Cycling and Life
I am an ex-London cyclist and now a Göttingen rider – I have a fondness for cyclo cross and gravel cycling. This webpage is about my German gravel, naturweg, Panzer Weg and road rides. This will be a narrative of sorts regarding my cycle life in my newly adopted home country although I will not… Continue Reading
Home – English Home – Manifest – Video/Links – Galerie Vorgeschlagene 55k Route (In English) – 66k Route – 42km Route Schließ´ die Augen und stell Dir vor, Du seist in der Toskana, und mach´ sie erst am Ende der Radtour wieder auf. Strade Bianche de Gutingi In der Umgebung von Göttingen gibt es mehrere “weiße… Continue Reading
Results, video and picture links from cycle road races held in 2020 which feature gravel, pave and dirt. Road races that have in common a touch of the ‘Roubaixesque’ about them. I am now based in Germany and so sadly I cannot say that all the video links can be viewed in other countries or… Continue Reading
Featured images used as a ‘cover’ for each month since April 2018 when Cyclesport.London became Velo Klubhaus.com. See also Gallery for lots of pictures from across Velo Klubhaus. March 2020 The Gutingi Strade Bianche February 2020 I crossed over to the darkside in January fitting gravel tyres to a cross bike – Göttingen Rides January… Continue Reading
The fifth in the ‘It’s A Small Cycling World’ series features old school cyclo cross. The course is marked intermittently with rope and some sections have fallen into the mud. Lap scoring is done with eye, pencil and paper an almost impossible task on muddy days. Hooray for transponders. Links: It’s a small cycling world… Continue Reading
Video and picture links to UCI rated 2019/20 cyclo cross races unless otherwise stated. I am now based in Germany and the big issue is geo-restrictions on content which may not be shown where you are are (I try not to post links to stuff that may be taken down). There are VPN services that… Continue Reading
A little while ago I embraced the dark side and put away my cyclo cross tyres and opted for gravel specific rubber instead. Making this paradigm switch in my head reminded me when I first embraced cyclo cross. Tyre choice has always been a lively subject for discussion; on the eve of riding each of… Continue Reading
The fourth in the ‘It’s A Small Cycling World’ series features two riders who have elected to ride in the gutter away from the pave. Sadly, the gutter is a water filled mud trench. Links: It’s a small cycling world 1 – For the love of pave Part One It’s a small cycling world 2… Continue Reading
A road cycle ride south of Göttingen took us through an area that had born witness to the ravages of one of Europe’s most savage wars. In spring like weather, we pedalled out to Jühnde on what we thought would be tarmac only, but we took a shortcut and therefore rode a big chunk of… Continue Reading
Results, video and picture links from cycle road races to be held in 2020 which feature gravel, pave and dirt. Road races that have in common a touch of the ‘Roubaixesque’ about them. I am now based in Germany and so sadly I cannot say that all the video links can be viewed in other… Continue Reading
fahrstil magazine and VeloKlubHaus.com präsentieren: For the Love of Mud Januar 24, 2020, Göttingen. NOTE: The event is now full, thank you for your interest. Deutsch fahrstil magazine and VeloKlubHaus.com präsentieren: For the Love of Mud For the Love of Mud ist ein Film von Benedict Campbell, der die wundervolle Welt des Cyclo-Cross schildert und… Continue Reading
Unlike my first RTF event I attended way back in August, 2019, this time there was no number to pin to my back. This slight disappointment was quickly erased as I hit the trails on the Wieter-Plesse-Biking-CTF organised by Cicli Club Northeim. The club had put together a challenging route which featured 95% forstwirtschaftswege (forest… Continue Reading
With weather forecasts saying that we were in for another summers day I wanted to do something a little bit bolder just in case we plunge into the darkness of winter next. I elected to ride to the Grenzmuseum Schifflersgrund near Bad Sooden-Allendorf on the Hessian-Thuringian border. This would take me past iconic places that… Continue Reading
Results, video and picture links from the cycle road race 2019 calendar which feature gravel, pave and dirt. Road races that have in common a touch of the ‘Roubaixesque’ about them. I am now based in Germany and so sadly I cannot say that all the video links can be viewed in other countries or… Continue Reading
The 7. IhmeCross der RSG Hannover promoted by Radsportgemeinschaft Hannover e.V. held on October 3 2019. It was great to attend this event in 2018 and it marked my first visit to a German cyclo cross. I had such a good time and enjoyed the cake so much I returned in 2019. The journey time… Continue Reading
