Welcome to The Cycle Seen! Not just a cycling website, but a state of mind.

Hello! I hope this finds you and your loved ones well and in good spirits in the early throws of 2012? Good to hear. Well, you’ve either happened upon here by design or by freak accident, though I make no apologises for either, but I hope you’ll stick around for a little while or at least to hear me out as I take a minute to explain what this is all about.

The Cycle Seen is a gawk into the life of one average amateur cycling hobbyist who rides for fun and spends some time indulging in armchair expertise by watching the little stickmen do it best on the television as well. Hence, my own cycle, or the wider cycle scene, as seen by me.

Most people in cycling see their hobby begin and end with the throwing of their leg over the saddle or watching it on the TV, but for me writing is another hobby that allows me to delve into the sport that little bit extra. The Cycle Seen will be my observations and experiences on my road or mountain bike — either for pleasure or from the pain of competing — both past and present. I’ll review old touring trips I’ve completed with route maps and info, I’ll tell stories of fact and fiction, I’ll write about a race I enter, I’ll dabble in nostalgia, I’ll share pictures and video, I’ll do the odd book review or tell you a good album to blast on your iPod when your out for a ride, and when you’ve had enough of reading about my experiences, I’ll indulge in the professional scene from a rarely serious, more often satarical angle. Come on, they often bring on the jokes themselves even if they are the finest athletes on the planet and deserve greater respect from the wider media.

If you’ve come here looking for the latest and most up-to-date news on the world of cycling, indepth race reports on every race this side of Jupiter or cliche loaded interviews then you’ve come to the wrong place. I’m not out to rival Cycling News for reasons of time, sanity and the fact I like to spend more time actually on the bike than writing about it, but if you’ve come here for, what I hope to be, half-decent writing about the joys of the sport from myself and perhaps others, then I hope you’ll like what you see.

Regarding stuff from others. I don’t want to make this site a one-way street in which you do nothing but read about my own meandering experiences. I want to encourage others to write about their own as well. Tell us about a wild race you entered, a funny training ride you went on last week, share a stunning/silly/interesting picture you took. Write a story, heck, make it up if you have to, or just give your two-cents on the latest drug bust in the pro-peloton.

The great thing about the Internet is it gives people like me the chance to write to a wider audience about something I’m passionate about. The reader can get more indepth in the culture of a specific topic and get a more subjective opinion on a subject. The main-stream media be it print or television is all well and good for what it does: It gives you main-stream coverage on select topics or a profit orientated agenda. But the blogosphere has opened up opinions to the average man or woman on the street and with no bridges to burn it often makes for some of the most interesting reading.

One of the other great advantages of blogging and social media is the interaction. Anything written here will have a comments section and The Cycle Seen will also have a Twitter wing for back and forth chat. So join in, give your opinion, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms and even praise.

So without further ado, I give to you The Cycle Seen…

Read more about: TCSAll subjects |

...................................................................................................................................................