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‘Strictly Cycling’ Olympic Project Update
May 17, 2011 by admin, under Community.
Alongside the announcement of the Olympics coming to Richmond, launched a series of events through 2011 and 2012 to build a legacy from the games in the borough under the project banner ‘Strictly Cycling’. Here’s an update with more information on their events:
Grass Track Racing- Kneller Gardens - 9 & 23 June 2011, 6.30pm – 8.30pm (26 May Cancelled)
is similar to the racing in a velodrome seen at the Olympics – but on grass! Twickenham CC is organising turn up and try events for all ages at Kneller Gardens on Thursday evenings on the dates above. There is no charge and no need to book. You will need to have either a mountain bike, a racing style bike with knobbly tyres or a track bike with knobbly tyres. If you do not have a bike or are not sure if your bike is suitable, Twickenham CC will have some spare bikes on hand. In addition to the ‘have a go’ sessions, there will be grass track racing at Waldegrave School on Thursday 19 May, 2 and 16 June and at the Old Deer Park Bike Fest on 19th June.
Bike Fest - Old Deer Park - 19 June 2011, 12pm – 4pm
Taking place during (which runs from 18 – 26 June), there will be a led scenic family ride (starting at 10am) open to everyone, free bike safety checks with tips on bike maintenance from the Bike Doctor, information on all aspects of cycling including safe cycle routes and lots more. There will also be chances for everyone to have a go at grass track racing.
Olympic Route Sportive – 24 July 2011
The Olympic Sportive is scheduled for Sunday 24 July, starting at Orleans Park School and will follow a marked out route of the Olympic Road Race through Twickenham and out to Box Hill and back again, approximately 65 miles. Open to anyone aged 17 and above, entries will be online with an entry fee. More information on when the online entry goes live will be available later in May.
Flyers for Strictly Cycling activities are linked below:
Strictly Cycling – Event Program
Strictly Cycling – Grass Track Racing
You can also check out our Olympic’s road race information page, which includes more details on the route.
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Met Police Launch ’12 Days to Get Cycle Safe’ – Bike Marking Campaign
May 15, 2011 by admin, under Campaign, Security.
Not everyone can have a , so following on from the previous campaign by SmarterTravelRichmond, the Met Police in Richmond have launched . Between 17th and 28th May, there will be over 30 bike marking events across the borough. See the end of this post for an event near you.
Given our report last year of the 2,296 bikes stolen in the borough between 2007 and 2010, we would encourage everyone to have their bicycle marked to increase the likliehood of having it returned if it is stolen, as well as checking out the advice summarised below:
- Advice on your
- Guidance on
- Take down the details of your bike (particularly the frame number) and take a photo of it – Bike details template
- Get it security marked by the Police
- Register your bike – via set up by local Twickenham cyclists, and on the police run or
- Report your bike when stolen – Call or follow the link to (its vital to report stolen bikes, both to improve chances of recovery, but also to make sure theft statistics are accurate). also have a facility to report stolen bikes and improve chances of recovery through use of social media
- Check out London Cycling Campaign’s ‘Beat the Thief Campaign’ which provides good advice in the areas above –
- Don’t leave a bike rack on the roof of a car parked outside your house – it
Here’s a full list of the events planned for this campaign. This has changed a couple of times, so double check the for any last minute alterations:
| Location | Date | Time |
| Crane Park | 17th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Moormead Park | 17th May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Outside St James School | 17th May | 3pm – 4pm |
| Starbucks, Barnes | 17th May | 11am – 12pm |
| Crane Park | 18th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Marble Hill / Tow Path | 18th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Margarets Train Station, | 18th May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Whitton High Street | 18th May | 1pm – 3pm |
| Hammersmith Bridge (N. Side) | 19th May | 1pm – 2pm |
| Heathfield Recreation Park | 19th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Trafalgar Junior School, Twickenham | 19th May | 2.30pm – 4pm |
| Twickenham Riverside | 19th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Whitton High Street | 19th May | 1pm – 3pm |
| Meadway Underpass | 20th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Mary’s University College | 20th May | 11am – 12pm |
| York House, Twickenham | 20th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Birdies Bikes, Hampton | 21st May | 12pm – 4pm |
| High Street, Hampton Hill | 21st May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Kneller Gardens | 21st May | 4pm – 5pm |
| Evelyn Road, Richmond | 24th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Meadway Community Centre | 24th May | 12pm – 1pm |
| St Mary’s CoE School, Twickenham | 24th May | 2.30pm – 4pm |
| Barnes Towpath, Lonsdale Rd | 25th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Jocelyn Road, Richmond | 25th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Orleans School, Twickenham | 25th May | 3pm – 4pm |
| Twickenham Green | 25th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Cambridge Gardens | 26th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| Moormead Park | 26th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Old Deer Park | 26th May | 7pm – 8.30pm |
| Radnor Gardens | 26th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| Meadow Bank, Twickenham | 27th May | 5pm – 6pm |
| St Margarets Train Station | 27th May | 6pm – 7pm |
| Strawberry Hill Train Station | 27th May | 5.30pm – 6.30pm |
| London Wetlands Centre, Barnes | 28th May | 1pm – 2pm |
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RCC Newsletter – 9 May 2011
May 14, 2011 by admin, under Newsletters.
