Half a power cut – how is that possible?

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

Christmas Eve cycle ride – cobbles and battles

Posted on by

WaterlooChristmas Eve was one of the few times since I started working in Belgium that I have been for a bike ride that was “just a spin”, a proper touring ride through the local lanes.

Previous rides have almost all had a purpose – exploring areas to live, visiting houses and more recently plotting routes to work or to local services. I feel as if I have been waiting weeks for free time to coincide with some gaps in the rain or snow and it just happened to be the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

I decided to cut though the lanes in the general direction of Waterloo, partly because the network of roads look interesting on the map and also because I wondered how much I could ride around the historic site of the 1815 battle.

It was really refreshing to be pottering about and with time to take some photos. When I returned three impressions were left on my mind.

Firstly I was good to be moving at bike speed through the villages and hamlets rather than by car so I could enjoy the vernacular architecture glowing in the winter sunshine, especially the white painted farmhouses which dot the fields and the solid brick churches marking the village centres.Lasne, BelgiumPlancenoitLasne

Waterloo Chemin des CosaquesBattles are not really my thing but I want to know more about my new home and the Battle of Waterloo is by far the biggest deal in this region, undoubtedly one of the most pivotal battles in European history. The main Waterloo battlefield is actually south of the town itself and include the communes of Braine L’Alleud and Lasne while the events leading up to the battle stretch many kilometres away to Wavre and Genappe, right across the area I am now living.

I was first aware that I had hit the battlefield proper when I came across the first of many roads named after the troops and leaders of in the battle. And then bouncing across the cobbles and potholes I looked up from my concentration on the road ahead to see the Butte de Lion, the huge pyramid -like mound built by William 1st of the Netherlands to mark the event.Waterloo Belgium

It isn’t the most attractive memorial in the world but it is certainly a major landmark in the surrounding agricultural landscape which only dips away gradually. At least around its base there is only a limited amount of tourist exploitation while the older buildings mark their association with the flags of all sides and not much other adornment.

Waterloo BelgiumHowever the thing that really struck me was that I could ride right up beside the monument and then head out across the fields on my bike, I am sure in most countries this would be closely guarded and only accessible by paying customers. Alongside the path were interpretation boards in multiple languages which set out the main features of the battle. I was able to swing across the ridge defended by the British against the French cavalry charges accompanied by several joggers and the car we collectively pushed out of the mud in a burst of international collaboration.

Battlefield path WaterlooSo I can mark that one down as somewhere to bring cycling visitors with an interest in history, a bike is a really good way to move around the big area covered by the battle and get a sense of the topography.

Ah, but there is a catch. My third and final discovery was the state of the roads in this direction. I may have moaned a bit about rough cycle paths earlier in the year but for the first time on this trip I hit some of the real stuff, proper domed pavé with deep ruts down either side. Front lamp lasted about a minute before it had to be removed but the rest of the bike and I rattled bumped and bounced all over the place with little semblance of control or momentum. Only a relatively short section fortunately but it caught me by surprise.

Cobbles of LasneLater I tried my best to imitate Tom Boonen, going full bore down the centre crest on a similar section which seemed to work better but it was tough keeping it going and no fun at all when momentum was lost. A few of the minor roads are theoretically smooth now but when the tarmac wears away the thinly covered cobbles are exposed and make impressive potholes, a tricky combination after all the wet weather.Waterloo cobbles

In other areas the cobbling is more decorative, in fact it looks like it is used as a sort of traffic calming because many of the road junctions and village entrances had short sections in just the right places to discourage car speed. These more modern sections are relatively tame for a cyclist and in general the drivers show a lot of respect to cyclists, certainly better than in Brussels.

All in all I loved my return to pottering about the lanes and the discovery of the countryside, the history and even those cobbles. I look forward to much more, but for the moment I was refreshed for Christmas.

A cycling country for hard riders – where cyclocross is a major sport

Posted on by

I always knew Belgium was mad for cycle sport and that it is the main home of the winter variant of the sport – cyclocross. It’s a much older offroad cycle sport than mountain biking, carried out on adapted road bikes.

