September 2012
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My Favourite Place by Bike: 2012 competition results

Prizewinning entries have been chosen from the Spokes 2012 summer competition, My Favourite Place by Bike

The competition asked for favourite places anywhere in Edinburgh or the Lothians to visit or experience with your bike.  As we hoped, the competition sparked a whole range of ideas which we hope you’ll be inspired to try – on your bike!

Top winner Mark James sent a great description of the Whittinghame Water rope-swing in East Lothian – evoking a real sense of place (“a location enhanced by the journey” – about 5 miles from Dunbar) and season-round enjoyment, with a clear purpose of encouraging the next generation of cyclists too. An ‘awesome’ playground that adds further happiness to being out on a bike.

Second was Margaret Hanson, for her poetic and broad-ranging listing of the virtues of the Union Canal  – a fresh and multi-layered perspective on a well-known route, with closely observed detail, even the possibility “that it could take me to Glasgow and the Atlantic beyond…

Third was Katharine Wake, also making something new of a well-known cycling area, the Esplanade between Cramond and Silverknowes. “You know you’ll be back” after reading her ode to it.

Fourth was Mike Trotter – we really liked the fact that his favourite spot is on his everyday commuting journey, raising the spirits for the day ahead. “There’s not a day goes by that I don’t remind myself how lucky I am.”

There was a huge range of places, and types of places, suggested, ranging from inspiration on your everyday journeys, to places where you can go to cycle traffic free, and destinations special for their atmosphere, uniqueness, wildlife, nighttime experience and much more.

See our Competition Report [pdf 147k] for a much fuller description of the competition outcomes, prizewinners and prize donors; and see the full list of entries [link].

Our thanks to everyone who entered, to the prize-givers, to the organisers, and to this year’s expert outside assistant judge, Andy Johnson, Director of Edinburgh’s Camera Obscura and World of Illusions.

For more on the above, and for the results of our earlier competitions – some useful, some curious and, to be frank, some downright silly! – see our Competitions Page.

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