We briefly touched last month on the MY BIKE exhibition in Paris. Hosted by the Cohens at their design emporium Merci, the show was planned with serious bicycle historians and style conscious urban commuters in mind. Fortunately, plenty of both camps made it to the opening night in January, and plenty more have continued to fetch up at the door, hopeful of a glimpse at the future of cycling and cyclewear, as well as its past.
Talking to Zimbabwe’s Seán Conway, one gets the impression of dealing with a man who has a lot of irons in the fire. This makes him no different from the rest of the riders signed up to take a shot at the Guinness world record for fastest circumnavigation of the earth in 2012. But with incidental things likes overseeing solar power projects for schools in Africa, endurance canoeing marathons, swimming the Channel, and even booking transfer flights to keep him occupied, you could almost forget the small matter of an entire planet which will very soon need to be lapped by bike. As quickly as possible. But not Seán.
Besides raising money for Solar Aid, why are you doing this?
Scenes from the hard road, with new Guinness record holder Alan Bate.
Those intrepid souls gunning for a place in the record books when they leave London by bike on February 18th as part of the World Cycle Racing Grand Tour have just had their job made that little bit harder.
We mentioned on the Brooks Blog earlier this week that a rumour was doing the rounds of a soon to be ratified finishing time of somewhere in the region of a hundred days for one complete circumnavigation of the earth.
And bear in mind that the previous best had been set by Vin Cox, and stood at 163 days.
Both Brooks and PEDALeD will be represented at the MYBIKE exhibition in Paris.
No major world city has remained untouched by the resurgence of bicycling as a means of undertaking one’s urban commute, or simply getting around. And by any scale of measurement, we can probably all agree that Paris is a major world city.
It was with this in mind that we took a look last week at one of our Parisian Brooks Supreme Dealers Of Excellence, and today take a look today at MY BIKE, an upcoming exhibition taking place in Paris. It will showcase some should-haves for the bicycliste looking to cut a smart yet practical dash both on and off two wheels.
Niels Albert, left, reckons Sven Nys was probably the better man on the day. Or does he?
“Sven was the strongest today. That’s how it works in a race. The best would win today on a course like this and that was Sven today.”
Seemingly innocuous, but on closer inspection potentially loaded with HIDDEN MEANING, wouldn’t you say? It all depends on the stress given to specific words, or the judicious placement of a comma or full stop.
The quote in question comes from the gracious mouth of Niels Albert, “First Runner Up” and defending champion at last weekend’s Belgian National Cyclocross Championship. Second is going to hurt at the best of times, but at the BNCXC, that most Cyclocross of Cyclocross events, the pain must have been close to unbearable.
Joséphine Reitzel and Raphaël Pfeiffer, both from Lausanne, Switzerland are this year’s male and female Cycle Messenger Champions of Europe. They won their laurels in July at the 2011 ECMC which took place for the first time in Madrid.
An incomparable vista. Riding the twisting, gravelly tracks of Chianti at L’Eroica. (Photo Dustin Nordhus, Cicli Berlinetta)
The dust has quite literally begun to settle once again in northern Italy, where a few weeks back Gaiole played host to a couple of thousand cyclists set on recreating the feel of a bike race entirely devoid of Carbon Fibre, Synthetic Isotonic Potions, System Pedals, or any other development conceived over the past thirty years to make a ride last less long.
Of course we’re talking about L’Eroica, and Brooks was once again a proud sponsor of the event. Shortly before this year’s instalment we managed to get in touch with our good friend Mark Reber, who was making the trip over from the United States. He kindly agreed to collect some of his impressions of the weekend and commit them to paper for us, while taking many fine photographs (MR), some of which are interspersed below with those of his friend Rodger Lynch (RL) and Dustin Nordhus (DN). Now read on…
A flavour of L’Eroica’s 2010 instalment from the Tweed Run‘s own Ted Young-Ing. (Bregan and Tim doing their best for the camera)
“The organization will not admit riders with farcical or ironic clothing or behaviour.” (Excerpt from the 2011 Rules and Regulations)
As autumn approaches, 500 lucky non-Italians are doubtless polishing their first generation Campa Gruppos, Proofiding their leather helmets and scouring vintage stores for a decent woollen maglia. Yes, Siena’s l’Eroica is once again soon upon us!
Mikael Cycle-Chic Andersen loading up his cargo bike at the Danish Championships last week. The outstanding photoset from Anders Hviid can be viewed here
Alright then, hands up. Who knows what a “Svajerløbet” is?
Of course, no one does. Alright then, on with today’s post.
Beady bicycling eyes were trained on Copenhagen last week for more than just the latest offering from the man who has given innumerable cities the gift of Cycle Chic. The World Cycling Championships were underway there since Monday (well done Mr. Cavendish!) and if this wasn’t already enough, the third annual Danish Cargo Bike Championships or “Svajerløb” took place over the preceding weekend, curtain raiser to the fun and games on offer from the UCI.
Readers will recall last month how we mentioned our planned involvement with Intelligence Squared on their ‘Cycling Festival’ project at the Royal Geographical Society.
Opening Night at Merci.
