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Match ticket and programme from Leyton Orient. The professionals make falling off their bikes look so easy. The reality is hours of pain, blood and tears in Accident and Emergency, being told that you've fractured your cheekbone, need stitches and might have knackered your already knackered wrist.  It’s Saturday 10th January and, clearly sensing I needed to get out, my friend and fellow cyclist Jonesy has made his way over to E17. As a complete spur of the moment thing, we decide to head down to the Matchroom Stadium on Brisbane Road in Leyton to watch Orient take on Fleetwood Town. It's been a while since I last saw a live match in a ground ( the last time possibly being Aston Villa vs. Charlton) and so I assumed that all teams, regardless of position in the English football league pyramid, require some form of advanced booking. I spend around twenty minutes on the ticket hotline listening to a pre-recorded East End woman telling me my call is important to her b

Those who know me well, or who follow me on Twitter, will know that 2014 has been a tough year for me in cycling terms. It started well, completing the March Strava Gran Fondo by cycling overnight from Warwick to Walthamstow with my old schoolmate Jonesy, written up as 'In the Dead of Night' on this blog . As well as being a tough physical and mental challenge for a pair of relatively new road cyclists, it was also a good way to raise around £600 for the charity All Our Children . Also, just for the sheer fun of it, I finished the May Strava Gran Fondo. This route entailed riding from Walthamstow to Box Hill and completing a reasonably-sized loo p, before cycling back into the City. It was my first time riding around Surrey, and Leith Hill and Whitedowns are the toughest hills I have climbed thus far. Coming to a bit of a fitness peak around about June, just in time for the Wiggle French Revolution, was a highlight. There is no better feeling than zipping up hills on