The cover photograph was taken by Taz Darling It's long been a matter of regret that I can't afford to buy any of Rapha's luxurious cycling attire.There's no doubt that their merino wool jerseys and other evocative retro riding kit are top quality - but they also come with top quality price tags which frankly, are out of my range. But this year I've pushed the boat out after a fashion and purchased some cycling-related Rapha merchandise, in spite of myself. And, I have not been disappointed. It may not be wearable, it may not wick sweat or repel rain showers, but the special Tour de France edition of 'Rouleur' - the publication co-produced by Rapha - is a reading experience akin to wearing real animal fur next to bare skin. And apparently that's a good thing! The surprise literary revelation of this edition - the writer who broke away from the bunch and stayed up the road with every pen stroke - was none other than reclusive , Scottish, King of the Mou...

What wouldn't I have given to have been in Paisley a couple of days ago, when 'Mellow Johnny' himself turned up and invited the great unwashed out for a bike ride? Piecing together the story from Lance Armstrong's Twitter feed, it appears that back home in Texas, the seven times Tour winner was contemplating his imminent trip to the 'Emerald Isle' for the Tour of Ireland , when he realised that his mate Bono was doing a gig in Glasgow. U2, Croke Park, 25th July 2009 On the spur of the moment it seems, he decided to fly across for the Hampden concert and duly tweeted, "Hey Glasgow, Scotland!! I'm coming your way tomorrow. Who wants to go for a bike ride?" A couple of hundred fans at least - including 'Flying Scotsman' Graeme Obree himself - did. And they duly turned up in the rain, in Paisley, to go for a spin with the world's most famous cyclist. The small Scottish town can't have experienced many other days quite as surreal as t...

Cycling is a collection of habits and muscle memories learnt in childhood - usually with the help of stabilisers - which are never wholly forgotten. Hence we encourage people to revisit a long-neglected activity with the expression, “It’s just like riding a bike.” For me, the particular habit of freewheeling, has been second nature for as long as I‘ve been riding. I have also always favoured a conventional multi-geared bicycle. It makes sense on down-hills to click onto the smallest rear cog and blast along like Germany’s troubled big-gear grinder, Jan Ullrich. Choosing a low gear going up and even stooping to the last ditch ‘granny’ option like cadence king, Lance Armstrong , is the other ‘no-brainer‘. Integral to this is the ability to glide along without pedalling. Why would anyone give up their gears and revert to the kind of primitive, ‘one-speed-fits-all’ machine, used more than a century ago when the Tour de France wasn’t even a gleam in the eye of its first director, Henri Des...

Slick paving stones and torrential rain should have been enough of a warning. But no, I chose the shortcut anyway - and now have a bent brake lever and a bruised hip to show for it. My tumble was nothing compared to that of Discovery Channel's George Hincapie in the Paris Roubaix race this afternoon. One minute he was riding along, tucked in near the nose of the peleton, the next his hands were loose and his bike veered off the pave, as if possessed, into the grass verge and George hit the deck heavily. The slow motion replay on TV showed that his handle bar stem had snapped somehow leaving him completely at the mercy of momentum and gravity. He looked in bad shape - possibly a broken collar bone. Tough chips for the classics specialist hoping to shine at the end of his career, now that he doesn't have to slave away for his old boss, Lance Armstrong. My own 'crash' came not in a race, but during the self-imposed, time trial-like spin, I try to put in on the way home fro...