Once or twice a month, we send out an email update on cycling in Richmond. If you’d like to sign up for these, contact us here.
We also post the newsletters here on our website. Read below and enjoy! Previous newsletters can be found here.
Hello,
May Fair
We have our usual stall at the Richmond May Fair on Saturday 14th May. We need some volunteers to cover for lunch and to give our stalwarts a much needed rest. If you have a basic knowledge of cycling in Richmond, why not come along and talk to people about what cycling in Richmond can offer?
You’ll get a free hi viz vest, handlebar bag and water bottle for your troubles. Email if you want to help out.
Come along to Richmond Green on the 14th and say hello if you can’t
volunteer. (more…)
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RCC Newsletter – 2 April 2011
April 2, 2011 by admin, under Newsletters.
Once or twice a month, we send out an email update on cycling in Richmond. If you’d like to sign up for these, contact us here.
We also post the newsletters here on our website. Read below and enjoy! Previous newsletters can be found here.
Hello,
The most important news is that RCC has just been informed by our spies at LBRuT that all their contractors are to use cargo bikes instead of motor vehicles. This includes rubbish lorries. Alongside the introduction of the two wheeled transport, all bipedally challenged drivers will get training in how to shout at people, eat their lunch, use their mobile phones and ride their cargo bikes from the council’s own cycle instructors. Benedikt
Hansen, one of the councils’ most prominent instructors, said “I shouldn’t believe it. But I do. I’ve seen the training schedule and I’m appalled.”
(more…)
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TfL Consultation to Improve Safety on the A316 London Road Roundabout
March 9, 2011 by admin, under Campaign, Consultation, Veloteer.
After a lot of hard campaigning by a local cyclist, TfL have opened a consultation to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists crossing the southern and northern exits of the London Road Roundabout on the A316. Read the details below and pass your feedback to the email at the end. The deadline is Friday 1st April. A big word of thanks to Tim for pursuing this – check him out on Twitter at
Transport for London (TfL), is currently developing a proposal to improve crossing facilities on the roundabout at the junction of the A316 Chertsey Road and A310 London Road.
The scheme will provide safer crossing points on the northern and southern arms of the A316 Chertsey Road / A310 London Road roundabout junction in the London Borough of Richmond and in addition will remove the current gap in the London Cycling Network route 169 which runs east / west across the roundabout.
Shared footway use will be extended for both pedestrians and cyclists at the proposed crossing points which will provide continuation of route for cyclists. In summary, the proposed measures include the following:
- Provision of crossing points on the northern & southern London Road for pedestrians/cyclists
- Provision of new tactile paving at crossing points
- Shared use footway areas for pedestrians and cyclists extended to the proposed crossing points
- Provision of re-aligned & widened footpath on the north-eastern footway section of the roundabout junction
- Chertsey Road eastern approach reduced from three lanes to two lanes
If you have any comments with regard to this proposal please contact us at by Friday 1 April 2011
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Better by Bike – London Wetlands Centre
February 25, 2011 by admin, under Better by Bike.
Here in the Borough of Richmond, we’re lucky to have an excellent array of tourist attractions right on our doorstep, and what better way to visit them with your family than by bike. This week guest blogger, , reviews his visit to London Wetlands Centre in Barnes by bike with his family. You can check out his blog at .
If you’d like the opportunity of a guest spot on our website to write about your own favourite attraction in the Borough, get in touch.
Winter Sun at London Wetlands Centre
If you live and work in London you might, like me, sometimes get fed up with all the traffic jams, crowded tube trains and generally the fast pace that is living in a major city. There is however somewhere you can take the family; where you can unwind and experience nature at its very best. Somewhere you can recharge your batteries. Somewhere slap bang in the middle of London! Interested?
