Cannondale Cross XR 7 08, wheels Mavic C29ssmax, fork Trigon XC06A, front brake Avid Juicy Ultimate 160 mm, rear brake Avid Juicy Ultimate 140 mm, chainset SRAM Rival 180 mm, chain SRAM PC1090, pedals Crankbrothers Egg Beater SL, seat post Easton EC90, saddle Selle Italia SLR, bar Easton EC90, tyres Schwalbe Kojak 28 x 1.35, weight 8.5 kg
Category: photo
Best cycling gloves ever?
This is a picture of my Roeckl 3104 803 MTB gloves, which I picked up towards the end of the summer. In certain ways, these really are the best cycling gloves that I have used. Feel, grip as well as comfort are outstanding. But while I am aware that light gloves such as these cannot reasonably be expected to last forever, the amount of use I got out of this pair is disappointing at best.
About that helmet
This is a picture I took of today’s newspaper. You can usually pick me out from a group of cyclists because I am the one wearing the full-face helmet. Comments I get from other cyclists are mostly positive. But somebody, somewhere is always telling me that I must be really scared to be wearing that helmet—before proceeding to tell me everything about injuries and treatments that they had to endure as a consequence of having had a serious crash.
royalgazette.com
In other news this week, current World Downhill Champion Rachel Atherton was involved in a head-on collision with a car.
Race report
Image of Norbert Meyer, who came a close second in today’s mountain bike race at Ferry Reach. For the first time ever, I was regretting the fact that my bike is set up for the road. Because watching these guys, I was really tempted to give it a go.
Cannondale Bad Boy Rohloff
Cannondale Bad Boy Rohloff 06, front hub Hope Pro II, front brake Avid Juicy Carbon 203 mm, rear brake Avid Juicy Carbon 160 mm, chainset Truvativ Stylo SS 180 mm, chainring Gebhard CNC, chain SRAM PC991 Cross Step, pedals Crankbrothers Egg Beater Ti, seat post Easton EC70, saddle SDG Formula FXR, bar Ritchey WCS Carbon Flat, tyres Schwalbe Kojak 26 x 1.35, weight 11.2 kg
Leaving London
After almost 14 years of living in the UK, I have now moved to Germany.
All packed up and ready to go early in the morning before my 20 hour drive from London to Kiel.
Hug your grandma today
I wish I would have had another chance to. Unfortunately, for me and my grandma, things didn’t quite work out.
The plane I’m on won’t get me there in time. My grandmother, Edith Knabe, died earlier this afternoon in Hamburg, Germany. She was 82.
I am going to miss her every day, for the rest of my life.
Critical Mass London
“Critical Mass London is a mass cycle around central London. Anyone can get involved, just bring yourself and your bike down to the South Bank on the last Friday of each month, between 6.00 pm–6.45 pm under Waterloo Bridge.” I took this picture on 29 July 2005. Thanks to Doug, you can also watch a video of what it was like to be there. Great fun.
criticalmasslondon.org.uk
A minute of silence
Last week I got caught up in the traffic jam that followed the killing of an innocent man at Stockwell tube station. Today, I passed the same spot again. This time I stopped.
Remembering Jean Charles de Menezes one week after he was shot and killed by police at Stockwell tube station in London. What did the ubiquitous CCTV cameras record that morning?
Update: Reports are now emerging that Jean Charles de Menezes had already been restrained by an officer when he was shot in the head seven times.
Life expectancy
Fact: A regular London cyclist enjoys a longer life expectancy than a Londoner who takes no exercise.
Food for London
You are in London. You are hungry. Here’s what to do: Find Dominique at his stand and ask him for galette. You like fresh spinach? Good. Ask him to prepare something with spinach. Alternatively, try his crêpe with Grand Marinier and banana. Anything. If you’re not satisfied, come back and hack this site…
Dominique Ait-El-Manceur serves arguably the best galettes and crêpe in the whole of London. You can find him weekdays at Exmouth Market from 12:30–18:00 and Saturdays at Broadway Market from 10:00–16:00.
Echoes of war
World Press Photo is the largest and most prestigious press photography contest in the world. Every year, the exhibition is visited by more than a million people in over 40 countries. Today I got a chance to see the Winners Gallery 2005 in Hamburg. Of all the images on display, that of Private Eric Ayon had the biggest impact on me.
“Private Eric Ayon of Echo Company of the Second Battalion, Fourth Regiment of the US Marines stares through the windshield of a Humvee ambushed at Ar Ramadi in Iraq on April 6, 2004. Eight out of the nine marines on board were killed. Ayon himself died in an ambush at the same intersection only three days later. During its tour of Iraq, Echo Company suffered the worst casualties of any US company since Vietnam.”
2nd Prize in the category General News Singles, World Press Photo 2005.
© David Robert Swanson, USA, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Reproduced with kind permission.
Marin Point Reyes
Frame Marin Point Reyes 18.5", fork Pace RC31 XC, wheels Mavic CrossMax XL, front brake Hope Mono M4 180 mm, rear brake Hope Mono M4 160mm, chainset Shimano XT 180 mm, pedals Crankbrothers Egg Beater SL, mechs and shifters Shimano XT, tyres Continental Sport Contact 26 x 1.3, weight 9.8 kg
Day after the crash
Yesterday evening I had a massive accident with my bicycle. A car pulled out in front of me and I crashed into it at about 40 km/h. I went over the car like a torpedo and then hit the ground face first. Any injuries, however, are confined to my right shoulder.
Nein zum Krieg
Millions around the world were united in protest against going to war in Iraq.
Hamburg, February 2003