During the six years I spent living in London, I spent a lot of time moaning about the quality of the cycling there. It’s busy, dangerous and flat, and you constantly stop and start with traffic lights. But in that typical ‘grass is greener’ trap that our evil brains seem to deploy to make sure we are never happy with our choices, I now look back and miss the unique challenge of being a road cyclist in a big city. City riding is a completely different beast to conventional road cycling. There are no mega climbs, long open stretches or sweeping descents. There is neither peace nor quiet; there is no sense of exploration or isolation. But there are a number of reasons to love city riding.
1. Every ride is Sprint Training
Cycling through traffic systems forces you to make sporadic efforts. Sometimes, it’s to get you off the line when a red light turns green, and sometimes, it’s a sprint to squeeze through a light that’s about to change. Either way, riding in a city forces you to put in full-power efforts regularly and randomly, just like you would in a criterium race.
It’s no coincidence then, that city cyclists are really good at criteriums. The fixed gear criterium scene exists in cities: London, Berlin, New York, and they’re won by city cyclists.
2. Improves agility; demands Focus
When zipping through gaps between cars, you feel like one of those guys in the Lucas Brunelle bike messenger films. Or like a slick world tour sprinter, finding spaces in a fast-moving bunch. To keep your speed as the obstacles move around in front of you, some agility and sometimes a bit of daring is required. You can’t zone out; you can’t think about work; you can’t listen to a podcast: you have to give 100% focus.
3. Endless Drafting Opportunities
Out in the countryside, if you’re by yourself, prepare to spend the whole ride battling the wind. In the city however, you can head out solo and find yourself all kinds of moving objects to hide behind. Cars, buses, other cyclists. The roads are filled with things to draft, and once you’ve made it to Regents Park, there will always be a group of cyclists happy for another rider in their little echelon. Unlike the cars though, these cyclists usually expect you to give them a bit of shelter from the wind at some point too.
4. Other Cyclists
Cities have lots of people in them, and many of them like cycling as much as you do. It’s easy to find riding buddies in a city. Your colleagues probably like cycling. Some of your friends might be coercable, if a beer at the end is on the cards. And there are of course loads of clubs, race teams and groups riding around.
But if you head to Regents Park, you don’t even need to be in a group to ride with one. Regents Park is full of groups of random cyclists, whizzing around. Come along early morning, and your help in the group will be appreciated. Sometimes people start chatting at a red light (always stop for red lights in Regents Park, or risk looking like an amateur), but most of the time groups are silent, but for a quick call of ‘good turn’ or ‘cheers lads’ as someone turns off.
5. Help Is Never Far Away
Riding in the city is akin to riding in a supported sportive or race, because if anything goes wrong with your bike, you simply have to get your phone out, find the nearest bike shop and walk to it. Rarely is this more than a five or ten minute walk, and so the more daring amongst us can leave for a ride with no tools at all. I was once riding near Finsbury park when my chain snapped, and a quick google revealed that I was a minute’s walk from a bike shop. Within ten minutes I was on the road with a brand new chain. Speedy!
Of course, it’s not just our bikes we have to worry about when riding: the body can need a pit stop too. Again, the city comes to your rescue. It’s easy to keep yourself fuelled up when the roads are lined with supermarkets, cafes and pubs. If you’re starting to see stars you can dive into a Tesco Express and grab a four pack of double-deckers before things get ugly.
6. Night Riding is swooshy and fun
The only time you might struggle to get your bike fixed mid ride is if you’re on a night ride, but nonetheless this category of riding is, for me, one of the best parts about city cycling. Riding in the countryside in the dark isn’t all too fun; you’re staring at a small beam of light in front of you, terrified that you’re going to get rear-ended by a boy racer having some fun in the lanes. And to light your way properly, you’ve got to spend hundreds of pounds on hundreds of lumens. I’d say that bike lights are up there with the most boring of cycling-related purchases: inner tubes, D-locks, bib shorts.
The artificial lighting of the city means that any time is a good time for a ride, and night rides can be really atmospheric: the whooshing lights make everything feel so spacey and fast, like in Bladerunner. There’s something about racing through the half-empty city in the dark that is immensely enjoyable. It’s a thrill unique to big-city riding, and something that cannot be found when out in the countryside.
So there you go. Quite a few reasons to be appreciative of cycling if you live in a big city. The roads near you might not be contenders for the Tour de France, but to every-day cyclists, they have their perks.
