View tag: bikes

Waiting for the Tour de France

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Wednesday 2nd July 2014

Forget the World Cup and Wimbledon, there’s a far more exciting event on the sporting horizon. What is it? The Tour de France of course. This year’s Tour kicks off in Leeds on Saturday. It’s only the second time in the event’s 111-year history that it’s started in the UK and it’s going to be big. Around three million spectators are expected to line the route, Bettys, cake makers par excellence, ...keep reading

Moving hell

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Thursday 26th September 2013

In the past I’ve been far too blasé about moving house. So it was about time I got my comeuppance. And I have – big time. We’ve just moved from Oxford to Dorset, and it’s been utter hell.  In our first week by the seaside we’ve had a gas leak, a power cut and no sign of broadband any time soon. We’ve got no curtains, no lampshades, no TV and, until ...keep reading

Does anyone buy Easter presents?

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Monday 25th March 2013

How can it be Easter this weekend? I always associate Easter with the start of spring, cherry blossom and sitting on my parents’ sunny terrace in Dorset. It was often so glorious that we’d slap on the sun cream so we didn’t burn on the walk to the beach. Well, it’s not going to be like that this year. It’s freezing, great swathes of the UK are blanketed in snow ...keep reading

The Saturday before Christmas – cycling in the rain

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Sunday 23rd December 2012

With a multitude of presents to wrap, a turkey to buy and red cabbage recipes to puzzle over, there was still only one place I could be on Saturday. Not home. Not Sainsbury’s. And no, not even the off licence. No, with three days to go till Christmas, my family hot-footed it to the picturesque environs of Hillingdon Cycle Circuit, on the outskirts of West London. Undeterred by the torrential ...keep reading

From Paris to South Wales – how I sent my son pizza across the channel

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 11th December 2012

The hall’s full of bike bits, there’s a ton of washing (make that two tons) scattered across the floor and a well-thumbed copy of The Cyclist’s Training Bible is propped up on the kitchen table. It can only mean one thing. Yes, my son’s back from his first term at university and I couldn’t be happier. I don’t know why, but I was worried he might be different. But he isn’t. ...keep reading

When was the last time you saw a kid out enjoying themselves on their bike?

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Thursday 22nd November 2012

I’ve interviewed Professor Tanya Byron several times over the years and she talks more sense about children and teenagers than anyone I‘ve met. And the fact that she told me not to worry when my children refused point-blank to have anything to do with star charts was a bonus. Tanya has been a clinical psychologist for 23 years and earlier this month I spoke to her about a keynote speech ...keep reading

Middle-aged men in Lycra

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 30th October 2012

At 9 every Saturday morning a posse of cyclists speed down the street, clad in sleek (and very chic) black and white biking gear. They’re all part of the local cycling club, heading for the steepest hills in the district. When he’s home, my teenage son is out with the peloton like a shot – and now my husband’s caught the cycling bug and signed up too. He’s had his ...keep reading

The Mont Ventoux chronicles

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Wednesday 1st August 2012

As we drove south, through olive groves, lavender fields and dusty tracks twisting up the scorched Provençal hillside, I felt more and more nervous. My son, sitting in the back of the car with his sister, was as happy as Larry – especially as the distinctive peak of Mont Ventoux appeared above the skyline. We’d left at dawn so he could attempt to cycle up Mont Ventoux for the first ...keep reading

Bike fever at House With No Name

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 24th July 2012

Bike fever has hit House With No Name with a vengeance. The bike rack on the car grows more sophisticated by the day, the house is full of giant tubs of carbohydrate protein and my son’s bought a bike computer that maps everything from time and speed to altitude and heart rate. But most surprising of all is that his obsession is catching. His dad took him to Oxford’s brilliant ...keep reading

The Tour de France and other biking matters

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Wednesday 11th July 2012

School’s out for my teenage son, who’s finished his scary exams and plans to spend the next six weeks on his bike. His new obsession has coincided neatly with the Tour de France so when he’s not on the road, he’s glued to Bradley Wiggins on the TV. Every morning he appears in the kitchen, clad in his Lycra cycling gear. He fills a couple of water bottles, stuffs some ...keep reading