I were right about that saddle though

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=VCUN8eJancQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVCUN8eJancQ

Cycling quote No2

"As long as I breathe, I attack" 

The badger

Bernard Hinault

Nice things to lock your bike to #3 - thanks to @6ss8

Apparently there's a whole load of these in Southport.  Wonder what makes local planners favour the penny farthing as a piece of bike security street furniture?

Rather abstract and quite nice too

There must be a reason.  Are Sheffiled stands offensive in some way I wonder?

Going big to big down Stockport way

Spotted this bike in Decathlon, Stockport while picking up a couple of stocking fillers. I can't say that I'd advise that particular gear selection! New rear mech anyone?

Big to bigger

Cycling, drugs, cheese and @guardian

Really interesting interview with USADA grand fromage Travis Tygart in today's Grauniad.  As well as providing an insight into his world in the midst of the Lance Armstrong investigation, he also questions Sky's zero tolerance approach  to drug use and questions whether it's counter productive.
My initial thought was that Travis must have been at the Creme de Menthe a bit early but actually, his point is a good one.
He's not saying that team X shouldn't do all they can but, the whole of professional cycling needs picking up by its lapels and slapping in the chops with a pair of white cotton gloves. No cycling club is an island.

Le petit fromages

The reason this matters, in my view, is that it's pro cycling which really inspires people to get on a bike and ride - kids in particular. Nobody is inspired by me cursing my way up Windgather or hocking filth onto the A482 in the rain.  But they're inspired by that Brady Wiggin chap and his amusing facial furniture.  They're inspired by the Scottish chap who always wins, you know, the one with the big dad.
If cycling is to continue to prosper in Britain then we need the sport to be cleaner than the entertainment on St Francis Xavier school's summer trip to Lourdes.

New GB bike kit for 2013

Cycling Weekly has some photos of the 2013 teeem geebee cycling kit and very nice it looks too.  I don't suppose there's much else they could do other than go for the Union Jack design.
Any suggestions that they should incorporate a pathetically inadequate bike lane or a large pot hole into the design are just immature.  

White, red and blue

So, with that in mind, how about they incorporate a speeding taxi motif into the 2014 version? I can feel a twitter campaign coming on.
I'm still looking forward to what Rapha are going to do to the Sky kit.  You'd have thought they'd have it out for Christmas really wouldn't you.

Manchester City likes the cut of cycling's jib

So, despite the damage that Lance has done to the sport, the Wiggo effect coupled with the sheer volume of participants, means that cycling has finally been let into the VIP lounge after years of queueing up in the rain and claiming to know the DJ.
This was confirmed today when Man City became the latest organisation to sidle up alongside cycling in a bar, wink, ask it if it came here often and if it wanted a drink.
With its big doe eyes and down to earth demeanour, cycling had no defence against the flashy vigourous charms of Premiership football with its sharp Italian suit and its illegally parked uber car with tinted windows.
For today, well yesterday, football got its mits all over cycling's pristine chamois leather and sucked it into a whirlwind romance laced with celebrity and charity.
The near neighbours of the National Cycling Centre in East Manchester are The City (sitteh) who perform their soccers at the Eastlands Ethiad Enormodome.  It was all built in the early 90s when The Manchester hosted the Commonwealth Games.

City and one of its gerberas

For years they've ignored each other but now, finally, they've been struck by cupid's arrow. Rumour has it that Man City even popped in to The Asdors (Asda) during its dinner and left a bunch of gerberas on cycling's door mat before ringing the bell and running away.
For next March, the two lovers, still gazing wistfully into each others eyes, will entwine themselves in a selfless and very public act of love with the Velocity event. That's Velo (bike) and city (sitteh) combined into the word velocity (measurement of speed) incase you didn't get it.

Cycling was magnetically attracted to soccer

Quite what will happen at the event, I'm not sure.  Some people will definitely ride bikes - for 24 hours it seems.  And there will be some sitteh players there too - obviously they don't fancy the FA Cup anywhere near as much as they fancy the shapely form of British Cycling.
Registration costs £250 per rider and opens tomorrow - Wednesday 19th December.
I'm off to buy a hat.