The Tragic Fallout Of Doping Cheats
After the mega-cheat, Lance Armstrong’s theatrical performance, last night, Nicole Cooke this morning made an impassioned plea for the victims of those, like the drug-fuelled Texan. She said, that she had lost medals because others cheated by doping when competing against her.
I remember the 1960s, when athletics was ruined by the Soviet Block, who took everything that a chemist could devise. Look at the career of our greatest-ever female sprinter; Kathy Smallwood-Cook, who would be in a totally different league, if competition had been fair and square. It has always puzzled me, how Mary Peters ever won that pentathlon gold in the 1972 Munich Olympics. If you look at the women’s athletics results at that games, few medallists are not from the Soviet Block. There are a few West German medals, but then they had home advantage and London 2012 showed how that helps drammatically. I do remember watching that pentathlon, with C on a terrible black and white television, when Mary Peters, was almost willed over the high jump bar by masses of British troops based in Germany, who somehow had got tickets.
Where would the careers of some retired clean athletes be, if they had competed fair and square?
Cheats like Armstrong have a lot to answer for! He should be prosecuted for fraud and perhaps asked to spend some time in a nice cosy Texas jail.
Something Concrete About Cycle Safety
I was waiting for a bus, when I heard a voice repeating.
This lorry is turning left.
It turned out it was a recorded message on this cement lorry.
Something Concrete About Cycle Safety
I think it could be a good idea. Except for deaf cyclists.
Bad Karma
My financial advisor has just left on his bicycle to go home to South West London. I did suggest as it was raining that he cycle to Canonbury station and get the North London line most of the way.
He didn’t as he said that was Bad Karma.
Brighton Has A Bicycle Problem
Or at least as far as I’m concerned it does!
Brighton Has A Bicycle Problem
I don’t bump into them now, as my eyesight is better. But I used to.
Pavements should be pleasant places to walk, not obstacle courses.
Cyclehoops By Selfridges
I found these two cyclehoops by Selfridges today.
One seemed to have had a bicycle part-nicked from it, bt the other was ready to do its job.
I Picked Up A Fallen Woman Last Night
Not one of Gladstone’s Ladies of the Night, but a young Estonian, who’d had a pedal failure on her bike last night, and virtually ended up in the road in front of a bus.
It could be that someone had made that mistake of forcing a right hand thread nut on the side, where you need a left hand thread.
It’s a common mistake. I did it in the 1950s and I still remembered.
Sporting Trophy Of The Week
The Tour of Britain cycle race started this week in Ipswich. The first stage took them from the county town of Suffolk to Norwich.
Kristian House was listed as the winner of the King of the Mountains for the stage!
Cyclehoops
I hadn’t heard of Cyclehoop until I saw a piece about how they have got a large export order from Vancouver, on the strength of their presence at the Olympics.
I like them, as hopefully, they’ll tidy up bikes on the streets and we’ll get less clutter that I’ll walk into. Admittedly, I do it less now, as my eyesight may not be perfect, but I’ve learned how to use it properly.
One thing I like about the design is that they are compact and can be very bright, so they aren’t among that large class of street furniture you trip over.
I’ll be looking out for some in use.
On another matter, their web site is very professional.
They also fulfil my theory, that there are many ways to redesign what we already have.
Looking at the gallery on the web site, you see too that it’s not a one-product company. They’re more a solutions company, that you go to when you want to park any number of bikes, from one to several thousands.
Bicycles On The Emirates Air-Line
Although, they say it’s possible on the web site, but I’d never seen bicycles being carried across on the cable-car before today.
As you can see, the seats tip up and the bikes are strapped in by the attendant.
I was in the gondola behind and there was no hold-up at all.
An Insult To Ipswich and Suffolk
The Tour of Britain cycle race starts this morning in Ipswich. The BBC radio traffic reports placed Ipswich in Norfolk.
They did correct it later. Or in fact, they didn’t repeat it again.
But yet again Suffolk is treated badly by the media. As it is by government, where more funding always goes to North Anglia.
