I’ve written about the topic of when to return to riding after illness a few times before, and I tend to return to it when it’s relevant to me, which is now, unfortunately. Thankfully due to my fairly robust immune system, I don’t often find myself in this quandary, but I recently returned from an overseas trip in the grip of COVID. I was ill for a few days but I now have a lingering chest tightness and cough and am missing my bike and my riding buddies while I take a break.

I’m generally good at listening to my body and usually rest when I’m sick which includes abstaining from bike riding, but I often wonder if I take the rest part too seriously.

It goes without saying that you shouldn’t be riding a bike if you have COVID to avoid passing it on, but do the same rules apply if you have a basic head cold or similar?

With illnesses like colds, you should also be mindful of sharing your germs with your friends but as we all learnt during the pandemic, you are far less likely to spread an illness around when you’re outdoors.

I found a great article published by the ABC which helped satisfy my curiosity on this subject. I’ve plagiarised some of the key points for your enjoyment and education. The full article can be read here.

Do the neck…

When I started road cycling 15 years ago, I thought I knew it all. After all, I knew I could ride a bike – how hard could it be? Some months after I took up the addictive pastime of road cycling, I realised I had much to learn. So, I thought it might be useful to share my list of top five bike skills you need to master if you want to be a proficient roadie.

On my list in no particular order are cornering, braking, ascending/climbing, descending, and using the gears. There are many other things that you also need to learn like bunch riding skills, bike maintenance, what to wear, and much more.

In my summary below I’ve included the most important thing I’ve learnt about each skill and included links to previous posts with more information.

Cornering

Cornering is one of those fundamental skills you need to perfect if you’re going to be a good bike rider. The most important thing I learnt about cornering is that you ‘go where you look’. That means if you look to your right or left, you’ll head that way, so in cornering you need to look towards the spot where you will exit the corner.

Read here to learn more road bike cornering tips.

Braking

When I first started riding, I had…

I’ve been a lapsed blogger for the last few months. I lost my enthusiasm, or mojo if you will and I’m still struggling to get it back. One of the reasons I think I lost my way is that I’ve focused too much on educating others, and less on sharing my opinions. So, you’ll have to indulge me while I find my way back to blogging and read about my thoughts rather than information that may help you become a better cyclist.

Last year was a tough one for me. I lost my wonderful father who succumbed to heart disease at the age of 85. I’m sure a lot of people think that’s a great age and it most certainly is, but it doesn’t stop the pain and the feeling that a yawning gulf has opened in my life and those of my close family. Dad was one of my biggest fans and often told me that he’d read my latest post.

However, I think I had started to lose my way before that happened. Dad’s death just pushed me over the edge and gave me a ‘better’ excuse for halting my regular blogging. Up until November 2022, I wrote weekly blog posts, that’s 11 years of weekly missives, with a total of around 550 posts! I rehashed many of the same topics over and over and I’m done with that…

Every year I put together a Christmas Gift Guide for Female Road Cyclists, and it’s usually a random collection of things I’d like for Christmas, or sometimes things I already own. This year, I’ve decided to give it a theme, so this year’s guide is for women who like gravel riding. As always, it’s a bit aspirational and I often choose high-end bikes and gear, but most brands also have some cheaper options if you’re more budget-conscious.

Gravel bike

I’m an occasional gravel rider and have an early model Specialized Diverge, but if I was getting more serious about gravel riding, I’d go for something like this gorgeous steed. Meet the Specialized STR Expert Diverge which comes in the lovely traditional Christmas colour of ‘Satin Metallic Pine/Smoke’.

Gravel shoes

Just about any mountain bike shoes are great for gravel riding but if you spend a few extra dollars, you can have these lovely lightweight S-Works Recon Mountain Bike Shoes. Although I’d avoid white shoes for gravel riding because they won’t stay that way!

Utility bib shorts

For gravel riding you can choose between road or mountain bike cycling gear, or something in between like these Velocio Utility Bib Shorts. I have the road version of these bib shorts and…

I’ve been road riding for 15 years now and one thing I’ve noticed is the change in women’s road cycling gear that is marketed specifically for women. Not long after I started riding and buying women’s road cycling gear, I noted the efforts of some of the larger manufacturers like Specialized, Trek and Giant in attracting women to buy women’s specific bikes and gear.

I’m sure if you went back 20 years there was almost no women’s specific road riding bikes or gear, and the products that were offered were made in various shades of pink. Thankfully by the time I came along they had moved past that ‘shrink it and pink it’ era and appeared to be going all in with women’s gear.

However, in the past five years, most of the manufacturers that created all these wonderful women’s specific products have abandoned that idea and moved back to ‘unisex’ products. Specialized and Trek have both made a hasty retreat from their women’s specific bikes, saddles, helmets, shoes, and more. Specialized says that their many years of bike fit data has made them realise that there are fewer differences between the sexes and that the real differences are amongst people in general.

