live-cycle

AS a cyclist, it is great to be noticed - it means that people know we are there, that they are aware of our presence. But I suppose that being noticed can also makes us easy targets. Take a couple of articles in the press over the past two days, for example. Yesterday The Sunday Times carried an article that shouted Cycle rage: tyranny on two wheels. I call it an article but, really, it was a rant by one Matt Rudd about the Lycra louts who ride on pavements and ignore the Highway Code.
Now we all know that there are those who ignore the norms, and give us a bad name, but this article tarred every cyclist with that same brush, and damned us for daring to claim our place on the roads.
Rudd manages to dredge up three cases where pedestrians have been killed by cyclists. No mention of the number of cyclists killed or maimed by motorists, nor even those injured when colliding with pedestrians who cross roads without looking (in my book, the most persistent danger).
The second article was in The Times today, entitled Council enforcers to put Lycra louts on straight and narrow. There we have it, those Lycra louts again. It appears that Westminster council is to deploy enforcers to hunt down errant cyclists and issue penalty enforcement notices. Angela Harvey of Westminster council says: “We’re always getting little old ladies who are knocked down and abused by a cyclist who leaves them on the ground as they ride away.” ALWAYS, I ask you? And if we go by her quote, it is always the same cyclist. Naughty bugger.
But at least there is some fairness in this article - it even quotes the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured. And the clincher is Tom Bogdanowicz, of the London Cycling Campaign, who says that enforcement of regulations is vital for all road users. And he adds: “It is vital that local authorities address road danger to cycle users by improving the very conditions that force some cyclists to seek the refuge of pavements. Where road design improvements have been made, offending falls significantly.”
Actually, I don’t mind if there is a crackdown on offending cyclists. If it makes the badly behaved ones behave, I will support that. But what we need to see at the same time is a crackdown motorists who block cycle lanes, endanger cyclists, stop in the advanced stopping zones.
But what offends me most of all is people who make unsubstantiated accusations against whole groups of people without any evidence, nor any right of reply. There should be a penalty for that.

“I’m going for a ride on my bike.”
Words that pass a cyclist’s lips almost every day. Yes, we go for a ride on our bike, but how many people can say: “I’m going for a ride on MY bike”? MY bike that I made, that has my name on it?
What prompts these thoughts was a little soiree on Monday night held by Halfords and Boardman bikes, quite fittingly at the Transport Museum in Covent Garden. It was an evening to keep in touch with the press, really, and to introduce the Boardman Limited edition (1,250 bikes, special decals, signed and numbered, and almost sold out). Chris Boardman was there, obviously, along with his production team, some Halfords staff and a fair sprinkling of PR people, plus a bright array of their bicycles for us to spill our beer over.
But it made me wonder: how many people can truly say that they are riding their bike. The Eponymous Cycle Club must be quite an exclusive band: there is, of course, Boardman, and others that spring immediately to mind are Gary Fisher, Greg Lemond and Eddie Merckx. After a bit more thinking, I came up with Ernesto Colnago (who was employed as a mechanic on Merckx’s Molteni team), and Fausto Pinarello. Then there is Dr Alex Moulton, who pioneered the small-wheeled bicycle revolution nearly 50 years ago, and William Pashley, a First World War dispatch rider who set up Pashley Cycles in 1926.
Someone who comes close, but is not quite a full member, I think, is Tom Ritchie, who rides some of his very stylish and expensive bicycle parts but, to my knowledge, does not have a frame with his name on it.
I decided to dig a little further, and my librarian, Google, took me to Baron von Drais, a German inventor, who is probably the most eminent member, because although he does not have a bicycle brand named after him, he was one of the people who invented the bicycle, although his eponymous draisine has rusted away from our vocabulary over the years.
But my favourite club member is Major Nichols. During the Second World War he served in the Navy as a Gyroscopic Compass Technician, leaving as Petty Officer. Major, it turns out, was his Christian name. He went into bike building, in his home town of West Bromwich, and died in 2005.
I know that you’ll probably come up with dozens of names that I have overlooked, and I will be happy to hear from you.
But before I finish, I have just one question: Who is Claude Butler?

