The Guardian newspaper carries a weekly series about British towns that people might think about moving to.
It’s usually slightly tongue in cheek but this week’s article has caught those of us from the small Suffolk town of Bungay by surprise as we are portrayed as coming from somewhere distinctly odd.
“a peculiarly Suffolk version of the Bermuda Triangle” among other statements.
The Wikipedia entry is a lot more sober. And boring. I like being from somewhere different..
It has been really nice to get a mixed selection of cycling themed Christmas greetings popping into the inbox. Now I can steal one or two to make my own Christmas message.
I’m sure the general standard is getting higher every year, but there will always be a case for a bunch of cyclists dressed as Santa on their way to a party, at least in Stevenage! And Copenhageners just can’t help showing off their levels of cycling can they?
My personal favourite is the one above from the Hungarian Cyclists Club. I think the wording is just perfect, it sums up my philosophy of cycling completely and is the perfect antidote to those who bring their tribalism to our great pastime, transport and sport. Goodwill to all cyclists from me.
Best wishes for the season.
So at last Maxine Peake’s play about Beryl Burton made the airwaves this afternoon.
I was traveling so I have had to listen to it myself in my hotel room on the i-player this evening – link here.
Followers of my blog know I have been building up the Beryl story since May (Click tab “Beryl Burton” for other posts and material). I had this horrible moment about a week ago when I read the synopsis on line and I thought it might just be terrible and a bit twee, focussing on a manufactured love story between Beryl and Charlie and my buildup would be in vain.
But what made it work for me were the recordings of Charlie and daughter Denise chatting about Beryl as if she was just round the corner and had popped out for a ride, almost like the day she died. It brings that authenticity and honesty I can respect, bringing to life some of the stories from the book “Personal Best” on which it is based.
Such a dominant figure in the cycling history of the period, but spoken of which such affection by the two people who knew her best, even if it is clear she was far from easy to live with. Yes it was a love story.
Aficionados will be cross at some of the corny sound effects to make radio drama accessible and I can assure you that there weren’t crowds, loudspeakers and commentators at 1960s time trials, if there had been maybe Beryl would have been the star she should have been. But I am forgiving, they were needed for the narrative to work and it is hard to portray a superstar at a sport that was invented for its anonymity! If I have one complaint it would be that her achievements still didn’t really come across, she really was such an athlete she is so hard to sum up.
But all in all a really good effort and its placement on Radio 4 will have gone a long way to telling the world about our hidden heroine. I have only seen feedback on twitter so far tonight, but overall it is really positive.
Please give it a listen, and if you can get a copy of “Personal Best” do so, it fills out the rest.
Those who have been following my blog since the spring will know that a radio broadcast featuring actress Maxine Peake gave me two great posts.
“Books and reflections – Eddie Merckx and Beryl Burton” on May 28th.
This is because Maxine was writing a play about the life of Beryl. I am now absolutely delighted to discover that it is going to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 27th November at 2.15 because maxine was back on the Radcliffe and Maconie show again on Monday.
Link to the show http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p0fpl
Interestingly she says it has now become “Beryl – a love story on two wheels” with a strong emphasis on the relationship between Beryl and Charlie. I hope it gets a huge audience, in these awful times for cycle racing Beryl stands out like a beacon. If you don’t know the story have a read of the blog post and buy her biography.
Link to the BBC6 radio show on Monday is available until next Sunday, Maxine Peake is on after about 30 minutes. (And another plug for my favourite show!)
You need to have your head in the sand to have missed the pretty awful week many bike fans have had. Even travelling in Ukraine the twitter feed and blog posts have been pretty down in the dumps.
But the whole purpose of my blog is to remind me on on the down days that this is the transport of delight, and to try and share.
So it is just as well that this week I have seen three videos that brought me out in the widest smile. Winter may be coming in the north, so if you need just a small pick up to get you out on your bike next week here are three positive films about the sporty side of cycling, each with a little reminder why“I do not despair”
The first time, (see also previous post) the company and the sheer exuberance of cycling.
For more fun videos please go to my video library page where these will end up long term.
This video on Youtube may be mountain biking. But don’t turn it off if that isn’t your thing. Don’t look, just listen. Take in the voice of four year old Malcolm in the clip and remember that this is what we bring to lives.
When I do presentations on cycling one of the things I often tell my audience is to remember that they do something really special.
You never, ever forget your first bike ride. And for so many people that is the closest they will ever get to flying, a brief moment when they take wings. And once you discover the “transport of delight”, the “wings of desire” then a bicycle is a passport.
It’s why I have had a tear in my eye so many times when I have attended cycling programmes for people with disabilities and seen them light up when they discover freedom and movement. It’s why I never tire of saying that the magic is not 100miles, its 100 metres.
Today, somewhere someone is taking their first bike ride, riding up a hill they never thought possible, discovering a new and wonderful place.
