage, to take the ferry for a bracing 15-minute sail  across the Mersey to Birkenhead Woodside. I would be wearing my winter gear of choice on bitter cold days,  blanket-lined army combat jacket and winter weight training bottoms, narrow fitting with a zip from just below the knee to the ankle. And a woolly hat. 

Leaving the ferry we’d set off down the main road towards Chester, in seven miles swinging a right, direction North Wales for elevenses at the Eureka café at Two Mills. Off again, via Queensferry (a small town, not a boat) to cross the bridge over the River Dee into North Wales where  snow lay in the fields – although the roads were clear. 

My memory is a bit sketchy now. Did we take the climb to Hawarden, then down through Fairy Dell on the Wrexham road? Or did we climb the Ewloe, and take the road towards Mold? When I Googled the map for this area last week the road junctions had changed beyond recognition.  Huge roundabouts at what were simple road junctions in my day. Must ask a local how they manage. Perhaps Tony Bell will fill me in. 

Anyway, not far along which ever road we took we joined a disused railway line on an embankment. Checking the internet for information, I’m pretty certain this old railway line was part of the Buckley Railway laid during the 19th century, serving brick works and other industries. The line linked directly to Connah’s Quay on the River Dee four miles away and it included some very steep gradients. 

Who did this? No one owned up.

It closed in 1966, and the track was lifted…just in time for our holly run. We all rode along the old track bed, on the lookout for holly bushes laden with red berries to take home, to complete our Christmas decorations.  There was plenty to go round. I used a small junior hacksaw to cut some branches, and with stout string lashed them across the top of my saddle bag for the ride home. 

A snowball fight delayed departure by a good 20 minutes, including five minutes to recover someone’s bike buried under the white stuff. No one owned up to doing that! We must have a cut a strange sight on the ride home as light faded – a convoy of holly bushes moving slowly. 

Eddie called out he was stopping to adjust his load which was blocking his rear lamp. Do you remember cycle lamps back then? Bloody awful Ever Ready’s and Pifco junk which would fly off the lamp brackets and if they didn’t do that, they would often flicker and go out. I’ll catch you up, Eddie called out. 

He was doing so quite nicely, was about 10 lengths short of regaining the back of the club run, but that’s as far he got the first time. It was all Davis’s fault. He was on the front, but looking back to check on Eddie’s progress, watching for the beam of his front lamp on the pitch black road. Eddie had a few too many beers the night before and wasn’t firing on all cylinders. 

We waited until he was almost on, then Davis accelerated our group, pulling us, all laughing, well clear, cutting our esteemed club mate adrift. When Eddie had vanished backwards into the blackness we eased off. And when he began to close again the pace lifted and he got no closer, the red lights of the club run just ahead of him, dancing out of his reach. 

Again the pace dropped to allow him almost to get on, when we accelerated hard once more. An angry shout from behind revealed he had twigged what was going on. “You frigging bastards…you frigging shitheads…..” 

His cries carried across the empty fields and we all laughed mercilessly and kept on riding. Another torrent of abuse came out of the darkness until at last we relented. Eddie clawed his way back on, whereupon he let us know what he thought us, of Davis in particular, who he just knew to be the ring leader. 

And he issued a stark warning, a threat. Just wait, come April, you’ll see, when I’ll be fully fit, I will tear your frigging legs off. Alright, Eddie, it was just a laugh! When that day in April came he wasn’t fooling. He half-wheeled us all to death, he did, burned us all off, one by one. 

He was, after all, a three times winner of the Liverpool and District TTA Championship.

COP 26 - cycling protestors gatecrash climate change conference

 

HG Wells, the English novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian once famously said: “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.”

Clearly this concept was not understood by the politicians, transport planners or engineers at COP26.

 

CHRISTMAS is coming

The goose is getting fat

And COP26 fell rather flat

So what happened at COP 26 last month, the Glasgow International Climate Change conference?

What exactly was achieved at a conference seeking a pact among nations to cut pollution to avert the worst of climate change. 

Did it give us cause to  celebrate this Christmas?

Well, it was a mish mash of “blah blah” compromise (as Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, the inspirational climate activist, put it) and it didn’t go far enough.