Perhaps they are right,…

I completely understand that it’s really easy to lose your cycling mojo and much harder to get it back, but I’m here to plead to all lapsed road riding women and encourage you to reconsider. I love road cycling so much that my mission in life is to encourage as many women as possible to join me. Here are my top reasons that I ride. So please reconsider and dust your bike off and get back out there.

It’s a great form of exercise

As well as being a cycling enthusiast, I’m also an exercise evangelist. I believe that exercise is the key to a healthy, happy life. And cycling is by far my favourite form of exercise.

I also run (or rather jog very slowly), go to the gym once a week, and enjoy the occasional long walk or very occasional swim. But all of these are much harder than cycling. When you run there are no gears that you can change when you go up a hill, it’s all you!

Cycling is gentle on your joints (unless you fall off!!), but can still provide an excellent workout, particularly if you push yourself and include some hill climbing which is unavoidable if you live in a city like Sydney.

Meet heaps of new people

I’ve met hundreds of new people since I took up cycling 15 years ago, and…

If you’re a regular visitor to this blog, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of Velocio cycling apparel and so I’m always happy to write a Velocio product review. If you know me well, or if you’ve worked alongside me, you’ll also know that I like to speak my mind so you can be sure that this product review will be my honest opinion. I will admit upfront that I received these items for free, but I have not received any payment for this review beyond keeping the cycling clothing.

It all started when my friend told me a few months back that my favourite winter bib tights were wearing thin and had several ‘bald’ patches at the back. The tights she was referring to were a pair of Velocio winter tights I have been wearing since I received them for another review some eight years ago. Since 2015 I’d worn them through seven winter seasons, during which time I wore them about once a week for three or four months. So, I felt I’d got value, or would have if I’d paid for them!

I raced home from my ride and contacted the good people at Velocio who happily agreed to send me a few new items to test. These included Women’s Thermal Bib Tights, Women’s Alpha Merino Air Jacket, Women’s Concept…

If you’ve been riding your road bike for a while, you might from time to time experience the feeling that something is holding you back and you might ask the question – What is slowing my bike down? It could just be you, as you age, but there are also a few other reasons you could be going slower.

Here are some of the more common things that could be causing you to go slower, and some potential remedies.

Bottom Bracket wobble

Do you sometimes feel your bike is rocking more than it used to when you pedal, or is there a faint knocking sound for every pedal revolution?

It’s possible that your bottom bracket is loose or even needs replacing. What is a bottom bracket I hear you ask? It is an often discussed part of the bike, but most people have never even seen theirs. That’s because it’s hidden between your pedals in the frame of your bike and is effectively the axle.

Over time, the bearings inside it will become worn and potentially need replacing. This is more likely if you ride in inclement weather because grips and water can enter the bottom bracket and cause wear and tear. For some, it might be the bearings that need replacing or even the whole bottom bracket.

The good news is, that once you replace the bottom bracket, your bike will feel…

It’s hard to believe that the Tour de France organisers ASO weren’t keen to run a women’s Tour de France, after reading the audience numbers in a recent report about the inaugural Tour de France Femmes. You can read my previous rants here and here, but in short, the ASO ran a pathetic attempt at a women’s road event for several years before finally starting a ‘real’ race in 2022.

The report, commissioned by title sponsor Zwift found that the race attracted a cumulative live audience of 23.2 million for the Tour de France Femmes in 2022.

The data, from Nielsen Sports, also showed:

• An average live audience of 2.9 million per stage of the Tour de France Femmes
• An increase of more than 300 per cent in social posts, reach and engagement for the Top 5 women’s cycling races in 2022 vs 2021 as a result of the introduction of the Tour De France Femmes.
• An increase of 8.6 per cent during the tour in Facebook and Instagram followers for the top 35 female riders competing in the Tour de France Femmes
• 73 per cent of women’s cycling fans are interested in participating in sports/fitness activities vs just 44 per cent of the general population.

This is a significant milestone given this is the first edition of the race in 33 years. I feel…

It’s very tempting to retreat indoors during Winter, and re-emerge as Spring arrives, but never fear with the right Winter road cycling tips, you can ride even in freezing temperatures. I should establish what I mean by freezing temperatures. I live in a temperature climate so the coldest Winter mornings in my hometown of Sydney, Australia are around 3 degrees Celsius which I know for some people sounds not so cold. But it is possible to keep riding year-round in many locations around the world.

Here are my tips for enjoying riding even in cold weather:

Invest in good quality kit

Better quality cycling clothing really is warmer. The fabrics have better lining and the companies that make them spend more time on research and development. If you ride once or twice a week you don’t need to own much winter kit to keep yourself warm. And quality cycling kit will last longer than cheap stuff. I have a pair of Velocio long bib knicks that I’ve owned for eight years and they are still going strong. They have a special layer that keeps the cold wind out, and it really works.

Layers

I’ve written another post about the importance of layers which you can read in detail here, but this theory also works. On the coldest mornings, I wear a long sleeve thermal…