What Have Wiggle Got Against Cycling Clubs?

Anyone who is into Cycling or Tri will know of Wiggle, the online retailer and event organisers. We like their good service and even better prices. While they are not great news for the old fashioned local bike shop the boom in the sport has meant there is enough to go around for everyone.

But today I heard that they seem to have a down on cycling clubs. A friend completed their Up and Down Sportive, a lumpy ride around the Surrey Hills. At the finish one of their reps approached her to give an interview for use in promotion. The person then spotted her Old Ports club jersey and changed their mind because 'it is not normally our policy to interview riders in club kit'. The explanation 'It has got us into trouble in the past'.

This just seems weird.  Ok if I was wearing and Evans, Pearson or Butlers top I could kind of see the issue but  hey come on.

On The Road with the Velo Girls

The Old Ports enjoyed good support at our Reliability from the Kent Velo Girls, so Say and I decided to return the favour at their Sportive on Sunday. Starting out from Bewl Bridge it has been running for three years and the drill is familiar. It is a women's only sportive but men can play if they wear pink. Those waiting with baited breath for the start of the Giro d'Italia will know that in the world of cycling there is no shame to be seen in the Maglia Rosa. So I pulled on my old T-Mobile top, pinched Say's pink Rapha collar and signed on.

They offer three rides, 20, 40 and 60 miles so the event was pretty accessible to anyone wanting to give it a go. However this should not let anyone get complacent. Some sportives will market themselves on the presence of one or two well know climbs, The Wall, White Down, Box Hill, Carters Hill etc. But then offer plenty of flat bits in between for riders to get together and hammer along. The Velo Girls' course, that takes on places such as Wadhurst and Bodiam is more like a set of sharks teeth. One long row of sharp pointy things. None of the climbs are that long, but they don't leave you alone. And after a winter of neglect and lousy weather some of the road surface was interesting.

As we lined up the much promised great weather was noticeable by its absence. I was beginning to profoundly regret my decision to leave my overshoes at home. But five miles in, wet and filthy I was having a cracking time. No big groups formed but after the first feed a few of us got together with a woman from 7-Oaks Tri leading us up the climbs, a chap with a Sky rain jacket leading us down, and me doing my impression of a tractor on what flat bits there were. About 10 miles from the end my legs started to go and I could not stay with them over the lumps, but job was pretty much done.

Finally the sun was trying to show itself as I came into the final miles.

Say was having a more torrid time having ripped her rear tyre at 15 miles, finally threw in the towel at 53 miles and 4 tubes later. She was not alone.

All the feeds were brilliant and at the end we were welcomed with cups of soup and cheese rolls.

Pluses - Great route, well organised, good food and signage
Minus- the fickle fiend that is our weather, and potholes.

The Not So Big Society

This story is second hand, so I cannot be certain all the facts are true, though I have no reason to believe the teller was insincere. There was a group, calling themselves Friends of Croydon Library, who both volunteered but also raised funds for the library service. The funds raised were not mega bucks but significant sums, allow the libraries to do things they would otherwise not be able to.

This kind of group numbering at its height over 40, is the kind of effort that the Big Society embraced. Local people getting together to help deliver services. Sadly the group recently disbanded, and the reason was an unforeseen consequence of the desire to drive down cost. The management of the library service is being passed to a private contractor, who will clearly be seeking to drive down operating costs. Fair enough, but one of the unforeseen consequences has been the disbanding of the Friends Group.

I asked why this had happened. The explanation  was that the group did not feel they should be volunteering to deliver things a private contractor was being paid to do. I do feel there is probably a misunderstanding at the heart of this that could have been resolved. They could not see how could contribute when a private contractor was in place. Clearly the contract is providing the service, it has not bought the libraries. I will have a contract specification and there would be an opportunity to deliver things that feel outside that remit.  However what struck me most was that the failure to find that resolution means that a ready made group of people with true Big Society commitment will disintegrate and be lost. That is terrible shame for all concerned.

