Cycling Plus

Bike of the Year was born in 2009, back when disc brakes on road bikes were outlandish, the gravel genre wasn’t a thing and I Gotta Feeling became an ear worm. BOTY has since become the world’s biggest and most trusted bike showcase. Each year the winner sells out instantly and, for 2023, we have 25 bikes shortlisted vying to take home the BOTY trophy. 2023’s overall winner will be selected from our six categories – budget, endurance, women’s, aero, gravel and performance – with all being judged on spec, value, innovation and just how much darn fun they are to ride. Turn to p25 for 2023’s Bike of the Year jamboree. matthew.baird@ourmedia.co.uk Your experts Warren Rossiter Senior tech editor Once again, this year’s Bike of the Year is orchestrated…

● For the first time in its nascent three-year history, Paris-Roubaix Femmes didn’t end with a solo break from one of the superstars, but with a surprise coup by an unheralded Canadian riding for EF Education-TIBCO-SVB. Alison Jackson (in pink) was part of an 18-rider break, six of whom kept ahead of the peloton to duke it out in the Roubaix velodrome, where she clinched victory in the sprint.…

Caring is Charing A new musical, Glory Ride, celebrating the extraordinary life of pro rider Gino Bartali, who saved Jewish lives in fascist Italy during WW2 aboard his bicycle, is being performed at Charing Cross Theatre, London, until 29 July gloryridemusical.com End of the road The Tour of Cambridgeshire, which has been running since 2015 and is the sole British qualifier for the 2023 UCI Gran Fondo World Champs, is to end after the 2023 edition (2-4 June). tourofcambridgeshire.com Book smart Alex Dowsett, who retired from pro cycling in 2022, has announced the publication of his autobiography. Bloody Minded hits shelves on 13 September On hiatus The Women’s Tour, Britain’s biggest women’s bike race, is taking an enforced break in 2023 after the plugging of a funding hole failed to…

● I gave birth to my daughter, Orla, in 2018. I was very open-minded about how long it would take me to return to racing. I thought it would be about nine months post-partum, but I ended up racing seven months later. My fitness came back a lot quicker than I expected, although my race fitness was definitely a bit rusty. In June 2019 I won the Women’s Tour. That was a big surprise! It was seven stages, and it was as though every race day I got closer to my old self. I suppose I always had that belief; I wanted to come back and win. I was breastfeeding Orla for six months so that had an impact in terms of how much I was physically able to be…

Brixton Cycles London History ● Set up as an indie co-operative forty years ago in Brixton. A few moves later, still in sparky SW9 – though gentrification is happening even here. What makes this shop special? ● ‘Unconventional, free thinking, employee-run, not judgmental, always a place for someone different. We make the rules!’ laughs director Lincoln, who’s been here 33 years. Why is a local bike shop so important? ● ‘We’re on your doorstep, and we can do what the internet can’t, whether that’s getting your bike back on the road or giving help and advice. We build relationships – look after us and we’ll look after you!’ What’s in store ● Trek and Ridgeback for commuters and everyday London riders. Surly steel tourers for young professionals going on a…

Charming. Quaint. Archaic. Comical. Tandems may be heavy, but their media portrayal can be lightweight, as shown by popular TV over the decades. Old-hat 1980s comedy trio The Goodies got around on one (their ‘trandem’); while a 1970s ad for tea leaves had cycling chimps falling off in the ‘Tour de France’, then chatting up local belles with cod West-Yorkshire-accent invitations to ride one. Perhaps Harry Dacre is the man to blame. His 1892 music-hall song Daisy Bell – a jocular ditty of marriage proposal, apologising that the wedding transport would be a ‘bicycle made for two’ – was a worldwide hit, helping establish the tandem as pay-off to cheap gags. At best, the tandem’s role seems a stereotypical, nostalgic converse of high-tech. Daisy Bell was the first example of…