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SPIN x LCF – Christmas Cycling & Coffee Event

What happens when coffee and cycling come together? Normally it’s just a pacier run on the training ride but occasionally it can conjure up an entire event. 

SPIN teamed up with LCF (London Coffee Festival) for a free-wheeling, free-grinding, blend of coasting ‘n’ roasting in Shoreditch this weekend. Catching the Christmas mood (and the Christmas trade no doubt) was a big part of the reason for these happy bedfellows to put on a show together and each was equally represented with about 40 exhibitors each.  Alongside these were a good bar, a couple of food stalls and Rollapaluza. Entry was £1.75 in advance (just the booking fee) or £5 on the door.

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In The Court of the King – An Evening with Sean Kelly

For a man who made a career of letting his legs rather than his mouth do the talking, An Evening with Sean Kelly at Cadence Performance in Crystal Palace this week could easily have been a painful experience for both speaker and audience. Kelly makes no secret of the fact that he is not a natural raconteur but he was most certainly a natural competitor and, just like in his racing, his force of character and professionalism ultimately outweighed any potential shortcomings in what was a very enjoyable and illuminating evening.

Kelly’s autobiography, “Hunger” (£18.99 Peloton Publishing) – short-listed for a number of sports writing awards – is an equal surprise coming from the quiet man of Carrick-On-Suir. Ghost-written by Lionel Birnie, the story of ‘King’ Kelly’s racing career was wrestled from the five times world No. 1 over a two year period, race by race, piece by piece, word by word. A long, hard road with many difficult, bumpy sections along the route. Fittingly for the two-time winner it was a veritable Paris-Roubaix of a task.

Birnie was alongside Kelly at Crystal Palace, adding context and anecdote to the Irishman’s recollections. Both were ably hosted by Daniel Friebe – author of ‘Merckx’,  ‘Mountain High’ and ‘Mountain Higher’ – who played the role of MC and posed the first 40 minutes of questions. Initially Kelly applied himself slowly to the task, as though lowering himself onto the infamous boil which cost him the 1987 Vuelta; testing the novel pain of speaking in front of 150 people instead of from the hidden confines of the Eurosport commentary box. Or maybe he was just subconsciously following the advice of the old patron Hinault, who often decreed that the first third of a stage would be carried out at a pace of his liking. Everyone held their breath and wondered how it would go.

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Birnie explains how he wrestled the story from Sean whilst he and Friebe look on. 

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Bonne Anniversaire – Stephen Roche

Happy Birthday Triple Crown Winner Stephen Roche

  • World Champion – 1987
  • TdF Winner –  1987
  • Giro D’Italia  Winner – 1987

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Roche climbed to the very summit of the cycling world when he capped off his Annus Mirabilis with the World Championship win. Like his contemporary Greg Lemond, his boyish looks and baby blue eyes belied a fiercely competitive nature, which was shown best that season when he usurped the leader’s jersey in the Giro from his teammate Roberto Visentini. His resolve and strength of will was again shown in the Tour when he miraculously clawed back a minute and half on Pedro Delgado on the slopes of La Plagne to set up his final victory a few days later. Despite slipping into unconsciousness after he crossed the line, when he came round and was asked if he was alright he was still able to quip, “Yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away.” The World Championship race was won somewhat fortuitously when Roche, in the mix only to support his team mate Sean Kelly, covered a break that none of the other favourites followed. He broke away again and was able to celebrate his victory.

Roche’s Triple Crown can be seen as being won by firstly guile, secondly strength and then with a touch of luck at the end. That sounds about right to me.

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Headphones, Helmets And Hi-Vis. – Boris is missing the signals in road danger debate

In the capital this week, whilst the Met advised commuting bike riders to wear extra bright clothing in case ‘drivers weren’t wearing their glasses‘, a prominent London cyclist carried out a number of erratic moves during an LBC radio interview, which threaten to put his professional life at serious risk of harm. Bare-headed, dressed in a non-reflective dark suit and clearly wearing headphones throughout, he remained oblivious to the heavyweight issues thundering around him whilst he made his risky manoeuvres. He didn’t stop even though there was a red light clearly shining in the recording studio at all times.