In the end too few countries committed to reducing their outpouring of pollution, which would have enabled the world to limit warming to the “safe” limit of 1.5 degrees, based on the pre-industrial levels.

That’s it in a nutshell. Keep calm and carry on fouling your beds that was the message.

However there was a little success on the cycling front, to the effect that cycling is now to be included in the Climate Change Transport Lexicon, under “Active Travel”, which recognises the contribution cycling and walking can make.

 But only after sustained campaigning culminating in  massive protest from cyclists on the streets of Glasgow.

The mere fact that the plonkers at COP26 had overlooked cycling and walking in their climate change transport equation shows, once again,

thinking bike simply doesn’t come easily to transport planners.

Instead, the whole world was be saved by the electric car and that’s it. 

e in the COP26 transport declaration

Even before COP began, Cycling UK had warned that cycling had been excluded from the agenda at the COP in favour of discussion on electric vehicles and charging points.

Jim Densham of Cycling UK tried to put a positive spin on the outcome.

 

“Cycling should have been included from the start, but instead of looking back at COP26 as "Blah, blah, blah – car, car, car", let’s celebrate a success won by thousands of cyclists who campaigned together with the overwhelming positive message that "This machine fights climate change", said  Densham.

Meanwhile, we can take comfort in the fact that in European countries like Denmark, cycling is at the heart of transport policy.

I was reminded of this after watching a recent TV documentary about railway architecture which included a look at the futuristic Metro station at *Orientkaj at Copenhagen harbour, which opened in March 2020.

Broad cycle lanes leading to  Orientkaj station in Copenhagen.

What struck me was when the Danish spokesman talked about access to the Orientkaj station, cycling was the first thing he mentioned, before buses, trams and cars. 

And behind him, clearly visible running directly towards the new station  could be seen two very wide cycling lanes, each about the width of two cars! Planned and executed from the outset, not squeezed in as an afterthought, as so often happens in the UK, if we’re lucky!

 

* Orientkaj station is “anchored by bold concrete claws onto the Copenhagen harbour”. It is designed as a glass, concrete, and aluminium box commanding panoramic views over the Orientkaj dock. The brutal outside appearance is contrasted with “detailing inside, from the lighting to the material palette”. In other words, a warm and attractive place.

 

DOWSETT AND THE HOUR RECORD'S CRUEL EMBRACE

 

He made it look deceptively easy,  Britain’s Alex Dowsett chasing Belgian Victor Campanaert’s Hour record of 55.089 kilometres, broadcast on BBC iPLAYER.

Smoothly stroking a big gear he gracefully powered around the high-altitude 250-metre Aguascalientes Velodrome in Mexico at 54/55kph.

As we know, he completed 218 laps when he was looking for a shade over 220.

He finished 500 metres short of the mark!

Dowsett had failed – but magnificently so.  The clock had stopped him at 54.555km.

This was still 1.618 km further than the 52.937 km he rode in May 2015 when he took the world record from Australia’s Rohan Dennis.

In this latest bid he also finished just short of the current British record of 54.723 set by Dan Bigham on October 1^st this year in Switzerland – the day after Britain’s Joss Lowden broke the women’s world hour record.

Attempting cycling’s most coveted and most difficult record is nothing short of torture, say those who have succeeded and those who have failed.  

Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist ever, after his successful attempt in 1972, said that he had never suffered so much. It had taken years off his life, he said. He achieved 49.431km.

I recall Chris Boardman’s successful bid at the Manchester Velodrome in 1999, when he squeezed past Merckx’s figures, adding 10 metres. 

When he came to a halt helpers lay the bike, with rider still attached to the pedals, flat on the trackside so that Boardman’s body - still in his aerodynamic tuck – could be prised free.  

When British multi-time trial champion Michael Hutchinson gave best 40 minutes into his 2003 attempt he was as white as a sheet. He looked like a corpse. He’d been forced to call a halt as numbness crept along his arms and he    feared he might lose control. He had been a couple of minutes off Boardman’s pace.

