London Transport Cycling Illustration Competition

Some really nice illustrations from a competition run by the London Transport Museum, one of the most important collections of graphic art in the world.

cranks.cc : Cycling in Central New Jersey

When I moved to central New Jersey it was a relief to find it wasn't, as The Guardian once described it, the Essex of North America, although, admittedly, parts of it resemble a chemical works from BladeRunner.

Fortunately, large parts of the state are very amenable to riding, either on-road or off-.

On-line, mountainbiking is well catered for by mtnNJ.com, a forum for off-road riders with a lively contributing membership.

Central NJ roadies, meanwhile, do not have a forum for discussion and chat, so I've taken it upon myself to start cranks.cc to give road-riders the chance to have their own on-line discussion board, unaffiliated to any club or organisation.

Ride Like a Girl ...

... especially this one; Nicole Cooke, GBR.

Women's Road Race Gold Beijing Olympics.

Won in great style in atrocious conditions Nicole truly deserves this.

A few years ago I was listening to the radio and they were doing an article about Nicole. If I recall correctly, they were interviewing Malcolm Elliott, a real hard man of British pro cycling, who was by then riding Elite/1st Cat on the British circuit.

One day he turned up for a race only to find, to his surprise, a teenage girl was in the peloton because there were no other women riders who could give her any sort of opposition.

Naturally, Elliot thought no more about this until he was lining up for the finish line sprint when he sensed another rider pressing him for the lead. Looking back he was amazed to see it was Nicole Cooke.

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* image from The Guardian, UK