This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR


Ireland and Yorkshire


IT WAS A


GOOD YEAR FOR…


Ireland, Northern Ireland and God’s own county scored coups in 2013, bagging Grand Tour stages for 2014. The Grande Partenza of Giro d’Italia 2014 will run across Belfast, Armagh and Dublin in May 2014 for the 104th edition of the race. And as 2012 became 2013, it was revealed Yorkshire would host the Tour de France 2014, starting in Leeds for the Grand Depart, rolling through Ripon and Harrogate, York, Sheffield and then down south to Cambridge and the Mall in London. If you haven’t already checked if your bike shop is on or near the routes to find out whether you need to get the bunting out, there’s still time.


Cycle to Work


While there’s always question marks over its long term future, cycle to work had a good 2013. In February, HMRC confirmed that Cycle to Work tax breaks could be used for ‘safety equipment only’ packages, with a £100 minimum. While the benefits of that will probably take a while to filter through to retail, the Cycle to Work Alliance revealed that the number of commuters taking to their bikes – and using C2W – had grown 22.5 per cent in Q2 2013. Q1 saw a 19.3 per cent increase. As if that wasn’t enough, the first Cycle to Work Day in September saw commuters pledge to ride a whopping 257,000 miles to work. Encouragingly, over 300 bike shops took part in the initiative.


IT WAS A


BAD YEAR FOR…


Bike crime


…Or attempted bike crime. This year our phone and email rung/pinged off the hook with reports of scammers impersonating bike shops, placing false orders and then arranging for (unwitting) couriers to pick up the bikes and deliver them into their hands, with the impersonated shop none the wiser. While many of these attempts were relatively sophisticated – using the correct staff names and even headed paper – bike distributors proved wise to the scam and didn’t lose out on any stock...as far as we heard.


Golf


Remember golf? Businessmen used to make deals on the golf course, apparently. You know, back when the likes of Silicon Valley tech executives from the likes of Google or Yahoo didn’t saddle up to seal deals. Hard to believe now, but there was a time that huge business deals – like this year’s Vodafone/Verizon deal (the third biggest deal in history) – weren’t secured with CEOs riding (or even spinning) alongside each other. Executives of the world, it’s time to swap those carbon clubs for a carbon frame, if you haven’t already.


Office for Active Travel


Remember that hotly anticipated cross-departmental body announced in June? We’re still waiting for it sadly. The Office for Active Travel was reportedly to have a £1bn budget to boost pedestrian and cycle facilities and cut down obesity, congestion, Co2 emissions…but it was scotched at the last minute. And seemingly in favour of more spending on the roads. We can only hope the Treasury is sitting on a gold mine so the NHS is still running in a couple of decades.


36 BIKEBIZ DECEMBER


BIKEBIZ.COM


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92