Cycle report in Saturdays Telegraph

"Cliff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

What a great change I thought when I saw a double page spread about cycling in Saturdays
Telegraph.

But after reading both reports, one on riding Canal Paths from Shropshire to London and one on the
Lakes to Derbyshire sustrans route. They made it sound so bad it made me want to give up cycling .

I can't believe that anyone could ride either of those routes in good company and not have a good
time, regardless of weather or punctures.

I think I might give them a go next year and write an article for publication that is not made to
put people off cycling.

That's my whinge for the day folks

Cliff

Must be the Sustrans paths

Cliff said:

What a great change I thought when I saw a double page spread about cycling in Saturdays
Telegraph.

But after reading both reports, one on riding Canal Paths from Shropshire to London and one on the
Lakes to Derbyshire sustrans route. They made it sound so bad it made me want to give up cycling .

I had a quick read at both, which are in the Travel Section.

The one on the Shropshire path was really just a typical piece of travel writing. The author must
find some sort of difficulty or danger to overcome- whether or not dealing with leeches and snakes
in the jungle, storms on Everest or dealing with dangers or setbacks in surroundings close to home.
Also much description of the kit - the spare inner tubes, the computer. Reading the article, I got
the impression that it was edited out of pages and pages or notes. Yes, I do realise all articles
are like that :-) But you could almost imagine the visits to the bike shops, condensed down to one
sentence. Etc.

I don't think it is that much of a deal. But I do agree with you that he laid it on rather thick.
All he really needed to do was team up with an experienced cycle tourer, and it would have been a
better article, IMHO.

"Cliff" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What a great change I thought when I saw a double page spread about

cycling

Quoted message said:

in Saturdays Telegraph.

But after reading both reports, one on riding Canal Paths from Shropshire

to

Quoted message said:

London and one on the Lakes to Derbyshire sustrans route. They made it

sound

Quoted message said:

so bad it made me want to give up cycling .

I can't believe that anyone could ride either of those routes in good company and not have a good
time, regardless of weather or punctures.

I think I might give them a go next year and write an article for publication that is not made to
put people off cycling.

I suppose it is a question of who they are writing the articles for. If, as one might assume, the
articles are written to encourage readers to try cycling then, sadly, they seem to be appealing to
the masochist tendency. Sure, we all know that cycling always involves more up than down (and that
any wind will be head on) -- but it seems perverse to make such a negative of the ups when the route
chosen is clearly going to feature a significant number of ups. One feature of most descriptions of
walking or cycling in hill country is the sense of achievement as the wide vistas open up as one
crests the hill

Likewise, punctures are a fact of life. Yes, the puncture fairy always puts in an appearance at an
inappropriate time -- but anyone who gets two punctures in quick succession and then admits to only
noticing the thorn when everything is pretty much back together clearly isn't doing it right.

I didn't see the paper version but in an article linked from the web versions (Insider's guide to
cycling holidays) the Torygraph shows its knowledge of cycling with the following advice.

"Clothes : Pack lightweight layers. Loose-fitting clothes are best provided they do not flap. Cotton
is better than acrylic. Shorts and T-shirts are fine; on cooler days, tracksuit bottoms are more
comfortable than jeans. You won't need special footwear."

Oh well.

T