There have been . From tomorrow these will be whittled down to a shortlist that will be judged in September at Interbike trade show by TV commentators Phil Liggett and Bob Roll, as well as members of the Spokesmen podcast.
Top togs maker Rapha, publisher of über-trendy road mag Rouleur, is staging a photography exhibition, evening events and organised rides from the Host Gallery in London, 11th-21st October. The Rouleur Exhibition will also have a Rapha boutique.
The photography exhibition will feature 40 grainy, atmospheric photographs by Rouleur photographers.
The Rapha boutique will be stocked with the new Rapha Autumn/Winter collection.
Also launched at the expo is the Rouleur Annual, a £35 250-page book of 2007 Rouleur photographs.
There will also be organised evening and day rides
The Rouleur Exhibition is being held at the Host Gallery in central London. With the Cycle Show at Earls Court and the Bicycle Film Festival in Bethnal Green, the Rouleur Exhibition adds to an active month of cycling events in the capital.
DETAILS:
www.rouleur.cc (site live 31st August)
Host Gallery
1 Honduras Street
London, EC1Y 0TH
On choppers and stuff.
“Ever wondered how the lazy ass Dirt crew get to work every morning?” asks Mike Rose, editor of Dirt magazine.
“Well, wonder no more, this fly-on-wall video shows the daily commute of the staff on their way to the ‘9 to 5 grind’:
It’s filmed in a sloppy style by the DownAndOut crew.
The Phil and Friends Challenge Ride starts and ends in Stannington, near Sheffield, every August. This was the seventh ride, and as always, was led by Phil Liggett, the ‘voice of cycling’. The ride benefits the CTC Charitible Trust.
There were a couple of hundred participants with the ‘friends’ being Eurosport commentator David Harmon, Quickrelease.tv’s Carlton Reid, and Ron Gray, founder of the Lanterne Rouge club.
Riding with this bunch for part of the way were Brian Robinson, the first Brit to finish the Tour de France (with Vic Denison in 1955), and Martyn Bolt, a councillor with Kirklees Council. Evidence of Bolt’s power was seen on the drag up Holme Moss – council workers had painted permanent road markings telling cyclists the distance to the summit.
Check out all of the Quickrelease.tv YouTube videos and subscribe, for free, to hi-res versions via iTunes .
In June, Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq was hugged by London mayor Ken Livingstone at a Transport for London promo event for the London Freewheel ride. However, The Times – and much of the British media – is reporting that a Conservative politico whined to the BBC about Huq being wheeled on at the pro-cycling event.
Quickrelease.tv reported on the event at the time, not realising a big red storm was brewing. There was, however, a giant red fixie at the event. Bigger pic of it, and Huq’n'Ken, here.
The Hovis London Freewheel is taking place on Sunday September 23rd. Ms Huq was the first person to sign up for the ride.
“I bike into the TV centre from Ealing which I’m proud of,” she said at the launch.
But now The Times is reporting that her presence with ‘Red Ken’ was “sharing a platform with him” and that the BBC had warned Huq to steer clear. She had therefore “threatened the impartiality of the BBC,” said The Times.
Mark Byford, the BBC Deputy Director-General, has apologised to the Tory complainant, Brian Coleman, the deputy chairman of the London Assembly.
Livingstone is accused of using the Freewheel launch to poke holes in London Conservative’s “pro-car” policies.
Mr Coleman said: “The launch became a political rant. It is unforgivable for the BBC to allow the Blue Peter name to be lent to a political event.”
In a letter to Mr Coleman, Mr Byford agreed: “It was felt that the BBC and the programme should not be linked with anything that might be construed as campaigning, and that this campaign potentially fell into that bracket.”
Huq’s agent , Jonathan Shalit, said: “This was an entirely non-political event about helping to get Londoners cycling, and that is why I recommended that Konnie take part.”
It’s believed Ms Huq has now had to withdraw her support from the nine-mile family bike ride.
