STUFFE

A Velocast Jersey, in a Mirror, Yesterday.

VELOCAST AGAIN
A reminder that the Velocast's daily tour podcasts can be found at their site.

Also, those of you who are already fans, and ordered your Velocast jersey (made by Shutt Velo Rapide) should be receiving yours soon. Mine is pictured above - I'm hoping to do a proper review soon (as the jersey will be similar to Shutt's others, I imagine). The potted version is that the quality is hugely impressive, and worryingly making me wonder why all my jerseys aren't this nice. Who'd have thought that two gentlemen in Peebles, and a company based in Ilkley would be responsible for giving me a taste for the finer things in life?

A slightly better pic (arms length self portraits being challenging at the best of times).

OTHER TOUR FIXES
ITV Have started their daily podcast again for the tour, which is here.

ITV's show is presented by Matt Rendell, and is really good so far - Chris Boardman provides the insider knowledge, there are good interviews, and Jill Douglas, as something of a newcomer to the tour, gives some useful insight (and her enthusiasm for the race is quite contagious).

Cyclingnews' podcasts are here.

I've found Cyclingnews' tour show to be pretty good as well - the team they have commenting on the race is excellent, and the interviews have been good so far too.

Bizarrely both ITV and Cyclingnews seem to have gone out of their way to make the shows difficult to find from their tour homepages, it seems to me.

'ZUP DAWG
Cosmo at Cyclocosm has channelled a meme I was hitherto completely unaware of in a cycling direction.

Cosmo also has some good commentary on the events of Stage 2, here. Although Cervelo were unhappy about the neutralisation (and rightly so, as their GC contender had managed to get to the bottom of the Stockeau safely, with 3 minutes or so in hand) he wonders whether their deference to the decision has paid dividends in the following stage. As ever, thought provoking and worth reading.

TOP 50 CYCLISTS OF THE MODERN ERA
The Team Chef's ongoing project has been updated with pre-tour scores, including an adjustment for Alejandro Valverde following his suspension. The update is here, and explanations of the top 50 scoring method can be found here (link is to part 1 of the scroing system, click through for the second part).

IF IT WASN'T FOR BAD LUCK
Garmin Transitions are having a bad tour so far, sadly - Christian Vande Velde has retired, and Tyler Farrar is carrying a couple of injuries (including a fractured wrist, imagine riding pavé with that). There's a good interview with Tyler on their site here about carrying his injuries, and what happenned on the Stockeau in stage 2. Technical types can also look at the data the team's collected for their riders (including Julian Dean's second place) on the site.

COZY BEEHIVE
This site's "Cycling Shorts" is a bit like Stuffe, only good. Lots of interesting links and commentary on there, from Sky refusing to "embed" Paul Kimmage, to the revelation that Lance is now interviewed by laptop, something so laughable and demeaning to journalists that I genuinely wonder if it's an attempt to see how far they'll go to get a quote from him.

BIKEHUGGER MAKES ME JEALOUS
Of this (not the Clif bars, I just like Team Garmin, and Musettes) and these.

BIZZARRO CORNER
Urban Velo reports that in Bartonville (where?) any group of 10 or more cyclists must travelling together in the city must apply for a permit to do so 45 days in advance. At a cost of $50. No word on whether the popular "traffic jam" and "rush hour" events favoured by motorists in a lot of cities are exempt or not.

One thought occurring to me is that these tiny places I've never heard of may be trying to put themselves on the map by passing weird bylaws, on the basis that the only thing worse than being talked about...

COMICS
Drawn.ca has this look at page flow in comics from Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O'Malley.

ART
I can't say it better than this;

"Let us celebrate the wonderful cheesiness and eye-popping kid-allowance-bait futurism of these 1960’s and 70’s magazine and plastic model kit box illustrations by Japanese illustrator Shigeru Komatsuzaki."

I completely agree - the article (at Lines and Colors) is here.

GRUMPY WEEK
I'm not sure what it is about this week, but so far I've had two punishment passes on the bike, by people who felt the need to mouth stuff at me through their closed passenger windows. For the uninitiated, or those living in civilised countries, a punishment pass is a deliberately close overtake by a motorist.

