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London Cycling Awards recognises top shops, movers and shakers - and, er, us

road.cc scoops media outlet vote for second year in a row

At an awards ceremony in London last night hosted by broadcaster Jeremy Vine, the London Cycling Campaign recognised five of cycling’s top brands, shops, champions and media outlets, and also marked the best cycling projects in the capital.

The London Cycling Awards were split into two categories. The consumer awards were voted for by the public in an on-line poll, while a panel of expert judges selected the awards for best cycling projects.

In the consumer category the winners were: 

  • Cycling Brand of the Year: Look Mum No Hands! - Popular East London cycling-themed hang-out that now has two shops
  • Best Large Bike Retailer: Wiggle — The internet mail order giant that probably needs no introduction
  • Best Small Bike Retailer: Brixton Cycles - Worker’s cooperative founded in 1983 that’s a vibrant part of London’s cycling community
  • Cycling Champion of the Year: Chris Boardman - British Cycling’s policy adviser who has been a tireless advocate for cycling and critic of government indifference
  • Bike Blog of the Year: road.cc - You’re reading it.

Road.cc editor Tony Farrelly said: “It’s fantastic to win an award voted for by London cyclists for the second year in a row and on behalf of everyone at road.cc I’d like to thank all of those who nominated and voted for us.

“Being cheeky though I’d also like to suggest that next year the LCC has more than one media award category - maybe a London one, and one for national websites and magazines.

“It does seem a little unfair that London’s fantastic and influential bloggers are up against a website like road.cc which has a national audience.

“This one’s still going right at the front of the trophy cabinet though.”

In the projects category, the winners were:

  • Cycling Initiative of the Year: Great Western Quarter Residents’ Bike Club - Loan scheme that offers residents of the estate the chance to have a bicycle at no cost for three months.
  • Youth Sector Cycling Champion: Tower Hamlets BMX Club - Holding free BMX lessons and after school sessions, in 2013 the club reached over 1000 young people from across the borough. An important part of the community that also runs bike maintenance workshops
  • Grassroots Project of the Year: Respoke Community Bike Exchange by Trailnet community interest company - Enables residents of Barking from marginalised families to swap their outdated, damaged, neglected or inadequate bikes for good quality, refurbished models at a low cost.
  • Digital Campaign of the Year: Bikeminded, Kensington and Chelsea Council - Used online platforms to promote cycling to people living in Kensington and Chelsea.
  • Best Space for Cycling Project: Royal College St cycle tracks, Camden - An experiment in ‘soft’ segregation using planters and ‘armadillos’ has provided a 2m wide cycle lane either side of the street and slowed motor traffic slowed without delaying buses.

Ashok Sinha, CEO of London Cycling Campaign said: “It was a great pleasure to give recognition to a breadth of people and organisations, from cycling brands and retailers to community projects and champions. Our winners have worked tirelessly to promote cycling so we feel honoured to be able to give them the thanks they deserve.”

Event host, Jeremy Vine, added: “It was great to see so many people coming together for the London Cycling Campaign. In the end, cycling is about enjoyment – and the night was a reminder that there are some great people doing great things on bikes and for bike riders and it is one of the most exciting areas of campaigning to be involved in. What a great night.”

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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7 comments

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WolfieSmith | 9 years ago
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Well done us! After all, it's our wit, banter and fair minded adult discussion that makes the forum. If you don't agree - eat me.

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antonio | 9 years ago
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Well done road.cc, keep spreading the word, nearly every day you are my first click. You only become second when I'm flogging something on ebay!

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Tom Amos | 9 years ago
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Just to be devil's advocate for a moment, all of the award winners are recognised leaders in their field. All of them would continue to thrive without winning the award. Shouldn't the awards be about promoting lesser known names? Not quite sure that Wiggle needs the publicity, for example.

Anyhow, just a thought.

Avatar
Joeinpoole replied to Tom Amos | 9 years ago
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Tom Amos wrote:

Just to be devil's advocate for a moment, all of the award winners are recognised leaders in their field. All of them would continue to thrive without winning the award. Shouldn't the awards be about promoting lesser known names? Not quite sure that Wiggle needs the publicity, for example.

Anyhow, just a thought.

Huh? Should Chris Hoy, for example, not have been awarded his 6th gold medal for the same reasons? Should they instead have given the medal to someone who needed encouragement?

Wiggle shouldn't win awards because they're too *good*?

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OldRidgeback | 9 years ago
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I should really have voted for the Tower Hamlets lot. That's a really good scheme. We need more of those.

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Him Up North | 9 years ago
0 likes

Well done, road.cc

 41  41  41  41  41  41

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Gkam84 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Ah bugger, the only one I voted for that won was this place. I even left the cycling champion blank, because I don't feel anyone of them deserved it

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