My favourite road cycle races are Paris Roubaix and Strada Bianche. I savour these two races because they do not follow the tarmac roads exclusively. In the former the competitors ride the brutal cobbles of Northern France and the latter it is the white gravel roads of Tuscany which feature. My manifesto is outlined here… Continue Reading
Stage three of the Deutschland Tour 2019 started in Goettingen before heading to the finish at Eisenach. It was somewhat surreal to have the race in town and it is as if the citizens of Goettingen had decided to host the Deutschland Tour to make me feel welcome in my new home. Seeing the Jumbo… Continue Reading
Resurrected in 2018 the Deutschland Tour 2019 stage two came to town and passed close to my new home in Goettingen. I and many others lined the roads of Goettingen especially the two circuits of the Herzberger Landstrasse climb. Herzberger Landstrasse which is part of the King of Mountains competition climb is 1.1kms long, 238… Continue Reading
I was trying to think when was the last time I pinned a number on? It must be 2006 when I raced at the lost Eastway Cycle Circuit (bulldozed under the 2012 Olympic Velodrome in 2006). Looking back it was the process of putting a number on your back pocket or doing it for another… Continue Reading
Putting names and a history to people who are or were; immigrants, migrants, aliens, expats, exiles, refugees, asylum seekers or emigres, I believe can go some way to fight the use of such English terms to degenerate or even de-humanise our view of people. I am an immigrant, a privileged one as I am white,… Continue Reading
Or following in Grandma’s footsteps and German Castles are just not ‘hard arse’ enough. My image of castles was formed by visiting Wales where large and imposing castles were built to express power, deliver military dominance over and the subjugation of the Welsh by the English. Also ‘hard as nails’ castles built by the Norman… Continue Reading
A list of cycle road races on the 2019 road race calendar that feature gravel, pave and dirt. I have always had an interest in cycle races that deviate away from asphalt roads such as the Paris Roubaix ‘Spring Classic’ held over the notorious pave of northern France and I have often posted video, pictures… Continue Reading
I scream und Erdbeere (road to Duderstadt) Duderstadt was once linked by a small railway to Goettingen (Die Gartetlbahn); sadly this service which ran from 1897 was closed in 1957. Our gain is that almost all of it is now a cycle path that can be used with other cycle routes to carry us the… Continue Reading
We think we might pedal far and heroically but history tells us what suffering, travel and hardship really is and which at times can be beyond understanding. A visit to the Museum Friedland as part of my June 15 ride to Friedland. Personally, I am an (Cycling) Immigrant. In Transit Migration and immigration are part… Continue Reading
A short ride from my new home town is a place that played an amazing part in post-World War Two life – it was at the Friedland Transit Camp that millions of displaced people, POW’s and refugees travelled through. It was near the small village of Friedland that the US, British and Soviet Zones of… Continue Reading
The third in the ‘It’s A Small Cycling World’ series features the leader of the Giro d’Italia riding in the mountains alongside a snow bank that was created when the high pass road had been cleared. Water flows from the snow making it a wet and dirty ascent. Links: It’s a small cycling world 1… Continue Reading
A ride to the now defunct Internal Border. Every location has an intrinsic value and the landscape can be dramatic or even supine and a ‘back-water’ can have a story to tell, if often a little more prosaic than some. Additionally man’s intervention in the landscape can be dramatic (or traumatic) and with the passage… Continue Reading
For this ‘it’s a cycling small world – for the love of pave part two’ (Part One is here) I got a little more ambitious and imagined a scenario where it has been raining all day. At this point in the race it has stopped pouring down and the riders are beginning to dry whilst… Continue Reading
There is ‘London tight’ and there is ‘Roubaix tight’; this passed through my mind when after much bike preparation I hit the first stretch of pave at Troisville the first section of cobbles on the route used by the Paris Roubaix pro road race held in April. In the race the riders take in a… Continue Reading
Since my big change in life I have ridden my bike, listened to more LP’s and read more books in one month than I did in a year. Maybe this also has something to do with me being without a TV service which means no plonking myself in front of the ‘telly’ (which I do… Continue Reading
