The Age have been running a series of articles about cycling (presumably reflecting the interests of its readership). Last week was an article about getting into cycling in adulthood (dare I say it in middle age?). One of the comments suggested that one of the reasons people have to take up cycling in middle age is because its so hard these days to get kids into cycling. But I thought to myself – that’s not true on Adelaide Cyclists! I would say instead that we all go out of our way to…

In October I walked 178km in 8 days (part of the Camino de Santiago that crosses across northern Spain, the part we walked was mainly through Galicia). Part of the walk included a 8km climb up to 1000m at 7.5%. We walked every day from around 7am to 5pm, with stops it was 6 hours of walking. Even though it was October and should have been autumn the weather was really hot and we didn't see a cloud for 6 of the days let alone any rain. The walking was not really that hard, although carrying…

 At this time of year newspapers are full of list of the best…TV shows, movies of the summer, gourmet hamburgers, whatever….

So I thought what about an AC list? I don’t pretend to know everything about everyone on AC, so I’ll start and I call on others for nominations and suggestions for categories. So here’s a chance to highlight great contributions or contributors and show them a bit of love. Remember we are trying to be nice (and maybe a bit humourous) here.

PS I don’t think…

We have just spent 6 weeks overseas (mostly in the UK but with 2 weeks in Spain in the middle).  While we were there we drove all over the country from the Peak District south including Wales, Cornwall & Devon, the home counties and Norfolk. We also visited  or passed through a few middle sized cities (like Cambridge & Manchester), and stayed a few days in London. We noticed a few things that interested us (and I am not saying this was in any way a comprehensive or accurate survey –…

On the anniversary of Mark Ferguson's one year on AC I post this blog which I was prompted to write by his account of the recent Grand Slam. Mark gives so much to the community (inside and outside of AC) and inspires and supports many people. Mark I hope you can see what a great person you are :)

This will be my last blog post for about 6 weeks. I am not leaving the site! We are just going away on…

I like a whinge as much as the next person. Why only Friday I sent an "emergency" email to my Friday after work drinking buddies to see if we could get together for a drink primarily because I wanted to have a big whinge. We love whinging – in our case it’s usually about grants and publications and the sometimes seemingly impossible task of ever getting ahead in research…but the principle is the same. Getting it all off your chest is cathartic, and who doesn’t benefit from a set of…

I have been so impressed this week by Cadel Evans. He has been both humble and humbled by the adoration of his fans. It’s been so nice to see him look relaxed, and genuinely smiling. He has been working away so hard at his goal all these years without really seeking the glory. If the media accounts are correct he has gone out of his way to ensure his brief visit back to Australia was not a sponsor-fest debacle – apparently he removed his BMC racing cap on the podium in Paris for the same…

No one could be anything but shocked by the terrible images and stories coming out of the UK this week. It seems so unreal and makes me wonder, could it happen here? Is there a level of simmering discontent waiting to explode onto our seemingly safe streets and into our benign neighbourhoods? I don’t know and I’m yet to hear a convincing argument about the cause of the riots, though no doubt there’s a bit of truth in most of the claims made. I imagine it won’t really become clear for quite…

What is a hero?

Mia Freedman has been on the receiving end of some very vitriolic abuse this week for daring to suggest that sports people are not heroes. Because she did this in the context of Cadel Evan’s win in the Tour de France many cyclists and cycling fans have come out in defence of Cadel and to criticise Mia as an ignorant nobody. But I think lots of people may have missed the point Mia was trying to make (ok we might argue that she did it in a very clumsy way, and I suspect…

I received a hand written note the other day. It was quite a novelty and I really liked it. My friend, who sent the note, has very nice handwriting and somehow the brief words in the note were imbued with more of his personality because I could see he had written it himself. These days we use electronic communication so much that apart from often hastily scrawled shopping lists and the occasional birthday card we never see our friends’, or in fact anyone’s handwriting (actually the other…

I read the news every day online (Agoniser, The Age and the ABC). About a year ago I read a story about a cyclist being killed on his ride to work. Another cyclist, who didn't know the guy who was killed, had decided to complete his ride to work, to commemorate his life and highlight cycling safety. He was inviting other cyclists to join him on this "Ride for Respect". At the bottom of the story was a link for more information. I wasn't commuting at the time but had a partner who rides and…

What psycho-babble, sociological claptrap is she on about now? I hear you ask…

Ontological security is the sense that everything is right in the world – some theorists have suggested it is like a protective cocoon that allows us to live everyday life without constantly worrying that everything will go wrong. It’s linked to our sense of self and with that our resilience to life’s challenges.

However, it can be a bit fragile and this week, as some of you would know, I experienced…

Yesterday morning thanks to the boys from the TMMLM (and more specifically ET's alarm) I was up at 5.30am, so I got to see the planets align in the early darkness. It really was a beautiful spectacle but I can’t quite explain why. Venus and Jupiter were shining so brightly and the valley below our house was just starting to reveal itself in silhouette. It genuinely took my breath away. Don’t try to explain it, just live it, I thought to myself.

Which brings me to the real point of…

OK so technically this is more about music than cycling, but some people might be able to relate the two.

I thought it might be fun to play Adelaide Cyclists High Fidelity:

What are your all time top 5 favourite songs? If you can, find a youtube link for each one and write a one(ish) liner about why it’s in your list.

I realize this could cause arguments. My favourite song might be someone else’s all time most loathed. So if you are going to play, play nice…

I caught the end of a documentary on Radio National on Sunday. It was a love story about two musicians who had trained at the reknowned Guilliard Music school in New York in the 1980s. In the time since, the woman had become a famous concert pianist while the guy had become a busking violinist in the NY subway.

They never did get their relationship together...At the end the woman summed it up: "I think in the end we loved our instruments more than we loved each other. The relationship…

We often say that as cyclists we feel safer when we see more cyclists on the road. And we also expect that increasing numbers of cyclists should result in better driver behaviour as drivers become more familiar with cyclists and understand better how to accommodate us on the roads.

A new report out today from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (read it here) records trends in…