On Sunday 23rd of September, London officially became a 'cycling city' as more than 38,000 bikes descended on the city's streets as part of Hovis London Freewheel.

Dubbed as an 'extraordinary day', the event stopped traffic along 14km of capital's roads, turning the city centre into a bike friendly mecca for Sunday cyclists.

After meeting up at the  Clapham Common hub, we cycled along a specially prepared route to St James's Park for an afternoon of entertainment, picnics and stalls. It was very well signposted and helpers were at every corner.

Here are some of the comments from our group:

“It was a great day out, we saw demonstrations, races, had free sandwiches and obviously saw a few thousand other cyclists enjoying themselves.”

“I hope it’s on again next year”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a traffic jam with only cyclists in it!”

SCOUTS SEE TOUR DE FRANCE IN LONDON...

A huge crowd turned out in London to line the route of the Tour de France Prologue. In a lot of places it was four and five deep which meant those at the back only got a glimpse of the riders speeding past. We were very lucky as we had the LCC passes to a special VIP viewing area. The ride to Hyde Park was great fun as we joined up with the Clapham Common group which totalled over 250 riders. The weather obliged after all the rain of the last couple of weeks and it was a sunny and warm day.

"The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has hailed the Prologue to the Tour de France a huge success. An estimated one million people packed the streets of London to cheer on the world's greatest cyclists on Saturday 7 July, and a further two million through Kent for the Stage One to Canterbury on Sunday 8 July.

The Mayor, who dropped the flag for the first rider, said: “The first day of the Tour de France in London demonstrated that the capital is an unrivalled location for major international sporting events. Hundreds of thousands of spectators enjoyed a thrilling, free day out today having seen world-class cyclists speed through the streets of London.”

The Tour was welcomed to London with different activities, including the People’s Village – an event to celebrate and promote cycling in Hyde Park – and 18 giant screens throughout the capital where onlookers cheered the riders on. An additional 11,000 cycle parking spaces were made available for spectators.

Riders were cheered throughout by the crowds, with the most noise being reserved for the final sprint towards the finish line. The fastest time of eight minutes and 50 seconds was recorded by Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara from Team CSC.
Hours before the riders sped through the streets of London, the Tour de France Publicity Caravan set off along the Prologue route to build excitement for the race."
 

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CYCLE TRAINING FOR POLISH COMMUNITY

The key elements of the project are:

• Basic bicycle maintenance

• Provision of bicycles for those young people who needed them

• Initial training in bicycle skills in a playground environment (site provided by a local Polish school).

• On road cycle training to level 2 of the National Standards

• Off-road cycling at the Eastway circuit

• A video made by the community for disseminating information about the project

 
We have used professional trainers (CTUK) for all the instruction. The professionalism of the instructors impressed parents and has encouraged more of them to get their children to participate in the project.

As numerous comments in our video reveal the Project has the full backing of both parents and children. To quote one mother ‘It’s wonderful that the children are getting this training - I would recommend it to anyone.'

Our project has taken simple elements - bicycle provision, cycle training, off-road-riding and video making and turned them into an enjoyable and popular programme that is now admired across London. We very much hope that it will not only lead to Polish young people in Wandsworth and Lambeth benefiting from cycling but that it will serve as a model for Polish and other ethnic groups around the capital.