Coast to Coast: Memorial Ride from St. Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay September 25th-28th Power To Your Pedal Follow Dawn and Steve across France as they embark on a cycling adventure P.12
The Brompton Folding bike: Revisited
P.16
Cycling With Your Dog P.6
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Cycling to work
The Crossing. Mountain Bike Race
We look at the Cycle to Work Scheme and other benefits to leaving the car at home and cycling to work
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P.7
The cyclists paper for the Midlands & Wales
Online edition September/October 2014 Issue 02
www.pedalyourcycle.co.uk
Pedal Your Cycle
Riding The Canal Tow Paths Of The UK
By Jamie Booth
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While blasting back with the wind behind me it occurred to me that these paths solve a massive problem of where to ride safely with kids away from traffic.
A few years ago I helped some friends move a narrow boat around the Midlands and the way they commuted between boat and car was by bike. On the whole the tow paths were muddy, wet and had huge great holes in them.
Moving on a few years I find myself near Basingstoke for a series of meetings and someone tells me there is a canal tow path from here to Reading so I decide to take a ride along it. It’s been hot for the last few months which is not a normal situation in the UK and I find the dry roads and trails fast, quick and fun. That said, I still turn up at the visitors centre
near Aldermaston thinking it would be a trundle. I set off along the tow path and once I’m away from the Café at the centre, the people start to evaporate. The path is single track and has the river Kennet on one side and the Canal on the other. The only other people I see are the odd fisherman and canal boater. Every so often you come to a junction or
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bridge but apart from these the track is pretty flat so you can really get up some speed along the fast sections and there are long, sweeping curves to enjoy. Every 5 miles or so there is a village, café or pub and this little ride I did took me from the edge of Reading to the heart of Newbury Continued on page 2