The Union Cycliste International (UCI) yesterday announced more sweeping changes to the Olympic track cycling programme. Having already drastically altered the events on the schedule, the sport's governing body has now changed the qualification system and the national quota per event.

At the London Olympics in 2012 each competing country will only be allowed to enter one athlete in the men's and women's individual sprint and Keirin. The ruling also covers the new omnium event to be introduced at the London Games.

Not only could this ruling affect how British Cycling approach their funding allocation, and the number of athletes on the lottery-funded programme, it will seriously water down the sprint events at the Games in 2012.

By limiting all countries to one rider per sprint event the UCI has seen to it that track sprinting is no longer the best riders competing against one another. Great Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Japan and the Netherlands all had two riders in the top 18 of the sprint qualifying round in Beijing. (The top 18 go through to the knock-out rounds.)

The new system would effectively eliminate the second fastest riders from each of those countries, therefore taking six of the best riders in the world out of the competition. Doing this results in six slower riders moving up in to the qualifying spots and in to the knock-out round.

In Beijing, Daniel Novikov of Estonia qualified slowest (in 21st spot) with a 200m tt time of 11.187 seconds - not a world class time by any means. Now he, along with three even slower riders, will qualify for the Olympic sprint competition.
Has the change come about as a result of Great Britain's dominance? Maybe. In both the men's sprint and keirin GB won both gold and silver in Beijing, but they're not the only nation to suffer. France has a strong sprinting line-up while those events are the only ones the Germans are still competitive in.
Whatever the reason, the sprint and keirin events will no longer see the best riders against the best riders, as the Olympics should be, but a second rate competition ridden by a larger spread of riders from around the world. The world title will now be the harder competition to win.

www.cyclingweekly.co.uk

Simon's a Willesden CC club mate and has written a miserable (ie. accurate) post on turbos..
thefixedfactor.wordpress.com - tyranny of the turbo

Speaking of turbo training, I've just got a CycleOps Jet Fluid Pro from The Bike Whisperer. It's a snazzy fluid trainer unit and I used it last night for a 2x15min session and to compare my wired and wireless Powertap units. Bad news, since my Wired PT appeared to be reporting below that of the Wireless unit. So, I'm not going crazy, they are different. No wonder I struggle to hold my FTP on the Rubble!

I set both PT power averaging for 30 seconds (the slowest updating option) and the speed averaging to 5 seconds. The rough results are below:

39x17 Stealth TT machine
26kph 200W
30kph 260W
40kph 460W

39x17 Ribble Winter/Audax
26kph 170W
30kph 225W
40kph 450W

So, unless I've missed some variable (I forgot to even out tyre pressure), it wasn't in my mind that the Wired PT is reading lower. So when I'm trying to do FTP at 270W I'm actually around 300W. Although, it could be the wireless one reading high.. hmm..

Bring on 2012!

Jack Bobridge - defending national champion in the discipline - rode the third fastest time ever in a sizzling qualifying ride over four kilometres. He posted a time of 4:14.427, knocking six tenths off the time set by Welsh cyclist Gerraint Thomas at the Manchester round of the World Cup in October last year.

It's also faster than the 4:16.304 time set by Britain's reigning Olympic Champion Bradley Wiggins during his gold medal ride in Athens.

The only rider who has gone faster than Bobridge over the distance is Boardman, who set the world record time of 4:11.114 at the 1996 World Championships in Manchester. That mark was set using the aerodynamic 'Superman' position that has since been banned, which means Bobridge is effectively the fastest rider in the world over four kilometres under the current rules.

www.cyclingnews.com

Dremel-wielding, dodgy jersey-wearing, nice bloke from around the corner speaks to Jack T on The Bike Show about Bike Whisperer bike fitting: thebikeshow.net - if the bike fits

Forum-running, bike-hording nice bloke from down the road speaks to Jack T on The Bike Show about www.lfgss.com: thebikeshow.net - do it yourself

www.fixed-mag.com

Fixed Mag Issue 1
Fixed Mag Issue 2
Fixed Mag Issue 3
Fixed Mag Issue 4

www.rollapaluza.com - details & entry here

An evening of Boy / Girl team roller-racing, music and beer.
Hosted by Greg Mclaren (Lucha Libre London) with the Rollapaluza DJs
Friday September 25th, 7pm ’til midnight
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, 44-46 Pollard Row, E2 6NB
Come as your favourite classic film couple, there will be prizes for the best dressed competitors!
Indoor bike parking

www.bbc.co.uk - harassed tweed

Around the 3:50 myself and a bunch of londonfgss.com riders make it onto BBC4! :)

I was holding Mal's hand in this but the bastards cut her out. They were something like 65,000 riders enjoying the closed roads in London. It was nodder central but Mal and I were quite prepared to ride sub-10kph in the lovely weather. We rode in from Ealing and back out again and Mal's traffic-fear is way down compared to when we did the Hovis ride in 2007. She's riding her Langster around without me too which is great. After the ride I listened to Chris Hoy speak although passed on getting his autograph and then it was off to West Kebab for race fuel. Bright times :)

Amount of space required to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus or bicycle.

This poster, from the City of Munster in Germany, has been making its way around the internet this past week. Now, either an internet star or slut, it carries a simple message about congestion, urban planning and people: cars are great, but can really suck in certain situations and people will just deal with it anyway.

We often hear in the comments sections of transit posts about Wilshire Blvd. that the "billion" buses on the street are the problem. Just imagine all those bus riders in their car behind, next, in front and all around you. In fact, that could 30,000 extra cars.

Or just imagine if there were park-and-ride lots along Wilshire and the majority of people took buses. Then the only traffic the bus would sit through was of their own kind.

And then imagine if money actually existed to fund the Purple Line 'subway to the sea.'