Lest we get too over dramatic, a few hours later Hutch was out on the town for a Chinese meal and a beer. Such is an athlete’s remarkable powers of recuperation.

When Dowsett rolled to a halt, his helpers quickly moved to steady him until he got his bearings.

Dowsett, who held the record briefly in 2015 with 52.937km - which Bradley Wiggins beat one month later - offers a different perspective on what it takes.

Alex Dowsett

It’s only an hour, not a six hour stage in the final week of a grand tour, he said.

That might be bravado of course, Dowsett determined to convince us, perhaps himself, that he would relish the Hour Record’s cruel embrace.

 “Agh, de Pain”, as a first-category club mate of mine would utter, gleefully weighing up his prospects for a weekend of suffering in road races.  Suffering, that’s the name of the game. The Hour takes this into a different realm.

Dowsett is a time trial specialist, like Joss Lowden who broke the women’s Hour record in Switzerland in September, with 48.405 kilometres.

Both have mastered the solitary effort of riding against the watch, when time is the enemy.

Not that riding on the road – where you go in a straight line for mile after mile -

can ever be compared to a race to nowhere on the track, especially lapping every few seconds and trying to remain focused for a full 60 minutes.

No headwind on the track, that’s a blessing – nor tailwind either! -  no variable surfaces to bring temporary relief, no changing scenery, no downhill stretches to ease effort of striving to stay on top of a huge gear.

Relax that pressure in the banking and G-forces will have you soaring up the track, take you off the pursuiter’s line. The track requires a different mind-set.

Fascinating how technology was optimised to give Dowsett the best chance. 

The new Factor track bike with £950 gold chain ring which it was claimed would save him 25cm per lap… at 60kph.  The £2,750 skinsuit. The wheels, the wind tunnel tests, all the fixtures and fittings, all chosen in the quest for speed.

He made the attempt at high altitude, which offers an advantage over sea level. And there is the human himself, a  six times British time trial champion, double stage winner in the Giro, key rider in the Israel Start up Nation team.

Having broken the record before he was quietly optimistic.

Of the many reports, Cyclenews.com’s Daniel Benson and Simone Giuliani provided the most thorough, describing how Dowsett’s valient challenge began to “unravel” in those final moments.

On target for the first 20 minutes he then began to slip second by second off the pace.   He must have known, felt it. Not that we, the viewers could tell. The commentators followed his every metre, telling how he rallied with 20 minutes left, raised the stakes to 55kph in a final do or die effort.  

He needed to go even faster if he was to regain the ground lost. It was simply too late. He nevertheless flew on, fighting all the way, but coming adrift now, shifting his position slightly, his face betraying the superhuman effort he was making,  now exacting its toll.  

The scientists and coaches will put their heads together to try and figure out the maths, of exactly where and why he lost it. 

But can maths define the unfathomable human factor? In the end, perhaps body and mind, having to cope with such extreme demands,  reached a consensus and said “whoa, that’s your lot.”

Dowsett has haemophilia, and in his record attempt he was raising awareness for the Little Bleeders Foundation and the Haemophilia Society. 

 

 

 

A budget bike shelter/shed

 

On a point of accuracy I am moved to correct three errors made in the previous blog concerning the Budget spending review which so disappointed environmentalists, the green movement and cycling campaigners.

It has been pointed out to me that:

• the Chancellor’s speech DID mention bikes. Well, bike shelters. These should be considered as a property improvement business – which would allow claims for business rates relief on the cost.
• Although the Chancellor’s speech omitted to mention “climate” or “environment”, he did talk about ‘Net Zero’ and did say how the Government will fund some actions to tackle the climate crisis.
• The Chancellor claimed to be “investing £30bn to create the new, green industries of the future”, in addition to announcing the issue of a second Green Bond, and “investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt green technologies like solar panels.”

A bike shelter (above) and a bike shed (below) fit 
for a Chancellor

 

• Boris Johnson and recycling;
• He didn’t say that all recycling was pointless. He said that recycling plastic "doesn’t work".  

If he was referring to single-use plastic he’s half right. Because that cannot be recycled.

But a lot of plastic waste can be recycled.

It would be helpful if the industry stopped making the single-use stuff.

