Sunday 30 June 2013

Cycling - You might as well join us

In the last 15 miles of the Wiggle Long One chap drew up next to me and started chatting. He was obviously in far better shape than me, as I was at a level where primitive grunting was as good as it got. This worked for both of us as he was happy to talk about himself, and I grunted occasionally.
He shared his own cycling creation myth. All of us who discover the sport in middle age kind of have one. However its not often that they start 'I got banned from driving, best thing that ever happened to me.' At the time I was quickly fatigued by his tale of jumped red lights and mobile phone abuse behind the wheel. As the road rose I took the opportunity to let him drop me.
Though part of his story did resonate. I remember it being a fiercely hot day about 8 years ago. I was driving between Bromley and Woolwich for work. It is one of those stretches with lots if lights and even more cars. I noticed a cyclist a a junction, I over took then at the next set he was back again. This kept repeating itself. At some point my thoughts moved from 'begone you impudent cur' to 'he's going as fast as me, he's not burning petrol, he's in the fresh air with the sun in his back, he's not stressed and flustered, I used to ride a bike, I quite liked riding a bike, I could get a bike.'

Time Trialing, Ladies and Lipstick

Having made the bold stride of allowing online entry to some events, if the organisers feel like it, I was looking forward to further progress now that a modernising wind of change is blowing through the CTT. Then a friend told me yesterday of her experience at a 25 last season. There was a small but strong group of women riders including one Jo Rowsell. The organisers had put them together on the start sheet to create a race within the race. All very encouraging.
One shouldn't get to carried away. The riders were talking amongst themselves before being called forward. When my friend clipped in for her start one of the organisers asked 'what were you ladies chatting about? Lipstick?'
It's hard to poke somebody in the eye when you are being held up on a TT bike. We speculated whether he would have said the same to Jo Rowsell. We agreed, probably.


 

Friday 28 June 2013

Kenny Rogers - Darkness in the Lite

Seeing that Kenny Rogers is playing Glastonbury tickled me. This is because of his song Coward of The County. When it was doing the rounds in the early 80's it was the kind of thing I would walk out of the room to get away from. Dreadful country schmaltz sung by Father Christmas in his civvies. Much later, during one of the periodic outcrys about Rap lyrics, I think it was Ice T's Cop Killer, this song came back to me.
 I don't recall any demands that CotC be banned for its content, and this was a era when you could get banned for just about anything. So it proved that if  the singer is an old bloke with  a beard and  the tune is Nashville syrup you can get away with writing an approving reflection on a man's violent revenge  against the brothers who gang raped his girlfriend. 

This song was a huge international hit, but in the country cannon it is not alone in its dark subject matter. Violence, often sexually motivated is a presence in many old country songs. In the early 50's Molly O'Day sung of Ellen Smith being found murdered 'clothes scattered all around.' Nic Cave has enjoyed excavating this murky side of country. It can be heard in the Louvin Brothers and even in the clean cut Everley's. Listen past the staid performance and the plaintive harmony and one can hear the voice of an older darker world. 

Tuesday 18 June 2013

When poverty is about more than money

370000 people over 75 spend no time with anyone on a typical day. Nobody, not family, friends or a warden.  That is the startling statistic in a new paper by the  Centre for Social Justice as part of the hanover@50 debate. The key message is that to rely purely on financial indicators masks the true poverty of many older people. This level of isolation has huge impacts on health and mortality. But as the paper highlights, material and relational poverty often goes together.
Relationship breakdown, a more fragmented society and working patterns are cited as the cause. The solutions comes less readily to hand. Stronger couple relationships and more flexible employment are easier to say than do. But we cannot afford to ignore the challenge.

Siouxsie at Meltdown

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Saturday 15 June 2013

Otis Redding and the Water Cooler Moments

Did you see it? Brilliant wasn't it.
I watched the BBC4 night on Otis Redding and the Stax tour of Europe a week or so ago, and was blown away by just how good that music was. But also being thrilled that rather than simply being a contractual obligation, the trip to Europe actually meant something to musicians involved. That the passion, the vitality, that huge wave of energy they set free was in part a response to the love they were feeling from their audience. The nice little footnote that when he went on stage at Monterey Otis told his band to 'play it like we did in Europe.'
But there was something more about it. Ever since then I have been running into people saying 'did you see it? Great wasn't it.' It is as if BBC4 has managed to wake something, remind us of something that we had half forgotten. They freed that music from  the smothering blanket of lacklustre covers and cloying tribute, by bringing us back face to face with the source material.

