Katie Wins

Hell yes! Katie Steudel of Team Pegasus won the 8th Milwaukee Messenger Invitational this weekend. Plus, Cale came 3rd in the non-messenger section. Good job, team!

Baugé Wins

Gregory Baugé, the new match sprint World Champion!

Sireau Crash

From his match sprint with Gregory Baugé. There's a great pic out there somewhere of Baugé keeping his bike upright after the crash, but I'm too lazy to look for it right now. Photo: ANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images.

[update] The pic with Baugé in it is over on the Macaframa page. Thanks Matt! Check it out here.

A Taste of The Toast

Good work from the Denton TX crew, can't wait to see more. Thanks for the email, Michael! Details here.

World Championships Videos

Not a lot on the internet yet, but check these out:

Baugé and Awang's 2nd match sprint:


Baugé and Awang's 3rd match sprint, for the men's gold:


Pendleton and Kanis' 3rd match sprint, for the women's gold:


Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite getting the gold and setting a new 500m women's time trial world record:


France versus Britain in the men's team sprint:


Women's keirin final:


Men's keirin final:


That's your lot!

New Stuff at Ben's Cycle

Just got an email from Andy, my Pegasus teammate over at Ben's Cycle, with a few photos of some of the new stuff they just got in, including those new stainless capped Nitto bullhorns. Sweet.

Brand new stainless Nitto RB-018s and RB-021s.

Cogs and bars from VeloSolo in the UK.

Check them out over at the Ben's Cycle page, and keep an eye on their blog here. Also, Urban Velo just did a little piece about Ben's here.

Show Up Classic - Part 2

Today, Saturday 28th of March - Bloomington, IN - Details here.

Hey America...

... your boy took gold. Taylor Phinney, Men's Individual Pursuit World Champion. Photo by Guy Swarbrick at TrackCyclingWorld.

Nice Photo

Almost vert, from nabiis.net. Go there. Now.

World Championships Photos - Day 1 & 2

TrackCyclingWorld editor-in-chief Guy Swarbrick is at the World Championships in Poland right now, and is taking some great photos of the action. To read his reports and to see more of his photos, go here.

Ireland's David O'Loughlin in the Men's Individual Pursuit qualification round. He was sick and didn't do very well. Photo by Guy Swarbrick. More here.

A Ukrainian riders overhauls a Polish rider during Men's Individual Pursuit qualifaction.

The French Men's Team Sprint squad. Photo by Guy Swarbrick. More here.

The French Men's Team Sprint squad, Kévin Sireau, Michael d'Almeida and Grégory Baugé collect their gold medals. Sireau and d'Almeida look feckin' delighted, wha'? Photo by Guy Swarbrick. More here.

The velodrome during the Men's Points Race. Photo by Guy Swarbrick. More here.

Keirin Berlin 5th Anniversary

Keirin Berlin cycle culture cafe is 5 years in the game. Damn! Celebrate this April 1st with Mortimer and the crew at Oberbaumstr.5 in Berlin-Kreuzberg, and bring me back some crazy Japanese stuff.

Collage

76 Olympics #1, by Matt Partridge. Check out more of his collage stuff here.

Thanks to Sage (Pegasus what?!) for the heads-up.

World Championships Photos - Day 1

Here are a few shots from the first day of the Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszków, Poland. I'll have more photos and results up soon.

Victoria Pendleton getting herself psyched up before the start of the Women's 500m Time Trial in which she took bronze. SEBASTIEN BERDA/AFP/Getty Images

The Dutch Men's Team Sprint Squad. AP Photo.

Joanna Rowsell of the British team in her Women's Individual Pursuit qualification. JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images

New World Record holder and the first gold medal winner of the 2009 World Championships, Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania, winning the Women's 500m Time Trial. AP Photo.

Best. Bike. Website. Ever.

You know that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the ark is being put into storage in that massive OSS warehouse? Well, the Embacher Collection is that, but for bikes, and in Austria. It's an amazing collection of over 200 historic bikes and components, and you can check it and the bikes out here.

Peka Steher

Corima Cougar

Schauff Aero

Seen over on TrackosaurusRex.

Worldwide

Updated VeloCity 2009 flyer - Various Cities and Dates - Details here.

7th Friderday Taipei Fixed Gear Meetup - March 28th - Details here.

Blue Angles Alleycat, Sprints, Polo, Tricks and More - July 10th-12th - Details here.

