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A Day in the Life of a Cycling Instructor

From traffic-congested roads to nature-rich towpaths

The canal, the boats, and Walthamstow Marshes in the distance (all photos by author)

My day as a cycling instructor begins at 6am. This is the norm. Regardless of how close or far my destination is, I like catching that first light of the day. A workout, a shower, and breakfast follow. If the school I’m allocated to is near, I use the spare time to read.

Today, though, I’m covering for another instructor at a school in Tower Hamlets. That’s about 8–9 miles away. I leave the house at around quarter to eight hoping to escape the worst of the school run.

I decide to cycle the direct route, down one of the roads built by the Romans. Their legacy is evident. The street runs almost straight from north to south, a rarity in a city so full of cul-de-sacs and one-way systems. The length of the road feels like Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner guitar solo at Woodstock: a riff-heavy distortion that invites the visualisation of sirens and helicopters. In fact, we’re overtaken by an all-lights-flashing ambulance, whilst above us, at some point, a chopper hovers.

I travel through the heart of Tottenham, one of London’s more culturally diverse areas. The new, state-of-the-art Tottenham Hotspur…