When the Spirit is Mean

Read a lengthy article based on research by the Taxpayers Alliance (what a fun gang this lot must be) that left me thorough pissed off with the jaded, mean spirited carping side of our political culture. The article was highlighting some mammoth sums allegedly wasted by the public sector. Now I am all for efficiency and accountability. But much of what made up this number was of dubious provenance. This applied to their figures big and small. The biggest item was a notional difference between what public sector pensions are and what they would be in the private sector. Without a genuine and detailed review of the total reward packages for equivalent roles between the public and private world it is completely bogus to focus on one single part of the equation and say it's waste. For example if these services were being delivered in the private sector we would have to pay for shareholder dividends.
But even more churlish were some of the smaller items. It sneered at the £9000.00 spent on ipads by Bury Council to be used in the enforcement of recycling. Why is that a waste? I would suggest that ipads are a very effective tool for capturing and communicating evidence. £30000 spent on a newt sanctuary. Well the council in question is required to do this as some newts are a protected species. I may not be munch interested in newts, but if we care about protecting our natural environment then sometimes it will cost a few quid.
Stories about the public servants who routinely go above and beyond are not news.  I work with people who are passionate about the communities they serve, and rather than skimming the public purse give way beyond their contracted hours. But more than this, if we fall into accepting a narrative that all public servants are either incompetent or grasping it reinforces a mean spirited culture that makes us all poorer.

Great Places to Eat - Doh!

Having sung the praises to the @matthewsyard brunch a little while back it looks like I spoke to soon. Went down there this morning looking forward to a nice Eggs Benedict. Disappointment! They have ditched the whole brunch thing in exchange for offering  toasted flat bread sandwiches. I am sure it is lovely whatever emerges from their George Forman type grilling thing, but.... Its just the same as whatever where else does. Its still a fine place, but now just a little bit less special. Growl.

Cycle Sport on TV

ITV4's Tour Series is coming towards its conclusion for 2013. Catching up with the last round night I was struck by a coupe of things. One that it has now become a well established event in the Calendar. But also how it highlights the huge difference in the treatment of Men and Women's racing.  For the male side of the sport the tour series is a fun slightly low rent side show in terms of coverage. ITV4 and Europort show the real stuff too, the Classics, Grand Tours. But for the Women's side, the Johnson Health Tech series is just about the only televised road event. What flows from this is the whole chicken and egg thing of  without coverage how can it attract sponsors, and grow.
Nicole Cooke's retirement interview exposed the massive divide in the sport. She was for a while the best in the world, but at her peak was earning about £50k. Ok cycling is a long way behind golf and tennis in the big money stakes but this is a long way behind what Wiggo and Cav.
But what the Tour Series highlights is that the women's sport generates some great racing that can share a stage on something approximating to equal terms. For me Hanna Barnes has been the standout rider. So much so that it stands as a J'Accuse to the sport as a whole. Why don't Team Sky run a women's team? Why don't the UCI demand more of its members. And for the Broadcasters, there are women's versions of the classics that are contested fiercely, but on Eurosport and ITV 4 you wouldn't know. It is a long time to the next Olympics, the only chance for Women racers to ride one level road with the men. Something needs to move on. 

Thursday 13 June 2013

Croydon Eating - Alberts Table

I had been slow to go to Alberts Table because, I will be honest,  I thought it was a bit up its own arse. I had assumed it was the kind of place where thick napkins and a handwringing Maitre D' would be the gateway to routine 'Modern British' food. And what's a restaurant in Croydon doing bandying the Michelin word around. I was wrong.
It turned out to be an absolute pleasure. The menu offered rabbit risotto and a wild mushroom soufflé. There was pork with white pudding and asparagus. There were so many big rich flavours, tastes that one remembers. Mushrooms that actually tasted wild, a feral fungus brought to heal.
The service was lovely, but maybe not in the way the proprietor dreams of. Attempts at formal Michelinish waiting were  cheerfully undermined by a charming amateurish    enthusiasm. It was kind of like the real Staff  had run off and a group of the owners friends were giving it a crack. The waitress viewing the corkscrew with an air of discovery, or the cheese board being presented like a narration from a nativity play. This is not a criticism really. If one likes pompous  yet grovelling this is not the place. If you like great food, taken seriously but with a smile then its a good call.

Monday 10 June 2013

The Joy of Audax

Yesterday I took part in the 'Ditchling Devil, a 200km ride to the coast and back run by Audax UK. For those unfamiliar Audax is a curious cycling sub set imported from France. The idea of an Audax is to complete a course (normally very long, 200km is a short one) within a set time limit. It is not meant to be a race. To emphasise this point until recently they would insist that all bikes had full mudguards.
In practice an Audax ride is like a cross between a Sportive and a treasure hunt. Therein, until recently lay the problem. Unlike Sportives there are no signs. Riders have to navigate themselves using a route sheet, collecting stamps on a card to prove they reached various points on the course. So for the novice there are two options. Do what I did in 2006 at the Tour of the Surrey Hills, stick  the route sheet in your jersey pocket and try to hang onto the wheel of somebody who knows the way. This resulted in me spending too much time in the company of a man who looked like Robinson Crusoe in a hi-viz vest. The only alternative was to fix a clipboard to your handlebars like a Cabbie doing the knowledge and follow the directions. But this is a pursuit revolutionised the arrival of GPS! Suddenly it is no longer the preserve of the eccentric. Just load the route onto your Garmin and go.
What this then reveals are some wonderful routes, and testing events run with a generous low key enthusiasm. On the Devil the feed at 65 miles was in somebody's back garden where they dished up pasta and cups of tea.
To their credit Audax UK have welcomed the GPS and are reaping the rewards. Yesterday's event had a full field, that included a decent cross section of roadies. The old school were there but also lots of younger riders up for the challenge. There is no chip timing but in this Strava age does that matter quite so much?
However, to the man in trainers at the start with a route sheet bungeed to his bars, I hope you were wearing bib shorts under your jeans. 200km of denim on saddle is not something I would wish on anyone.

