Ricky Lowe 6 columns
Being Wiggo
Being Wig g o The road to take to be the next Bradley Wiggins or Lizzie Armitstead Cycle Weekly
Being Wiggo
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Cycle Weekly
Being Wiggo
Team GB’s cyclists will inspire a new generation. It is becoming a regular, four-yearly occurrence around the UK: the British cycling team collect a clutch of Olympic medals and suddenly velodromes and bike clubs are inundated with interested newcomers. So, if your 12-year-old son or daughter has decided they want to become the next Bradley Wiggins or Lizzie Armitstead – or, indeed, if you fancy your chances – where to begin?
How do I start? By far the best way to get involved in competitive cycling is to join a local club. As well as providing people to ride with, and sometimes facilities, clubs have on tap decades of collective knowledge and experience. If you’re not sure what sort of cycling is for you, or what bike to buy, this is the place to start. British Cycling, the sport’s governing body in this country, has around 1,400 clubs affiliated to it, and a facility on its website to find your local one. It recommends calling the secretary of a local club to discuss what sort of things they do, and whether this suits you. A few clubs can be a bit fixated on very competitive, high-speed events, but increasing numbers offer rides for more or less every ability and experience level.
“Before the Olympics, my club, Eastlands Velo, didn’t have a waiting list for membership. Now it’s eight to 10 weeks for anyone who wants to join.”
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What sorts of cycling can I do? The list is very long. Traditionally, clubs tend to specialise in road racing and/or time trials, the latter being the flat out, against the clock contest in which Wiggins triumphed on Wednesday. Alternatively, those with access to a velodrome or outside track will often be geared towards that. But there are plenty of other competitive options – mountain biking, whether cross country (up and down) or downhill (just the latter); BMX, usually undertaken on a specially-built circuit; and cyclocross, the increasingly popular challenge is which riders race thick-tyred road-type bikes over muddy ground and hills. Each has its particular quirks and appeals – try more than one out if you can. How can I try track cycling? There are two options: the indoor velodromes of the type used in the Olympics, surfaced in polished wood, or outdoor tracks, again usually oval and banked, but more often concrete or asphalt. They’re both essentially the same thing, although velodromes clearly have an advantage if it’s raining, or winter.
Being Wiggo
We are introduced to our Dolan track bikes. They have no brakes and a fixed gear ratio that means the pedals will always be turning whether our legs want them to be or not.
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“It’s really weird. It feels wrong that you’re defying gravity and going against all the laws of physics when you ride around those bends. It’s a real adrenaline rush.”
There are more than a dozen outdoor tracks of various sorts spread around the UK, and a handful of velodromes, for example in Manchester and – once the Olympics are over – east London. You can’t just begin track cycling without supervision. Using the brake-free, fixed gear bikes needs practice, as does getting sufficient confidence to properly use the banking. Given that velodromes tend to be used by a number of fast-moving bikes at once, there’s also some etiquette to acquire. Many tracks offer try-out days, often with the use of a track bike. These can be very popular – the ones at the Manchester velodrome, the training base for Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton et al, can often be booked up several weeks in advance. What sort of bike do I need? That, of course, depends on what sort of riding you plan to do. For example, road bikes and mountain bikes are very different creatures, and there are all sorts of sub-divisions within these. That’s where a friendly local club can help. They may also be able to loan a bike, particularly at a track or velodrome where ordinary bikes are not permitted.
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