Former Top Gear and current Grand Tour presenter Richard Hammond has said that he is going to take up cycling as part of his recovery from injuries sustained in a recent high-speed car crash in Switzerland.
Although Hammond has been often seen riding a bike during television challenges, he has asked the public for advice on which sort of bike he should get and the clothes he should wear when cycling.
Hammond, 47, has been advised by doctors to avoid his usual exercise of running as he has suffered a serious knee injury – but they told him that he could go cycling.
Writing on the Drivetribe website, Hammond said: "Those same doctors have told me I'll be allowed to go cycling within a few months. Cycling. They may as well have told me I was allowed to take up the bagpipes. But I've no choice: I'm 47 years old, need exercise and can't run".
Hammond then says that he has three questions relating to cycling that he wants answered:
What sort of bicycle he should get that doesn't look like a "skinny, sharp-edged, multi-coloured device that look like it fell out of a packet of razors";
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What clothes he should wear to stop him looking like "another middle-aged bloke whose fast-spinning legs sticking out from lycra shorts look like so much sausage meat being extruded into a blender";
The correct road cycling etiquette to prevent him turning into an "angry bicyclist, punching windows and snarling at vans".
During previous Top Gear challenges when Hammond took to a bike to try and bike co-presenters Jeremy Clarkson and James May, he has looked at home when cycling. His Pinarello bike and Assos cycling kit suggest that he is already fairly clued up on cycling equipment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAbSdAMNDGQ
And the above YouTube video possibly gives away his previous attitude towards van drivers when they cut him up (Warning: contains very strong language).
Hammond was driving at 120mph in a Rimac Concept One car down a mountain road in Switzerland in June, when he lost control of it. The vehicle subsequently ended up on its roof and burst into flames. Hammond escaped, but suffered a fractured knee that required surgery to plate and pin it.
In January, Hammond's fellow motoring presenter May revealed his life-long love of bikes and cycling in his column on Drivetribe.
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