It will be a pity if people who heard what he said stop recycling the recyclable plastic waste.

 

 

 

 

 

England shamed by the Dutch, the Welsh and the Scots

Here’s a few mind-boggling facts and figures to titillate our senses. First off we know how the extensive Dutch cycling networks put England to shame. But now, both Wales and Scotland are also putting England to shame by providing decent funding to make their roads safer for cycling. 

Meanwhile, Chancellor Rishi Sunak had no extra money for cycling in his recent Budget. So no surprise there, as the humble bike –“This machine fights climate change”– is ignored AGAIN. 

In a mo I’ll move on to impressive Dutch cycling stats, gleaned from Cycling UK’s latest report from Policy Director Roger Geffen. 

                                            Classic image of Holland, bikes, canals and windmills.

He has provided his usual thoroughly comprehensive update of the government’s continuing failure to adequately fund its own cycling and walking strategy. Except that they, the government,  think they are funding cycling more than adequately. That’s the view from Planet Tory, where the sun shines out of …. “

The Chancellor's failure to back active travel leaves DfT’s admirable cycling and walking team with the unenviable task of creating a second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS2), with insufficient ring-fenced funding to meet their targets,” writes Geffen. However, he adds that by no means is this a hopeless task.” 

Yes, Geffen, amazingly, remains upbeat despite his growing frustration. Me? I’m convinced nothing will ever get done on the scale needed unless the Dutch can secure a franchise to take over the Treasury. And talking of the Dutch, Geffen clearly envies this small country across the North Sea, the indisputable leaders in cycle planning. He provides the following facts, which illustrate just how far behind England is. 

The Dutch, he says, have a 35,000km network of protected cycle lanes. That amounts to about a quarter of the length of the Dutch road network. If England had the equivalent we would have some 76,000km of protected cycle lanes. He’s worked out, based on DfT figures, that this will cost about £36bn between now and 2040. “By comparison, our government has promised £2bn of funding which they claim will provide ‘hundreds of miles of protected cycle lanes. 

Cycle parking in Amsterdam.

 If England is ever to have a decent cycling network it will require tens of thousands of kilometres and a lot more cash. Nevertheless, Geffen says it is worth remembering how much funding has increased. The £2bn is six times greater than the figures for 2017, for instance, and a huge 80 times more than the £5million provided by Labour in 2005, when a national cycling budget was first set.

Which is all very well. But remains pitifully small. I like to think of that initial £5m as a few peanuts which 15 years later amounts to only a few more bags of peanuts. 

Geffen remains positive, even though he calls England's planning policies  "lousy".

However, he insists on saying: “In short: we've made a lot of progress - and investment in cycling and walking in England is at last moving towards the right ballpark, creating opportunities that local councils now need to seize. But we also still have long, long way to go!” 

Indeed, a long way to go. And just a few £billions short! Especially as the Welsh and Scots are now leaving England behind as well. The Welsh Government is investing £75m this year in cycling and walking, equating to £23.66 per person annually. “It has excellent planning policies and has set a target to increase the proportion of trips made by cycling, walking and public transport, from 32% in 2019 to 45% in 2040,” says Geffen. 

Meanwhile, the Scottish Government is investing £155m this year (equating to £21 per person annually). It has promised to raise this to £320m in 2024/5. They aim to reduce car travel by 20 per cent by 2030. In contrast, the £2bn allocated for cycling and walking in England amounts to £8.42 per person annually. 

“England has lousy planning policies and no target to reduce either the amount of mileage or the proportion of trips made by car.” This rather puts the DfT’s plans into perspective and begs the question how on earth do they think they will have “A world class cycling and walking network for England by 2040". 

Well – and here is the cynical view – I really don’t think the Tory party believe their own bullshit for one minute. What they do believe is that statements like these seep into the public consciousness to create the impression the job’s done. 

Finally, over to the serious matter of climate change which cycling can help address, given a chance. Cue for the Chancellor to do something! 

Sadly, the Chancellor’s Spending Review made no mention of bikes or the climate crisis and how the government might fund measures to combat this. It bitterly disappointed sustainable transport campaigners and other environmental groups on the eve of COP (Conference of the Parties) in Glasgow which got underway last weekend. 

