At the foot of a very steep hill in the middle of the Forest of Bowland is the church of St Michael’s, where an archive of black-and-white photographs records the work of former parish priest Thomas Brangwin Reid. His name may not trip of the tongue like Sir Bradley Wiggins or Hugh Carthy but, like them, this country parson spent many hours cycling in this beautiful and lumpy patch of Lancashire (UK).
Whereas Wiggins did his winter training here on the way to his historic victory in the 2012 Tour, and a teenage Carthy honed his climber’s physique on the local hills before joining the professional peloton, the Reverend ‘Tommy’ often cycled up to 60 miles a week, battling winter weather and steep gradients on the way to the remote, rural dwellings and farms of his 370-strong flock of parishioners.