I know there isn’t a quick fix to the problem of the many dangers which London’s cyclists face everytime they take to the road.

I know it’s more complex than just a rush-hour HGV ban, or segregated lanes on the cycle super highways.

I know that self-interest and self-preservation are enormously important aspects of urban road-use and that vulnerable road-users need to play their part in reducing the risks presented to themselves.

I also know that repeatedly reducing the debate to one about what the potential victims are wearing is about as big a blunder that the man in charge of realising the potential solutions could make. Frankly, I’m appalled.

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Hit For Six – London’s cyclists reel from spate of deaths

The start of a new week did not bring any respite from the current spate of fatal incidents involving cyclists on London’s road. Five deaths between the 5th and 13th of November has left many cyclists in the Capital in a mixed state of fear and anger. The unwelcome news today that a 60 year old man had been killed by in a collision with a lorry in Camberwell has further fuelled the loudening calls for real change. Nine of the fourteen deaths in 2013 have involved HGV’s.

Anger in the cycling community is being directed both at London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, and, more recently, at the police. Johnson, a keen cyclist himself and instigator of London’s communal cycle-hire scheme, is being accused of victim-blaming by highlighting risk-taking cyclists who don’t follow the letter of the law, and of not taking immediate action to address the dangers of large industrial vehicles sharing London’s road network with cyclists. The Metropolitan Police caught the anger of cyclists today after going out in large numbers to stop cyclists during the morning commute and ‘advise’ them to wear helmets and high-vis jackets. The Met were also stopping and speaking with HGV drivers in an aim to give road safety advice to all road-users but again the feeling is that the root cause of the deaths is being ignored.

I wrote about the last spate of deaths back in late June/early July and how it had made me question commuting by bike in London. I felt the same early last week when three people had been killed in just a few days. Tonight though I feel different. I feel as though I need to keep cycling to help get the change needed. I don’t feel like giving up and turning away. One death is too many but this has gone far too far now. The vigils, petitions, protest rides and general shouting about the issue must go on, of course. But, in light of the perceived indifference which greeted last week’s efforts, it’s obvious that much more is needed. Calls for direct action always need to be carefully weighed and balanced but I for one would support Jenny Jones’ suggestion of a month of rush hour Critical Mass gatherings at a prominent junction. And that should just be the beginning. Change is needed. Fast.

Enough is Enough – It’s time to take a real stand.

#space4cycling
http://space4cycling.org
http://lcc.org.uk


Apologies for the insensitive title of this post but it is exactly how I feel right now.

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This month.

This pretty much sums up how I am feeling this month.

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Because of the last 14 days, I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly state my love and admiration for all my friends and family.
I’d like to think I’m a fairly competent cyclist, crashes in races/training rides excepted, but I’m really bothered by what’s going on in London this month.
It may be that this is just a distribution event and it’ll all “even out” in the end.

However, I don’t want to take that risk. I’d like to publicly state that I’m shit scared of dying under a truck/bus/badly driven car. I do all I can to avoid traffic. I ride fairly sensibly. I don’t run red lights. I wear a helmet.

None of this will matter one fucking bit if a badly driven and or badly maintained vehicle and or badly maintained driver takes the inopportune moment to fuck up in my general vicinity.

I know I…

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Bonne Anniversaire – Bernard Hinault

Happy Birthday Blaireau

  • World Champion – 1980
  • TdF Winner –  1978, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’85
  • Giro D’Italia  Winner – 1980, ’82, ’85
  • L-B-L – 1977, ’80; Lombardia – 1979, ’84

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Sporting crash-blackened eyes and baring his teeth in that familiar set-jawed snarl, The Badger takes on all-comers and ends up on top again in ’85

 

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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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