Genius number one did so as I passed cars parked in the bike lane (his car being a silver, 02 reg BMW him being fat, 50 ish and bald) so he could make a left turn about 1 second ahead.

Genius number two was a youngish fellow (mid 20s, dark haired) in an old red hatchback (possibly a Polo), who passed so he could reach a set of stop lights 2 seconds before me (to add to the irony, I take a filter lane on green at these lights, which may make his manoeuvre even more pointless).

Both incidents trouble me, because, whilst I'm fairly used to indifference, inattention and impatience from some drivers, active malice is fairly rare. The thought that someone is willing to put me in hospital (or worse) because they don't know their Highway Code (I do, and I ride according to it), and are stupid enough to want to risk a crash to prove a point is a worry too.

I'm hoping these two drivers represent a statistical "blip" of some sort, especially as coping with the rain, and headwinds of recent days is quite challenge enough.

STUFFE

TIPS FOR CYCLISTS

This is really very funny. I especially like the shouting out the window bit (that it comes out as un-intelligible garbage is entirely true, personally I always imagine it's a compliment about my bottom, or something.)

OUT RAPHA'ED

Moncler Gamme Bleu Spring/Summer 2011 Runway from LAT Videos on Vimeo.

Moncler launched a cycling themed haute couture collection at the Vigorelli velodrome. Whilst I'm not certain the gear will be as good for riding in as Rapha's undoubtedly is, (those bike pattern capes in particular look like a colossal pain in the arse) it's certainly going to be more expensive.

Cycling Weekly has its own take here.

The only problem I have with cycling being fashionable, is that at some point, it inevitably becomes unfashionable once again. Once the trendies ditch it, what happens then? The optimists hope that the majority of people keep pedalling, having seen the convenience of getting about a city by bike. I hope they're right.

COMMUNITY PACE CARS
I love this idea. As noted on the Urban Velo blog;

Basically you get a black and yellow diamond shape car window sticker with Pace Car on it. By having this sticker you agree to abide by the road rules and be courteous to cyclists (and obey the 1.5 meter rule) and pedestrians.

It's simple, and it's done by one of the few road users motor traffic will take notice of, i.e. other motor traffic. It's sad that everyone can't drive in the way the pace car programme suggests (after all, this is how they're taught to drive) but the idea of setting an example with your own driving is an excellent one.

NEW!
There's a new Velocast!

BELGIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

"But the riders make the race, and here's where Belgium is unique. Almost everywhere else the top riders are guarding their form. Only in Belgium can top international stars be planning as much for their home nats as for the Tour -- or more so, in some cases."

A good piece at Podium Café about the Belgian National Championships.

"NONE OF US IS THE FAVOURITE"
There seem to be echoes of last year's "The road will decide" attitude in this year's pronouncements from Mr. Armstrong about the tour.

STUFFE

FIRST THINGS FIRST
A somewhat redundant bit here, as if you know about The Velocast, you already know about their new team kit. But on the offchance that you don't, John and Scott have teamed up with Shutt Velo Rapide and Rocket Fuel Style to offer a sportwool jersey and hand made cycling cap respectively.

Quite a lot of shows and forums do kit, and it tends to be nice, but usually fairly run of the mill synthetic jerseys. I'm quite excited to see Velocast going for something as nice as the Shutt jerseys - sportwool is a really practical fabric for cycling. Merino (its main constituent) doesn't stink the way synthetics do, and manages your temperature much better. (Sometimes riding in synthetic jerseys you'll be forever donning & removing gilets &c to try & stay comfortable - that just doesn't seem necessary with merino). It's pricey (although Shutt's prices tend not to be that much more than a decent quality polyester team jersey) but nothing else is quite like it. If you've never owned a merino / sportwool jersey, this offer is a good opportunity to pick one up & give it a whirl. If you have owned one, you'll know already of course.

The other thing you should be excited about is the people they're using - I've spoken about Shutt before, they're good at what they do, and take a pride in it (they also source and manufacture here in Britain). Rocket Fuel have a similar attitude to their work, and have done really nice bespoke caps for cycling teams, as well as offering a range "pret a porter".

