Cycling
A young Rwandan scholar left a profound impression on me
In the Rwandan Genocide Memorial gift shop I bought a handy Kinyarwanda–Kiswahili–English phrase book. The tipping point in the decision…
When Brexiter meets Catalexiter
After the hostel breakfast, I stood on the tropical grass lawn smoking the first fag of the day and mulled…
The lessons I learned cycling across Rwanda
The backmarker of the peloton was Eric, a tall, stick-thin Rwandan. Under his cycling helmet he wore a baseball cap…
Why do we still use the Qwerty keyboard layout and not Dvorak?
‘Can you fly down this evening?’ she was asked by her boss in the Delhi office of the BBC. ‘Yes,…
You can’t possibly hate cyclists more than they hate each other
I’ve cycled for primary transportation for 53 years. Accordingly, I’m not naive about the degree of resentment — nay, loathing…
Save me from middle managers dressed up as Spiderman
‘You’ve got your essay on your back, then?’ said the stable yard owner as I headed out with Darcy on…
Survival of the sneakiest
Could there be a better metaphor for the corruption that now pervades all top-level sport than the use of motors…
Beware the Lycra louts
Cycling in funny clothes is bad for the soul
Girl about town
The old ditty got it wrong: it should have been ‘Maybe it’s because I’m not a Londoner that I love…
Life in the chain gang
In 2004, French police officers searching the home of the professional cyclist David Millar found some syringes and empty phials…
Seb Coe is a fine man… but his roasting over the Russian athletics scandal is justified
So Smiley was right all along: the bloody Russians were the baddest of the bad. The Pound report on the…
The Program could do with a good dose of performance-enhancing drugs
The Program, as directed by Stephen Frears, is a biopic of Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist and ‘sporting hero’ who…
Come on, prime minister: a peerage for our peerless folding bike designer
Asked to name Britain’s greatest living industrial designer, most people might cite Sir Jony Ive of Apple or Sir James…
Barometer
Safe house Lord Sewel is unique in leaving the House of Lords in disgrace. Until the House of Lords Reform…
Australia’s comeback kids
I have never met an Aussie I didn’t like, but, crikey, their sporting indefatigability is exhausting. Don’t they ever give…
Two wheels good
Bicycles — in Britain, anyway — are the Marmite means of transport. I am among the bicycle-lovers, almost religious and…
Why I’m a kamikaze cyclist
The only way to survive as a London cyclist is to behave like a complete nutter
Letters
Chapter and verse on Islam Sir: Irshad Manji’s generally very sensible article on ‘Reclaiming Islam’ (29 March) suggests using the…
Riding for Rwanda
This is a book about Rwanda. It’s a book about cycling. But it’s not, in the end, a book about…
