PEDALLING SQUARES

Set a cyclist a bizarre and near-impossible challenge and they’ll go to any lengths to achieve it. So it is with the intrepid band of tile-baggers seeking to cover the globe in tyre tracks one-mile square tile at a time, writes James Shrubsall

- James Shrubsall

Northamptonshire-based cyclist Jack Peterson is pressed up against the chainlink fence marking the perimeter of the airforce base. We can only imagine what any sentries on the other side must have made of this attack-by-cuddling. But such is the life of the world’s top tile bagger, he explains, if you want to get that elusive GPS tile you’ve got to go to some extreme ends.

“I sort of tromped across the field and literally hugged the security fence, waiting for somebody to spot me on the cameras,” Peterson recalls. “I sort of went down the side of the fence, literally brushing the fence and hoping, like maybe an inaccuracy in the GPS would allow you to just catch it.

“And now they’ve closed that and they’re building houses on it, so anyone can just wander straight in and get it.”

For most of us, tile-bagging is what happens at Homebase after you’ve decided the bathroom needs a new look. But Peterson is part of a small, but extremely determined group of riders for whom ‘choosing your tiles’ has nothing to do with wetroom decor and everything to do with riding, often a very long way, into a new geographical square — a new ‘tile’ in fact — on the GPS world map.

Popular cycling website VeloViewer overlays its maps with these tiles, each around a mile square. When you ride into a new one while out on the bike and using GPS, it registers on the site, letting you build your total, and to build a big ‘square’ or ‘cluster’. You may find a hidden gem in a new tile, or maybe just an industrial estate. Either way, the beauty of visiting one is exploring the unknown.