In sport, focus is everything: it is what takes athletes to the top of their field, and what keeps them there.
Vision is something completely different: it is for athletes who, after years at the top, wish to put something back into their sport.
Focus helped Team GB to win its record clutch of cycling golds in Beijing last year. After Beijing, when many riders suffered post-Olympic blues, one rider kept focus: Nicole Cooke, who went on to achieve the remarkable double of Olympic and world road-racing champion in the same year.
Few can maintain focus and vision at the same time. Lance Armstrong manages both, but he has huge commercial and logistical backing.
After her phenomenal year Nicole set out to put something back by creating Vision 1, a women’s road racing team. The dream did not endure - she blames the credit crisis, but there was an element of chauvinism. A week ago I interviewed Nicole for The Times and she spoke at length on her dreams for Vision 1, her disillusionment at the lack of sponsorship, her hopes for the future.
Nicole has put her vision aside for now, and her focus is back on producing the results that made her queen of the road.
You can read the interview in full at Times Online.

I think it was Lance Armstrong who started the charity wristband-wagon rolling with his yellow Livestrong bracelet. But we don’t have to send our hard-earned pounds abroad to support cancer charities that have a bicycling bent.
We have our own Geoff Thomas Foundation, set up in 2007 by the former footballer who hopes to raise £20 million to fund a pioneering integrated network of blood cancer drug trials at six centres across the UK.
Geoff has linked up with cyclestore.co.uk who are developing a GTF line of merchandise. What is more, customers can donate directly to the foundation at the online check-out.
Geoff is the former Crewe Alexander, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Nottingham Forest and England footballer who was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2003. His life was saved by a bone marrow transplant from his sister. Two years after being diagnosed, Geoff got the cycling bug and started a fundraising campaign to help fellow cancer sufferers, raising £800,000 by sponsored rides including the 2005 and 2007 Tour de France routes. For more information on the GTF please visit geoffthomasfoundation.
I know that Lance’s venture is a worthy cause, but remember, charity begins at home.

It is back, looking tougher than ever, and with a new twist to the format. It, of course, is the Absa Cape Epic, and the 2010 edition promises to be as challenging as ever before.
Once again the route is a demanding eight-day ride, covering 722km and climbing 14,600m in the process over regions previously untouched by the race.
There will be no prologue for riders to ease into the race, but instead, after booking in at Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, riders will set off from Diemersfontein on March 21 on a 117km trek over Bainskloof Pass to Ceres.
The race will spend three nights in Ceres, two in Worcester and two in Oak Valley, before heading back to Lourensford, scene of the finish this year. The last three days will look familiar to riders of the 2009 event but for me, two of those three days were the most gruelling and demoralising I have ever undertaken on two wheels, and I am still trying to erase them from my memory.
The twist in 2010 is that there is no prologue, but a time-trial on day five, through the foothills of the Brandwacht to the west of Worcester. At only 27km some riders might consider it a rest day, but with 860m of climbing they will be well advised to treat it seriously. Full details of the ride can be seen on the Cape Epic site.

The Lance question
There have been frenzied rumours that Lance Armstrong will be taking part in the 2010 Cape Epic, and even Kevin Vermaak, the Epic founder and organiser, has hinted to this blog that he is hopeful of such a coup. Well, that speculation will not be stifled by the news that Lance will be in South Africa at the beginning of March to give his backing to the Jag Foundation, the charity supported by the Cape Epic and many of its leading riders.
My take, personally, is that the Epic is too soon before the Tour de France, where Lance will be riding with his new team Caddyshack - sorry, I mean RadioShack. I reckon he will be recce’ing the Epic in the expectation of riding it in 2011 or 2012. But then, what do I know? Lance, any clues?

Those South Africans are crazy. Never content with a challenge, they always seem to come up with something that little bit harder, little bit tougher.
For some years now the Absa Cape Epic has been South Africa’s ultimate test in mountainbike riding. Having ridden it twice, I know just how hard it is and, after completing it this year, I swore that I would never do it again. I have since had a change of heart, but it would be with some trepidation that I would wheel my bike to another Epic start line.
But for some, that isn’t enough. Last night the organisers of the three-day Sani2C announced a new challenge, a nine-day 830km ride from Johannesburg to Scottburgh on the Kwazulu/Natal south coast.
The joBerg2c starts on April 23, 2010, and will take riders from southern Jo’burg, through the Free State and down the Drakensberg escarpment where the last three days will cover the Sani2c ride.
It might not yet be a serious challenge to the Absa Cape Epic, which is backed by big riders and big money, but one thing is certain, it will be a wonderful test and a great adventure that will be sold out before you can say “granny ring”.