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Olympics come to Richmond and ‘Strictly Cycling’
February 11, 2011 by admin, under Community.
- Route of the Olympic Road Race
As you may have already heard, the Borough of Richmond is going to be part of the. You’ll be able to watch the competition, for free, from your doorstep, with both Richmond Park and Bushy Park forming part of the route as well as Richmond, Twickenham and Teddington town centres. The picture above shows the part of the route that passes through the borough, and the full map is linked below:
This presents an amazing opportuity to boost cycling in the borough and Richmond Cycling Campaign have released the following statement of our hopes for the event:
“Cycling in Richmond has always been popular, now the world’s Olympic stars will find out what a beautiful borough we live in. Not only do we look forward with great excitement to watching the best cyclists in the world race through Richmond, but also to welcoming the many spectators who will take the opportunity to cycle to and in our Borough. It will significantly increase the visibility of cycling in Richmond and we look forward to working in close partnership with LBRuT and TfL to ensure the Borough cycle network meets the needs and exceeds the expectations of those who will visit the borough by bicycle”
In addition, , with support from Richmond Cycling Campaign and local mobile bike club, The Turning Hub, is developing a series of events from this year and through 2012 under the project banner ‘Strictly Cycling’.
London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames are also partnering the project and are keen to ensure that it becomes an annual programme that can provide a lasting legacy of cycling opportunities across the borough.
Activities will include:
- A Bike Festival to be held in Marble Hill Park
- Mini-Sky Rides
- A Cyclo-Sportive event following the Olympic route
- School based coaching activities concentrating on grass track cycling and cyclo-cross in three local schools - Orleans Park School, Teddington School and Waldegrave School
- Coaching and recruitment of promising young cyclists for the Richmond-upon-Thames London Youth Games team
We’ll keep you informed, but it we’re really excited about the opportunities the Olympics provide to boost cycling in the borough. You can check out our Olympic’s road race information page, which includes more details on the route.
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‘Lighten Up’ Campaign
February 4, 2011 by admin, under Campaign.
After much anticipation, our secret campaign went into full swing on Thursday night at Teddington Lock. Building on the success of a , our ‘Lighten Up’ campaign aims to engage with lightless cyclists by stopping them and offering to fit their bikes with lights for free. As well as wanting to make cycling safer for the individuals we help, we also want to raise awareness on the importance of having lights when cycling in the dark.
A band of four RCC volunteers pitched themselves up at Teddington Lock footbridge and it was heartening to see that the vast majority of cyclists had lights. Over the course of the evening we fitted 15 sets of lights to bikes where the lights were broken, they didn’t have any, or they were of a poor quality and not visible (e.g. the infamous green front led lights).
We have two more of these events planned at different locations across the Borough this month. We don’t announce the location or time before hand (you can probably work out why!) but if you’d like to help out, contact us at and help do your bit to improve everyone’s safety on the Borough’s roads. RCC urges everyone with a bike to make sure that they have bright lights for riding at night. The law also requires any bicycle ridden at night to have a red rear reflector and reflectors on the pedals.
The lights were supplied at a reduced price by The Bike Light Shop (), a local online business based in Barnes. As part of the campaign, they’ve kindly provided a discount code for all our followers to get 12.5% off any lights ordered through their site – Use the code EC776032 at check out. You can even benefit from .
Finally, if you really need convincing that cycling like a ninja really isn’t wise, check out this humorous video (warning, Y-Front Content!):
from on .
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LBRuT Proposed Cycle Map
February 4, 2011 by admin, under Campaign, Cycling Liaison Group Meeting.
At the latest CLG Meeting in January, the council announced that they were going to produce a cycle map for the borough, which maps existing cycle infrastructure and routes. This is your opportunity to provide feedback on the draft that we were provided with.
Questions to ask yourself are:
- Are your routes covered?
- Do you have issues with any of the proposed routes
- What concerns do you have with routes within the borough e.g. hazardous crossings, gaps in cycle infrastructure, pinch points (e.g. due to traffic islands), poor cycle lanes (on or off road)
- Where would you like to see investment in better cycle infrastructure e.g. to allow your children to cycle to school
- What else would you like to see on the map e.g. location of libraries
The full map can be accessed via the link below:
Please feed back to our Campaign’s Coordinator, Nick, at , before the 11th February. If there’s a bit of your route that you feel particularly passionate about, why note provide some feedback like our previous Veloteers.