Lost loved leaders

However much large parts of the population loathed her, there was always a goodly chunk of her own Party that showed their love for Margaret Thatcher. Tony Blair, labours  electorally most successful former leader, never seems to inspire this. It often feels like he is more detested by his own party than he is by the opposition. People will point to the war in Iraq and the dodgy dossier but I suspect that is just a convenient   hook. When the core Tory support looks at Thatcher they can see their values reflected  back (even if it is an illusion). With Blair, well the more his Party faithful knew about what he really believed in the less they liked him.

Watching the poor- Cathy Come Home

The 1960's TV film  Cathy Comes Home was not year zero for those of us who work in housing but it was the start of something. A docudrama about a homeless family that not only galvanised support for a change in legislation but was the spark that reignited the housing association movement.
It's Director, Tony Garnett has complained that the 'BBC has little interest in poor people.' He perceives that the BBC is only interested in ratings. I would suggest that TV in general, not just the BBC have plenty of interest in the poor though seldom in a good way.
While there was some great stuff made by the BBC in the 60's and 70's it was a far less competitive world. Worthy but depressing films such as Kes didn't have to compete for space with umpteen brightly coloured alternatives. The power of Cathy Come Home was that so many people saw it and were shocked. If a similar film were made today it would just preach to the converted while the vaste majority watched something else.
No matter how good the play the theatre will close if the seats are empty, even if the state is chipping in. The challenge for Directors is to make exciting programmes that people will want to watch that address serious social issues. Bemoaning the passing of a golden age feels like a waste of breath. 

Yesterday's news today - Team Sky

Whatever Team Sky and British cycling have achieved so far they are yet to produce a Classics rider who is more than 'potential'. Ok there was Cav in Milan San Remo and a couple of the flatter semi classics but...  As Procycling commented, Dave Brailsford described their 2012 campaign as shit.

The interview this month with Geraint Thomas, as is the way with monthly periodicals, was i imagine written a long time in advance. That is  before Thomas and Sky once again failed to make a significant challenge. If last year was shit, it is hard  to see how Brailsford could raise his verdict for 2013.

There was something strangely mournful about reading Thomas' measured optimism knowing that it has all come to nought. Like a losing lottery ticket, once the vehicle for dreams now just a bit of scrap paper. Of course it's not over, we have those lumpy Ardennes jobbies but it is had to think of a Sky rider who can mix it with a Gilbert or a Sagan. But we travel in hope.

Maggie - Not easily forgotten

It is remarkable is how being out of the limelight for over 20 years Thatcher remains such a vivid character, the physical and spiritual embodiment of the changes that took place in 80's Britain. I suspect both those that admire and those who despise her are giving  more personal credit than is due for the shape of our society. Deregulation, denationalisation and the death of manufacturing would have occurred even if a different Tory had won in 79. It may have happened more slowly or differently but we would have got here. We might be a little more like France, but the fundamentals would be the same. 
The victory in the Falklands is diminished when it becomes apparent that the problem of what to do with them hasn't gone away. That war and its cultural place sits as a barrier to resolution. However, unlike Tony Blair's wars she got to enjoy the full sheen of victory.
There are similarities between Thatcher and Blair but I sense Tony is always waiting to be proved right by history. Thatcher  never gave the impression that she was concerned with anyone's opinion but her own.

Spartacus Delivers

What a wonderful edition of Paris Roubaix. Fab takes a brilliant win, but had to fight tooth and nail this year, showing he has the guile to match his strength. It is not often you see a winner having to be carried by his helpers at the end. But luck played its share, the 2 Omega guys getting taken out by spectators, what could they have done?
ITV4 at 9 for highlights - enjoy.

How to Write the Devil's Biography

How do you write a biography of a true monster without becoming an unwilling collaborator in excusing their monstrosity? Once we understand Satan's troubled upbringing, his inner torments,  how he is repeatedly rejected by people who think they are better, can we not feel at little compassion? If we were in Old Nick's shoes, you know, so many souls so little time? Even if I was the direct victim of his works isn't there that thing called the Stockholm syndrome? Maybe not so much evil, maybe just misunderstood or ill?

