About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Shoulder injury strikes again !?

What is it with UK female athletes and their shoulders?

First there was Rachel Atherton with her much publicised and very serious shoulder injury earlier this year which has so far prevented her defending her world cup title and now the sad news that Shanaze Reade has suffered a shoulder injury that has left her requiring surgery and out of action for 4 months. 
This means that she wont be able to make her much anticipated professional mountain biking debut in the Fort William 4X event.

More importantly it means that she will be unable to defend her BMX world champion title in Australia in July.

This is devastating news for one of Britain's top cycling athletes and here at Tredz we wish her all the best and a speedy recovery.

Le Tour with aplomb?

We were all pretty disillusioned with le Tour, weren’t we? Personally I didn’t care if the whole thing imploded on itself – but now it’s a whole new year and I am ready to forgive. I’ve picked out my afternoon snacks, scheduled Mrs F to visit Granny with Miss F for 2:30pm when I turn on ITV4 to start the coverage from Brest (Sky and Virgin have 100% coverage but Barney/CBBC needs to be back on the box by about 5pm).

Few reasons I’m looking forward to it this year:

• Cadel Evans is 5/2 at bookies (not that I’m anyone you should take betting tips from)
• The highest paved mountain pass in Europe
• Cavendish head to head with McEwan on several sprint finishes

But don’t expect to see insightful comment and informed critique here. I don't wear anywhere near enough lycra for that. Get over to Quickrelease.tv and read Carlton’s take (he’s in Brittany now!) or to the peerless Masiguy (good to see him getting much better) they REALLY know their onions (…pun intended).

Brake a habit not your skull

The guys over at Fat Cyclist can ride. Really ride. I mean 10,000-feet-of-climbing-in-about-80-miles-on-a-Saturday-morning type of riding. But criminal stupidity can even be found within such clear cycling enthusiasts. Yep, this is a use-a-helmet-you-prat type of post.

This is Kenny. Kenny sounds about as hardcore as you can get on 700Cs with joining the peloton. He takes his track bike — modified to have a freewheel and a front brake — as his ride of choice when other are presumably on Roubaixs, Madones and the like with 9 or 10 gear choices donning their rear wheels. But Kenny's talents for strange choices includes riding in a cycling cap and no lid. I’m thinking he may be regretting his anti-helmet stance having bombed on a fast, slippery decent last weekend.

This is Kenny with an ambulance man

This is Kenny The Wise’s head minus tarmac, oil, grit etc. V.nice.

Before seat belt laws were introduced, many said they were safer without their belts because you could exit the car quicker if an accident occurred. No kidding genius – through the front window. Likewise, how can anyone pretend not wearing a lid actually makes them safer?

IMBA has a blog

I didn’t realise that staff at the International Mountain Bicycling Association have an ‘official blog’.  It’s only been going for about three months but has loads of photos and plenty of riding talk. I hooked into this video of Nat Lopes from there. It’s worth watching to the end to see him bail on some big marble-looking stairs (too much "Dude" but hey, they're in Minnesota). I’m honestly thinking how we could set this up in our local hospital?

Visit Wales gets e-update

You wont be surprised to read that Visit Wales is an the organisation responsible for promoting tourism activities in Wales. (The clue is in the title, right?) Well, they’ve had a website for ever at visitwales.com but they’ve gone all Web 2.0 and built wales1000things.com.

The difference? They want to become a home for everything you could want to post about activities in Wales. Get out and about, take some photos and post them up. There’s even vouchers available as an incentive from them.

Cycling tests are reborn

After a successful pilot of more than 5,000 children tested in eight regions, the new cycling proficiency test gets the green light. This more modern test will take place in the real cycling environment not the playground and is known as the Bikeability award scheme. The BBC said,

The government is putting £10m into children's cycling, which will pay for around half of all 10-year-olds to take the Bikeability course.

Amazingly they went on to claim that more than 90% of youngsters have never cycled to school. The government wants to buck that trend and is investing £10 million into children’s cycling in order to convince parents and teachers alike that cycling is safe. There’s a video article and a new test here.

Bike rack meets optical illusion

Equals bike as urban art. I got this from the fabulous Go Clipless blog.

The Shocker's First Air

Jules, Tredz' DH rider, on his new Cove Shocker frame                 

           

Cyclists get free lunch

Wanna free protein bar? Not tried 'em myself but they've got that magic sound about them, free. It was advertised in Men's Fitness magazine and appears on their website http://www.easuk.info/mf%2Dstorm/

'The second you experience a Storm bar, you'll forget it's loaded with 27g of high quality protein and formulated to support muscle growth and recovery. And you'll definitely forget it's a nutrition bar - packed with flavour Myoplex Storm is the taste of sports nutrition!

Try Myoplex Storm for free! Enter you details here to receive your free sample bar'.

*Only one bar per household.
*Offer closes 30th April 2007, or whilst stocks last.

Cycling is key to quitting smoking

I’m a little out of sync with National No Smoking Day and should’ve posted this last week. StaffNurse.com writes “A cycling machine or a breath of fresh air may be enough to help smokers beat their cravings. Exercise is one of the best ways for smokers to manage their cravings when they are trying to give up, according to the Exeter University study.”

Is that ‘manage their cravings’ by distracting them with the pain of exercise? I don’t suppose it really matters, but as many as four million people may be inspired to get riding not puffing in light of Britain’s imminent ban on smoking in public places and workplaces on July 1 (already happened in Scotland and in effect from April 2nd in Wales).