Monthly Archives: January 2013

Two more brilliant cycling videos to inspire your year

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I don’t have the time or the patience to spend much time following cycling links in other media. So I like to give credit when other bloggers or Tweeters turn up something good, I rely on them for all my film links.

Over at Cyclestuff Simon Nurse seems to have a never-ending source of cycling art and other material, his blog is well worth following. Thanks to one of his recent posts I discovered another of those jaw dropping mountain biking films where someone with a touch of vertigo like me just winces, but is drawn back to the screen like a moth to a flame.

 

And then at Charlie Bucket Cycles in Montreal Andybuk has posted a longer video of the Haute Route 2012, a multi-stage amateur race through the Alps, even including a time trial up Alpe D’Huez. Oh yes I’d love to do that but I guess that sort of fitness is a bit of a long way off. It is 45 minutes long so its one for a large mug of tea and maybe a second slice of cake after you have completed appropriate training!

Time to support the musicians of Mali

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I would like to offer a recommendation as I look out of the window onto melting snow.

While you are reading blogs and doing your emails or whatever it is you claim to be doing when you are in front of your computer click on the Youtube link below and leave this music running in the background. Feel the warm heat of the desert blues blow over you, soak up the magical music of Mali.

And as you do so now consider that music is now banned in two thirds of the country that can make a reasonable case to be the birthplace of the blues.

Reflection on the music was particularly provoked recently because the Glastonbury Festival which has featured a lot of African music in recent years announced a couple of weeks that Rokia Traoré will be its first act this year and now a group of Malian artists have got together to release a peace record.

I know very little of the regional politics of the area but for years I have really enjoyed the sounds of Malian artists such as Miriam and Amadou so I find it a real shock to imagine music being supressed in the country and it makes me even more angry to feel that this should be done in the name of any religion.

The world cannot afford to lose this music. If you happen to click on a link and enjoy the sounds I hope you might be inspired to buy some music or forward a link to some music lovers and help keep it alive.

All credit to the journalists of the Guardian who have really made an effort to keep the story of the music alive. To get a feel for the whole range of Malian music and the political context read some of these articles.

Music is vital to political struggle across Africa – not just in Mali

Banning music in Mali is outrageous, not least because it’s crucial to the country’s wellbeing “The banning of music is hideous anywhere, but in Mali of all places it seems somehow sacrilegious”

Ian Birrell today – 27th January

 

 Mali’s magical music

Music is central to Mali’s identity – and yet the conflict there has led to it being widely banned. Here, African and western artists pick their favourite tracks from this most musical of nations

18th January.

 

Fatoumata Diawara gathers Malian supergroup to record peace song

Group calling themselves Voices United for Mali, featuring Amadou and Mariam, Oumou Sangaré, Bassekou Kouyaté, Vieux Farka Touré, Toumani Diabaté and many others, release song called Peace in response to country’s troubles

18th January

 

Mali: no rhythm or reason as militants declare war on music

Islamist militants are banning music in northern Mali, a chilling proposition for a country where music is akin to mineral wealth

23rd October

Half a power cut – how is that possible?

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Candles

Here’s a “life in Belgium” post about something that has me completely confused.

Tonight we have our second partial power cut.

This means that some lights go out, most, but not all of the plugs. But the lights that have gone off are not completely off, they are glowing intermittently.

Outside it is the same. One side of our street and the associated street lamps are in darkness for about a 100 metre length while the other side of the road appears untouched.

We are speculating that one of our neighbours is pulling such an enormous load off the grid they are draining all our juice, perhaps running a dope factory on overdrive because of the cold or drilling for oil under the cellar. I have a degree in physics which doesn’t make me an electrical engineer but I do know this isn’t normal.

Minus 7 tonight and the central heating is off too.

Answers on a postcard…………………

Mountain bikes are made for snow

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Brabant Wallon

Ever since the entry of mountain bikes into mainstream cycling they have offered a new dimension to winter riding – snow riding!

When the roads are downright dangerous the chance to escape across the fields or ride on untreated minor roads with extra grip and wide handlebars is great fun.

