Dr Hutch: Cycling is linguistic chaos

Cyclists have an inadvertent multi-linguistic flair, muses the Doc

(Image credit: Andy Jones)

The Tour de Yorkshire. A very fine race, I’m sure, but since its foundation that 'de' has been an irritant. Ditto the 'Côte de' in Côte de Greenhow Hill, Côte de Park Rash etc.

I’m not even talking about missing the Tour t’ Yorkshire joke. (“Call that a stage race? When I were a lad we did every single road in t’ Yorkshire, every stage, and we did it twice to make bloody sure. Geoff Boycott used to stand outside ’is ’ouse and throw bricks at us. Highlight of t’ race, that were.”)

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Michael Hutchinson is a writer, journalist and former professional cyclist. As a rider he won multiple national titles in both Britain and Ireland and competed at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games. He was a three-time Brompton folding-bike World Champion, and once hit 73 mph riding down a hill in Wales. His Dr Hutch columns appears in every issue of Cycling Weekly magazine