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Passionista – Interview – Nick Hussey, Vulpine

Cycle clothing brand Vulpine will be making a few big announcements this week. Sounds like a good time for an interview with founder Nick Hussey…

Vulpine like to do things differently. Set up in Spring 2012, the brand has quickly become a highly visible part of the UK cycling apparel market, garnering praise for both the design and quality of their garments as well as for their inclusive attitude for ‘all things bike’. Simply coloured, elegantly detailed products are backed by a straight-talking, no-nonsense company persona that manages to never lose sight of the inherent fun of riding a bike. However, it was some of Nick’s more serious comments that prompted me to contact him:

One of the (many) unusual features of the UCI presidential election this year was the way that social media was used by people to make their feelings known about a contest in which they had no vote, nor much sway over the 42 people who did. Whilst it was perhaps expected that interested parties such as Jonathan Vaughters would take to the twitter-waves to air their views, it was less expected to see cycling brands publicly hang their hats on one of the candidates’ pegs. Even in a contest as polarised as this one became it does not often make sense for businesses to take sides.  So it was refreshing to see Vulpine in particular stepping up to show their colours and make their feelings known. The Jersey Pocket spoke to founder Nick Hussey to see why he had raised the company’s head above the ramparts on this one and found that speaking out is part of Vulpine’s DNA.
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The Off Season (or What the Hell Do We Do Now?)

The absence of competitive road cycling from mid October has not really been a big issue for me in the past. As a kid and then as a teenager I only followed the Tour de France and never even considered the fact that cycling had a wider season which waxed and waned around it. The Tour was everything and everything was the Tour. It was like going on holiday – something that only happened in the Summer and would not even be on the radar in April or September.

A good few years ago, when I finally became aware of the Giro, the Vuelta and the Spring Classics I realised that the Tour was part of something bigger but even then I paid little attention to it in truth. The stars of the day were increasingly focussing on specific races so it was natural that I did too. I consumed my cycling through Channel 4 and ITV rather than through Cycling Weekly or Eurosport so options were pretty limited. From August to May I followed football. In June I watched a bit of cricket. I really didn’t know what I was missing.

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The Jersey Pocket Podiums – #3 – Cycling Films

It was the BFI’s Bicycle Film Festival last week and The Armstrong Lie is hitting the screens next month so it seems like a good time for a Jersey Pocket Podium for cycling films:

3rd spot: Breaking Away – Peter Yates – 1979.

Capturing the exotic appeal of Continental road racing (as seen through the eyes of a young American) Breaking Away warmly mixes the key teenage obsessions of idols, girls and friendships.

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2nd spot: Belleville Rendezvous / The Triplets of Belleville – Sylvain Chomet – 2003.

Wonderfully eccentric in terms of plot and vision, Chomet’s animated extravaganza about a kidnapped Tour de France star remains burned on the retinas long after the film finishes.

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1st spot: A Sunday in Hell. 1976. Jorgen Leth.

Merckx, Moser and De Vlaeminck do battle in the Paris-Roubaix Spring Classic but the pavé of Northern France is the real star of this exceptional documentary.

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One Steppe at a Time – (Not) Cycling in Moscow

I am in Moscow this week and I’m trying to remember the last occasion I was in such a cycling un-friendly city. It’s got me stumped. I have covered a fair few global miles in my time and cannot readily think of a single place – certainly not another capital city – where I would be less inclined to get my bike out and tootle off to see some sights or get in some miles. I spent 4 hours today travelling around the city by car and only saw one solitary rider. And even he was on the pavement. I visited a shopping centre in the outskirts and found a priceless piece of cycling unhelpfulness. Outside the main entrance was a sign with a large ‘P’ and a pictogram of a bike. Nothing to actually lock a bike to. Just the sign.

Moscow Bike Parking

Moscow’s traffic problems are legendary and have become the main feature of any visit to the city. The transfer from the main airport can easily take up to 3 hours to cover the 26miles by car. It’s currently 3.15pm on a Thursday afternoon and over half the total distance of Moscow’s three inner ring roads (there are 6 in total and two more are planned) are showing solid red on the Google maps traffic indicator. This is before ‘rush hour’ actually starts. Entire days have been added to my trip to allow for the traffic between three points less than 50km apart. People live in constant fear of simply being caught up in the volume of cars on the roads. And then there are the roads themselves…

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Chasing Rainbows – UCI Road World Championship preview

Now that the Tour of Britain has concluded, all eyes are fully focussed on Tuscany for the UCI World Road Race Championships this week. Racing started today with the Team Time Trial before moving onto the individual time trials in the middle of the week and then culminating with the Blue Riband road race events next weekend. Junior (Men and Women) and U23 (Men only) versions of all the events are either side of the midweek races, filling out a packed schedule of competition. We are guaranteed some gorgeous scenery as the routes traverse the beautiful Tuscan landscape around Lucca, Pistoia and Florence and there are going to be plenty of fireworks throughout the event.

The Team Time Trials – uniquely contested by trade teams rather than nations – kicked off the annual event and both the Mens and Women’s events were won by the defending champions, though in starkly contrasting fashions. Whilst Specialized-Lulu Lemon romped home in the Women’s race, besting second place Rabo Womens Cycling by over 70 seconds across the 42.7km course, the Men’s Omega Pharma QuickStep squad had a somewhat narrower margin of victory over the Orica Greenedge team. Racing an extended course of 56.8km, the Belgian outfit – who were the last team out on the road – took the title from the understandably gutted Australians by less than a single second. Their time of 1:04:16.81 was just enough to deny Orica Greenedge, who had maintained a strong run in the final kilometres to set up the nail-biting finish. Sky Procycling rounded out the podium some 22 seconds further back.

Home interest in the Team Time Trials has been impacted by the fact that cross-scheduling of this event with the last stage of the Tour of Britain meant that two of GB’s best male testers were unavailable. Whilst Chris Froome (SKY), and Steve Cummings (BMC) both took part, it was the absence of the talents of Alex Dowsett and Bradley Wiggins – both of whom illuminated the final ToB stage in some way of recompense – that was most obvious.

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Back to Black – another London cycling death

“The first thing I noticed today was that the LFGSS logo was black instead of the usual light blue. The black logo means that a cyclist has been killed on London’s roads. Lately it seems to have been black almost as much as it has been blue.”

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