Cycling craze sweeps Square Mile Like thousands of London workers, Simon Bird stays healthy by jumping on his bicycle to get into the office. In his case, though, the commute is a 70-mile round trip from Buckinghamshire to the City and back. The 47-year-old chief operating officer of City Index, a spreadbetting company, is part of a wave of enthusiasm for cycling that is sweeping through the Square Mile. It has become the sport of choice for the City's alpha males and females, who relish the combination of a competitive ethos, stringent levels of fitness and the opportunity to lavish a small fortune on technical gear. "When we were younger, we use to spend all of our time riding our bikes," said Mr Bird, who will race from London to Paris in June with a four-man team from City Index. It's the idea of getting back to that - but we're just spending a bit more money on it. Bike shops are springing up across the capital and cycling trips have risen by 81 per cent since 2000, according to Transport for London. Big institutions are responding by carving out more facilities for their bike-hungry staff. HSBC last year doubled cycle rack capacity at its Canary Wharf headquarters to 400. For those of a technical disposition, the sport is a wonderland of advanced materials and aerodynamic aids. A top-flight bike from makers such as Parlee of the US or Italy's Pinarello can easily set buyers back more than £10,000. This might buy a machine perfectly attuned to the customer's "geometry," where even the stiffness of the carbon fibre tubing in the frame is customised to body weight and intended use. Another part of the appeal is social. Wim Dejonghe, 51, managing partner at law firm Allen & Overy, will this summer spend five days pedalling across the hills of southern Tuscany, joined by 15 to 20 of the firm's partners. A Belgian national and veteran of punishing amateur events such as the Etape du Tour and the Marmotte, Mr Dejonghe now prefers to ride with friends: "Three or four years ago there were 4,000 people at the amateur Tour of Flanders [Belgium's top amateur race]. Now there are 20,000. There are so many on these big races you can't get up the hill for cyclists. But while the sport has proved a boon for retailers, race days and cycling clothing manufacturers it has also given rise to a growing sub-industry of physiotherapists specialising in cycling injuries to which the high-achieving, high-stress worker is potentially more prone. Tobina Wilson, a physiotherapist at the King's Road clinic of SixPhysio, says the problem is that office workers typically adopt a forward position at the desk, often with a poor posture . "They repeat it at the weekend by going on a bike for four hours in a similar "flexed" position. It's a double whammy. Gemma Newell of Central Health Physiotherapy, says: "We see a lot of lawyers and barristers who often work until the early hours and then get up again at 6am. You can't keep that intensity of work going and maintain a high level of cycling training at the same time. In spite of these risks, cycling has given many of its practitioners a new lease of sporting life. Cycling is so much kinder on your body in many ways than other sports. It allows people who can't do high-impact sport to reach an amazing exercise level," said Ms Wilson. To be a "mamil," or middle-aged man in Lycra, is rapidly becoming a source of pride. But as Mr Bird jokes, there may be another explanation. Maybe it's just down to the midlife crisis.