Velofete Book Tent 2022

Join us in the Velofete Book Tent for fascinating cycling talk from authors, riders and leaders in the cycling community!
Saturday 18th June 2022

11:30am - Herne Hill Velodrome: A Cycling Home for Everyone  exploring the many different ways the velodrome is used, and what's coming down the track with Tim McInnes, Thea Smith, Isabelle Clement MBE, Rhoma Erekpaine and Iain Cook.

Tim McInnes  is the Chair of the Herne Hill Velodrome Trust, the charity that has run the Velodrome since 2017. He became a Trustee in 2017 and was appointed Chair in 2019. He’s a life-long South Londoner and still lives locally, and while he’s not born a track-cyclist when he’s not doing his day job most of his time is spent in the saddle in some shape or form.

Thea Smith is HHV's Cycling Development Manager and is focused on creating opportunities at HHV for people who don't usually see themselves represented in cycling. Drawing from a long-standing background of activism in art, having co-founded and published a magazine about contemporary art and feminism between 2012-2019, Thea's involvement in Velociposse CC provided a platform to put new ideas into practice and informs her community-focused approach to getting people on bikes.

Isabelle Clement MBE has been the Director of Wheels for Wellbeing since 2011. The Velodrome is one of Wheels for Wellbeing’s three South London inclusive cycling bases, where hundreds of disabled people of all ages come to use their fantastic fleet of all kinds of cycles, supported by a lovely team of cycling enthusiasts (paid staff and volunteers). Isabelle was part of the first ever committee of Friends of Herne Hill Velodrome and was instrumental in ensuring that HHV and its pavilion are accessible for disabled cyclists and spectators alike. Isabelle is an urban handcyclist and has been working tirelessly to explain to whoever will listen that there are a multitude of disabling barriers in the UK cycling environment and that many more disabled people would cycle if they were removed. She has recently been asked to join the Interim Board of Active Travel England. When she’s not cycling or advocating for more accessible cycling conditions, she sings in two South London based choirs.

 

Rhoma Erekpaine  in her own words: "I taught myself how to ride a bike at age 13 as my friends use to tease me about not being able to ride a bike, I didn’t however own a bike (hybrid) until I was about 25 years old which I used to commute to work only, a few years later my brother (a keen cyclist) persuaded me to get a road bike and I haven’t looked back since. I joined various cycling clubs but there was always something missing, so a bunch of us decided to create a club “No Limit Cycling Club” for the community, our mission is to be an all-inclusive club, giving everyone the opportunity to gain knowledge, skills and confidence in most cycling disciplines with "No Limit"Having the opportunity to cycle and coach women of colour has been an amazing experience."

 

12:30pm - Everything you've ever wanted to know about indexing your gears with Matt Williamsfrom Revamp Bikes. A common issue that can cause much frustration, Matt one of our resident mechanical experts, will show you how to index and tweak your mechanical gears: there's a few tricks Matt has to share, to make this seemingly complicated operation easy, so bring your bike along to learn all about what makes your gears shift smoothly.

2:00pm - Beryl Burton: Britain's Greatest Athlete  with Jeremy Wilson and Duncan Steer.

Jeremy Wilson is the Chief Sports Reporter for the Daily Telegraph. He was voted investigative sports reporter and national journalist of the year for his work on football and dementia. His sports writing was again highly commended in 2021 at both the British Press Awards and the British Journalism Awards. A lifelong club cyclist, he worked previously as a sports journalist for the Guardian.

Duncan Steer has written for Procycling magazine, The Guardian, The Independent and is a contributor to Stelvio, the recently launched cycling magazine/website. Duncan is a regular host of In Conversation events with guests from sport, entertainment and beyond at venues around the country. He has hosted runs of shows with cycling luminaries including Carlton Kirby, Emily Chappell, Matt Rendell and William Fotheringham. Duncan's website is radiodaysevents.com.


3:00pm - The Perfect Cycling Journey: exploring the elements of a brilliant expedition by bike with Felicity Cloake, one of our foremost food writers and Jenny Graham the round-the-world women's record holder; food, roads, people, destinations and kit will all be debated.

Felicity Cloake   is an award-winning food writer, author of the Guardian’s long-running How to Make the Perfect column and author of seven books, the most recent couple of which, One More Croissant for the Road and Red Sauce Brown Sauce: a British breakfast odyssey, take place on two wheels. She doesn’t just cycle because it means she can eat more, but it’s certainly a strong contributory factor.

In 2018 Jenny Graham  became the fastest woman to cycle around the world unsupported, a feat which is the subject of her forthcoming book Coffee First, then the World. Jenny presents cycle adventure films for GCN and co-produced and directed Eastbound, the documentary film that about her round-the-world ride. She is a director at The Adventure Syndicate, a thriving organisation that promotes women in cycling.