Hong Kong Attack - Apil 11th - Details here.

Outlier and Empire

Outlier have a new Merino t-shirt out, made in conjunction with the Empire crew.

The shirt: made of ultrafine New Zealand Merino wool, sewn in NYC, it will wick sweat and is anti-bacterial, so it won't smell like a cycling jersey after one wear.

Some ginger bloke with a beard rocking the shirt.

Check it, and the other stylish cycling clothing that Outlier make, here.

Milan San Remo 2009 Final Kilometer

Irish Team Pursuit Squad Miss Out

The Irish Team Pursuit squad narrowly missed out on going to the 2009 Track Cycling World Championships.

David O'Loughlin, David McCann, Paul Healion and Martyn Irvine at the recent World Cup Classic at Copenhagen, where they set a new national record and just missed out on a ride-off for bronze.

Apparently, the team needed to have competed in at least one event in four of the last five World Cup meets to qualify, which they haven't done. So even though they came 7th and 5th in the last two World Cup meets, and are currently ranked 11th in the world, they won't be going to the World Championships. David O'Loughlin will be Ireland's sole representative, and will be hoping for a medal in the Mens Individual Pursuit.

Surprise!

Guess who just got named to the British squad for the 2009 Track Cycling World Championships, even though he recently said, when asked about returning to the track, "there's nothing for me to do there now. I wouldn't gain anything in my career either financially or in terms of being remembered. It would just be a hindrance to what I can gain on the road."

Getting ready for the points race at the 2008 Worlds in Manchester. Photo by Tompy.

That's right. Mark Cavendish. The preeminent road sprinter of the moment will make a surprise return to the track as part of the endurance squad of the British team at the forthcoming Worlds. Should be fun watching him in the Madison!

Back to Normal

Hipster Nascar has finally disappeared from Blogger's Blogs of Note page, so my numbers have gone down to "pre-fame" levels, but so have the amounts of dodgy Chinese spam and comments like "hey i really like your blog bikes are cool and i have a blog too it's about FINANCIAL SERVICES." So it's a case of swings and roundabouts, I suppose. Unfortunately, I'm sick with a bad cold right now, and couldn't be feckin' bothered posting anything substantive, so you'll have to make do with this classic photo for a while:

Bos versus Hoy - World Track Cycling Championships 2008 - Manchester Velodrome - Photo by johnthescone

2009 Track Cycling World Championships

One week to go till the 2009 Track Cycling World Championships in Pruszków, Poland. Will the British team be able to replicate their Olympic success without Chris Hoy? Will anyone be able to stop Victoria Pendleton? Will France be able to defend their Team Sprint title? TrackCyclingWorld has a preview here, and if you're lucky you might be able to watch some action here.

[update 1] USA Cycling just announced the US squad going to the Worlds. It's made up of just four cyclists: Taylor Phinney will compete in the Individual Pursuit, Kilometer Time Trial, and Omnium; Daniel Holloway will compete in the Madison and Scratch Race; Colby Pearce will compete in the Madison and Points Race; and Shelly Olds, the only woman in the US team, will compete in the Points and Scratch races. Four cyclists is a pretty small squad. In comparison, the Brits are bringing nineteen.

[update 2] TrackCyclingWorld has its full preview of the Worlds here.

Nice Curves

Milan's Velodromo Vigorelli, one of the most storied velodromes in the world. Sadly, it doesn't really get used for cycling anymore, but if you want to see more pictures of it in its prime, go here.

Good Friday Track Meet

The Good Friday track meet at Herne Hill velodrome in London is happening on April 10th this year. The event has been going for over 100 years, since 1903, and is not to be missed if you're in London. For all the details and to read about the history of the Herne Hill Good Friday meet, go here.

Monday Night Knife Ride

Hey Chicago, the Knife is back. Meet at 8pm.

[update] Not sure this is happening after all. Check chifg for details.

Trash Bags

Just saw these over on Bike Jerks. The bags look solid, plus I love the name, Trash Bags, and the logo.

These are messenger bags from a working MPLS messenger. Check them out here.

Blue City Cycles

Chicago framebuilder and long-time bike scene mainstay Owen Lloyd will be opening his own bike shop, Blue City Cycles, in Bridgeport, at 3201 Halsted, on March 28th. Check out photos here and here. Website will be here eventually.

