Benefits of a Bike (with added dubious claims of Bike - Earth interaction

What's Going on

So I'm aware we haven't had that much to say or ourselves recently, here is where we are at with campaigning.

The Woman From The Council (TWFTC) has been back in-touch about re-lining and the Knaresborough  Rd  apparently they have gone back to their sub-contractor who have proposed little or no cycleways or some such on their detail drawings.  Anyway TWFTC has headed off on holiday for a fortnight but she did say she wanted to "get this right" on her email  and re-lining is now scheduled for September. I can't decide if she is interested in keeping to her commitment to us and Gia Margolis or not, we await developments. Expect another call to arms if there is significant backsliding on their part.

We have been lobbying the Hospital to try and get them to work in partnership with us to increase staff cycling numbers. We met a stone wall until recently. Odd as they have a stated objective to promote cycling in their travel plan. We have now been referred to another person in the hospital. This either means we are getting somewhere or we are getting the run around. It seems important to try and work with the hospital as they are the biggest employer in the area and bike riders are happier staff as this London School of Economics report into the british cycling economy suggests that people riding bikes saves the nation 128 million quid a year in sickness costs.

Oh and the Olympics put some rather splendid elite athletes and one Yorkshire woman in the world's view. Well done GB cycling, well done local hero Lizzie Armitstead now can we get some provision for those of us who think Keirin is a boy's name? I have on the back of all this however bought tickets for the revolution championship at the velodrome in Manchester so hopefully when I return I will know why the man rides around on the silly motorbike that can't stay ahead of Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton for that long.

The voice of reason

This marvellous poem by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy first published in the guardian, comments on our Olympic success and the state of the nation. It also asks for more cycle lanes so here it is in full. She is worth her barrel of sherry I reckon.

Translating the British, 2012

A summer of rain, then a gap in the clouds

and The Queen jumped from the sky

to the cheering crowds.

We speak Shakespeare here,

a hundred tongues, one-voiced; the moon bronze or silver,

sun gold, from Cardiff to Edinburgh

by way of London Town,

on the Giant's Causeway;

we say we want to be who we truly are,

now, we roar it. Welcome to us.

We've had our pockets picked,

the soft, white hands of bankers,

bold as brass, filching our gold, our silver;

we want it back.

We are Mo Farah lifting the 10,000 metres gold.

We want new running tracks in his name.

For Jessica Ennis, the same; for the Brownlee brothers,

Rutherford, Ohuruogu, Whitlock, Tweddle,

for every medal earned,

we want school playing fields returned.

Enough of the soundbite abstract nouns,

austerity, policy, legacy, of tightening metaphorical belts;

we got on our real bikes,

for we are Bradley Wiggins,

side-burned, Mod, god;

we are Sir Chris Hoy,

Laura Trott, Victoria Pendleton, Kenny, Hindes,

Clancy, Burke, Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas,

Olympian names.

We want more cycle lanes.

Or we saddled our steed,

or we paddled our own canoe,

or we rowed in an eight or a four or a two;

our names, Glover and Stanning; Baillie and Stott;

Adlington, Ainslie, Wilson, Murray,

Valegro (Dujardin's horse).

We saw what we did. We are Nicola Adams and Jade Jones,

bring on the fighting kids.

We sense new weather.

We are on our marks. We are all in this together.

Image JL08

The Halo Effect and how the CTC shot itself in the foot

So it really happened, Bradley Wiggins exceeds everyone, except perhaps his own expectations by winning the tour de France and the Olympic time trial in imperious style. How can we use cycling's current  stellar popularity to get the cycle lobby taken more seriously on the nations Roads?  The CTC's approach to politely criticise Lord Wiggins of Modshire when he comments on the tragic death of a cyclist near the Olympic park seems to be a mistake to say the least.

We need  our national cycling lobby to be working with UK cycle sport to see everyone as a cyclist, not  pigeon hole cyclists as some mutant sub-species. We are all potential cyclists most of us are pedestrians and motorists too, if the Olympics can pull us all together as a nation and watching Brad tear up the field yesterday seemed to do that, then we need to seize cycling's moment in the sun and make political and popular hay while the Olympic flame lights us all up. It will be another four years before it shines this bright again.

Come on CTC you should be on the phone to Wiggo's people now asking if he will help, if he will issue a one paragraph statement saying he supports better cycling infrastructure. Maybe even lobbying in private and explaining why you disagree with his views, but to rush out something that criticises him the day after a great victory looks like sour grapes.