46 | Cycling World
and was used in the film ' An Englishman Abroad ' to replicate Cold War Moscow . On our left hand side is a massive mural of a tiger painted onto a wall : as striking as the black and orange image is , we can ' t come up with a possible reason how it got there .
We are now not far from ex-professional Billy Bilslands ' Cycling shop , and it is worth the slight detour alone to see Robert Millar ' s polka-dot King of the Mountain ' s jersey hanging on the wall . Millar gave the jersey he won at the Tour de France in 1984 to his first trainer Bilsland . During last year ' s Commonwealth Games in the city , this small shop became known across the globe for giving the Malawian cycling team a couple of time trialling bikes after putting their own , less roadworthy , frames into the shop to be repaired . The shop sits on the edge of Glasgow Green , a beautiful sprawling park made famous by revolutionary Glaswegians over the centuries . It is also the base for the Glasgow Rowing Club , and for a stretch we pedal alongside a cox on his bike calling out strokes through a megaphone to the rowers skimming through the peaceful river . This stretch of river in the east of the city has benefitted from the Commonwealth Games immensely , from the Hockey Centre in the park , the Athlete ' s Village which has been turned into a mixture of social housing , and the Chris Hoy Arena , Glasgow ' s first velodrome . I must admit to initially feeling cynical about the games organisers claims that watching world class athletes in their home city would inspire Glaswegians to take up a sport and get fit . After all , we are voracious sporting spectators here in a city full of football stadiums , but are still known as the sick man of Europe . Perhaps because we associate watching sport with either the traditional pie and Bovril or the more modern crisps and hot dogs , not to mention the after-match beer . And yet , the large number of cyclists , joggers and walkers on this newly opened stretch of path through the east of the city show that actually , there has been a very positive legacy effect .
Once past the Commonwealth Games village , the landscape becomes surprisingly rural as the river bank which was previously used by industry is allowed to grow wild . Trees and bushes fringe the path which has been resurfaced . And although I am riding a road bike , I find the ride smooth apart from a few bumps where tree roots have tried to push through . Below us the river bends back on itself . The path rises up just as it goes under the new M74 motorway bridge as the river rushes across rocks way below us . There are only a few more bridges to go under before the path finally peters out . We eat our sandwiches sitting at what looks like a disused pumping station covered in graffiti on the edge of the suburb of Carmyle before turning back to the city . With twelve miles in his legs , my son is beginning to feel tired , perhaps because the carrot of the double-chocolate cookie has now been eaten , so we cycle back arm in arm as I try to sling shot him home .
We trundle back through the centre of the city , passing a statue commemorating Spanish Civil War heroine La Passionara and the British members of the International Brigade who went to Spain to fight . However , her inspirational words carved below the memorial : ' Better to die on your feet than live forever on your knees .' Are not enough to keep him going , and so we curtail our journey at seventeen miles , and instead get a train from the nearby Central Station home .