![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/\/2cbc2cf8-f21c-479c-9460-33a2f77c9f9a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt was a balmy weekend morning in north London and two men in floral shirts were being pursued by a butterfly. Not far behind came a giant bee on two wheels. Such was the intensity of the heat \u2014 and I don\u2019t mean the sun had got to me. These specimens of the natural world were taking part in cycling\u2019s most eccentric world championship.<\/p>\n
Some 500 competitors from 25 countries had come to King\u2019s Cross to race five times round a 900-metre circuit on a Brompton. The contest had been going in various countries since 2006 but it had come home to mark the 50th anniversary of this folding bicycle\u2019s invention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe event started in Barcelona, slightly as a joke,\u201d said Will Butler-Adams, the chief executive of Brompton. \u201cTo be fair, it still is a bit of a joke.\u201d That doesn\u2019t mean there weren\u2019t some serious athletes \u2014 the men\u2019s champion, Alec Briggs, runs the Tekkerz professional cycling team and also took the world title in 2019 \u2014 but the field didn\u2019t take themselves too seriously. Lycra was strictly banned; fancy dress encouraged.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Will Butler-Adams, the CEO of Brompton, left, with Patrick Kidd<\/p>\n
AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people might train, but it\u2019s mostly about taking part,\u201d said Butler-Adams, who raced in a Union Jack blazer. I counted lots of bright socks, a few kilts and some in suit and tie, which was a nod to the bicycle\u2019s heritage as a commuter vehicle but must have been sweltering in the 31C heat. It was bad enough for me wearing a Newlane folding helmet, shorts and polo shirt.<\/p>\n
And then there were the real oddballs: a man in a top hat and ruff; someone in gold leotard and tinsel wig; a couple of marshmallows; a bloke wearing fishnet stockings with the hull of a ship around his waist as a kind of tutu; another chap all in yellow with a head-dress of plastic bananas, peppers and corns on the cob. It matched the eccentricity of the bicycle\u2019s brand. <\/p>\n
Andrew Ritchie created the lightweight collapsible bicycle in the bedroom of his flat overlooking the Brompton Oratory in Kensington in 1975. After endless rejection letters from investors, his invention took off when it won the best product award at the Cyclex bike show in 1987. From producing 60 bikes a month under the railway arches in Brentford, the company now makes 100,000 a year, all at its factory in Greenford, west London, and sold in almost 50 countries.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I joined vigilantes on the trail of my stolen \u00a35,000 bike<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Butler-Adams, who has been with the company for 23 years, said his customers bought the bike because it \u201cmakes them happy\u201d. With 20,000 bicycles reported stolen<\/a> a year in London, there is an obvious attraction to one you can take indoors, though it is not cheap. They start from \u00a3950 and go up to \u00a35,699 for the ultra-light (7.95kg) 12-speed \u201cT-line\u201d model.<\/p>\n Competitors dressed up despite the 31C heat<\/p>\n AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n AKIRA SUEMORI FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n Ritchie was not the first to invent a folding bike but Butler-Adams said the difference was that, as well as looking elegant, it \u201crode bloody well\u201d. Proving that this was a serious machine was the motivation for creating a world championship. There are also several national championships in America, Japan, France and elsewhere.<\/p>\n Among those taking part was Sarah Ruggins, who in her youth represented Canada at running before contracting an autoimmune condition that left her unable to walk. After four operations, she took up cycling as a lower-impact activity and has excelled. In 2023 she took part in an unsupported race across Europe and this year she cycled from Land\u2019s End to John O\u2019Groats and back \u2014 1,700 miles in five days and eleven hours \u2014 taking seven hours off James MacDonald\u2019s record.<\/p>\n She rode a Brompton for the first time last week, though, and her biggest concern was over a unique aspect of the race: it begins with a \u201cLe Mans\u201d start, in which competitors must run to and unfold their bike. \u201cI\u2019ve got it down to ten seconds,\u201d she said. \u201cThe first time was about four and half minutes. But for the first time in my cycling career, I\u2019m seeing that you can ride a bike for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Brompton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/\/139db49e-4ce5-424e-aa17-191c0dedfd68.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Brompton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/\/4756bbcc-d579-49eb-a6d9-54e3476ad1a4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"Journalist](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/\/e1133c4b-1d2c-493f-8caf-6b3e3afa48e5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n