Striking German cycle on grassy area (10)
I believe the answer is:
leathering
'striking german cycle' is the definition.
The definition suggests a present participle verb which matches the answer.
'on grassy area' is the wordplay.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'grassy' becomes 'thering' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'area' becomes 'lea' (lea is a kind of area).
'thering' after 'lea' is 'LEATHERING'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leathering that I've seen before include "Thrashing" , "punishment" .)