Author Topic: It's not the despair. I can take the despair. It's the hope I can't stand.  (Read 83701 times)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Barlinecka is a firm making wooden flooring, so those are Poles riding on planks.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

how much per year do you have to be spending on Ginsters and milkshake to have a Garage chain think you're worth sponsoring!


Barlinecka is a firm making wooden flooring, so those are Poles riding on planks.

Very oily planks given their shirt sponsor.

how much per year do you have to be spending on Ginsters and milkshake to have a Garage chain think you're worth sponsoring!

Those lads look like they've got a serious pasty habit.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
No pasties in Poland. They'll be fed on lard and onion sandwiches, lots of bacon and dumplings. Perhaps they could get sponsorship from this firm, who already seem to sponsor some kind of cheerleading thing.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Control shots are the commonest form of Audax photo, they're the easiest to get, although the art lies in not steaming up the lens. So the dominant impression is of the thousand-yard stare. That diminishes as you get nearer the finish with time in hand. I quite like the sense of anticipation you get when the cards are handed out, that's usually  done with a desk close to a wall, so you can't get a shot of the hand-out without being obtrusive.
There's a greater variety of emotion at the start.



No pasties in Poland. They'll be fed on lard and onion sandwiches, lots of bacon and dumplings. Perhaps they could get sponsorship from this firm, who already seem to sponsor some kind of cheerleading thing.

The suggestion was that they were getting sponsorship from BP as a chain of filling stations. What do they keep in their chilled cabinets in Poland?

I spent a lot of time nodding along to this article a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jun/15/happiness-is-being-a-loser-burkeman

Quote
It doesn't necessarily follow, of course, that it would be a better idea to switch to negative visualisation instead. Yet that is precisely one of the conclusions that emerges from Stoicism, a school of philosophy that originated in Athens a few years after the death of Aristotle, and that came to dominate western thinking about happiness for nearly five centuries.
 
For the Stoics, the ideal state of mind was tranquility – not the excitable cheer that positive thinkers usually seem to mean when they use the word "happiness". And tranquility was to be achieved not by chasing after enjoyable experiences, but by cultivating a kind of calm indifference towards one's circumstances. One way to do this, the Stoics argued, was by turning towards negative emotions and experiences: not shunning them, but examining them closely instead.

Stoics are happy to set out knowing they won't enjoy it all.


I've tracking down some Japanese photos. I'm not convinced about putting those tents up on the gravel of a river bed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atkamano/6342476164/sizes/z/in/set-72157627996748535/

They seem to be having fun, I like the plywood table structure, it probably dismantles for transport.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atkamano/6342477496/sizes/z/in/set-72157627996748535/
Not the bed, but the flood plain. AFAIK Japan doesn't have rivers that dry up, but it has a lot that get much bigger at times, usually at the same times of the year. There are many of them with big dykes to limit the overflow. In urban areas the areas inside the dykes are often filled with sports fields & picnic grounds, &  in the countryside they're popular for hiking & picnicking. That (& anglers) is probably what the car park next to that site is for.

Just check the weather forecast upriver before setting up, especially in typhoon season.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

It is as you describe, they've probably got airbeds, otherwise the gravel would be uncomfortable.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atkamano/6342479288/in/set-72157627996748535/

Coca Cola, biscuits and crisps are popular the world over. Downloading is disabled, hence the links.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atkamano/6341681061/in/set-72157627996748535/

It's interesting to see what photos they choose in Japan, there's a lot of pictures of food, they're probably using them on blogs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atkamano/sets/72157627996748535/with/6342479288/

Chris S

 ;D

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
No pasties in Poland. They'll be fed on lard and onion sandwiches, lots of bacon and dumplings. Perhaps they could get sponsorship from this firm, who already seem to sponsor some kind of cheerleading thing.

The suggestion was that they were getting sponsorship from BP as a chain of filling stations. What do they keep in their chilled cabinets in Poland?
Yeah, I got that! But I'm not familiar with Polish filling stations, only having owned a car for six months there and never liking to frequent them on other occasions. I'd go with your suggestions of Coke, crisps (Lays being the leading brand, I think it's based in Belgium) and biscuits - Polish jaffa cakes, known as delicje, live up to the implication of their name and are available in a far wider range of flavours than their Anglo-saxon cousins. I'd expect bigger stations also feature a counter serving hot toasted baguettes with cheese, tomato sauce and maybe bacon, you might also get hot pierogi if you're lucky. No lard and onion sarnies though, that's a home thing and mostly rural at that.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Pictures of Audax in India are a bit difficult to come by, what there are lead to articles from the principal centres such as this.
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/2758-bangalore-brevets-cycling-race-qualifiers