But I have been highly entertained as for the second week in a row I have bumped into cyclocross on live TV as a major event of the day and the Dutch speaking radio station I had on while cooking a meal led with the cross results as the lead sports headline. A nice bonus, I had been anticipating watching some of the Belgian road classics later in the spring but I had forgotten all about the cyclocross.

Today showed why this has always been an event for hard riders, historically mainly men. The kind of rider who likes to keep a clean bike and mechanical perfection would recoil in horror from the pouring rain, the ankle deep mud and the grinding sand. Perfectly suited to the image of Belgium as the country of riders on and off road who like conditions really horrible.

Today’s Superprestige series race at Diegem had the added twist of being run off under floodlights and street lamps only enhancing the sense of being closed in by the storm. And despite the conditions it appeared to attract a good crowd. All the pictures are on copyrighted sites so I won’t put one here, but try here for some good ones.

I loved cross when I was a kid, I was absolutely useless at it because I lacked the power and strength to be any good. But when it turned really horrible I was always worth a few extra places just because it put off some of the speed merchants. So in the middle of the wettest winters ever in northern Europe I am very happy to be tucked up indoors and to salute the kings of the mud. I guess before the season ends I had better get myself out there and actually watch one.

Cyclists’ Christmas greetings from around Europe

Posted on by

Magyar KerekparosklubIt has been really nice to get a mixed selection of cycling themed Christmas greetings popping into the inbox. Now I can steal one or two to make my own Christmas message.

I’m sure the general standard is getting higher every year, but there will always be a case for a bunch of cyclists dressed as Santa on their way to a party, at least in Stevenage! And Copenhageners just can’t help showing off their levels of cycling can they?

My personal favourite is the one above from the Hungarian Cyclists Club. I think the wording is just perfect, it sums up my philosophy of cycling completely and is the perfect antidote to those who bring their tribalism to our great pastime, transport and sport. Goodwill to all cyclists from me.

Best wishes for the season.

Ukrainian Cyclists AssociationSanta's Cycles StevenageLedbury Xmas e cardCopenhagen Christmas 2012

Celebrating classic Italian bike heritage

Posted on by

cropped-epoca-header.jpgThis is the first of my Christmas holiday posts where I catch up on some of the missing subjects I promised myself I would write about at the time and never quite got round to. Some reflections, maybe a few thanks, but above all else the things I can catch up on when the rain is howling in horizontally across the countryside and it is time for another piece of cake.

Among this year’s new discoveries that I wanted to share were some of Europe’s communities of vintage racing bike enthusiasts. I had frequently marveled at the massive queues for what I could only characterised as a “load of old scrap” when I visited some of the popular bike rallies in the UK but the scale of the sector had passed me by.

However I do know that I always enjoyed seeing a restored classic and this year I have learned so much more about the community and culture behind the world of classic bikes.

GB, WeinmannFirstly I started a rather urgent mission to reduce the volume of cycling stuff I was going to relocate to Belgium. I knew I had a couple of nice classic bikes that needed a good home because I was never going to give them due respect. But I had no idea that when I delved into my old bits box I would be uncovering the items that power a whole community of collectors and restorers.

Crossed flad head badge Freddie Grubb FixieSecondly I began the long drawn out process of restoring my own period classic.  I conceived the project over a year ago on my 50th birthday because the bike itself is of a similar vintage and frankly at fifty there are not so many toys you can buy a bloke. But it was only this year that I got the frame refurbed and started to think properly about the parts.

In both cases I have been hugely impressed by the community over on www.retrobike.co.uk , there just doesn’t seem to be anything that they don’t know about bike bits. And the ability to identify a part or a bike from just a single photo or a clumsy description is only matched by their ability to conjure up just the missing part from a secret store, often in mint condition.

I had carried a bit of a prejudice that this was a mainly British community of eccentrics with some similar enthusiasts in North America. The tribe runs on a diet of old English handmade frames and the period components that go with them.  However it hasn’t taken long in my travels this year to discover that there is an alternative theme that runs across Europe, one that runs on pure Italian vintage, with Colnago and Bianchi at its head. Just goes to show how little I really know about anything when I make assumptions about national character.

