5 Minute Interview With Lesley Robertson

Lesley Robertson, Curator of Cycles at the Museum, is one of the members of staff involved in organising the annual Coventry Cycling Festival, which takes place in Millennium Place in front of the Museum, each Summer.

With just a couple of weeks to go until this year's Festival, we caught her for a chat:

Hi Lesley - firstly can you tell us what we can expect from the Coventry Cycling Festival this year?

Lesley Well, we kick off on Saturday morning with the Tom Sabin ride, which should be leaving the Museum at about 9am, then the Cycling Festival on Millennium Place starts at 10am. There will be mountain bike displays, an organisation called Cycle Magic will be there giving people a chance to have a go on all kinds of weird and wonderful bikes, there’ll be rickshaw rides for the less energetic, face painting, slow bike riding, ‘scoot bikes’ which are bikes for very young children, and there will be activities within the Museum itself – and we’ve also got a cycle-powered stage where local bands will be performing, and an arts and crafts and healthy food fair - so it should be a real feast of pedal powered fun all weekend long!

Which part of the festival are you most looking forward to?

Lesley Probably the Tom Sabin ride – I love to see the riders setting off and understanding why they’re doing it. The point of the ride is to commemorate the achievements of Tom Sabin – he was a cyclist from Allesley in Coventry who was the first person to win a gold medal for cycling at the first modern Olympics at Much Wenlock, so we organise a bike ride from Coventry to Much Wenlock – 100 miles there and 86 miles back.

And you had a go at riding the route yourself recently didn’t you?

Lesley Yes – three of us from the Museum rode the outward route a couple of weeks ago – it took blood, sweat and tears! No, seriously it wasn’t too bad, although we had a headwind for 80 miles, Clive struggled with his knees – when we got to the top of Clee Hill Clive went into the cafe to ask for a bowl of hot water and a tea-towel to wrap round his knee...
We had a few tantrums along the way, but we made it, and were met in Much Wenlock by a lovely Blue Badge Guide called Suzanne who showed us round and gave us a wonderful welcome.

So if anyone reading this fancies getting involved in the Tom Sabin Ride, is it still possible?

Lesley Yes we’ve still got spaces available, the closing date for entries is Wednesday 22 June – I would say though that they do need to be reasonably experienced riders – it’s a pretty tough route but well worth the effort.

We do have another ride as part of the Festival though – a much easier route called Ride To The Romans, which is about 10 miles from the Museum to the Lunt Fort at Baginton. It leaves Coventry at 2pm on the Sunday (26 June) and it’s very much a family ride – we encourage people to bring a picnic and have it when they arrive at the Lunt, where they will get free entry on the day. It’s a really lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and there’s no need to book, just turn up on the day with a bike!

What will you be doing during the weekend of the festival?

Lesley I’m in charge of the Slow Bike Ride! It’s held over both days, and people have to ride a bike round a course as slowly as they can without falling off or touching the floor – the slowest time recorded in each of the three age groups will win a bike to take home! It’s a lot of fun. We’re also holding a raffle to win a bike, so overall there are four bikes to be won over the weekend.

Finally, can you tell us about why Coventry has a Cycling Festival?

Lesley Well there are a few reasons – firstly to acknowledge Coventry’s history with bicycles and cycling generally – the City was at the centre of cycle manufacturing for many years, and some of the most important innovations in cycling were made here, so we love to shout about that heritage. Secondly we want to make cycling accessible for as many people as possible and show them how much fun it can be, which is why we offer such a range of different types of activities at the festival. Finally, we just enjoy putting on a fantastically fun weekend of pedal-powered activities – the festival gives families a chance to get active in loads of different ways and enjoy spending time together, and that’s what we love to see.

Thanks very much Lesley! Coventry Cycling Festival 2011 takes place on Sat 25 & Sun 26 June - find out more here.