This is attended by the countries that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that came into force in 1994 and who have been ducking the issue ever since.

As for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he flew off to join other world leaders for the G20 Group meeting in Italy at the weekend,  to tell them all: “If we don’t act know it will be too late”. He’s at his best/worst at moments like this, full of the talk, the soundbites, aware that this gives the impression we’re on top of the situation. When we’re not. It was tantamount to saying “Do as I say not as I do”.

For that same week his chancellor was criticised for continuing with the freeze on fuel duty - for the ninth year -  and he also cut levies on shorter, domestic flights which threatens to take people away from trains, which are far less polluting.

And did you hear Johnson rubbishing recycling last week, in answer to school children’s questions about things to do to avert climate change? 

Johnson said recycling was a red herring, not worth bothering about! When I think of the years of effort by Friends of the Earth to promote recycling - oh, it must be three decades ago in the days before it became good practice - for the PM or anyone to utter such a misleading statement beggars belief. 

Well, Mr Johnson, you know well enough that new products are created from recycled material, saving  depleting raw materials and also ensuring a lot of stuff doesn’t go into landfill! Perhaps Mr Johnson could be recycled?

Not a proper Tour de France

 

The new eight-day women’s Tour de France  Femmes

announced for July 2022 is a significant and welcome development.

But as tough as they claim it will be it seems to have escaped everyone’s attention that it will be less than half the distance of the original women’s Tour which spanned 17 stages over 18 days when it ran in the Eighties.

Back in 1984 and 1985 the women’s race ran ahead of the men, both sharing the grand finale on the Champs Elysees allowing the victors – men and women –  to enjoy the plaudits of the crowds  on the podium together.

1985 Tour finale (photo by Phil O'Connor) with the women and the men sharing the podium on the Champs Elysees, Maria Canins and Bernard Hinault the overall winners, Hinault for the fifth time.

However, running the two Tours together proved a logistical challenge, and was one reason why this format was discontinued.

Clearly, the 2022 course will be tough, but it still falls far short of providing the women with proper Grand Tour. 

The original version took in the Pyrenees and the Alps, whereas next year’s event is limited to take in the Vosges Mountains where it will finish on La Super Planche Des Belles Filles, which the men climb a few weeks before.

The penultimate stage is also a cracker, finishing at the ski resort of Le Markstein. It features three tough climbs, Petit Ballon, Col de Platzerwasel and Grand Ballon.

So it is good news that the vibrant and popular women’s road racing scene has at last being rewarded with a “Tour de France”, almost four decades after the first. One day perhaps the women will merit, a full Tour de France

The women’s 2022 Tour will start on the Champs Elysees on the same day the men’s race, finishes there.

To summarise, it will comprise four flat stages, two over hilly terrain and two mountain stages.

"It's a balanced route that will suit several types of riders," said women's race director Marion Rousse.

Men's Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme said he hopes the women's race will have longevity on the calendar, but making it a financial success could prove tough.

"If it had been [sustainable], the women's Tour would have been held for 40 years," said Prudhomme.

"The biggest challenge is to broadcast the race. We've done a good job, with the race starting the same day as the men's race ends in Paris."

However tough the eight stages will be the race surely cannot compare with the severity of those two first editions, in 1984 and 1985.

They were controversial in challenging the view - held by men but not by women – that females couldn’t race a three-week race.

We know of course that women can and did so back then, with fantastic racing.

“Fears of too high, too long, proved groundless,” wrote American journalist Owen Mullholland who like me, covered both events.

 

So let’s take a trip back in time, to a

A proper Women’s Tour de France.

The story has featured in a previous blog here, but it bears running again, to put next year’s offer into its perspective.

The 1985 British team for the Tour de France Feminin: 
Catherine Swinnerton, Mandy Jones, Pauline Strong, Judith Painter, Maria Blower and Linda Gornall. (Photo by Phil O'Connor)

I984 saw the creation of a three-week long women’s Tour. Although it was repeated in 1985, that’s as good it got for women’s stage racing.