There's a page showing the proposed designs, and information on how to express your interest here.

(Oh, and if you don't know about the Velocast, and have the slightest interest in cycling, you can find the podcast, which will make you happier than a cyclist with a garage full of bicycles, here).

THE BIKESHOW PODCAST
Another Monkey favourite returns this week, Resonance FM's "The Bike Show", presented by Jack Thurston. OwenP (whose blog you should be following, it's better than this one) reviewed The Bike Show as part of his round up of cycling podcasts. For me, the joy of the Bike Show is its coverage of different topics within cycling, from bike jumbles, to camping out to follow the Tour of Flanders, to pressing issues like LGV safety in the capital. Jack's a great presenter and interviewer, and his show is well worth listening to.

GIRO D'ITALIA
Cosmo has an interesting take on the action so far, in this piece "Maybe all Grand Tours Should Start in the Netherlands";

"in real-world wind tunnels, cycling’s as much about Spider Sense as anything else. Finding your way onto the right wheel; anticipating nervous moments and getting a good position before the battle starts; knowing which splits will take care of themselves and which you should bury yourself closing—these are the elements that get Grand Tour champions through the first week."

Time will tell, I guess, but my personal take is that the Giro's organisers have made these first stages a little too chaotic. Whilst I'm no fan of the sort of "freeway" racing we sometimes see, there has to be some kind of middle ground that leaves the riders less susceptible to caprice than stage 2 and 3 seemed to.

Cyclingnews has this round up of the favourites' performances, from the Gazzetta Dello Sport. I can't help thinking that they're fundamentally underestimating Sastre. One of his qualities is the way he creeps up the GC seemingly without anyone noticing - added to which, he seems a thoroughly nice bloke. Whilst that latter quality isn't something that matters too much in racing, it's a quality that's endeared him to this monkey - I hope to see him do well once the race hits the mountains.

I was also gutted for Christian VandeVelde, who's out of this year's Giro following a crash (fortunately not as nasty as last year's). There's more detail over at Team Garmin-Transitions' site. I can't help thinking that I should stop picking VdV for my fantasy Giro team, as I seem to be jinxing him.

Whilst there's been a degree of outrage about a certain Mr. Vinokourov getting into the Maglia Rosa, he has, at least, served the full ban he was given, and no one's made any exceptions to get him a pro-tour ride ahead of time. I'm not sure it's reasonable of us as fans to expect the returning rider to be repentant and penitent as a condition of allowing them to race.

Which isn't to say that I wouldn't rather have seen someone else in pink, but the way people have been talking, you'd think Vino had an EPO drip attached to his bike, or something.

Sort of on the topic of the Giro, I'm finding it very difficult to become enthused abotut he Tour of California, in this first year that it runs at the same time as the Giro. Maybe it's different for folk in the 'States, but it looks a bit second string compared to a race with as long a history as the Corsa Rosa - hopefully I can get into the swing of things once racing starts.

REMEMBER THE CLASSICS
Pavé blog has a nice round up of stuff that they didn't have chance to post in the spring.

Not sure I agree with him about the new "trend" in cycling photography - personally, I'd call that underexposed, although it's of a piece with the "hipstamatic" iPhone app in that it fetishises the limitations of poor lenses and expired film stock. The irony of the B&W shot is that black and white film is so forgiving of hamfistedness that you'd have to try hard to underexpose as far as the example pic seems to. Ilford's HP5+, a monkey favourite, has to be seriously mishandled, or poorly scanned to lose so much shadow detail - knowing that makes the new style seem terribly affected, somehow.

FLORIDIANS!
Bike Commuter blog has a worrying piece about some local legislation being proposed, HB971 into which a provision has been inserted;

"Unbeknownst to Florida Bicycle Association, a mandatory bike lane use provision was included in the Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles bill. The bill also allows local governments to permit mopeds, golf-carts and other motorized vehicles on sidewalks and trails."

the thought of being forced by law to use some of the poorly thought out, even more poorly maintained and downright dangerous strips of green paint that pass for cycle infrastructure in the UK fills me with dread - unless that in Florida bucks this trend, this is a worrying development. The article provides a link for concerned Florida cyclists to contact their governor on the issue.