One in a million

New Department for Transport statistics show a surge in cycling activity in 2008, from 4.2 billion km (2,609 million miles) in 2007 to 4.7 billion km (2,920 million miles).

If they are right, then that's a 12% increase, and the longest total distance cycled in the UK since 1990.

I did my bit. I contributed 3,000 miles: just over one millionth.

---

Update: CTC has a summary here which also points out that cycling deaths have fallen.

Putting Stoke Poges on the map

I got another report out the door today, which is always worth a small celebration. So I decided to go for a decent ride after dinner.

This week Jack Thurston's Bike Show was covering the first part of his ride from London to Bristol. The programme is always worth a listen, and this one is particularly interesting to me because he was covering my local area, including Stoke Poges, Henley and the Chilterns.

But when I looked at the OSM map, most of Stoke Poges was missing. Fixing that seemed like another good excuse for a ride. So this evening I ended up covering 28 miles out to Stoke Poges, tracing most of the missing streets, then back home again.

It was a lovely evening for a ride. I've taken this week's total distance over 100 miles (and it's still only tuesday). I'm now 127 miles ahead of plan for the year, and to reach my annual goal I only need to average 57 miles a week for the next six months. Non-trivial, but I'm more on top of the plan than I've been all year.

So it's been a good day, although I forgot to take my little digital recorder with me to collect the street names, so it looks as though a return trip will be needed. Perhaps next time I'll finally get to see the famous bicycle window in St Giles' church.

Round Britain

Gregory Williams is now a week into his "Three Corners" ride around Britain, via Canterbury, Land's End and John O'Groats. He has reached Cornwall. He is taking sponsorship for the British Heart Foundation, and tracing routes for OSM. His diary is worth a look, and I'm looking forward to tracking his progress.

Meanwhile Mike Carter from the Observer has reached Yorkshire, travelling the other way round the coast.

I wonder which of them will reach the other first.

Jenkins 25

View Larger Map

This map shows the first 25 churches in my Jenkins quest. The list is taken from Simon Jenkins' book of the Thousand Best English Churches, ranked by distance from home. I'm riding to each in turn on the bike.

I covered twelve last year, a bonus one (because I mucked up, and lost one from the list) and twelve more this year. The question now is whether I should continue to extend the list for the rest of this year, or invent a new challenge and change tack for six months. I'm inclined to go for something different for a while, and I've got a few ideas. But I'm happy to listen to advice and suggestions. What do you think?

(I'd show the map on OSM, if I knew how).

Thomas à Becket

This is a medieval wall painting, of Thomas à Becket, dating from 1225, in Saint James Church, Hampshire. That means it was painted only 55 years after he was murdered.

This is the 12th, and last church in the list that I am trying to reach on the bike this year, and the 25th that I have ridden to since I started this project. So this is a bit of a milestone.

As the crow flies, this is the most distant of the churches on this year's list, but the ride itself wasn't a particularly long one. That's largely because a straight line on the map took me along quite a few pleasant roads that I hadn't tried before. So there was no incentive to wander more widely. I got a bit muddled around Stratfield Saye on the way out, but on the way back I got through Winnersh Triangle without getting lost. The total came to 58 miles.

All in all it was a very pleasant day.

Czy ty też lubisz jeździć na rowerze?

Thanks to my weekly newsletter from CTC, I find that the European Economic and Social Committee has published a European Cycling Lexicon which can be downloaded here.

I feel the need for a tour that will make best use of it.

Danny Macaskill

While I was putting off re-starting work this afternoon, I saw this on a link from Real cycling.

The video has been on Youtube for a couple of months now, and has more than 7 million views, so I'm not exactly at the cutting edge, but I hadn't seen it before. If you haven't either, then it's work a look.

Unfortunately it's going to take me a few hours to finish off this report, and it needs to be out this afternoon. Otherwise I'd be rushing out now to try some of these stunts. There's a row of railings just down the road that should do fine, and a couple of shop fronts I could try jumping across. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until this evening. I'll let you know how I get on.