In the beginning there was Turin.

Hi.

I'm Kimberley. I'm 27 and I live in County Durham in the North East of England. I am a cyclist and I want to talk a little about that.

This blog will be dedicated to me writing stories about my cycling progress and goals. I recently bought a Specialized Secteur and am going to be tackling Weardale's hills this year - the ultimate goal being the dizzying heights of Killhope.

Before I get to that though...

A good place to start is to tell you that I am new to road bikes but I am not new to cycling. I survived ten months of cycling in the Italian city of Turin. On arrival in Turin I went to the flea market and bought myself a beat up old town bike. I loved that bike. Back then I was all about the looks. I wanted a bike that looked beautiful that I could hang a basket on and I am not ashamed to say it.

You can see how happy I was with my lovely bike below.

I spent a few blissful months cycling around the city, working as an Au Pair, and enjoying the largely flat and decent network of cycle paths. A few months of use and the bike started to fall to bits, I remember two things about it: it was heavy and things fell off of it!

After one of the brakes fell off (seriously) I upgraded to a less good looking but more practical town bike (pictured below) that we bought in a supermarket. That was a good bike and I still have it in the garage at home - I recently pinched the pedals from it but that's another story. Again though it was very heavy and it was just not practical - or big enough - as I would later come to understand.

Not the best picture but you should notice the basket ;)

During my time in Turin I really started to get into cycling, the public transport network there, trams and crammed buses, made cycling the best option for me. Turin was a city of cycling firsts. I bought my first adult bike, with the basket I had always dreamed of, witnessed my first live cycle race in the form of the Giro D'Italia, had my first cycling accident when I was knocked off the bike by a man running a red light AND had a bike stolen too! I was very lucky that year in that I was able to attend both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Giro (not that I look too impressed about it below)!

Turin is a fast paced and at first terrifying city to cycle in. I am very glad that I started my cycling career exasperatedly dashing across the busy piazza near my house. I witnessed several car crashes and cant count the number of times that I found myself swearing & avoiding death whilst trying to get from one point to the other. The cycle paths were great but were mainly central. As soon as you deviate from the paths and mingle with the motorists you're in genuinely dangerous territory. Once I became more confident though I used to cycle to the Parco Valentino and I could happily ride around there for an hour or so - it is a vast park near the River Po with long wide paths and no traffic!

I moved back to the UK in July 2011 and did not cycle (regularly at least) until August 2014. This was mostly due to living in Durham City. Durham is a small city, I could walk to work or get the bus service out of town once our offices moved, I lived at the top of a very steep hill and I admit that I wasn't wild on the idea of cycling in heavy traffic again.

In 2014 I moved back out to the beautiful area of Weardale. I don't know why but in August 2014 I reviewed my bike situation and found that my best option for a ride was my brother's old mountain bike. A few repairs here and there and I was out on my first ride.

This is where things really began to take off but I'll save it for the next post.

I leave you with this picture taken at the Balon Flea Market in Turin sometime in 2011!