Early winter day

Winter has arrived. At least up here in the North I think it’s safe to say that winter is here now. The temperature these last days has been around -10º. (C - Celsius. Of course. Celsius really is the only sensible unit of measure when it comes to temperature. If you insist on using another unit, I only have one thing to say to you: Change.) It has even snowed. 

To be honest I haven’t been out riding much anyway. First I was a little fed up with cycling, after having ridden the Kalmar Grand Prix race (at a personal record average speed, I might add) my butt was sore.

Yeah, I ride in a Giro d'Italia 2016 la maglia rosa without being Vincenzo Nibali. So sue me. 

And I had ridden quite much up to that race too, I was the first one to sign up to the race which meant that I was given the Number 1. And riding with #1 on my bike and on my back and do really bad just wasn’t an option. Not to mention going DNF or DFL… So I had been training really hard, including a bunch of 100+ km rides. (Miles? If you mean real miles, i e 10 kilometres, we can talk miles. If not, then no,) My longest ride – also a personal record – was 150,81 km, from Växjö to Kalmar. That was a really great ride, by the way. Instead of choosing what might have been the fastest way between Växjö and Kalmar I opted for the smaller roads, less travelled, calmer and so much more interesting. I hope that I can do it again next summer, and if you have the opportunity to do it I highly recommend it.

I concentrated on riding... and finding my way! So I didn't really take that many photos. For some reason, which I won't examine, the few photos I took were mostly of derelict houses.

Kronobergstrampen is a 350 km cycling route through the Kronoberg county, Sweden. However, it's hard to find much information about it, so I don't know how organised this cycling route really is.

Endless roads and dark forests in the Kalmar county, Sweden.

The Sankt Sigfrids kyrka church in Sankt Sigfrid, Kalmar county. I didn't go in, but the exterior is quite nice!

But after Kalmar Grand Prix my butt was sore and I was a little fed up with cycling, so I needed a pause from it. When I was up for riding again the weather was crap. After that I got ill. And then autumn came, with slippery leaves covering the roads.

And now it’s winter. Which means a couple of things. Firstly it means taking my road bicycle apart and meticulously cleaning every part. I won’t bore you with details about how I clean my bike, let me just say that it is as clean as I can possibly get it. (Without unwelding the tubes.) The second thing is continuing to saw through the stuck seat tube in a Kona Lava Lamp, that will eventually hopefully be my winter commuting bike. I really don’t get that many opportunities to take out the bike and the saw and go at it, but I haven’t given up! Actually it’s a matter of prestige now, I am hell bent on getting that seat tube out of the frame.

Actually this must be the ugliest f**king bike I have ever came across. So it's perfect as a winter commuting bike, since winter commuter bikes are (meant to be) routinely mistreated.

The misery...

The third thing is the most important: To get my son’s Christmas present (he doesn’t know English yet, so it’s safe to write this) – a Specialized Hot Rock 24” mountain bike pristine and flawless. Since it’s a second hand bike I have some work to do, for example the pedals are totally crap, but basically it’s a good bike so it’s totally doable. A good clean (no, not really like the one I do on my road bike) and some new parts will do the trick. The parts arrived in a big box last week. It’s nice to do something for someone else, even if it’s for my son.

It doesn't look like much now, but I hope a good cleaning and some new components will change that!

The new component came in this small, handy box!

But besides the above I don’t expect much bicycle-related to be going on this winter. You can always wish for more bicycles (n+1, anyone?), bicycle parts and bicycle clothing but I can honestly say that I don’t really need anything. All my projects – the above mentioned, a mountain bike and two road bikes that I will fix and then sell – will require some new parts but… I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. So if I get this blog more up and running, meaning that I will update more regularly (yeah, fat chance) I suppose I will focus on other aspects of cycling. And since it’s winter it’s not really bicycle race season either…

Yeah, there are some races in January through April, like Tour Down Under in January, Tour de Taiwan and Volta a Catalunya in March, to name but a few but I am always eagerly waiting for spring, summer and the grand tours. (Yeah, well, last year I boycotted Giro d’Italia, due to the race having the opening stage plus two more stages in Israel. And Israel occupies Palestine, as you might be aware. But that was last year.)