Brabant Wallon BelgiumWhere I am now living in Belgium we have a fantastic network of paths, farm tracks, cobbled roads and minor lanes so I couldn’t resist getting out today for what seemed like my first longer ride in ages. The snow actually flattens out the cobbles to some extent which is great.

And a real treat today. There is nothing like a sign at the edge of a field that just points out to the middle that beckons and says “ride me”. And in this case it was on pristine snow with only the footprints of rabbits and foxes. The snow was really soft which made it hard going but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Snowy ride Belgium

Bike to Heaven

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Memorial to Jan Bouchal Prague

On a relatively undistinguished junction in Prague a small but moving ceremony took place Thursday night. Under gently falling snow around seventy people gathered around a white bike mounted on a lamp column and a small group of candles.

Memorial to PupThe group consisted of local cycle activists, critical mass riders, walkers and supporters of sustainability group Auto*Mat. Speeches of friendship were made with quiet dignity and a minute’s silence was held, bareheaded in the cold near the banks of the Vltava River.

Every January for seven years they have gathered on this corner  to commemorate the life of one of their friends and colleagues Jan Bouchal, killed by a car on this corner in 2006. But this year the gathering had special meaning. After six years of campaigning the city council finally remodelled the junction to make it safer for cyclists and this year they have agreed to a permanent memorial to “Pup“ as he was known.

An open competition has been held amongst local artists to create a design and following a public fundraising campaign the design will be permanently installed on the spot. Echoing the spirit of the ghost bikes that have become a symbol of unnecessary cyclists deaths around the world a suspended bicycle will rotate around the column high in the air, called “Bike to Heaven”.http://www.auto-mat.cz/2013/01/pupuv-pomnik-jiz-na-jare-podporite-jeho-vznik/

I was invited because I was in Prague working at a conference to share the findings of the BICY Project, a three year project to develop cycling in central Europe. Daniel Mourek, our Czech ECF board member invited us to ride with the local critical mass and share the occasion with them, something of an honour to be a guest on their occasion.

But it was easy to feel at home with this group. As in so many countries and cities where cycling and sustainability is hard to promote the activist community is tightly bound and the cyclists fill a tribal niche. On the critical mass I recognised the forerunners that I have seen all over the world, riding fixies, cargo bikes, folders and recycled bikes in a number of designs. Prague is not an easy cycling environment. On average only 2% of local traffic is cyclists which in winter means almost none are seen on the streets and it is a battle to get the council to do positive things for transport cyclists. The city centre should be a great place for cycling as it is largely traffic free but I saw only a single cyclist while I was there apart from the group I was with.

Critical Mass Prague
In this tough environment Jan Bouchal was a real leader of the group, one of the founders of the Auto*Mat and it was clear by the way he was described as “our friend” that he was a very valued person. I wish his friends every success in their campaign to raise the money they need for the memorial but even more so I wish them every success in their campaigns to make Prague a cycling city.

Memorial for Jan Bouchal Prague

In praise of Nicole Cooke, a real champion

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Racing cyclist Nicole Cooke announced her retirement today. Multiple world champion and memorably Olympic Road Race champion at Beijing in 1988

Tonight I heard her giving an excellent interview to the BBC in which she is her usual robust self when describing her views on drug cheats and the impact they have on other riders’ careers. (link below) In the week that Lance Armstrong appears to trying to salvage his reputation on the sorry ground of the Oprah show I think we should salute a real star of our sport.

I am biased about Nicole because I have been following her career for long time and I know that she really is an old school champion, one who made her way up through the sport just before the British Cycling machine started producing champions with almost conveyor like regularity.

Back in the 1990s I was living in Cardiff and I restarted my club riding and racing career with the Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club, then a long standing club with a nice family atmosphere. Down in the schools category a name started to appear regularly – a twelve year old girl was beating all the boys at cyclocross and started winning national championships in unbeatable style. Within a year she was getting a national reputation. I recall Cycling Weekly magazine commenting that most of the senior men could learn a bit from watching her bike handling.

