How not to die: My guide to safe cycling
The Independent and i have launched Save our Cyclists, a campaign to cut the number of deaths and accidents, particularly those caused in collisions with lorries.
While much can be done to improve safety, it’s easy to be put off by news of death and maiming. Yet, statistically speaking, cycling is safe and getting safer.
Meanwhile, there [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Sunday, 17 April 2011 at 1:21 pm
Marcus Pook
It’s unlikely you’ll know who Marcus Pook is – and indeed I barely knew him – but his death on Boxing Day at the age of 51 deserves to be marked on this blog.
It was here last Summer that I wrote from the Ride Across Britain, a 1,000-mile, nine-day ride that tested the mettle – and, [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Saturday, 1 January 2011 at 6:38 pm
Crazy or ingenious? An airbag for your head
Helmets divide the bike community. I wrote a column about it some time ago. And the debate has come to, er, a head recently with the launch of the cycle hire scheme. I’ve yet to see a cyclist riding a Boris Bike wearing protection.
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 22 October 2010 at 3:50 pm
Cycle Show (porn, basically)
No time this year to get to the Cycle Show in London nor even to write very much except to recommend it to anyone who likes perving on hot bikes.
So yeah, go there. It’s at Earls Court in West London and is open today till Sunday. They’ve got test areas, gear and loads of bikes [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 8 October 2010 at 2:28 pm
Jure Robic, world’s toughest, craziest athlete, dies
Sad news over the weekend of the death of an insane man you probably haven’t heard of but who was, by many accounts, the world’s greatest endurance athlete.
Jure Robic was a Slovenian soldier turned long distance cyclist. In 2004, during the Ride Across America, a notorious, 3,000-mile, coast-to-coast race Robic won a record five times, [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views -, Sport - Latest analysis on the Sporting world - | Tuesday, 28 September 2010 at 12:30 pm
Boris Bikes dressed for London Fashion Week
London Fashion Week starts today, so there wouldn’t appear to be much of a reason to post on the bike blog. Cycling, after all, is a fashion disaster area, isn’t it?
Nooo! Well, it can be, as you’ll have seen, but there are examples of sometimes surprising clashes between the worlds of fashion and bikes.
I wrote [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 17 September 2010 at 2:31 pm
Rapha + Paul Smith: On the boards
I spent a delightful hour in the office of fashion designer and cycle nut, Sir Paul Smith, a couple of weeks ago. He revealed how a pair of sunglasses dashed his teenage dreams of becoming a pro rider, and lamented the decline of the craftsman.
If there was any remaining doubt about the suit tycoon’s cycling [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Thursday, 16 September 2010 at 1:44 pm
Etape du Tour: It’s not about the bike
I devoted my column in today’s Magazine to Nick Dodds, an inspirational rider I met at last month’s Etape du Tour where, as I reported on this blog, I rather overdid it and had to vomit before I could finish the gruelling, 112 assault on the Pyrenees.
You should be able to find the column online [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 12:22 am
Must watch (no, really): Short film about cycling
It takes a company as obsessed with its own image as Rapha to think it can get away with commissioning a trio of short films inspired by three of its cycling jerseys without inviting ridicule – or making really crap films.
Which is why the North London bike-wear outfit ought to be applauded for Two Broad [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Friday, 20 August 2010 at 2:54 pm
Digging deep, really deep
Rapha posted on its blog last week a remarkable interview with Stephen Roche in which the Irish cycling legend recounts his epic climbing duel with Spaniard Pedro Delgado at the 1987 Tour de France, which Roche went on to win. It was a feat of grit and determination that makes amateurs like me look like [...]
By Simon Usborne | Notebook - A selection of Independent views - | Tuesday, 17 August 2010 at 11:07 am
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