Bicycle Kicks
by Simon Hood
Foreword by Richard Herring
ONE MAN. ONE TEAM. ONE BIKE.
Sick of drifting aimlessly through his thirties, Simon Hood gives up his job and flat to embark on a unique adventure. A lifelong York City supporter, he sets out to cycle to their every match over the course of a season.
York are languishing in the fifth tier of English soccer; home to footballing outposts as obscure as Ebbsfleet, Histon and Nailsworth. What follows is a ten-month, fifty-match, 10,000-mile pilgrimage taking Simon from Tyneside to the Sussex coast, from Cumbria to Kent. Along the way he rides through floods and snow with friends old and new, meets a Knight of the Realm, breaks a couple of bikes and battles with The Bonk.
Would he make it to each match in time for kick-off? Would he resist the temptations of public transport? Would the team rise to the challenge and reward his efforts with an unlikely shot at glory?
"Captures the frustrations and minor exultations of being a lower league football fan brilliantly.
A great adventure written with great humour and self depreciation. Added to that part of the proceeds goes to the Alzheimer's Society, one of the inspirations behind the adventure in the first place. Recommended to any football, cycling or general sporting fan or just anyone who salutes a great challenge."
"A Yorkshireman decides to make the mad business of supporting a chronically unsuccessful football team that bit madder by cycling to each and every game. His quest provides the basis for a charming book as much about the joys, sorrows and frustrations of day-to-day life as it is about cycling and football. The people Hood meets and and who share their stories, skills and eccentricities with him make the book a thoroughly enjoyable experience, full of wit and life, alongside the enviable experience of seeing so much of the country from the saddle and the less enviable experience of seeing so much of York City from the stands. A pleasure to read and highly recommended."