If felt these emotions reading Laurent Binet's HHhH, a novel/biography (of sorts) of Rienhard Heydrich, The Hangman, The Blond Beast, Himmler's No.2 and the brains behind the final solution. The legacy of this man's life is pain, misery and death on an astronomical scale. The only thing he seems to ever regret is inefficiency. Though not actually the metaphysical incarnation of absolute evil, Heydrich does a pretty good imitation of a great Satan.

I went into the book knowing all this, but Binet's style presents information (if not always facts) in a neutral way. On one level it could be argued that this is a positive. However I am not so sure. There is no book long enough to do more than summarise the crimes of the man. Instead little human biographical details sweeten and skew the narrative. Piles of bodies in a trench, are piles of bodies in a trench. Heydrich was top of the class at school, champion swordsman, part time fighter pilot until Hitler stepped in to stop him. A bright young man down on his luck in 20's with a young wife. A wife who was there to support his career. And compared to all the others? He is not a fat pig like Rohme, weak and  squeamish like Himmler, a bloated failure like Goering. And of course he had to endure the taunts from his youth, the 'false' allegation he was Jewish. Stop stop stop! All this stuff conjuring up the man gives excessive and unwarranted ballast to the vile reality of his life. All this Anakin Skywalker stuff explaining away the  Lord Vader.

Is it possible to write a biography of the life a man like Heydrich without spinning the story in his favour? He was a man, he wasn't the Devil, he was driven by the things that drive men. And responsible for them as a man. He is not Darth Vader, Voldemort or Bloefeld. But how does one write the biography of a Heydrich without either turning him into cat stroking pantomime super villain or diminishing the crimes with humanising detail?

A Sunday In Hell

It is the kind of film that would not be made now. The fact it ever was is a miracle. The Sunday in Hell  refers to the 'Hell of the North', Paris Roubaix, a shockingly hard bike race in northern France ridden over (now deliberately) poorly maintained cobbled roads. It has been going for well over 100 years and owes its name to the edition  just after WW1.
The race never went through the prettiest part of France. Roubaix is a  industrial place. Many of the more famous bike races have beautiful and stunning landscapes as their amphitheatre. But when people came to see the race after the Great War they were shocked by the grim war scared landscape. And in the culture and names associated with the race there is something of  this still there. The Road of Prayers, Abattoir Road, The Arenburg Forest. And the cobbled roads, farm tracks from long ago. The riders, always exhausted, in the rain spattered with in mud, bloodied from crashes. And in the dry, dust caking on their faces with the sweat.
I had never heard of the place or the race until 10 years ago, when late one evening only half interested at the start I watched a Sunday in Hell. Filmed in the early 70's nobody would make a film like it now. Modern documentaries start with a bang, and hammer home what the viewer has been told and what the viewer will learn. In modern sports coverage there is a near hysteria over the slightest moment of drama. this is different. It starts with the key rivals in the race, each preparing, Merkyx with his mechanic, DeVlaminick at Breakfast, eating a steak, shaving his legs.
That is another strange thing about the race. It is in France but loved even more by the Belgians.  Slowly it builds, a voice over sparse and calm sharing just enough information.  It begins to gather pace, steady but relentless acceleration to the point when the riders arrive for their finale at the Roubaix velodrome and the hammer blow of that finale I was on the edge of my seat. Then down, to the showers under the stadium, where the riders bathed together, winners laughing losers angry and arguing amongst to grey concrete shower stalls.
Even if you are not a bike race fan, if you have Eurosport, turn on at around 3 on Sunday and take a peak, but if you are willing to give 11/2 hours a special film get the DVD of A Sunday in Hell.

Strivers, Skivers - what would George Orwell say?

We are in a time where if a violent man kills his family it is seen as significant that he claims benefits. I thought this from 'Down and Out in Paris and London' was worthy of repeating.
'The mass of rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.'

Punks and Hate Crime

It is interesting that Police in Manchester are considering attacks on people from alternative sub cultures as hate crimes. Specifically they are thinking about punks and goths, Emo kids and metalers. This has come about because of the murder of a young woman because of her goth appearance. The are a couple of thing that strike me from this. Firstly that the things that were once seen a transient teenage fashions are now established cultural groups. I sensed this at couple of years back at a Ska festival, that around this music there was a culture that saw itself as in some way distinct from the rest if the world. Not just music and clothes but an attitude. That such groups are now so established and clearl defined that the Police could make this decision I think is a mark of a small but significant change in how we live.
Also while it is deeply depressing that a young woman should be killed because of her appearance, this does seem a very positive reaction by Police in Manchester.

