POSITIVES OF LOCKDOWN

I’ve had some of the most sensational rides of my life during lockdown… and I went up Mont Ventoux last year! Maybe it helps that I live in Cornwall, so the absence of sightseeing Easter tourists struggling to get around me on unfamiliar blind corners was no great loss. Perhaps it also helped that the fear of contracting Covid-19 in a county with relatively low infection rates was greatly reduced. It could also have had something to do with the pleasure of being able to escape my lockdown isolation chamber for a few hours purely under the power of two wheels.

But it wasn’t. What really set my lockdown rides apart was the peace of being out on almost completely empty roads without any fear because even the cars and delivery trucks that were out seemed to be keener on obeying the social-distancing rules, passing far wider than normal. This global pandemic has undoubtedly been a disaster, but I can’t be the only one hoping that some of the more positive elements of this current lifestyle change aren’t abandoned when things return to ‘normal’. Matthew Rogers

220 replies: We’re with you there, Matthew. Let’s hope that once we return to a more ‘normal normal’ that the Covid-fuelled desire to invest more in cycling infrastructure remains. This is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a lasting positive imprint on health and the environment.