Thank you Malcolm and Malcom’s dad for reminding us what that feels like.
(I’ll avoid airing the sneaking suspicion that his bike-handling might be about as good as mine already, as the guys at Whistler found out in July!)
Hey “I Do Not Despair” made it into national Italian news about cycling. Sadly I think my two appearances on stage at Italian bike shows were not the cause for the use of the quote that headlines my blog. But it was good news all the same.
National newspaper La Repubblica reported yesterday that in recently published figures 2011 bike sales beat car sales for the first time since the second world war. “Le biciclette sorpassano le automobili”. Print version below, with good graphic.
But more importantly for “I do not Despair” I learned H. G. Wells might have said “Ogni volta che vedo un adulto in bicicletta penso che per il genere umano ci sia ancora speranza.”
Although Google Translate doesn’t offer the word “despair” anywhere I was really pleased to see the quote in use, it felt so topical after my recent trips to Italy.
I hope the Italians are able to use this momentum too, The President of my hosts FIAB is quoted saying “I do not think that Italy will return to the levels of car sales prior to 2008. It is an opportunity to change lifestyle” Because this is almost old news in northern Europe, even less confident British cyclists bought about a million more bikes than cars last year.
Lots more work to do in Italy!
Back in June I travelled to Dublin to speak at the Dublin Cycling Campaign Conference which had a special focus on gender issues.
Most of the day we were intensely discussing the politics of cycling in all its forms, but just before lunch all us policy wonks stood down and we were introduced to a tiny Irish woman who could hardly see over the lectern. The sparkling eyes and the streak of pink die in her grey hair suggested a feisty character and this was quickly confirmed when she began to tell some anecdotes from her 2011 book “My home is your home, A journey round Syria”. Highly topical in some sense because of the increasing gravity of the situation in Syria but she entertained us by talking about her travels and her attitude to cycling.
It was the perfect antidote to the seriousness of the 
rest of the day and she had the room smiling and laughing as we finished our morning. I was therefore especially pleased when Damien O Tuama the conference organiser gave me a signed copy of the book as a thank you for coming.
I actually read it ages ago and have had the blog post stored up in my head for most of the summer, but as I have confessed on my library page I do find it hard to squeeze the reviews into the blog.
Sadly however Syria has remained more than topical all summer, something that Mary alluded to when she spoke.
The book itself isn’t a cycling book in the way that other writers use travelling by bike to guide their narrative. Mary Russell is much more a cyclist who happens to use and enjoy a bike as transport when it suits, but equally uses taxis, buses and camels to get around. The two things that shine through the book are Mary’s enthusiasm for the people of Syria and her determination to bring the history of Syria’s culture to life by visiting the towns and buildings that feature in the stories of historical figures.
So we learn about poet Abu ‘ala Ma’Ma’arri whose work is thought to inspire Dante and a bike ride round Tadmor is an excuse to learn about Zenobia, Queen of the Syrian Desert, or rather as Mary concludes in her delightfully down to earth manner “the Maggie Thatcher of her day”. I guess it is the insularity of my English education that almost none of the figures she writes about were familiar except for cliches in the murderous crusades of medieval times. What the book does is seek out museums, homes, mosques and sites associated with these figures, some of them almost unknown in the towns that host their historical legacy so Mary is forced to become a detective in almost every city to find her characters.
We even have a romantic heroine in Jane Digby, scandalous figure of 19th Century court life in England, Bavaria and other countries who at 47 finds the love of her life Sheikh Abdul Medjuel El Misrab, 17 years her junior and a nomadic chief. A visit to her former home in Damascus reduces Mary almost to tears.
Mary is in turn funny, mischievous, determined and scholarly and I am sure other readers will equally enjoy the prospect of tiny feisty Mary on her travels. Such a great sadness that the only reason I now hear of these previously unknown towns and cities is as casualties mount on the news. Read this book to find out what the world is losing to this inhumanity as well as to enjoy Mary Russell’s personality.
Links
Mary Russells web site here
To hear Mary Russell’s talk and all the other presentations at the Dublin Cycling Campaign Conference click here
I was going to publish a few pictures from the Eurobike trade show over the weekend.
But probably the best show of the week was on a giant screen set in a large stylish black booth in the Italian hall. It takes a lot to overshadow Colnago and Pinarello, but if anyone was going to it would be Super Mario.
Us cycle racing fans of just a few years back just loved the Saeco red train which was virtually the first time we saw the mass leadout on our TV screens. And the emotion of the Italian team when they finally united behind him to win the world champs at Zolder was great.
Some may think he was just a showman – but I think he was great for the sport, so this one goes in the video library.
This post celebrates my cycling roots. It was triggered by a request by Dennis Kell, editor of Winged Wheel, the magazine of CTC Suffolk, for 200-300 words to mark the 250th edition of the magazine.
CTC Suffolk- Winged Wheel magazine is 250!