But along with her racing supportive parents Tony and Denise had brought up her and her brother as all round cyclists with a real appreciation of the pastime as well. They had cycled to school and been on cycle touring holidays too but Nicole was always a ferociously competitor and outgrew the gentle riding and school category years ahead of her time. Scarily bright too, doing exams early so they didn’t clash with her racing and a good speaker at social functions and prizegivings.

I have memories of the 15 year old Nicole handing out a thrashing more than a few times at any discipline. A 100 mile February reliability ride in freezing rain and snow, most of the top local riders left my group for dead. While we old men were dying in the café the “youngster” was going the whole way with the lead group – perhaps ideal preparation for that horrible day in Beijing ten or so years later?

Or later that summer when she was given special dispensation to ride outside her youth category with the local senior men as a bit of training. I was well dropped when I pulled off the circuit to watch the race finish, but even by then I had been terrified trying to follow her wheel round some of the corners on the old airfield circuit. Everyone else sort of rode round the corners, Nicole just hauled her bike round in a juddering arc, unforgiving on bike and rider. Not only did she ride with the seniors just below elite level and stay with them all race, she burst from the pack to win the bunch sprint embarrassing some quite handy individuals into the bargain.

She then became our club icon, followed by everyone and gradually a champion respected by everyone throughout the cycling world. Junior champion at every discipline, me shouting at the Eurosport coverage in each victory. Then the Commonwealth Games put her on the national stage, coming from behind after missing a corner after a typical piece of mad and fearless descending.

And that was her style. A colleague of mine at CTC Mick Ives also ran a pro cycling team which Nicole rode for a junior and he said she was relentless and unforgiving on herself and her equipment, driving herself to the limit, probably racing and training too much. Actually now I write this I realise how much she sounds like our other champion Beryl Burton who I have written about quite a bit in the last year or so. (tagged below)

I guess I was one of those who probably believed that she was destined never to quite get the world or Olympic titles she deserved, especially with the coming career of the similarly amazing Marianne Vos. But as if the Olympic title wasn’t enough the sheer bloody mindedness with which she outsprinted Vos for the world title in the same year was the one that had me almost break furniture as I jumped in the air.

That was probably her last brilliant year and it has been tough going since then with injury and team problems, not to mention internal tensions in the British team as her status waned but she remains high on my list as a rider that I would never tire of watching, there was always a possibility that she would do something in almost every race.

She deserves a successful retirement now and the continued respect of our whole cycling world. If she gets her moment in some sort of truth and reconciliation process after all the current rubbish in men’s cycling she will be a force to be reckoned with because she will not hold back.

Respect.

Links – Nicole Cooke on Wikipedia     BBC Radio interview 

Not cycling – need some inspiration

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Oreti Beach, Invercargill, New ZealandBeen a bit unwell, not riding my bike much except to the station.

Weather grey and horrible.

Maybe a bit of inspiration on line? No, the twittersphere and blog world are full of Lance Armstrong and his forthcoming appearance on Oprah.

I just need a couple of memories to cheer me up.

Number one above is for the bucket list I am slowly compiling. Something everyone must do is ride your bike on a remote beach. Even better let it be Oreti Beach near Invercargill, New Zealand. Ride some of the singletrack trails on nearby Sandy Point (world’s most southerly singletrack?) and then roll onto the hardpacked beach when there is a wind whipping up the whitecaps from the Southern Ocean.

Number 2 – mountain biking in Spain. Just because I love this photo and remember being there.

Near Amer, Girona, Spain

The Kingdom of Bicycles in video – flashback to an earlier China

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Kingdom of Bicycles StillThis post originates from one of those unexplainable coincidences that life throws up. And once they have occurred I know I just have to talk about it.

I was thinking about a “bucket list” post for New Year, reflecting the many cycling experiences I would like to have or to share. I know it has been done many times, but it is a great concept.

