The Oktoberfest Final Week: Win The Sufferfest’s ‘A Very Dark Place’
First of all, congratulations to Heather Shearer and Marc Durdin who were the winners from the previous two weeks – both get to download and enjoy The Sufferfest’s latest training video A Very Dark Place.
Heather impressed us with her story of being undettered by the freezing temperatures of Saskatchewan – the road race she had entered my have been cancelled, but there’s always some crazy randonneurs ready to risk life and frost-bitten limb to ride their bikes through sub-zero temperatures. When water sprayed up from the road freezes on your cassette, limiting you to just a couple of gears, you know the conditions are tough. But despite this, she completed the 200km ride through Prince Albert National Park – an achievement worthy of any self-respecting Sufferlandrian.
Marc’s prize should really be passed onto his friend, the subject of his entry – having sprinted clear of the field in the final metres, our hapless hero unshipped his chain in a bravura display of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. But if we find he was shifting down gears, we reserve the right to refuse him his prize.
For this week the prize will go to someone displaying the reflexes of a cat, the cunning of a fox, the lightening speed of a cheetah – we’re only interested in winners this time…
Pearson Cycles 2012: ‘A Cunning Plan’
Heritage, authenticity, history – what most bike brands wouldn’t give for just a fraction of Pearson Cycle’s.
A lot has changed since their first shop set up for business 150 years ago, and no more has this been evident than in the most recent of those years. Fads and fashions have come and gone, technology has progressed, and the bicycle industry has matured. But amongst it all has been a prevailing trend to look backwards.
Steel frames continue to survive in the face of carbon, and bike brands new and old continue to plunder the history books for inspiration. You’d forgive Pearson for sharing the same nostalgic outlook, but for Britain’s oldest bike shop the future isn’t boxed-in by its past – their new 2012 range reveals a brave break from tradition.
The Oktoberfest Week 3: Win The Sufferfest’s ‘A Very Dark Place’
Last week we offered you the chance to win a copy of The Sufferfest’s latest training video A Very Dark Place. All you had to do was regale us with a tale of heroic suffering – riding through the cold, riding through injury, or riding against the good advice of other more sane and rational people. However, after being inundated the previous week when we sought from you stories of failure, my worst fears about my readership were once again confirmed – aside from the few hardy souls able to boast about overcoming suffering and achieving glory, the rest of you are all weak, soft, sorry excuses for cyclists. It’s clear this blog attracts losers rather than winners.
So this week we’re returning to safer – and perhaps more familiar for you lot – territory. We want to know about the time you managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…
The Oktoberfest Week 1 Winner!
Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s The Sufferfest competition, but there could only be one winner (don’t despair however, as there’s still time to enter week 2 of the competition here). Or should that be loser? We asked you to share your stories of cycling humiliation, your suffering through shame. We had lots of great entries, the best of which are shared below, but the story that really had us flinching was Dan Williams’s warning tale of what can happen when riding after eating a dodgy curry the night before. Dan, hope you enjoy your copy of A Very Dark Place, as finding riding partners might not be so easy after everyone reads this…
‘City Cycle Style’ photography exhibition at The Royal Exchange
Yesterday lunchtime I strolled across town to The Royal Exchange to check out their ‘City Cycle Style’ photography exhibition. Initially I made the mistake of actually wandering into the building itself; but as the eyes of the wealthy and influential looked up from their expensive lunches, and the immaculately attired waiters regarded me with suspicion, I realised the exhibition wouldn’t be found nestled amongst the posh cafés and luxury goods stores. Feeling the heat of the disapproving stares on my back I retreated outside, and found the exhibition on cycling to be in its rightful place – hidden out of view at the back of the building.
The images – shot by fashion photographer Horst Friedrichs – apparently captures “London’s most stylish cyclists”, so it was a surprise to see the gurning face of Boris Johnson amongst the voguish ladies on Pashleys and young men with tattoos astride their custom fixed gear rides.
The Oktoberfest Week 2: Win The Sufferfest’s ‘A Very Dark Place’
Last week we offered you the chance to win a copy of The Sufferfest’s A Very Dark Place by proving to us just how big a loser you are. To my dismay it transpired that a large proportion of this blog’s readership qualified for the prize – I’m embarrassed to be associated with so many inadequates, incompetents, and even in one particularly unpleasant case, an incontinent.
The ‘winner’ of last week’s competition will be announced with reluctant fanfare in the next couple of days, and with it a selection of the best of the worst of your cycling failures. But for this week’s competition we’ll be rewarding those of a more heroic nature…
Condor: Past Present Future
It’s not often I get the chance to attend a glitzy book launch. In fact, I never get the chance to attend a glitzy book launch. So it was with shameless enthusiasm that I leapt at the chance to loiter around at Condor Cycles as they unveiled their new book ‘Past Present Future’.
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