52 Cycling Voices - No. 1: Maria David

For this year, each week we will hear from different women talking about cycling. They will be women who ride a lot, a little, for leisure, competitively, who just go to the shops or to work by bike. Some may work in cycling but don't ride, some may just like watching cycling, and others might be cycling wives, girlfriends or widows who can't stand cycling! Whatever, 52 Cycling Voices will be about women giving their thoughts on bike riding.

This week the person in the spotlight is yours truly.

Maria David, Aged 47

From: London (grew up in Yorkshire)

Medical Copywriter (and cycling writer/journalist too!)

Maria on Westminster Bridge with the Raleigh Mustang Sport

"I've been cycling on an off since the age of seven, when my dad decided that I had to take my stabilisers off (much to my chagrin!). I then got a second-hand Raleigh 14 which I loved, even if I had a few spills on it. Back then I really hoped I could get a Raleigh Grifter like the cool kids in my class, but that never happened so I stuck with the kiddies' Raleigh 14. 

When I was a little older I shared a bike with one of my sisters, though she hardly rode it and I rode it a lot - mainly to go to the shops and run errands. It hadn't been long since I passed my cycling proficiency test, so I always found it exciting to get out on my bike and go somewhere. 

One day we were invited to take part in an 11-mile cycle ride organised by the local church youth group and I had hoped to go on the ride. But my parents didn't allow me to go because I had had knee problems and they thought that the distance would be much too far, so ironically, my sister who hardly cycled went instead! She never said much about the experience so I'm not sure she enjoyed it. 

After that I never did that much cycling until when I was at university. I got a holiday job in a packing factory to save up money to get a cheap mountain bike. The make was Falcon and I remember travelling up to their factory in a nearby town called Brigg, which was like the big city for me, considering I was just living in a small village on the Lincolnshire/South Yorkshire border. 

The bike was my pride and joy and I used it a lot, particularly in my second year at university, when I lived off-campus, and would do the eight-mile ride to get to lectures. I also went on a few trips with it during the holidays - to the Peak District, the Lake District, the Mendips and the Malvern Hills - much to the worry of my mother, and the anger of my dad who both kept thinking I was trying to get myself killed!

There have been long gaps when I hardly cycled since those days, but cycling has been a continuous part of my life since 1999 when I had to become a regular/committed cyclist in order to get through triathlons. 

That was a big step for me because it was only then that I rode a "racing bike" with dropped handlebars for the first time, and also had to deal with cleats where my feet were clipped into the pedals. I am grateful to the motorists who were sympathetic towards me during those dicey moments when I had to lean on their cars to avoid crashing because the bike stopped but I still had my feet clipped into the pedals! 

I ride an old De Ver road bike that was built by Maurice Burton, the former professional racing cyclist who owns the De Ver shop in Streatham, South London. It's not the only bike I have, but it's my favourite because it was my first ever road bike. Lately, I've been riding a nice Boardman women's road bike, kindly provided by Halfords, and Raleigh provided me with a Mustang Sport Gravel bike, which I have also been enjoying testing.

For me, cycling is just part of my daily bread like other constants in my life such as running, writing and crochet. Cycling means freedom to get from A to B without being in the lap of Transport for London, or being held to ransom by Southern Rail and their industrial disputes. 

Technical problems on a bike are infrequent and easy to resolve, and when riding I get to see places from a different angle to when I am zooming by in a car or on a train. Cycling allows me to see the fabric of a country or a region that bit more intricately than if I just went on a bog-standard trip or package holiday. It has certainly allowed me to see some nice places around Europe and beyond. 

Furthermore, being a cyclist I feel like I am part of a community and it's great to see other kindred souls on the road - whether it's when commuting to work by bike, struggling up a 2-hour long arduous climb in the Alps or seeing others who are equally mad as me rattling our bones across the South Downs on a rigid cyclocross bike!  

For all the places that I have ridden my bike, I must say that my favourite bike ride is just riding around the various neighbourhoods and touristic parts of London when there's no traffic. London is my favourite city in the world (closely followed by Paris) and I just like to ride and take in the sites of this great city on a sunny day. I did that recently on Christmas day and usually do this whenever I am in London at Christmas. 

