Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The cycling premier

It seems our state premier Steve Bracks is a recent convert to cycling and in a big way too. He finished the 210km Around the Bay ride on his 52nd birthday at the weekend, along with sports minister Justin Madden. They made pretty good time too, an astounding effort to finish in under 10 hours. There was a photo in the paper, it looked like he had a pretty nice bike too.

A more unlikely pair of cyclists is hard to imagine but well done to them both. Hopefully, having a cyclist in the top job will mean a even better deal for cyclists, who already have it pretty good in cycling-mad Melbourne. Let's hope he sticks with it after the election.

It raises some questions. When does he find time to train? Does he ride to work? Is he going to back up for the Alpine Classic? Has he been copping the usual abuse from motorists, like we all do? Would he mind terribly bringing in unspeakably harsh penalties for motorists who run over cyclists and abolish the SMIDSY* defence?

Photo from ebay, where someone's selling ten 1980s v Campagnolo Super Record front hubs - the finest hubs ever built. You can't have too much of a good thing.

* Sorry mate, I didn't see you.

2 comments:

Jamie said...

Cycling's for pussies.

David Killick said...

Ah, Hack, you've found me! Welcome aboard, though you'll find nothing up to your high standards here. I'll lend you a bike, we'll go for a ride some time.