"Mad" Marc Savitsky recently joined the Cheam and Morden CTC for a night ride from Hyde Park corner to Brighton.

He managed to get back in one piece. Click here to read an account of his trip.

Stage two of the Tour of Britain starts at Milton Keynes on September 8th and goes through Aylesbury and Haddenham en route to Newb

.Check this link for details: Tour of Britian - MK

Bedfordshire’s First Cycling Town

The Leighton Linslade Cycling Forum is celebrating news that the town has been awarded Cycling Demonstration Town status, winning a £600,000 grant from Cycling England.

The money will be matched by Beds County Council, bringing the total to £1.2 million.

The funding will see more people cycling to school, to work, to the station and local shops, and simply using a bike for leisure and pleasure.

As part of the project, the council will improve cycle lanes, open up new cycle tracks and introduce 20 mph speed limits to improve safety and help make cycling more convenient.

Forum chairman Esther Clarke said “We’re very excited.  This will make a huge difference to so many people.

“There are a lot of people who would like to cycle but are afraid because of the traffic.

“With the right training they can get over their fears and realise that cycling is quite safe and the health benefits are enormous.”

Leighton Linslade aims to provide the Family Learning Cycling Training Programme to all 18 local schools, middle and upper schools, offering Bike-ability, BMX skills, mountain biking and bike maintenance.  Refurbished bikes will be made available on loan to parents and children and after-school cycling clubswill be set up.

Leighton Linslade was the smallest of 10 towns shortlisted for the funding, which will be made available over three years.

Cycling England, the organisation behind the national drive to encourage cycling in towns, asked councils to come forward with bids for a share of the £47 million government funding available to “Cycling Towns”.

The targets in Leighton Linslade are to double all journeys by cycle from 1.5 per cent to 3 per cent and to triple cycling journeys to school from 1.1 per cent to 3.5per cent and to the train station from 50 cycles per day to 150 cycles a day.