On my “done it” list was one item that I feel is probably now impossible to replicate and I was going to challenge readers to suggest an alternative. In 1985 I had the privilege of hiring an upright black bike and riding the streets of Peking with my father. (Now more correctly called Beijing of course).

The only way I can capture the feeling today is to imagine a flock of black birds. The flock wheels and turns, seemingly at random, but somehow the birds do not collide and as a collective the flock becomes a thing of beauty. We two clumsy westerners were almost certainly a break in the harmony, but it didn’t stop it being a magical experience.

I have cycled the rush hours in Amsterdam and Copenhagen but it doesn’t feel the same even today. Maybe it was the touch of the exotic, the scale of the streets, huge highways full of bikes, or perhaps that there were so few cars in 1985 Beijing that the cyclists felt like kings. We certainly weren’t pinned to the side of the road in token lanes, we were the traffic.

I had gathered these few thoughts together in my head as part of this possible “bucket list” post when out of the blue Patrick Keating from Velocapital Partners circulated a report on cycling traffic in China, together with a link to this lovely film from China Central Television English Language service. It is 25 minutes long, so take a glass of something or more appropriately a cup of tea and enjoy the film and photography.

http://english.cntv.cn/program/storyboard/20120124/112052.shtml

Of course much of that cycle traffic has gone now and the rush for cars has driven cyclists off those boulevards in Beijing. Even in 1985 we found the centre of Shanghai to be so congested it was almost gridlocked by buses and taxis and by all accounts the transition in Beijing was rapid. Sadly I haven’t been back since 1985 but I doubt any experience can replace that day. However the film was a great reminder.

By the way Julian – riding your Flying Pigeon in Brussels doesn’t even get close. Sorry mate.

Happy New Year – not despairing in sunny Belgium

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Brabant Wallon BelgiumA year ago I wrote my first blog post, a New Year’s resolution to give blogging a chance.

A grand total of three people viewed it, all of whom were undoubtedly family members.

A year later I can hardly believe how much pleasure I have got from the process and how much I have learned about writing and taking photographs for other people to read. I had intended to write about cycling but it has been a lot of fun to add some diversions into food and travel.

Thanks to everyone for reading, for commenting and for just generally being polite enough to take an interest in my posts. And above all else thanks to the cyclists I have met across the world who have been such an inspiration. I genuinely do not despair every time we meet.

And because your favourites seem to be the bike rides and photos I can use my twelve month anniversary to share a few images from my annual reaffirmation of my cycling credentials, the New Year’s Day Ride. A few more readers this time!

This year’s was a solo. My wife and I walked our dog for a couple of hours in the wind and rain this morning, predicting that this was going to be the best we would get for the day.

However just after lunch the clouds cleared and a dazzling winter sun broke through which encouraged me to keep up my tradition that the year hasn’t started until the first ride. And just as in the last few rides it was a temptation to wander and take in the lanes around my new home in Belgium.

Today I didn’t set out for a specific destination so the significant memory today is just light. Fierce, glaring, reflecting off the roads and lighting up the buildings. At times I could have done with sunglasses and I was almost worried about the effect it could have on drivers. I have heard rather too many excuses about being dazzled at the scene of serious accidents to entirely relax when even I cannot see properly. However the drivers today were few and far between which made it very relaxing.Near Ceroux Brabant Wallon Belgium

So I was able to enjoy the sunlit village green at Ceroux, the extraordinary sunlight off the roads and the beautiful avenue of trees above at Ruart. The avenue reminded me of the art of David Hockney which I enjoyed so much in April, I am sure he would have made much of it.Brabant Wallon Belgium

Peugeot Prologue bikeAnd the riding itself was great, a stiff wind but I deliberately took my trusty winter road bike so I could enjoy spinning lighter wheels and narrow tyres up and around the rolling landscape. It’s a survivor this one, every time I have a new year plan to throw it out somehow it survives another twelve months. £75 for the frame about twelve years ago, the seatpin and chainset stuck solid, the frame rusting in places. But it is always comfortable and familiar and I can ride it across winter roads without a care. Just what I needed.

Happy New Year to all.