It's also nice to do the Ride London FreeCycle event where Central London is completely closed to traffic and again you can ride your bike at a leisurely pace with thousands of folks of all ages, shapes, sizes and cultures. 

Bike riding can be a great leveller and brings out the best in me (at least most of the time!). I can't see myself deciding to stop cycling any time soon!"

One day a few photos - 16



Thursday 25th September



The Cycle Show is back in England, and once again it is at the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre. I went along and checked it out for the day. As usual the larger cycle manufacturers like Trek, Colnago and Raleigh had fancy stands with their 2015 range on show. There were a lot of smaller stands with innovative items on offer. A couple that caught my eye were the new range of helmets from Brooks which have a fabric and tweed covering. It's great to have helmets to wear which match with your ordinary clothing, rather than almost exclusively helmets that better match sportswear.

There were various stands with different ways of improving cyclist's safety, notably through lighting systems. One I particularly liked was the one from Veglo which consists of commuter straps worn around your body or around your rucksack with a light and fibre optics that light up. They not only allow the cyclist to be seen by other motorists but they give a sense of depth and distance away as the motorist approaches the cyclist from behind.

Finally, a company called Tannus were displaying their puncture-free tyres in a range of bright and cheerful colours. The tyres are made from solid material so there is no inner tube and if a sharp object penetrates the tyre there is nothing to deflate, hence the tyre still keeps its shape and doesn't go flat.

These shows are always a good way to catch up with folks in cycling. Among the people I bumped into were people from other cycling magazines, Geoff Saxon who organisers the Wiggle-Kilo-to-Go cyclosportives, bike shop owners Maurice Burton and Guy Pearson. I also managed to get an interview in with 2-time Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso. He was all very amenable and spoke English pretty well - which was handy for me as my Italian was a bit rusty at times! Anyway, a good day out.

One Day One Photo - 7

Tuesday 16th September

After my Specialized road bike was cheekily stolen from me in a Milan street a couple of years ago I reverted to riding my old racing hack. It was the first road bike I bought, about sixteen years ago - a red bike from De Ver Cycles in Streatham, South London. It was my pride and joy back then, and I was really grateful to Maurice Burton who built it for me at a very reasonable cost.

Riding it again after having spent 7 years using the nice lightweight Specialized (which I'd also bought from De Ver Cycles) felt like riding a tractor, thanks to the heavy grade aluminium and fork, commuting rack and mudguards. Time trialling or riding hilly cyclosportives on this has been challenging! But the good news is things have just become easier - at least for the remaining weeks of the road season.

Once more, thanks to Maurice, I have received this little beauty to test ride - the De Ver Flight. So far, I have used the bike in a triathlon and also in 2-up time trial, and the bike has performed well. It is so much lighter than the first De Ver bike I rode, and with a more responsive frame. The comparison between the Campagnolo Athena groupset versus my old Shimano 105 is more than night and day! Even better, there are electronic gear shifters to play with, thus eliminating clunky gear changes. Of course, this is not the first swish new bike I have been given to test ride. It is just noteworthy how my first bike was a De Ver heavy unwieldy thing. And here I am all these years, coming out of the same shop with a light speedy thing that can rival many of the big brand road bikes that people rave about. Watch this space for the full review!

Cresting the Bwlch - The Dragon Ride : Part 2

I was glad I'd been able to dispose of my rain coat, as soon afterwards the sun came out and I was tackling the first difficulty of the day, the Bwlch mountain road. It was a long climb by British standards - almost 2 miles, but the gradient was gentle. Across the wide valley you could see exactly where you had to get to.

For some, this was not a welcome sight as they struggled their way up. For others this was a chance to rise to a nice little challenge as they honked out of the saddle on the big ring. At this point I was passed by the young lady in Vlaanderen Capri Sonne sponsored kit that I'd seen at the start. She looked very comfortable and was in a group with some Kenilworth CC riders.
I kept a steady regular pace and rode with some guys from Southampton. They seemed quite impressed to see women riding this section without too much difficulty. We were only 20miles in, so it would've been a bit worrying if I had been struggling !

