By Linus Rees
Look Mum No Hands the cafe-bar and bicycle workshop celebrated a year of trading last Friday night with a big party. Sadly I missed the party but my reason for being here today is to watch the Amstel Gold Race on their big screen. There’s a full race report at Cycling Weekly so I won’t repeat what you can read there.
This is only my second visit to LMNH — the first time was to watch the Tour of Flanders. Normally I’d go to my local cafe in Fitzrovia, but I’m usually having to compete with the footie fans who are watching one of the many games on the half-dozen tellys that are scattered about.
Most of my friends have now opted to go to LMNH which is dedicated to cycling culture — and they’ve got a really big screen to watch live cycling on. I’m not sad to forsake my local to pedal a couple of miles east and sit in the company of like-minded friends.
Easy to get to from pretty much anywhere in inner London, LMNH is in the neighbourhood of St Lukes (although I believe most people refer to the area as Old Street) right at the very south of the London Borough of Islington where it meets the City of London. And it’s open every day.
There’s a regular crowd of cyclists of all persuasions and on both occasions I’ve met up with old friends, made new friends, ate well and drank good coffee. I’m sorry to say they don’t have non-alcoholic beer in stock but I’ve asked them to get some. After all, many brewers now make very good non-alcoholic beers which are widely available in Belgium, France and The Netherlands. Amstel make a very good alcohol-free brew.
This week they’ll be showing the Ardennes classics Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday and Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Sunday. See you there.
Interview with Matt Harper of LMNH
Look Mum No Hands!, 49 Old Street, London EC1V 9HX. Open every day.