I first saw this bag in Paris in the early 2000s during one of the evening roller skate rides that happens there every week. A guy dressed all in black spandex, looking like a power ranger complete with full face helmet, had it loaded with a car stereo, powerful speakers and bright LEDs all around. Talk about a first impression!
development / design / triathlon
Archives for category: cycling
I recently learnt that a good friend on mine, Simon (@simonski on twitter) has finally got back on his bike, after several years of “inactivity”. Simon is the one that I looked up to when I arrived in London and regarded him as the uber-biker-knowing-everything-about-bikes at the time, and who helped me chose my first road bike and encourage me to get into doing a small triathlon. As such, he will always be the “cool dude that does triathlons”, no matter what!
In the past years however, he’s got the joyful feeling of raising two lovely boys, and his training somewhat shrunk. Couple that with a few injuries and he wasn’t really motivated to go back doing much (from his own words). I tried to encourage him a few times to get back on his bike and offered to go for a ride together, but we’ve both been busy and didn’t find the time.
But last week-end, he did it! He went back on his bike on a cold day, climbed a few hills and even fell on one, but he’s back! Now that was my moment to give him the nudge I’ve always wanted to give him: get him into a small race once again!
But he wouldn’t do it himself! So… I registered him.
That’s right, Simon is now entered in the Human Race sprint distance triathlon on Sunday 26th May 2013, and I’m sure he’ll do well! I’ll be there to push him along on course. Obviously I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t sure he can do that. In fact, I think he could do an Olympic, but let’s not scare him too much!
Finally, I get to give back, and I feel this is just the beginning.
Some fantastic ideas for the renewal of Twickenham city center.
Please repost and discuss! I’m sure there will be plenty of different views, but let’s all be constructive.
http://pedestrianiselondon.tumblr.com/post/34477053931/love-twickenham-go-dutch
As a follow up on the real heroes story, and to respond to Ivan’s comment about “giving back” there is an interesting development in the cycling world that started a few weeks back and that needs attention from everyone: the idea of a team, and to a greater extent, women’s cycling being backed by cycling enthusiasts. I registered my interest with it almost as soon as it started, and so should you!
Everywhere I now read “enjoy your off-season”, “off-season training plans”, “what to do and eat in the off-season” etc etc… Guess what? It’s NOT the off-season for me yet!
Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote
In 3 weeks time, I’m racing the very first ironman 70.3 Lanzarote and it promises to be an absolute cracker of a race, potentially well suited to my strengths. Out of the three disciplines in triathlon, I’m the best at cycling, and with almost 1300m of elevation gain over 90Km, it should be a tough course in the wind and the heat of the volcanic island. Hopefully I can do my training and my supporters justice with a good race, and check out the place at the same time for next year’s full ironman at the same place.
Off-season? Not yet…
Checkout this LCC essential advice and keep-at-it!! So many risks taken every day when staying behind is so much safer!
This morning I relayed a message from freespeedlondon twitter account on my own timeline, on this blog and on a road.cc forum post. Richard Nye, editor at Sheen Gate for the Richmond Magazine wrote a truly appalling column in the September edition, but I wasn’t quite expecting to see the acerb comments and vilification of my forum post being made.
Let’s be very clear here: I’m not one to claim the man to resign, be sacked or web-lynched, and I have not. Some comments on this story have, and honestly, I disagree. But this information has to be known. To do so, and in the event that the issue gets pulled out or edited of their website, I have, like freespeed and the Richmond Cycling Campaign, saved it so it can still be accessed later on.
We’re pretty much all road users at some point: cyclists, motorists, pedestrians etc… or any combination of those. I’ll happily agree that on both sides there are a minority who don’t abide by the rules, don’t know them or simply don’t care, but by no means they are majority.
The kind of comments made by Richard Nye are just not acceptable. No matter how you want to read the context of the editorial, you cannot retract the words (exactly as they have been printed) “as a daily driver on busy roads, I tend towards the temperate view that the only good cyclist is a dead one”. In or out of context, I cannot see how his response on twitter later on can have any value, claiming to be “misunderstood”. The words are there, he has written them. I’m a daily cyclist, and I try as much as I can to abide by the rules. I’m not perfect either, but I’d like to be safe. And if you don’t even bat an eyelid at this kind of comment (even when made in the editorial of a 40000 copies publication), my guess is that your probably not in the category of road users who would like to share the road peacefully.
road.cc user tony_farelly has rightly pointed out the other distressing cycling news this week, but I also need to tell him the one he didn’t mention: The death of a 79 year old in Walton on Thames, neighbouring borough to Richmond, yesterday 5th September (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-19491400). Maybe that’s something worth spend a bit of time and bile on? I doubt anyone would joke about that.
Maybe, only maybe, the column intended to be humorous, but you’ve got to weigh your words for your audience, and this one wasn’t funny at all. In the most cycle friendly borough in London, with the best place to leisure cycle and train in the capital with Richmond Park in its centre, I think it’s fair enough to publicise it. It is after all our own right of free press too.
I read something quite alarming yesterday in the editor’s column of the September edition of the Richmond and Barnes magazine. Richard Nye (@TheRichmondMag on twitter, The Richmond Magazine / Sheen Gate on facebook) seems to think cyclists are a nuisance, and they should be dead.
Quoted straight from the editorial section of te September issue of the Richmond Magazine:
[...] as a daily driver on busy roads, I tend towards the temperate view that the only good cyclist is a dead one [...]
The rest of the editorial is also worth a read. Appalling views.
Richmond Magazine September 2012 Editorial
The full editorial is available on page 11 of the swanky animated online edition, but if it gets magically removed for whatever reason, here’s a copy of page 11, and of the full September edition.
If you’re a business who’s advertised in this magazine, and especially if you’re a sports related one (Virgin Active, or Moore’s Cycles are in there), I urge you to consider removing your ads from a magazine who’s editor clearly thinks your clients should be dead…
Nothing more to add.
Thanks @freespeedlondon for the initial tip off.