In which Mark gets sentimental about cycling in London…

This weekend, after many months of training, we will cycle 100 miles through London and Surrey in less than eight hours. But the process didn’t start with the training. In 2007, I was the most unfit, most out-of-shape I’ve ever been, when a wondrous thing came to London one Sunday: the Hovis Freewheel.

Closed central London roads with led rides in from various outer London points, it was the spiritual predecessor to the Ride London weekend. Audrey suggested we go along (she is wonderful for making sure we do these things) and although I’d not turned a pedal in well over a decade I jumped at the chance. Registering for the event, we got our shiny red tabards, hired bikes, and cycled in from the hub on Clapham Common.

We had a wonderful time, getting carried away with the pure joy of zooming along iconic central London roads without any traffic to worry about, completing lap after lap of the 8.5 mile route. We pushed it rather too far and caused ourselves some knee troubles in the process, but it was an eye-opening experience.

A few years passed; we flirted with the gym for a while, I made some small fitness gains, nothing major or consistent. Then, in the summer of 2010, a strip of cycle lane appeared outside the station where we embark on our daily tube commute. Cycle Superhighway 7 had arrived, stretching from Colliers Wood to the City of London – my commute represented in sky blue paint on the road. Even my inexperienced non-cyclist eyes could see the paint provided no useful cycling space (particularly through Tooting where it’s mostly under parked cars), but it highlighted that it was conceivable for me to cycle to work, which I hadn’t considered before. Looking into the practicalities of it, I found multiple routes I could take (thanks Cyclestreets!), each around ten miles. That sounded like A Very Long Way – but achievable, at least occasionally.

Around this time, the cycle hire scheme (aka ‘Boris Bikes’) also launched in central London, giving me a first taste of cycling on the open roads of our city. Frankly terrifying the first few times, for some reason I stuck with it… the freedom, the joy of the activity, the joining up of the places previously only connected by a coloured line on the tube map. The city started to open up, the sights along the way so much better than tunnels covered in inches of brake dust.

I finally got myself a bike in the summer of 2011 (a Specialized Sirrus hybrid), taking Merton’s rather good free adult cycle training before venturing the whole way in to work. By the autumn I was cycling to work occasionally, working my way up to 3-4 times per week. And to this day, cycling across Clapham Common in the morning mist or seeing the vista of London open up wide across the horizon in front of me when crossing Southwark Bridge is a buzz every single time.

Several thousand miles of commuting and cycling around London later, the foundations for the fitness required for this coming weekend were well laid. But more importantly, the foundations for a healthier life – for the first time as an adult I’m getting enough regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight. And unlike trudging away at the gym, it’s mostly a joy to do.

So, thank you London – you wonderful, flawed metropolis. There’s so much to be negative about when it comes to cycling in this city, but for me, for my health, through flawed interventions like Cycle Superhighway 7, through great interventions like the Cycle Hire scheme, and through well-intentioned mass events like the Freewheel and its successors, London has worked wonders. Small enablers that prompt and allow a healthier lifestyle.

The city can, and should, be so much better for cycling, and there are encouraging signs that improvements are on their way. Hopefully we will see cycling becoming a more inclusive activity, more open to all, as these plans come to fruition. There are enormous health benefits of building activity into our lives in this way; benefits that are clear and well known and that spread out beyond the individual to society at large (the cost of treating obesity and its related illnesses in the UK is over £4bn a year).

But you don’t need to wait for things to be built – there are some great cycling routes to be had in this city already (ask me and I’ll help you find them) – and if I can go from a sedentary zero and borderline-obese to cycling 100 miles in a go (or, more to the point, thousands of miles per year) and a healthy weight in a pretty short time, then so can just about anyone.

And so to this weekend. 100 miles of beautiful closed roads as we Ride London. Tens of thousands of participants. Thousands more watching on the streets. Get on your bikes and join the party! Enjoy Saturday’s Freecycle on closed roads in central London, or work out how to start building a bit of cycling in to your lives. Once you start…