A couple of weeks ago I met with Barry Kenyon from Bicycle NSW who has the very fancy title of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Director (not dissimilar to what I do for a living). His organisation of which I’m a paid up member represents cycling in all its forms. I’ve always been a little confused about what Bicycle NSW (and its equivalent interstate counterparts) does as opposed to Cycling NSW (and its national body Cycling Australia and equivalent state counterparts) so I started our chat by asking Barry that question. In short Bicycle NSW represents cycling in all its forms –
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How to handle a road bike crash
I had a minor accident on my bike over the weekend and it made me think about how we should all know more about how to handle unexpected situations like bicycle crashes. I think it’s only fitting that I should share my own story first. The accident I had on Sunday was not the first time I’d fallen or crashed off my road bike but it’s certainly the hardest I’ve hit the ground. I’ve been riding for nearly four years and in that time have had about six ‘crashes’, all of them at low speed, some were ‘unclipping incidents’ where I
Read moreHow to do intervals: a beginner’s guide
One of the aims of this blog is to provide tips and ‘how to’ articles to help women improve their cycling but I’m not an expert on many topics so from time to time I borrow from others. This week’s post is courtesy of a great website called womenscycling.ca. It’s a Canadian site and has some great content for women cyclists. Thanks to Laurel-Lea and Sarah for allowing me to reproduce it here. Written by Sarah Bonner If you want to cycle faster, climb stronger, go farther, or burn more calories, intervals are the way to go. Intervals are timed
Read moreJoin me for a women’s cycle training camp
The venue for the weekend I’m really excited about attending a women’s training camp in October to be held over four days and three nights in one of my favourite country towns of Bathurst, NSW. I hold a little soft spot for Bathurst because it’s where I attended three years of Uni to study communication back in the 80s. Wonderful town and I’m really looking forward to returning there in October. Cycle coach Donna Meehan and a group of female coaches have got together to organise a four day training camp to be held from Friday, 26 to Monday, 29 October
Read moreDo I need a cycling coach?
A question I’ve pondered a few times over the past few years since I took up cycling is whether I would benefit from some help from a coach. I remember discussing it with a few fellow cyclists a year or two ago and we concluded that it might spoil our fun. This is because other people we know who have been ‘coached’, always seem to be off doing serious training sessions, rather than enjoying the company of their mates on social rides followed by the mandatory cafe visit. Well I’m pleased to say that I’ve changed my mind on that
Read moreHow to descend on a road bike
When I first started riding I thought the only thing you really needed to know about descending was to grip the brakes tight and pray it was over soon. As I’ve developed more riding skills I’ve learnt to enjoy descending and although I’m far from mastering it, I feel a lot more confident and am going a lot faster than before. My fastest speed I’ve ever clocked up on my trusty Garmin 500 is 61 km per hour which was in a recent charity ride which has some excellent downhill sections (and of course the matching uphills). The following article
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