Iain Banks - Thinking If You

Terribly sad to hear that the writer Iain Banks only has a few months to live. 59 seems very young to go. I have never read much of his science fiction, but have loved his other dark, humorous stories. Though the Wasp Factory is probably his best known book, the Crow Road is my favourite. In no small part because it was given to me by my partner along with a Yorkie bar as her first Christmas present to me. We had got together a couple of weeks before and were having loads of fun discovering each other. Our mutual appreciation of Banks, along with my Portishead cassette and a bottle of diSoranno are part of some lovely memories.
Good luck Iain and thank you.

Stop it now

Of all the piles of vile discredited 20th Centuary toilet, fascism has to be the most worthless.  It doesn't even sound  great in theory let alone its foul reality. But hey this is not going to stray into the territory of the stiff armed love god that is Paolo DiCanio.  Nope, I am staying much closer to home. A group calling theselves 'English National Resistance' ( the name kind of blows the gaff really) has decided that they  are not just a bunch of racists wondering what to do now the BNP as gone. No! They are standing up for English values, they are standing proud for gender  equality!  They are planning a march around Crayford in defence of women. So how are they taking up cudgels for women's rights? Have they a plan to tackle DV, smash the glass ceiling? Erm no. Not quite. Their priority is tackling the sexist local mosque. There's a suprise. Because? They have a separate entrance for men and women. Now there are many issues for which I might man the barricades but  the entrance requirement for the local mosque I am more than happy to leave to Muslim women to resolve. I may be wrong but i suspect the ENR does not have a large female muslim support? And I don't feel that having a gang of white blokes with not much hair and lots if flags is a necessary response. A cynic (heaven forbid) might suspect that this is a bunch of old Nazis looking for any excuse to impose their brand if misery on the innocent people of Crayford. 

#cihvp Steve Stride - @CIH elections

These are challenging times to be delivering Social Housing in London. I have never really paid much attention to Chartered Institute of Housing elections in the past, apart from when my old colleague at Hyde, Jan gave it a go a couple of yeas ack.  But having the right leadership matters more than ever right now.
I was pleased to see that Steve Stride of Poplar Harca has put himself  in harms way and is up for election as Vice President. I don't know him well, but I know him a lot better by his works. He has worked passionately for one of the most  deprived communities and gives the kind of leadership that inspires others to do the same. He is the kind of leader who reminds us what we came into housing for in the first place. (Apart from the glamour, wealth and envy of our friends)
If you are a housing professional with a vote in the CIH  election you could do a lot worse than give Mr Stride a whirl.

Unreliable Memories- The Gascoigne April Fool

'I didn't realise Paul Gasciogne is Bamber' s son!'
This happened over 20 yeas ago so I make no apologies if the facts are a little wayward. As an April fool joke this one was a bit of a sleeper. The Sunday Times (I think, or could be the Observer) had a regular feature called relative values (maybe). It was in the Magazine, and was a pleasing way to fill a page between the adverts for useless inventions, and hideous objects  the home. It was a simple idea, get a vaguely celebrity parent and child (eg Nigel and Nigella Lawson) and get them to talk about the other.
Papers like a nice April fool spoof, and popping Paul and Bamber's Gascoigne in this column was a nice, but fairly obvious example. Funny but nobody would be fooled. Ah timing is everything.
If I recall this appeared when  Gascoigne junior was a rising star, and before his weeping elevated him from being simply a great talent to a household name. Post Vinnie Jones grabbing his balls, pre World Cup tears.  It was possible to suggest that outside the world of footbsll fans it was the erstwhile presenter of University Challenge who was the better known. At the time in the Green household the article brought knowing smiles but no more. And the magazine took its place in the basket.
Months pass and big Baby Gazza is now in everyone's consciousness including Mum's, even her studied disinterest in the game had been breached. So One morning she appears in the kitchen and shares with the family her amazing discovery about his parentage.  Too late, no way back from there.