On a separate note, a big word of congratulation to Gary Perkin. His fantastic picture of two riders casting long shadows across a dirt road brought gasps of wonder when it was first shown to competitors at the Epic earlier this year.
Since then it has graced the covers of numerous mtb magazines. Now Perkin has been awarded top honours at the Velo Arto competition at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec.
Check out what Gary had to say about the picture.

Okay, now that I have your attention, I just want to add to my previous post about cycling around London - always make sure that you are seen, especially with the winter nights drawing in. Wear ridiculously coloured clothing, with reflective strips everywhere, and make sure that you always have lights at night. And carry spare batteries. If you are a belt-and-braces chap like me, have two lights behind (in case one goes out).
Which brings me to my Hump. Polaris (and others) produce a cover for your backpack that keeps it waterproof, visible and is reflective and my wife very kindly gave me such an article (no, I’m not going to prompt sniggers in the back row by saying she gave me one) for my birthday last week. Clearly she still wants me around for a little bit longer.

I cycle through London almost daily and some friends think I am mad to do so. Almost weekly we read reports of cyclists inolved in accidents, and about the perils of the road.
Well, I have one simple rule to deal with cycling in London. Actually, I really have several, but one chief rule that encompasses all the rest: be paranoid.
Yep, that’s it. Just believe that everyone is out to get you. Think that every car door you pass is about to open, every bus and taxi is going to cut you up, every driver is going jump the red light or stop street, and NEVER pass a high-sided vehicle on the left.
Over course, there are other lesser hazards, such as turning on wet box junctions, where the painted lines are like an ice rink.
But there is always something that you just do not expect. Yesterday I was (almost) involved in two incidents that I could not legislate for: in the first, a motorcyclist passed me at speed and turned left without signalling, almost taking me with him. In the other, a fellow cyclist, in the dark and without lights, turned right across my direction of travel. I don’t quite know how we avoided colliding.
So, all in all, it’s a little like Monty Python’s (40 years old this week) Spanish Inquisition - you never know when to expect it. That’s enough to keep me paranoid.

The Times reports today that cyclists are to be allowed to go the wrong way down one-way streets (Green light to ignore one-way signs). Did this really come to pass as a result of the hopeless Dave Cameron being caught pedalling the wrong way along a one-way street? And will such a move really encourage drivers to give way to oncoming cyclists?
This report comes hot on the heels of another that says cycle lanes encourage motorists to travel closer to bikes than on unmarked roads.
In London cycle lanes are a joke - taxi drivers use them to park up and have their lunch, lorry drivers stop in them to unload, joggers use them to avoid crowded pavements, and utilities dig them up and fail to resurface them properly. Until the police and traffic authorities enforce cycle lanes strictly, treating them like red routes, they are just a waste of time and money and proof that no one takes cycling seriously.
The Times, that truly balanced newspaper, offers “for” and “against” columns debating the merits of the one-way move. The against column, predictably, says that, for cyclists, the Highway Code “has always just been something to pick and choose from, a bit like the Argos catalogue”.
Well, in one state in the US - I think Idaho - cyclists are treated differently from drivers and can regard stop streets as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. It makes sense, if you think about it: the cyclists are safer as a result, but motorists retain their sense of grievance, not that cyclists are breaking the law, but because the law is finally on their side.

Suddenly, everyone seems to want more than ever to enter next year’s Absa Cape Epic. Well, Paul certainly does, and judging by the internet chatter, quite a number of other riders also want an entry. Even I can’t say that the thought of a return hasn’t crossed my mind.
But why the sudden desperation? Word has spread that Lance Armstrong may grace the event with his presence - and now every amateur finally has a chance to say that they competed against the seven-times Tour de France winner.
At first I was sceptical - why would Lance enter months before the Tour and risk injury and throw his training schedule into jeopardy. So I went straight to those in the know, and I can confirm that there is a distinct possibility Armstrong will be there - the organisers are holding thumbs. Should the big man turn up in Cape Town, well, that would be a coup indeed.
Suddenly, I’m thinking, will some strong-arm tactics persuade the organisers to give us another Press entry for next year?? Hmmm.