26 Feb Espoir Education Program
Espoir Education Program Imagine you have aerobic talent and a nice collection of junior trophies sitting proud on the shelf beside the TV. You are committed, and not overly fussed on...
18 Jan Why Merino?
Last winter, we began the hunt for a base layer that performed in the cold; after our own polyester offering, we decided, was rubbish. That, and two other man-made layers I owned, left me feeling cold and clammy even after stopping at traffic lights. I...
01 Jan Cycling Etiquette, (pronounced EHT uh keht.)
A whispered code of behaviour helps our community pedal in rotund, harmony together. Not just an arbitrary set of rigid rules concerning the proper dress for racing, but bike protocol, to put order to all cycling-good-manners. Customs introduced, to combat the reality that some cyclists...
15 Dec Return of Big Plate?
For sure I can remember the race like it was yesterdays. We had left Armentières with a good steak and BigPlate was feeling much strength. He said over breakfast how his father had taken many German shrapnel in the fields near here during ze war. So today...
04 Oct The Razored legs
The public hold us cyclists, on a pedestal. They gasp wide-eyed at tales of the hilly hundred miler or the chain gang tapping of 120kms on Sunday morning in a pleasant three and a half hours. “You went how far!” thinks the general public with...
31 Jul Arm Warmers.
There are 13 pairs of arm warmers in a box beside me. All medium, each have been worn at least once. We have paid from 8 US$ to £45 for each of the collection. Each pair have a simple duty to warm the arms, whilst...
23 May The last hour.
The AnPost Ras is one of the few events in the sporting world where the 'clubman' racing cyclist, can sign-on with a streak of smooth professional bikers. The full time riders, on the hard roads of Ireland don't always get their own way. Passion explodes from...
25 Apr Late for his shit work, or early for his cheating wife.
He sounded like an ambulance of anger, the way he yelled out the window at us. All red faced and scary and wrong. “GET off the phuckinn rRr….” was all I got before his rage was lost in diesel smoke and speed. On any 100km spin...
03 Apr RVV……………………it’s Flanders weekend
A Nervous wreck. The same, distant gitters are bubbling in my belly the week before I wed. The nerves portray the full excitement of Flanders week. Tomorrow at 5am, I will board a budget airlines, pay the GDP of a rebel African state for a mucky coffee and...
20 Mar Z= 1mm/1 year.
" Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating, is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree rings" The coffee stop today heralded the new theory that we could age slightly older cyclists in the same manner : (30+y)/ {x =z}F Where 'y' is the riders age over 30 'z'...