Image from the City of Munster, Germany Planning Office (h/t MetroRiderLA)

(original poached from here: laist.com - same number of)

See also: pedshed.net

Skid Vicious 2, aka New Skids on the Block. $200 for longest skid.
Check out last year's Skid Vicious footage here.

www.fixed.org.au

www.ehbpc.org

The EHBPCs will take place on August 1st and 2nd 2009. There’s an EHBPC itinerary here.

The games will take place at the Marlborough Playground, Union St in Borough, SE1. There will be two courts for simultaneous games to take place on. There is also plenty of space for bike parking, food and drinks, toilet facilities etc.

View European Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship in a larger map

In an attempt to butter me up before our Tour de Pyrenees, so I don't embarrass him riding over those French hills, Mick has made an appeal to my ego and published the hippy blog in his newsletter.

It's less than a week now before I head to France with the Croydon Cycle Works groupies. My "training" this weekend consisted of attending Jason & Lizzie's wedding (congrats you two!), drrnnknningg far too much, 5am bedtime and Sunday spent getting home (thanks Gabe & Ang) and catching up on Le Tour.

After kick-starting the roller-racing resurgence in recent years Rollapaluza have decided to launch a nation-wide quest to find Britain’s King of Spin and Queen of Cadence.

The series will comprise of stand-alone regional events, each one identical to the Rollapaluza nights they have become known for with DJs and unique atmosphere. These regional events will also act as qualifiers for a “Grand Finale” in London, with huge crowds and great prizes promised.

The regions will be: Scotland, Wales, North and Midlands, South West, London and East, South

Rollapaluza are known for their inclusive approach to cycling competition and all competitors will compete on identical Condor bikes and the standard Rollapaluza gearing.

There will also be a national youth competition, with the younger competitors taking part in the afternoon, before the evening event commences.

After refurbishing four vintage rigs Rollapaluza now manufacture their own Roller race rigs all of which are produced to be identical. This means that for possibly the first time ever roller-racers can be assured that they are competing on a nation-wide level playing field and as Rollapaluza are now opening up international franchises with these same rigs there is even potential for future world-wide challenges.

Olympians Chris Hoy and Craig Maclean have raced Rollapaluza, but the current 500m record is held by rising British track star Matt Crampton with 17.90 seconds. There will be a special prize to the rider who sets the fastest time of the series and a bonus if that time is a new record.

Expect to see Rollapaluza near you in the second half of 2009

To keep updated on all that’s happening in the series visit the event page here: www.rollapaluza.com/nationals

If you would like more info or wish to offer sponsorship or support please email: nationals@rollapaluza.com

www.rollapaluza.com - rollapaluza national series 2009

With £250 knocked off the price of these framesets, bringing the price to £500, I couldn't afford not to buy one, could I?!

Few more photos of the Planet-X Stealth here.

Danzel's wicked Rollapaluza XII video

Second time I've crashed on my own in a month. This slippery miserable shitty weather is not just annoying, now, it's dangerous! :)

Of course, it was after the work xmas party and I was tanked but I'd ridden from the city to Ealing without issue. :) It was only when I went to suss out the chip shop and hit a very slippery patch of tarmac (I checked it out last night and it was greasy - actually difficult to stand on) that I hit the deck. I was on the Rubble and managed to break off the rear light, shred the rear derailler cable and cut holes in my brand new gloves. WAC.

Again, for some unknown reason, my left shoulder is worse, even though I hit my right hand side. I don't get it. I'm over this cycling bollocks. I'm off to buy a BMW off a credit crunched banker.

In more positive news, my new commuter is almost ready to roll.. it's an '07 Condor Pista + some bits of forum members..

www.tourdeville.co.uk - grand opening

After months of preparation Tour de Ville is almost ready to open it's doors to the public on December 13th at our new location in London Fields. We will open at 10:00 am at our new address; 50 Lamb Lane, Hackney. You can expect the best in classic road, track, touring and leisure bikes. Next to our range of bikes, parts, frames, clothing and accessories we also have a coffee bar. Coffee served will be the Magnus Maximus brand by Swedish pro cyclist Magnus Backstedt. All of the proceeds from this coffee go towards helping young riders. The coffee foundation directly funds the continental professional Team Cyclesport.se.

www.tourdeville.co.uk

Here's an interesting article about a wind tunnel test at Monash (nicked from Carl's Blog): fairwheelbikes.com - Monash wind tunnel testing review




Ed: Wanna trade in your funny hat now? :)

The lovely gents at Rollapaluza shuttled a bunch of us over to Ghent for a couple of days of track racing action at the Kuipke velodrome during the Ghent 6-day. Fun times.

We left Saturday morning, arrived early afternoon and wandered to Plumes bike shop for some shopping and gawking at their little museum section. Then we ate some steak and chips or moules and frites and headed to the track where we yelled at riders, listened to great eurotrash dance music and got pissed up until 2am. Or 4am Rob?

Sunday morning was a bit rough. Drove into town and then explored the snowy city again looking for random places to eat at. Did some gift shopping and ate more than back to the track for the final day of racing. Erik Zabel was well received but not quite as well as local lad and eventual winner (with partner Robert Bartko) Iljo Keisse! :)

Snowy trip out of Ghent, calm ferry ride, back at Caspar's around 12-12.30 and then ride home for 1.30am.

www.cyclingnews.com results here.

Rollapaluza Ghent 6 Day Trip Report here.

Ricky's Gent 6 photographs.

Wayne's Ghent 6 photographs.

lfgss Ghent 6 thread

My dodgy Ghent 6-day photos here.

www.rollapaluza.com - league

Wed 19th Nov - 500m - White Hart - E1 4TP

Wed 3rd Dec - 1000m - Horseshoe - EC1R 0AG

More dates will be announced..