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Audax in India has only really taken off in the last couple of years but is gaining popularity rapidly. Of course there it's a sport of the upper middle class enthus contrasting with the utilitarian cycling on heavyweight Hero and Atlas roadsters of the hod carriers and tiffin boys (yes, there seriously is a job known as tiffin boy). There's even an equivalent to the Easter Arrows:
Quote
We have the chance to organize the first ever Flèche in India. The chosen location is Hampi. Hampi is central enough in South India that we can expect teams based in Bangalore, Goa, Pune, Mumbai and Hyderabad to take part. It is a region of historical significance and should be a fun place to gather. Hampi does get hot by Easter, so we will plan to have an earlier Flèche event, by early March (I understand this shouldn't be a problem with ACP).

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/bangalore-bikers/lc7SGF4o68E

But the Bangalore Bikers Group I still get emails from doesn't do photos, I'm afraid.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Cycling seems to be a middle class activity in the East. In the Phillipines there's Executive Cycling, which seems to be a sportive scene. One of the most exotic  pictures I can find is of a 90 K control on a 200k in Singapore and Malaysia with expat French riders and the ladies of Team David's Salon. Audax is raely like that, but we live in hope.



http://dadzgrl.livejournal.com/150392.html

Audax seems more organised in Indonesia, nice to see sponsorship from Pocari Sweat.

http://www.holidayresort-lombok.com/news/news.html

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
This thread is brilliant.

A digest of a PM exchange I had with Jaded recently:

Me: Fancy a ride this afternoon?
Jaded: Can't, I'm running a control at (name of extra-toes town removed to protect identities)
Me: Has anyone made eye contact yet?
Jaded: I'm trying to take photographs for Arrivee but the people are verging on weirdness.  One guy said he "didn't do photos" and ran away.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Pingu

  • Put away those fiery biscuits!
  • Mrs Pingu's domestique
    • the Igloo
Making eye contact does seem to be difficult.


IMG_4114 by The Pingus, on Flickr

I'd forgotten about that shirt, I'll have to track it down.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
I'd forgotten about that shirt, I'll have to track it down.
It's nowhere near horrible enough for audax.  You need something that was apparently designed by a bloke who used to do New Wave album covers in the early 1980s.  An old Mapei-GB team top (the one that looks like a cascade of multicoloured Lego blocks) would be the minimum standard, although probably frowned on because it implies speed, glamour, spot primes and podium girls.

 The closest thing to a podium girl in Audax is someone's mum making tea at the finish control. and the closest thing to a spot prime is getting the last Ginster's pasty, only a week beyond its "use by" date, from a remote Murco fridge.


Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

The Mondrian influenced Look shirt from the 80s still appeals with its minimalism, relected here in a classic  fixed bike with a few modern tweaks.



The art lies in combining such casual self effacement with serious ability.
http://shprung.com/pbp/?mode=info&frame=8395

mattc

  • n.b. have grown beard since photo taken
    • Didcot Audaxes
I'd forgotten about that shirt, I'll have to track it down.
It's nowhere near horrible enough for audax.  You need something that was apparently designed by a bloke who used to do New Wave album covers in the early 1980s.
I think what this proves is that you, RZ, are stuck in the 80s. Hardly a single photo on this thread shows anything but average-looking jerseys.

Now what I like about Audax is that noone gives a fuck if you wear a hideous jersey, and I cherish the odd sighting of something vomit-based; but in reality they're just a bunch of average cyclists, who threw away their 80s jerseys (after about 40,000km), only for RZ to salvage them, and honour them in his special 80s Walk-in Wardrobe Shrine.
Has never ridden RAAM
---------
No.11  Because of the great host of those who dislike the least appearance of "swank " when they travel the roads and lanes. - From Kuklos' 39 Articles

The Mondrian influenced Look shirt from the 80s still appeals with its minimalism,
One I've long regretted not buying. I wonder if anyone does a replica.

[edit]Mais oui! Par Santini, pour cinquante livres.

http://www.prendas.co.uk/details.asp?ID=2239
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
I think what this proves is that you, RZ, are stuck in the 80s. Hardly a single photo on this thread shows anything but average-looking jerseys.
You keep telling yourself that, and I'll keep thinking of the old Newbury RC gilet  :sick:
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

I've got a vague idea that I've still got one of those Mondrian jerseys, somewhere.  It was tight quite a few years back when I used to wear it, and given that most of my current jerseys are fairly loose, it's probably relatively uncomfortable in comparison (assuming it hasn't been eaten by moths, or lost in a move).
Actually, it is rocket science.
 

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
We definitely need a before pic.

(click to show/hide)
It is simpler than it looks.