Looking back across the four decades since, women’s professional road racing has developed and grown impressively but there is still a way to go before women share parity with the men, unlike in Triathlon, for instance.

Not since 1985 have the women had a decently long stage race!

In that first women’s Tour of 1984, Britain’s Judith Painter was a revelation. She was third on stage 12 at Grenoble in the Alps and second on stage 14 at La Plagne.  The overall winner was American Marianne Martin.

The 1985 Tour de France Feminin  was won by Italy’s Maria Canins, the former cross-country skier.

These two three week Tours each totalled 748-miles and they were a triumph for women’s road racing. They ought to have become the benchmark by which women’s cycle sport could develop.  But the chauvinists in the UCI world governing body thought women weren’t capable of riding such distances!

The UCI  ruled that the 1984 Tour was too long for women, and introduced a new rule that restricted women to racing 12 stages.

But the UCI were out smarted by the 1985 Tour organisers. They complied with the UCI by running a 12-stage race, and then simply added a five-stage race at the end of it, with a rest day in-between!

The first event was called the A-event, or Tour National while the second event, the B-event, they called the Champs Elysees.

Voila! They had 17 days of racing!

The women’s tour ran two hours ahead of the men, over the same course, but starting further along it and finishing at the same place.

There were two classifications, one for each of the women’s tours.  The first race was decided on overall time, the second on points. And the organisers cleverly combined the two results to decide the overall winner of both!

Canins won five stages in total, including two in the Alps and one in the Pyrenees and took the climbers award.

France’s Jeannie Longo was second in both events and therefore second overall.

It was a tough event, stages of 60 miles and more. From 72 starters there were 65 finishers.

Clearly, women were capable of competing in long stage races.

They were great events. I know!  We’d drive out at the head of the men’s Tour, and catch up the women, following them awhile and seeing the action, before overtaking to get the press room well ahead to set up the evening’s work.

But it was not to be. The organisers cited technical difficulties of running two events on one day over the same course.

After 1985, the Tour got smaller and smaller, down to 10 stages, then five.  Britain’s Nicole Cooke won the 2006/7 editions, and Emma Pooley the 2009 race which was over four stages. After which it was discontinued, remerging – but only after a huge outcry from the women -  in 2014 as a one-day circuit race on the Champs Elysees, called La Course.

It was the 2012 London Olympics women’s road race which proved a catalyst for recent changes after their race proved more exciting to watch than the men’s!

Especially after Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead (now Deignan) won a silver medal – behind Marianne Vos of Holland – whereas the British men failed to deliver.

Armitstead’s silver in that showcase event led the Tour of Britain men’s race organisers, Sweetspot, to introduce the first women’s British Tour in 2014, still running today.

 

 

25th anniversary of empty promises

 

This year sees the 25^th anniversary of the government’s ground breaking National Cycling Strategy launched in 1996. Ground breaking in that it had no funding!

Although robust campaigning has since forced government to throw a few £million at cycling,  it falls well short of the £5-7billions required which is still only a fraction of the transport budget.

The money needed to make the road safe for cycling is miniscule compared to the likes of current £27b earmarked for road building.

The fact that cycling has a major contribution to make in cutting carbon to slow climate change cuts no ice.

Poor funding has created a barrier to progressive cycle planning

Back in 1996  cycling accounted for 2 per cent of all journeys made. 25 years later there has been not much change.

The whole point of that so called strategy was to get people to switch from always driving to cycling some of those journeys. Over 70 per cent of all journeys made are of five miles and less.

And let's not overlook the many who do not drive and would cycle if the conditions were safer to do so. I'm thinking of Manchester in particular, where a great many people who don't drive have enthusiastically welcomed plans to build a city wide cycling and walking network.

It will cost £1billion! Which puts the government's meagre offering for the country as a whole into perspective.

As far as I know Manchester is still awaiting their £1bn, and doing what they can in the meantime.

It’s all very well to see more people taking up leisure cycling. But the major concern is to increase the numbers using the bike for work, to the shops and other utility trips. For this remains very low.

We know why.