4:00pm - Fighting for Equality in Women's Cycling: 
Louise Vardeman of The InternationElles, which campaigned for a Tour de France Femmes, in conversation with journalist Amy Sedghi
Louise Vardeman is team manager and one of the riders of the InternationElles - the group of 10 women who rode the full route of the Tour de France in 2019 to campaign for a women’s race. She's relatively new to cycling but has thrown herself in deep and keen to get as many people on bicycles as possible. She champions equality from grass roots to pro level and loves to break down the barriers within the cycling world. She's also an events manager and a mum to 2 boys.
Amy Sedghi is a freelance journalist who regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Independent, National Geographic Traveller, Cycling Weekly and Stylist. Her writing includes speaking openly about how Herne Hill Velodrome and riding her bike has helped with managing anxiety and depression. When not riding in circles down the velodrome, she loves exploring the countryside on two wheels and is a proud member of Brixton CC
Sunday 19th June 2022

11:30am - Exploring by Brompton: how the iconic folding bike opens up the world to the intrepid explorer. Bromptonists Jools Walker and Kamar Omar share the joy of cycling and describe their journeys of discovery on the road and in the cycling community.

Kamar Omar's cycling journey in her own words: "As a little girl, I cycled so much, but stopped as I was growing up. Then lockdown hit! I became really anxious about getting on public transport. I asked my family members if anyone had a bike that I could borrow. A few days later, my older brother walked into the house with a folding bike… During this period, I began to take riding very seriously. I started cycling to work during the weekdays and continued my cycling adventures at weekends. The more I rode, the more I wanted to ride and it became an addiction! In April 2022, the night before Ramadan, I wanted to give myself a challenge. Fasted 500 popped up on my Instagram and I went for it. During that month of Ramadan, I was proud to complete 500km within 27 days."

Jools Walker (aka LadyVelo) is a freelance writer, best-selling author, podcaster and social media creative. Jools started her writing career in 2010 on her award-winning blog, VéloCityGirl. Since then, Jools published her first book (Back in the Frame) with Little, Brown has and written for publications including The Guardian, Glorious Sport, Time Out London, Cycling UK, Grazia, and Refinery29. You can find and follow Jools on Instagram and Facebook (@LadyVelo).

1:00pm - Cycling journalism present and future

Ian Cleverly began his journalism career at Cycling Weekly, before moving to Rouleur as assistant editor in 2010. He is now Head of Communications at Pedal Me, London’s leading e-cargo bike delivery company. He is also the founding – and to date, only – member of the Slow Cycling Movement.

Robyn Davidson is an Editorial Assistant at Cyclist Magazine. She began a short-lived track cycling career in Manchester after the London Olympics and switched to writing about the sport after Chris Froome’s run up Ventoux. Since then, she has worked for organisations such as British Cycling, Cyclevox, Drops (now Le Col-Wahoo), Tour Tracker and the Women’s Tour of Scotland. Robyn enjoys writing about equality (or is often seen talking about lack thereof), creating memes that two people in the office understand, and taking photographs of dogs at cycling races.

Rachel Jary
Rachel Jary   spent three years racing full-time in Belgium trying to fulfil her dream of becoming a professional cyclist, she then came to the conclusion she was better at writing about races than competing in them and joined the team at Rouleur in 2020. Since then, she's been writing news stories, tech pieces and longform features for Rouleur Magazine and the Rouleur website, as well as railing round local crits and track leagues in her spare time.

Andy McGrath
Andy McGrath is a freelance journalist and the former editor of Rouleur magazine. He is the author of Tom Simpson: Bird on the Wire, which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2017. His new book, God is Dead: The Rise and Fall of Frank Vandenbroucke, Cycling’s Great Wasted Talent is out now.

2:15pm - Bike maintenance demo: The M-Check! Bring your own bike along to learn from London Bike Kitchen founder Jenni Gwiazdowski how to do the "mother of all bike checks" done by professionals multiple times a day

Jenni Gwiazdowskiis founder and director of the London Bike Kitchen, a DIY bike workshop that specialises in education. She is also author of the book "How to build a bike".

3:00pm - Ned Boulting in conversation with Nick Turnbull

Ned Boulting   completed his 19th Tour de France for ITV sport this summer, having reported on the event since its centenary year. He is a best selling author, having penned four cycling titles and widely acknowledged as one of the most intelligent, respected and loved members within the wider sports media. Despite the COVID pandemic preventing him from appearing in theatres with the “Retour de Ned” over the last few years, he is excited to be working on announcing new dates in 2022 to bring back cycling’s first ever one man theatrical show.

Buy all the books at the Velofete from the Village Books Dulwich stall.

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