Malcolm Mitchell

The Essex Cycle Route

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:01:58 +0100

Picked up this booklet by Essex County Council (published perhaps sometime in the late 1990s/early 2000s) for the princely sum of 20p from Ardleigh Car Boot Sale.

A 250 mile cycle ride through some of the county's most beautiful and rural areas and many of its charming villages and towns.

As Luck Would Have It

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:16:23 +0100

Yesterday I planned to do a DIY Audax UK event starting from Colchester, but it was over before it had even begun...

I didn't even get out of Colchester, as I left my bank card at the local cash machine. In all the kerfuffle starting the GPS device and making sure the receipt was safe in my pocket I must have forgotten to take my card out of the machine. I had only got a few hundred metres down the road before heading back to retrieve it, but it had already gone. I returned home, angry at myself not only for losing the card, but for wasting possibly the last day of ideal conditions before the winter sets in.

Come the afternoon I thought I would go for a bike ride having made the most of the day I would otherwise have spent cycling. It wasn't long before my chain snapped and I was heading home again. I was initially pretty deflated, until I thought to myself, "had I not have lost my bank card this morning, I might well have been miles away from home when this happened".

Sometimes things happen for a reason, and occasionally fate is on my side!

Enzo Ferrari Comic Book

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 23:19:25 +0100

"On the 50th anniversary of Ferrari's first race..." F1 Racing magazine celebrated the life of Enzo Ferrari by publishing this comic book. I posted it on Flickr some time ago, but have since deleted my account so am now sharing it here. I wasn't much of a fan of comics as a child, though love this.

Words by Dominique Pascal; illustrations by Patrick Lesueur; translated from the original French text by Desmond Tumulty.

The Tour of East Anglia

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 20:46:17 +0100

Scanned in full, below is the 1959 'Tour of East Anglia' programme:

I purchased this rare piece of cycling memorabilia from entrant Mike Dyason, of Viking Road Club.

Cycling and Massed Bands

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:55:08 +0100

Yesterday after leading a cycle ride to Walton-on-the-Naze, I headed over to Castle Park to see the massed bands finale of 'Scotland in Colchester'. It is a sight and sound to behold, and my highlight of all the events held at Castle Park during the year.

Naturally, I bought a programme -- here is the cover:

Programme Cover

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:26:18 +0100

Last night, for the third time in four years, Colchester hosted a round of the Tour Series. Here's the uninspiring programme cover:

Latest Creation

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:50:00 +0100

I spent my evenings last week working on a new website for Colchester CTC. It launched Sunday.