Entries by Hans Nierop

UK snow/slush

I used to love snow. Day off school, etc. Nowadays I hate it though, second only to ice. But snow, you can ride in it, yeah? Slap some wide, knobbly tyres on to your cyclocross/gravel/mountain bike and “hit those trails”!

David Hasselhoff’s influence on bike lighting

Both David Hasselhoff & Ever Ready that promoted “(K)Night Rider” in the 80s.  One was a TV series around a super advanced self driving car called KITT (with what could loosely be described as LEDs on the bonnet), the Hoff playing “Michael” aided by KITT in tackling crime and generally re-acting the same plot episode […]

Autumn Gravel Riding, UK Style

Open up any cycling magazine or cycling website over the past few years and it’ll feature gravel riding.  Photos of gravel roads undulating through forests before leading to a gravel hairpin before a stretch of gravel especially open to expansive skies, before taking a small gravel off-shoot to a lake previously untouched by human breath, […]

A View From The Roadside

The magic of the Tour De France not only captivates but fascinates millions of people from all corners of the planet.  Some of them will be cyclists themselves, men and women who have felt the pain and the pleasure of riding the exact same roads as their Tour heroes.  Though for the vast majority the chance to […]

‘H’ A true legend

The Manchester weather is no respecter of seasons.  It was though most obliging when in late July 2016 a funeral cortege departed from an otherwise unremarkable housing estate in Wythenshawe, South Manchester, and embarked on the short journey to the church. The only tell tale of who was taking their final journey was in the […]

Wild Wales Challenge

There are moments in your life that for whatever reason stay etched on your mind. The moments can be a split second of something you’ve seen, something you’ve heard or something you’ve shared. These memories can be amazing, tragic or simply mundane. Its often hard to articulate that moment and to emphasise to people not […]

La France Profonde

A gentle potter around a hidden corner of France. When choosing a destination for a cycling holiday then France will always figure highly. Arguably, France is seen as the spiritual home of cycling. Whether it’s because of the legendary Tour De France, not only the world’s toughest bike race but one of the world’s hardest […]

The birth of Vanelli Cycling

For a lot of cyclists the Sunday club run is their first introduction into the world of cycling. A vital ingredient of that club run is the almost obligatory café stop. The Sunday club run and the café stop go hand in hand;  you can’t have one without the other.  It’s in the club cyclists […]