Dauphine and Team Sky

As well as taking another prestigious win at the Dauphine, Team Sky consolidated their position at the top of the UCI team rankings. The season has been packed with great stage race wins, Paris-Nice onwards. Even at the Giro the team looked strong, just Prince Wiggo failed to show. But how come a team so dominant at stage races seems so impotent in the one day classics?
Ok, there is a question of priorities. Team Sky is built around the objective of putting British Riders on the podium at the Grand Tours. For a team like Omega-Pharma their season hinges on the Classics. But with a squad that contains riders like Swift, Stannard, Thomas and Bosen-Hagen one would expect them to be there or there abouts a lot more often.
Part of it could be that stage races are better suited to their marginal gains, planned approach, exploiting the strength in depth of the squad. Sky's plan A - stay safe on flat stages, limit loses in the mountains, batter the opposition in the TT's has suited their team leaders well. The one day classics don't play to these strengths. The opportunistic, crafty, and aggressive individualism of the classics winner is maybe less easy to bottle. 

Saturday 8 June 2013

Bostock and Zaha - sliding doors in Football elevator

I read in the paper that the young midfielder John Bostock is being released by Spurs having not managed a first team appearance last season in the Premiership. A teenage prodigy at Palace he left for Spurs a few years back with much bitterness from Simon Jordan, the then Palace Chairman. It is a shock that he is still not much older than Wilfred Zaha, another Palace prodigy but one seemingly on the reverse trajectory, preparing to join Man U having already tasted a Wembley victory. 

Criterium Dauphine Libere

Winning cycling stage races often seems to be about careful planning, having a strong team, careful calculation and a big chunk of luck. It is not so often about swashbuckling attacks by those at the sharp end of the General Classification. It is because of his flamboyant attacking style that fans can still love Marco Pantani despite his much documented flaws.
On Thursday Chris Froome with his Sky Team had  ridden themselves comfortably into the yellow jersey position when Alberto Contador attacked close to the end. Contador was way down on GC and no real threat to Froome overall. With tough stages to come, maybe the smart move was to let Alberto take a stage, ride just hard enough so he can do real harm to the lead. But Froome weighed it up and got after him, first catching then attacking Contador to claim the stage and the Jersey for himself. He also laid down a massive marker for the Tour. It was great watching two if the top contenders prepared to have a go at each other. On the mountain stages Wiggo, like Indurine focuses on limiting loses, Andy Schleck seems to be a follower when he isn't looking round wondering where Frank is.
Cycling has been compared to boxing, much of that comparison springs from the brutal physical demands, and the often cynical corrupt side to both sports. But like boxing in moments cycling can rise above the squalor and be something more. In cycling those moments come in the high mountains, when all but the best have fallen away, and the strongest at left to battle for the prize. 

Great Places to Eat in Croydon - Brunch at Matthews Yard

Matthews Yard is the kind of place I think should exist but doesn't,  but it does. If that makes sense read on. A kind of arty workspace, coffee shop, venue, hangout, meeting space, bar, meeting room cafe place. Its the kind of place the public sector would makes a mess of, and the private sector would never do. I first came across the place last year when the @waterstonescroy book group started meeting their.
One of their most delightful innovations is brunch. A nice range of largely egg based fare, decent coffee in a  laid back environment. I have developed a particular weakness for their Eggs Benedict.  Recently I had the same dish at the much more prestigious Canteen on the Southbank, and the home team wins.
If one is looking for snappy efficiency I am sure the baristas at one of the chains would out gun these guys with their eyes closed. The short queue takes quite some time to serve, the staff exuding an air of discovery with each order. But it is all charming, for now.
It does seem a bit of a lottery when they are actually doing food. Brunch means brunch, don't make the mistake of wandering in for breakfast, and weekday mornings seem to be a no go. But maye if the trade is good they will grow their ambition.

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Can a gig be too good

Back in the mid 90's I saw Sleater-Kinney play at the Garage in Highbury. They were pretty new and I did not know much about them. The gig was incredible, they looked so cool and sounded great. Every song sound like it should be a single, and they filled the room with such passion and fun. I went away a fan, but it didn't quite work as it should. The records just didn't sound quite as exciting as the band had been live. Good, but not the wonderful thing I had witnessed. That gig is now a teasing memory, I can almost hear it, but is just out of reach.
This came to mind because I am off to see Souixsie and Viv Albertine at Meltdown on a couple of weeks. I am kind of nervous for the reverse reason, I am so familiar with their recorded selves, but will they have that sparkle still live?