The Essay: Re: Cycling

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The Essay: Re: Cycling: The Cyclist as Overdog and Underdog

The Cyclist as Overdog and Underdog

Re: Cycling

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Re: Cycling, The Cyclist as Overdog and Underdog

Andrew Martin considers the changing politics of cycling over the ages.

Cyclist as socialist hero or anti-social arch individualist? Writer and cyclist Andrew Martin ponders the paradoxical sectarianism of cycling past and present.

Five Bicycle-Shaped Musings from writer, raconteur and life-long cyclist Andrew Martin

Today how socialism and cycling conjoined. A traditionally working-class transport mode is counterpointed with the idea of the cyclist as supreme individualist, riding on pavements and ignoring red lights. Cycling clubs today focus on environmentalism and sociability rather than socialism, but their slogan is still ‘Fellowship is Life.’ 


Written and read by Andrew Martin
Produced by Karen Holden

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Five bicycle-shaped musings from writer, raconteur and life-long cyclist Andrew Martin.

From the streets of York to the hills of Highgate, writer and raconteur Andrew Martin surveys his own life on a bike and discovers a country more and more enamoured of cycling.

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