Tomorrow (5th July) the hardest bike race in the world will start once again. The BBC gives us the former tour winner Stephen Roche, Britain’s Sean Yates and British cycling supremo Dave Brailsford, and their views ahead of this years tour.
In another interview, Mark Cavendish looks ahead positively: “it is more than feasible [one, two, or three stage wins], I’m the fastest there at the end of a bike race…”
Fighting talk from Britain’s best, bring on the Tour! or in the words of Udo Bölts, who rode 12 consecutive Tours de France: “Quäl dich, du Sau” [words of encouragement to a cracking Jan Ulrich, literally: "torture yourself, you pig", nice]
Something is brilliant about this video. It may be the catchy pop-romantic tune, or it might be the very cool Mr A bopping about the place, but I suspect that it has a lot to do with the very hot young French lady. Lou Doillon skips around Paris for Cazals’ new video for their song Somebody Somewhere, and I can say that “I do, right now”. Watch the video, then Google Image search.
Sublime or ridiculous? Whatever, there certainly isn’t anything that beats a hand finished touch to your denim. It’s all very well Levi’s producing decent replica Big E jeans, but the quality of those has dropped significantly over the last few years as machines have tried to replicate the ageing details. APC have rectified this “problem” with their Butler Worn Out jeans, properly worn through by real people, I’d imagine each pair to be rather individual and probably very well detailed. Hopefully they’ll have been dry cleaned though.
Vans are in the process of releasing a range of shoes and saddlebags designed with fixie riders in mind. The usual cotton canvas has been replaced with a ballistic nylon (love that description), which means they should be ultra hard-wearing. If they had any sense they would also use a harder compound for the sole, or insert a harder section behind the ball of the foot, so it’s stiffer in the toe clip; but we’ll see. I personally really like the white version. They all have 3M reflective patches, which may or may not help a car see you hurtling down a hill, brakeless, at 40kmh. the white version gets thescrapbook seal of approval.
We’ve mentioned TED before, and it truly is the most inspirational series of lectures, across a broad range of subjects; some of which are not obviously relevant to our lives and careers but all of which enrich us. The Top Ten TED Talks are what they say on the tin. Check the video on the linked page to see a highlights reel, or the links below to view the individual videos themselves. To inspire you a little, consider the most popular talk, viewed 2 1/2 million times and counting, which features neuroscientistJill Bolte Taylor, who observed her own stroke while it was happening.