Thanks to UrbanVelo for the heads-up, and go Sox!

Team Beer'd

You know I usually only like to rep my own set, but there's a new team in Chicago, and, well, let's just say they're unconventional. Team Beer'd. Check them out, and read their race report on the carnage of Atlanta's Broken Hearts + Bicycle Parts, here.

Awesome Sprints

More roller racing, this time in Denver. It's like Les Triplettes de Belleville up in here! Friday, March 20th, at the Handlebar Grill. Check out Awesome Sprints for details.

Rollapalaluza Winter League Grand Finale

The finale of the London's Rollapalaluza Brass Monkey winter roller-race league is this coming Wednesday, March 18th, at Reliance Square studios, New Inn Yard. Lots of prizes from people like Knog and Pig Dog bags, plus you don't even have to be a league contender to race. Just head over there and try it out. Details here.

6 Days

I saw this brilliant poster on Prolly's blog the other day, and it got me thinking. Why not have a return to epic 6 day racing at the home of the event, Madison Square Garden in NYC? London are planning on having a 6 next year, and 6s all over mainland Europe sell out weeks in advance, so why not NYC? Okay, maybe not at the Garden, but certainly there's enough interest in track bikes right now that a well publicized 6 day event could be successful. Hopefully someone will bring the Madison home soon, but in the meantime check out the Alpenrose 6 day event in Oregon.

VandeVelde

While you and I were busy worrying about bike snobs, Chicago local Christian VendeVelde was busy winning the 4th state of Paris-Nice in a solo breakaway. That'll teach ya! (AFP/Getty Images)

Pursuit

I love this photo of the Australian team pursuit squad.... although 3 and 4 need to tighten it up a little. Photo: TAimages.

Street King Invitational

Another roller race night run on the phenomenally successful OpenSprints system. Street King Invitational - April 4th, 7pm - Boulders on Broadway - Tempe, AZ.

NoBrakes and Kazane present The Keirin

If you're in Atlanta on May 8th and 9th, or anywhere even remotely nearby, then you need to get yourself over to Dick Lane Velodrome to watch/race in The Keirin, a series of keirin races presented by NoBrakes and Kazane. It's part of The Need for Speed event, which looks like it'll be a great weekend of racing. More details here.

Urban Velo Chainring BCD Gauge

Get it here, or pick up a paper copy of Urban Velo.

Traktion Aftermath

I didn't post the video here, so you may not know what I'm talking about, but recently some kids made a video called Traktion about the fixed-gear scene somewhere in SoCal, and posted it to Vimeo. In the video, which has since been deleted, one of the kids says something about how he "rides a fixed-gear because he loves to ride his bike, and he wishes the poseurs would stay away." Prolly picked up on the little piece of presumptive and exclusionary negativity expressed by the word “poseurs,” and his post attracted a lot of comments lambasting the video makers and the riders depicted.

So now BikeSnob has gotten hold of the "scandal." Well, I don't really get Bike Snob's post. He seems to think that the uproar over the Traktion video shows how elitist and snobbish (the irony!!) the track bike "scene" is. He seems to think that Traktion got slapped down because it was people new to the scene daring to make a video. Hence his side-by-side post of tricks from Macaframa and tricks from Traktion, which was his way of saying "see, the kids in Traktion are doing the same tricks as the kids in Maca, but they're getting hated on because they're noobs!" In my opinion, Bike Snob just doesn’t get it.

In reality, Traktion got slapped down because in the video a kid presumes ownership over fixed-gear cycling, and people reacted against that. The reaction was not, as Bike Snob thinks “who do these kids think they are, making a video of themselves doing tricks?” The reaction was, I think, “who do these kids think they are, talking about poseurs and casting aspersions on other riders, setting themselves up as the arbiters of who is, and who is not, an authentic cyclist, which is particularly ironic because they themselves seem to be pretty new to bikes.” Bike Snob then used his post, which was a misreading, to go off on a tirade against how there isn't a fixed-gear "scene" and it's all a con and a marketing scam to sell hats.