First I found the amazing Bikelager in Vienna – café, galley and homage to the finest Italian frames and bikes which I mentioned in one of my Vienna posts in May.  I am looking forward to paying them another visit next year for one of the coolest coffees in town.

Bikelager Wien

Then I in September my newest discovery was Bici D’Epoca, (“Bikes of the ages”) the period bike exhibition at the Padua Cycle Show. As with everything Italian and cycling from this period the twin gods of Coppi and Bartali looked down on everything. I guess it is a form of insurance for the company that they have to give equal billing to both.

It was a feast of Campagnolo, Bianchi, clothing and parts stretching over more than 50 years. Coppi’s 1954 World Championship winning bike as star, but I enjoyed just as much bikes with local histories such as the tandem from the local Padova club which was used to win an Italian national championship, complete with black and white photos of its riders. Coppi's 1954 Bianchi

Vintage Cinelli TandemSo despite being surrounded by some of the most exciting modern bikes on the planet I kept sneaking back to their stall at the Padua fair to soak up some of the legends.

Bici D'Epoca Bici D'Epoca Classic Italian Cycling Tops

The spiritual home of this stuff and one of the drivers of the rediscovery of the era has become the classic ride L’Eroica (“the heroic one”)  which has spawned a whole generation of spinoff rides including a Giro d’Italia d’Epoca. These rides only allow riders to compete on classic bikes with period clothing to preserve the classic images of the sport. L’Eroica itself was created to draw attention to the paving over of the legendary white dirt roads of Tuscany. It can be credited with the decision by the organisers of the Giro D’Italia to take one of the monuments of cycling over little known dirt tracks, days which have changed the destiny of the race. And a professional version of the L’Eroica in the spring is fast becoming a classic. Together they have rehabilitated both the strada bianchi and the classic bikes of Italy.

I almost imagined I had a small part in the original Eroica this year because one of the participants was credited in the event reports with wearing “some natty punched leather Gianni Motta shoes”,   the ones I had sold him just a few weeks before just for the occasion. Now I know that this is a proper missing link in my cycling CV, one for the bucket list to be sure.

So when I could be putting up more blog posts, riding my bike or restoring my own bike I seem to be able click around for ages www.bicidepoca.com for their events, parts, accessories, clothing, historical articles and some great photos of the bikes including the story about that Coppi championship winning bike. And if not I will be sneaking my regular look at www.retrobike.co.uk to see if anyone really does need some of my old tat, for say the price of a cup of coffee?

Today’s music to ride bikes by: “Slip sliding away”. Must change that tyre!

Posted on by

I haven’t updated my “Music to ride bikes by” blog page in ages, I think my head has been too full of other stuff for songs to sneak in and take over.

Not today!

Within minutes of starting to pick my way through the fresh fallen snow even my intense concentration was taken over by Paul Simon’s “Slip sliding away”.

There is little doubt that it was prompted by my two wheeled behaviour. The Belgian schoolboys trudging alongside the road were highly entertained by the chap doing a 180 degree spin in front of them and wobbling off down the hill sliping from side to side.

No real risk, a friend has given me an almost car free back route to the station. But I am a victim of my own complacency. I am a huge fan of the puncture proof Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres, over 10 years since I first reviewed them for the CTC magazine and still puncture free. But this does mean I put them on the bike and completely ignore them until the carcass completely falls apart. This is exposed at some point each year when the bike becomes mysteriously unstable on mud, snow or ice and I finally look down to discover the rear is completely bald.

Today appears to have been that day, thus Paul Simon is now in my head for the rest of the day.

Over to you Paul.

What else would today’s Belgian train be made of other than chocolate?

Posted on by

Brussels Midi stationBrussels Midi stationBrussels MidiJust walking through the main Brussels station, not really paying attention because it was early in the morning and I was off to the Netherlands.

So I did an almightly double-take when my path was crossed by a huge model train, in fact two model trains with absolutely wonderful detailing. Made of chocolate! And a world record apparently, over a tonne in weight and 30 metres long.Brussels Midi station

Now that is how to celebrate your national obsession with chocolate. I’ll have one of these for Christmas please Santa.