The British cyclists’ collective Bicycology is promoting cycling at the Camp for Climate Action, which officially started today. The Heathrow squat ends on August 21st. It’s being closely monitored by the police, who will likely stamp on any runway invasions, citing anti-terrorism laws.
Bicycology is “an open but focussed community of cyclists run on a non-hierarchical basis through regular meetings that rotate around the country.”
It “uses creative methods to encourage environmental responsibility. Its aim is to promoting cycling as a healthy, practical and enjoyable alternative to high-carbon lifestyles, and to challenge the politics and economics that have led us down the road to environmental destruction and massive global injustice.”
The Camp for Climate Action is:
Eight days of low-impact living, debates, learning skills, and high-impact direct action tackling the root causes of climate change. Why?
The science is clear: global emissions of carbon dioxide must go into rapid decline within the next decade. If they don’t, humanity faces a bleak future.
To achieve this in a way that respects global justice means 90% cuts in developed countries like the UK. How will we cut emissions and end inequality? How will we achieve this in the face of an economic system intent on expanding at any cost, with corporations stealing the language of change to disguise business as usual? Ordinary people will have to join together to create real solutions and take direct action against the root causes of the problem.
This year the Camp for Climate Action will be at Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport and a bigger source of CO2 emissions than most countries. It’s sheer lunacy in this time of ecological crisis, but the aviation industry are pushing to almost double the airport’s capacity by increasing flights and building a third runway. The battle to stop them will be one of the most important environmental battles in Western Europe.
The 68 Quickrelease.tv videos on have been downloaded 335,163 times.). Bike brands and shops which want to feature on future vids and podcasts - or place banners on this site - can now access a PDF ratecard.
The YouTube video library of Quickrelease.tv is . of the vids has had 27,415 views.
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With the current mess in men’s pro-cycling it will be a refreshing change to watch women’s cycling instead. is to televise the final two hours of the next round the Women’s World Cup series.
Welsh wonderwoman Nicole Cooke, last year’s winner of the series, is in the lead of this year’s event, too. She races for the Raleigh Lifeforce squad. Here’s a quick view of her on the Muur of Geraardsbergen, leading the Women’s Tour of Flanders, 2007:
The next race in the World Cup series takes place on 1st September in northwest France, at the GP de Plouay. More details on Womenscycling.net.
While Heinz, famously but not quite accurately, has 57 varieties of foodstuffs, Quickrelease.tv now has 57 videos in its YouTube library.
Go watch a few of them . of them has had 27,000+ views. All in, the videos have had a whopping 230,896 views on YouTube. Some have been sponsored videos, such as the Silverfish-supported videos on the Nissan Qashqai Challenge MTB event. These videos have had and views, an excellent payback for the UK Raceface importer.
And, talking about Heinz, viral videographer Nalts is the in the Heinz ‘make us a cheap ad’ YouTube video contest. His video is way funnier than anybody else’s.
The Heinz may have had 1,965 entries but, hey, it’s backed with a top-prize of $57,000 and is a paid-for contest on YouTube.
All you get in the is a huge bag of bike bits schwag - but it’s had 120 entries. More are needed. Remember, the videos will be judged at Interbike Las Vegas by Tour de France commentators Phil Liggett and Bob Roll, see yesterday’s story.
Most of the Quickrelease.tv YouTube videos are available in hi-res versions on the Quickrelease.tv video podcast site on iTunes. And, there are some videos that are only placed on the podcast site so subscribe to make sure you get ‘em all. It’s free, and the videos play on PCs, Macs, Apple TVs, iPhones and iPods. And some play on cellphones, too.
In 2006, the design competition Reinventing the Bike Shed commissioned a video short on how bike thieves operate. This animated short was placed on the competition website in Real format but you can now download it as a video podcast from Quickrelease.tv.
The short was produced by design and research company Bold Creative of London.
Greg Villalobos, Creative Director of Bold Creative, said: “We managed to track down a thief willing to spill the beans and set an animated illustration to his words.”
The video is available as direct download MP4 file via Libsyn or subscribe, for free, to all of the many .