To be generous, I suppose there could be some interesting issues hidden under his unreflexive self-righteousness, like the extent to which forms of activity around which identities coalesce can be co-opted by companies who suddenly see an opportunity to make $$$. But, does commodification really mean the necessary refication of an identity, or is it more complex than that? Do identities formed in a capitalist moment change when they are "co-opted?" If so, how?
I think that, in essence, Bike Snob’s post reproduces a conservative and inherently Romantic notion of identity that depends very much upon a notion of purity, and upon the notion of the degenerative force of capitalism. It’s understandable, to a degree. The Romantic notion of the corrupting influence of bourgeois capitalism is as old as, well, bourgeois capitalism, as is the Romantic notion of a pure and unadultered cultural existence that pertained before the advent of bourgeois capitalism.

All this is not to defend capitalism or capitalist exploitation. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. My point is to suggest that people like Bike Snob can’t conceive of capitalism as a totality, and thus they miss the extent to which it is a force on all forms of practice, including identity formation. They still think there are realms of cultural “purity” that exist outside the structures of capitalism, and so it’s only when Nike, say, decides to jump on the fixed-gear bandwagon that the fixed-gear scene becomes compromised. Yes, companies seek to exploit pre-existing groups and identities. It’s so easy for Nike to sell windbreakers to an exiting “market.” Just learn the cultural codes and shared signs of the “group” and build a marketing approach out of that material. Yes, it’s problematic. But does it mean that a group or an identity or a scene are hopelessly corrupted? Rubbish. The fixed-gear “scene,” to the extent that there even is one coherent scene, is born of capitalism. It’s inherently bound up in the relations of production that has cheap frames made from from Indian steel by migrant workers in Taiwanese factories shipped across the Pacific on Nigerian registered freighters crewed by Indonesian sailors, unloaded by Polish dockers in the United States and bought by kids in SoCal from the "local” bike shop that is financed by a small business loan from a Swiss bank. It’s a totality. We exist within it, and to some degree it shapes (though it doesn’t define) our habitus, our opportunities for action. It seems to me that Bike Snob is a hopeless Romantic, longing for the days of Rousseauian purity, all the while seeing capitalism as something “out there,” something alien. That’s why he uses the word “appropriation” so much, as if things, practices, identities, groups exist beyond capital first, and are only later appropriated by it and thus rendered invalid. Well, I’ve news for you, capitalism is corrupting, but it touches everything, and identities must be formed from within its totality. Maybe those identities are not as explicitly revolutionary as we might like them to be, maybe they’re inherently reactionary, but the point is, they don’t start outside the realm of capital and then get co-opted. They are formed inside the realm of capital. But, even though they are formed inside that realm doesn't mean that they won't or can't seek to move beyond it. An identity or a group or a practice is never one or the other, it’s never outside capital and pure, or inside capital and corrupted. It’s always, to some extent, both. For a theorist like deCerteau, even just walking around the city could be an expression of liberty against the tyranny of the scopic gaze, so why not fixed-gear bikes? Maybe even if the riders are wearing Nike?

Coloured Tyres

I saw these Halo Twin Rail Courier tyres over on BikeRadar. The colours are bright, but I'm not at all sure about the tread pattern. They look a little like 'cross tyres to me, and apparently they're extra thick for skidding, because that's how couriers stop their "fixies." In that case, they might make a decent alternative to Soma Everwears. And please don't hate on correct spelling.

Riding the Rails

This race in New Mexico will take advantage of the newly completed Railrunner commuter train line that travels from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, 80 miles north. The race begins in Albuquerque. After hitting several checkpoints the racers must catch the train to Santa Fe where they will complete additional checkpoints before catching another train back to Albuquerque and the finish. Catching trains and hitting up checkpoints in two different cities sounds like a ton of fun. This is definitely a race worth traveling to.

Riding the Rails - Albuquerque, NM - March 14th - Details here.

Team Z Jersey!!

Feckin' deadly! No need to drop fifty quid on eBay to get a smelly Team Z jersey some oul' lad had at the bottom of his kit bag for the last 15 years. Get a brand new one from Prendas instead! The iconic jersey in which Greg Lemond won the 1990 Tour will be available soon in a reproduction edition. Plus, they're making Team Z cycling caps too. Keep an eye on Prendas for details.

Keirin - Spreading the Love

I have no idea what the voice-over of this little Keirin ad is saying, but I like it anyway. Seen over at Keirin Berlin.

FourteenTeeth

Apparently a guy called Coomer decided to aggregate the feeds from a bunch of track bike/fixed gear blogs, and he mistakenly included Hipster Nascar on there with quality sites like TrackosaurusRex and Urban Velo. Quick, check out the site before he realizes his mistake: FourteenTeeth!