Beach-to-beach cycling in Sardinia

Cycling has always been a popular method of exercise and recovery for people with lower limb injuries, particularly knee injuries, as its low impact combined with the freedom of choosing your own pace means you can gradually increase the distance and difficulty as your muscles recover. Guided cycling tours in particular are great for this kind of recovery whilst taking in the sights. Higher-impact exercise such as jogging, or sports that involve running with quick changes in pace are mostly discouraged as they can hinder any knee rehabilitation, and even long-distance walking can have negative effects, leaving little choice about the perfect recovery sport.

Help for Heroes

In recent news, UK charities are proving the great effect cycling can have on an injured person trying to become active again. As part of a new summer campaign with Help for Heroes, British Cycling is encouraging seriously wounded service personnel to take part in the sport to encourage mental and physical recovery. Help for Heroes said

‘Sport can play a key role in aiding the recovery of our heroes and we are proud to work with the Battle Back programme, which has made a real difference to the lives of so many.’

Starting up

If you have a bog-standard mountain bike and gear it’s easy to get cycling again, but if you’re completely new to cycling then you face the choice of whether to go for something cheap, that may not last you as long, or a decent road bike that will last you years. If you think that cycling will be a long-term pursuit then it’s definitely worth saving up a little extra as mountain bikes will prove difficult when travelling long distances on the road, and the lack of speed compared with other, better equipped cyclists will be really noticeable. Have a look at this list of the best road bikes under £1000  to see what your current options are.

Cycling Holidays

For people that already have a taste for cycling in the UK, the next big step is taking cycling abroad. There are organisations who arrange guided and self-guided tours in every top cycling spot you can think of. The choice of whether to go on a guided trip or not depends on the community of cyclists you have at home. Guided tours are great if you’re on your own, or have a couple of friends who wish to travel in a larger group of like-minded people to explore the local area, whereas self-guided tours tend to be for big pre-organised groups or families.

There are a variety of holidays from intense journeys for people who want to cover some real distance or ‘gastronomic’ trips that will take the hungry cyclists round Italy, France and Spain to consume all the best nibbles and grapes.