Hi Kevin,
Congratulations on your new position. All in CTC Suffolk wish you well.
Our local group magazine has just reached its 250th edition (First Published in 1947 and still going strong.) I’m sure you must have seen it in the past and I can send you an anniversary edition if you let me know an address.
As a Suffolk boy, we wondered if you might be able to give a couple of lines to this special edition before you set off for pastures new. Any personal memories of the magazine, the Birthday Rides or cycling in Suffolk generally would be fantastic. I’ve managed to get hold of several former editors going back to 1959 who have added a few comments and we shall have a couple of articles from edition 1.
Sorry for the late notice, but we are hoping to go off to the printers in the middle of February to ensure it gets out on time.
If you are able to send us something, it will be really appreciated.
Once again, good luck with the new position.
Best wishes,
Dennis Kell Editor
Suffolk is the eastern most county of England. It’s the low lying bulge in the coastline that sticks out into the North Sea, facing the Netherlands. It shares something of a heritage with our neighbours, our mediaeval economy was built on shipping wool to Flemish weavers and it was Dutch engineers that introduced many of the water management systems that helped control the ingress of the sea and drain the fields around the Norfolk boards to our north. Nothing like the extent of the drainage in the Netherlands itself or the Fen Country in Cambridgeshire, but the influences were enough for some of our architecture to feature Dutch gable ends.
The other thing we share with the neighbours is that Suffolk and Norfolk kept a higher residual level of cycling than most other parts of the UK. Still nothing like real European levels, but still one of the few rural parts of the country where it is not unusual to see an elderly lady on a bicycle cycling in to the town to collect her shopping. My late grandmother used to cycle 15 miles each way to her nursing shift so the culture was well established.
Lots of factors come together to make it possible, not least the relatively flat terrain and low rainfall. But the main factor must surely be the amazing collection of minor roads and the relatively low volumes of traffic in the towns which mean fewer people driven off the roads as cars and speeds got faster. It also seems to tap a residual demand, Kesgrave School in Ipswich, our country town was one of Sustrans early successes with their Safe Routes to Schools programme.
I grew up a Suffolk cyclist because my father was (and is) a keen club cyclist and racer who brought the whole family up inside his club, the Godric Cycling Club. We rode everywhere of course – to school, out with our mates, doing the paper round, but it was the Godric that provided my cycling culture.
When I became CTC Director in 1998 one of my very first speaking invitations was to speak at the CTC Suffolk and Wolsey Road Club Annual Dinner. They treated me a real surprise, digging out a cyclo-cross race programme from Holywells Park in Ipswich with my name on it, probably aged about 13.
In summer 2011 I returned to ride with Suffolk CTC again because they organized the CTC’s annual festival of cycle touring “The Birthday Rides”. (So named because they celebrate the anniversary of CTC’s founding at a similar rally in 1878). We had a brilliant week.
The Dogmobile - Kevin Mayne and Murphy on adapted tricycle
I camped on the main site with Murphy because the others were away and I constructed the dogmobile out of a disability trike from the CTC fleet at Reading. The Suffolk posse were amazing, they compiled hundreds of miles of routes, refreshments, social events and of course amazing weather.
So it was my pleasure to give Dennis some words that sum up how I feel about cycling and Suffolk:
At the end of the CTC Birthday Rides last year I was fortunate enough to be able to say a few words to everyone about how I felt about the event. It was relatively easy to sum it up. “Never have I felt prouder of being from Suffolk”.
Of course I was thanking CTC Suffolk for the event you had put on, but it was far more than that. The beauty of our countryside, the warmth of the welcome, even the relatively considerate behaviour of the drivers made a lasting impression on everyone who came and I have little doubt that it will boost the numbers of returning cyclists for years to come.
The other really important thing about cycling in Suffolk for me is that it where I discovered the sense of community which provides my real motivation. In Ipswich and Bungay my childhood was surrounded by cyclists, my extended family. And we learned to ride together in these lanes, not jammed to the side of the road escaping busy traffic. I was recently at a presentation where a mental health professional was asked why CTC’s programme of rides for those recovering from mental illness was so successful at boosting patients’ wellbeing and stopping them from being readmitted to hospital. He replied “Professionally I can’t define it. But they just ride, then they ride together and they talk, and then they feel better”
I think he was speaking for all of us.
I am now going to be based in Brussels working for the European Cyclists Federation. The most important part of my new job is to support new and emerging cyclists’ groups and help them get established at the national and regional level. Most of them will be transport campaigning groups who can get awfully serious about the intricate details of cycling infrastructure. But I know what I will also be telling what I learned in Suffolk. We do this because we want to share the special quality that cycling brings to lives. I will be trying to capture that feeling on my blog www.idonotdespair.com Magazines like Winged Wheel are essential to that sharing too, I wish you every success for the next 250 editions.
Kevin Mayne, CTC Chief Executive 1998-2012.