Hostile traffic conditions and roads built to process fast traffic puts people off cycling on them. The few good cycling facilities that have been created are too few. No town has a half-decent cycling network worthy of the name.

Fast forward to 2021 and cycling still accounts for less than 2 per cent of all journeys made.

So what’s happened in those 25 years? Not much.

Just more hot air, more promises to make the roads safer and too little funding to make any difference.

According to the stand-up comic and fantasist Prime Minister Boris Johnson – he of the misleading statements some call lies – cycling in England has “risen by 46 per cent.”

Is that 46 per cent of sod all?

Compare the numbers cycling with other modes such as the car and cycling makes barely a blip on the radar.

The following figures on transport use in 2019 from Cycling UK provide the clear perspective we never get from Johnson.

It's not just him stone walling of course. It's every prime minister in the past 25 years and beyond who have never given cycling issues much thought. 

This from Cycling UK.

“Cycling made up only 1% of the mileage accumulated by all vehicular road traffic (cycles are vehicles). In comparison, cars and taxis accounted for just over 77%. Both figures are more or less the same as they were in 2018."

This summer the prime minister rabbited on and on about how his government was improving conditions for cyclists.

He says: “Hundreds of new schemes have created safe space for people to cycle and walk…. (Not counting the councils who have ripped out cycling lanes)

"Spending on active travel this year will significantly increase – from the £257 million announced at last November’s Spending Review to £338m, a rise of a third. (The reality is £billions are needed)

"We will use the money to invest in more low-traffic neighbourhoods and protected cycle lanes.”

(Not counting all those ripped out by, among other places, Liverpool and Shoreham among others)

 

Johnson you will recall promised 40 new hospitals when there was no funding to build them. He promised to get “Brexit done”, so ending free movement  and so scaring off thousands of foreign workers…. no one to pick fruit, no one to pick up animals for market, too few HGV drivers to deliver fuel to petrol stations, food and goods to shops and businesses….

Cycling?

It’s the least of our problems. The biggest problem at the moment is Johnson.

What’s to be done?

 

1000 NIGHTS AGO...

 

1000 nights ago…

 

She went upstairs to her bedroom.

And closed the door.

1000 nights ago.

Not left the room since.

Well, perhaps three times.

Once a week she moves to the other bedroom for a couple of hours, while her room is cleaned and bed sheets changed.

Otherwise, only summer heatwaves have driven her from her bedroom haven, to seek cooler climes – in the cellar for a few days and nights.

To a spare bed set up especially, plus medical supplies, drinks, toilet.

That migration, down the stairs, can take up to  two hours.

With a rest period or even a night stopover in the living room, before the final descent.

One day, we hope, she will return, to join us downstairs.

But in the meantime, her life is on hold. 

Halted because of complicated medical issues these past two decades. It was thought to be ME. Took her out of school for her teenage years.

Then came a blessed recovery of sorts, a hopeful interlude 15 years ago, allowing a measured return to education, mindful to take regular rest periods.  Her health improved, even to the extent she travelled to the States, but convalescing was an element during her stay.

The high point came in moving away from home to digs for college.  Culminated in a degree in (TV and film production). She did a mid-term spell with CNN, London.

A driven character, full of energy, an organiser. Her managerial skills made her a natural leader of production teams making films as part of her degree course.  Well liked, she had many friends. She doesn’t suffer fools gladly, even now!  Used to be able to talk anyone under the table on current news issues.

Then came relapse, and a return home, with her furniture – now stored in the garage.

At last, she had the first diagnosis: POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia) – when too little blood returns to the heart).  Triggered by movement.

This from a private heart specialist, who subsequently arranged further tests at Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill.

The second diagnosis – from the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore –Ehlers Danlos type 3 joint hypermobility syndrome. This leads to chronic muscular pain, can cause dislocations.

1000 nights.

EDs weakens the entire body, makes moving around painful.

A gradual degrading process.

When POTs kicks in the heart will suddenly increase to beat very fast and is combined with drop in blood pressure: result, dizziness, risk of feinting.  

When this occurred while out, she became scared. No idea what it was. She learned to sit down on a bench until it subsided.

