Lance's Legacy

So, after a cycling career spanning three decades, hundreds of thousands of km’s, seven Tour de France wins and not a small amount of controversy, Lance Armstrong has finally pull the plug on his career for good (I hope). During a time when most of the cycling community is speaking about Contador’s case, Armstrong’s timing is impeccable, fading out with the white noise in the background of the media frenzy over the spaniard.

A bee in my bonnet

Cyclists commuting to work are increasing every year. Bikes have outsold cars for the past 10 years.

I’ve been trying to hold off writing a post about this for a while but after another ride I am now fed up. Why can’t anyone ride a bike properly on the road in traffic? I’m as pro-cycling as it gets but even I get riled up and shout at people who constantly break road laws and make a bad name for the rest of us. In my ride in to work last week, I saw people run red lights, go the wrong way round a roundabout, ride without helmets and fail to indicate their intentions when turning. Moreover, when they do something that is blatantly their fault and cause a ‘close-call’ or worse, they usually abuse the motorist who is nearest.

For the love of the bike

For the last 5 years, I have gradually been developing my involvement in cycling from it being a form of rehabilitation for my ruined knees to president of a cycling club. In that time, I haven’t really taken a step back and fully appreciated just what cycling has done for me.

I first took up cycling as a 16 year old as recovery from a knee reconstruction. I had already acquired an interest in cycling from a previous rowing coach, who often quoted Armstrong and Merckx as motivation. The injury managed to convince my parents that I couldn’t risk my knees on running any longer and needed to find another fitness-oriented and competitive outlet. Its surprising how many people I have met since who have also taken up cycling to replace other higher impact sports due to knee or ankle injuries. Perhaps we are just meant to ride bikes!

New Product Review

As well as my 'Hiatus and Return' post below, there is a new product review of the Garmin Edge 500 under the Product Reviews tab above.

Product Review: Garmin Edge 500

I have to be honest, when it comes to my hobbies and interests, I'm a bit of a tech geek. I love getting my hands on the best technical equipment. For skiing, I've got a great altimeter watch. For playing music, I've got a great stereo and headphones. For cycling, I like to get my hands on the best cycling computer. I’ve had a whole bunch. Started out with a cheap Echowell, moved up to a Polar CS200cad and then had a Blackburn Delphi 6.0. The Polar was particularly good with easy functionality and good heart rate options. But they lacked the depth a GPS cycle computer offered.

Hiatus and Return

It has been some time since I have posted, for which I must apologise. I have been very busy over the Christmas break, then was overseas in the United States on holidays, which made posting very difficult.