The descent from the Bwlch was long and sweeping. I really enjoyed it because I could see my line. With a good tuck you could effortlessly roll in excess of 40mph.

We were now into the Rhondda Valley, where we then headed north towards Hirwaun. Before reaching it there was the small matter of crossing Rhigos via another pass that was very similar to the Bwlch. It wasn't as steep, but it was deceptively long. A local man rode alongside me, pacing me up the hill while giving me tips about the course - "this is ok - just save a bit for the climb out of Neath, and also there's a climb just outside Bridgend. Apart from that this is ok really. What you really want is something like the Autumn Epic. That'll get your legs working !" My legs were already working just trying to do the ascent at his pace !

The top of the climb gave great views of the hills and valleys around, including the higher peaks of the Brecon Beacons. We weren't far from the former coal mining areas either. We saw many little villages with the characteristic drab coloured, box shaped miners houses, and old machinery signifying the vestiges of an old colliery town. Very Welsh. I half expected a Harry Seacombe character to come out singing !

At the bottom of the descent, at Hirwaun, came the intersection. I took the left turn direct to Glyn Neath for the short ride. The scenery became more tree lined as we headed back towards the Afan Forest Park, where Him Indoors was mountain-biking.

Along this road I bumped into Leslie from Archer RC. She was having a good ride. We both joked about how we'd chickened out of doing the long route for fear of the rain.

Very soon, at Neath, the road rose up in front of us. I didn't get the chance to read the sign board showing the gradient statistics, but I knew it was steep. Honking out of the saddle arduously as the sweat rolled into my eyes, I was determined to keep up a decent momentum. After a kilometre the road levelled off. There was now just the Bwlch to look forward to again ! Leslie and her group were probably still tackling their way out of Neath so I would have to either find another group, or fight the next beast on my own !

Cresting the Bwlch was not as straight forward as the first time around. I was beginning to feel it in my legs, and it was more a case of just twiddling in a low gear, and taking care not to get cramp. I'd ridden mainly in groups so as to keep up a good pace and hopefully finish in under 5hrs 30. But now I was getting to that graveyard period where the open valley was looking bleak, as a few spots of rain began to fall, and all the groups seemed to be moving slower. Everyone seemed to be suffering from the "twice up the Bwlch" syndrome. This was more about enduring it than enjoying it.

Once over that climb, there was then a long fast ride back to Bridgend. It wasn't plain sailing though. A stiff climb through some scrubland just outside Bridgend took us by surprise, and I really had to dig deep to maintain some speed. Also a number of sets of traffic lights stopped me in my tracks, which was really annoying. Many riders just rode through them.

The dual carriageway back to the event HQ became a de facto racing track with a bunch of 20 riders all sprinting hard as we neared the finish line. Funnily enough the person driving the pace was not some big male sprinter, but a mere slip of a girl in Specialized sponsored kit ! I just clung on. This was about giving my best effort, rather than winning any prizes. I rolled over the line in 5hrs 35mins for the 135km course. It turns out that the woman I'd seen at the start of the ride in Vlaanderen Capri-Sonne kit was international track cyclist Emma Davies-Jones. She'd done it in 5hrs 7mins. I was pleased to have finished within half an hour of her !

At the finish line my reward was a burger and a can of Coke from Him Indoors. It was nice to see familiar faces there - Sue and Justin who had done the ride on a tandem, Leslie from Archer, Sara my team mate from Pearsons, the Addiscombe CC contingent. I also saw De Ver's Maurice (Mo) Burton. Now around 50 years old, the ex pro still did an impressive 6hrs 19 for the full 200km distance.

This event made for a good day out - if I'm to do this race again they would need to run the cyclosportive on roads that don't have so many traffic lights, and probably with more interesting climbs. We will wait to see what the UCI Golden Bike verdict is.

Still, the rain stayed away. And that's always a bonus in Wales !