In the beginning a few days rest would provide respite, until the next time, perhaps in a day or two.

Days regularly became punctuated with stops to allow rest and recovery.

She became fearful of travelling, of even going outside, so she stopped,

1000 nights ago.

Ehlers Danlos is a genetic condition, which weakens the connective tissue.  That’s the glue which holds bones, muscle, and all our internal organs together. Imagine a bendy chassis of a vehicle. It wouldn’t roll so well, if at all.

There is no cure.

Sensory disorders followed – hearing: too loud; sight: sudden movement too fast; colours – too bright.

This led to curtailing social contact with friends. There would be no more visitors to the house.

It became a quiet house.

She no longer viewed or sent emails, would not take phone calls. No television, no radio, very little reading. No newspapers.  No playing CDs, until recently – slow, quiet meditative sounds.

She maintains a simple, short exercise routine, as recommended for her condition.

Time has stood still. 

1000 nights and counting.

Birthdays go unacknowledged, as does Christmas, Easter, neither is celebrated. Too much for the brain to take in.

But she does whisper greetings, with a smile, to her parents, her carers.

And every day there are hugs.

She will permit herself a laugh occasionally, at the juggling antics of her parents taking things into and out of her room. Rare light moments. Usually she is lying still, to control POTS.  Eyes closed. Sound deadening headphones on for much of the time.

Very occasionally, she has expressed a wish to be free again.

One day is much the same as another.  Day is followed by night, which is often sleepless.

1000 nights.

Punctuated throughout each day by her carers to maintain her many needs.

After a while it was realised she also has PDA – Pathological Demand Avoidance. Which means avoiding doing anything. It is  common on the Aspergers / autism spectrum. This is undiagnosed, but no matter, she ticks all the boxes.

Also ticks the box for Obsessive Compulsion Disorder, when everything has to be done in a certain way.

Anxiety is of a higher order than you can ever imagine, is perhaps the most wearing and tiresome for the patient – and for the carers.

A scheduled home visit by anyone, gas boiler engineer, electrician, doctor on a rare occasions – there is no regular medical review.  These visits cause days of anxiety beforehand, and days of exhaustion afterwards.

Research into anxiety and its cause among those with EDS Joint Hypermobility has revealed that the area of the brain controlling anxiety is much larger than normal: making it Impossible to “feel the fear and do it anyway”.

Researchers have decreed that there is “the genetic predisposition to anxiety.  It seems there is a significantly higher prevalence of autonomic nervous system symptom (dysautonomia) in joint hypomobility patients.”

… “Processes compromising function in neuro-developmental conditions may occur in individuals with hypermobility – enhance vulnerability to stress and anxiety.”

1000 nights.

Then there are meltdowns; frenzied fury at something or other, flying fists, kicking - screaming, crying, swearing… fucking this and fuck that, Shiting this shitting that……

When it’s over it’s as though nothing happened.

She takes care to avoid Hypoglycaemia, which can lead to sugar crash.  She knows the symptoms – often has crackers or protein drink to hand, or will call for immediate food.

Her slow digestive tract means rather than say three set meals a day, she requires several small meals during the day.

The kitchen can be a busy place from morning, noon, through until late.

1000 nights.

 

Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type 3 (hEDS) is generally considered the least severe type of EDS, although significant complications, primarily musculoskeletal, can and do occur. The skin is often soft and may be mildly hyperextensible. Subluxations and dislocations are common; they may occur spontaneously or with minimal trauma and can be acutely painful. Degenerative joint disease is common. Chronic pain, distinct from that associated with acute dislocations, is a serious complication of the condition and can be both physically and psychologically disabling.

 

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is a condition characterized by too little blood returning to the heart when moving from a lying down to a standing up position (orthostatic intolerance). Orthostatic Intolerance causes light-headedness or fainting that can be eased by lying back down.

 

HOW COMMON IS PoTS? The incidence in the UK is unknown. However, it is probably under-diagnosed due to lack of awareness and non-specific symptomatology. It is five times more common in women and tends to affect people age 15 to 50.1 Apr 2016

Dysautonomia International estimates that POTS affects between one and three million people in the U.S. The majority of them are women.