2019 might be a good bicycle racing year. Giro d’Italia 2019 is concentrated around Northern Italy, Tour de France will have its departure in Brussels, go through the Eastern and Southern parts of France before finishing in Paris on the 28^th of July and Vuelta España… Well, I honestly don’t know if Vuelta España has been presented yet. It would be kind of typically Spanish to not have presented, nor even decided on the route yet.

And I have signed up (and paid) for my two usual races, the Göteborgsgirot 140 km race and the Kalmar Grand Prix Open 130 km race. I don’t think I was the first one to sign up to the Kalmar race, so this year I won’t have the same pressure on me to do at least OK, but I will of course try to do as good a race as I possibly can. With a little luck I might even be able to have a go at the Växjö-Kalmar ride, or even ride from Göteborg to Kalmar. We’ll see. 

But here and now I finish,so ride safe!

P.S. What a coincidence! After I had posted this text I saw on instagram that Vuelta España actually presented the route, yesterday. They will concentrate on the Northern and Southern parts of Spain, and of course, on Madrid.

Postgirot Open programme 1983

Will I be able to not be political this time, writing about memorabilia from the old (now discontinued) Swedish staging bicycle race Postgirot Open, or will I continue to rant about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the racist party Sverigedemokraterna (the Sweden democrats) or the general evils of capitalism? Well, I am still of course sternly opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the apartheid politics against the Palestinians practised by the Israeli state, and I am looking for the best activist way to work against it. I still feel that there is a better alternative to unchecked, unrestricted capitalism. But it has only been a week since the Swedish elections (municipal, county council and parliamentary), the final result and mandate distribution between the parties was just finished today and now the process of finding and forming a government begins. I would love to see a Socialist government but that's not happening, and that's not just due to the Liberal, market economy hegemony today. So the big question is just how much influence/political power the Sweden democrats will have on the parliament, due to their pivotal position. Will they have ministerial posts, in an ultra right government? There are, I feel, both advantages and disadvantages with that. In a shorter perspective it would, of course, be a disastrous disadvantage having a racist, anti-immigration and anti-women's right party having ministerial posts, one could just imagine the decisions being made by such a government (even though the decisions are formally taken by the Swedish parliament) and the outcome of ministry investigations. In a longer perspective it would mean that the Sweden democrats would finally have to take responsibility for impopular decisions, and it would be harder for them to keep playing the victim role that they are playing now, claiming that they are "anti-establishment". That would naturally be a big advantage.

To be perfectly honest I don't know what would be the right choice, or decision. I really don't want the Sweden democrats to have any political power or influence at all, but I would like the people who have voted for the Sweden democrats to see what kind of a right wing party they are, and to feel the effects of the Sweden democrats' Conservative politics on their own lives. (Sadly, it would be on everyone else's life too.) The thing is that the people who vote for the Sweden democrats are not all the racist, anti-feminist, pickup truckdriving, moose hunting rednecks that they are sometimes being portreyed as. They are tired and scared of the societal development, whether they see it or not they are being affected by the Liberal, market economy hegemony and either they are looking for simple solutions (pretty much like anyone else) or they wish to protest against the state of things, and sadly choose to do it this way. I think that many of them would quite easily discover who is to blame for all the things going wrong in our society, are they simply given a chance. They just need to see the facts. (And maybe some of them needs a hug too.)

OK, so obviously I'm not able to not be political this time either. Again, I  apologise to all you who end up here when you do a search on "Postgirot Open" and get a crapload of politics every time.

If you can't bear my political ranting and just want to see the memorabilia, the real blog post starts here:

We're going back to 1983. A really cool thing I found after I have posted the last three posts is a guide/pewspaper from the 1983 edition of the race. In addition to illustrated descriptions of all the eight stages, there is a summing-up description of the entire race, an illustration of the jerseys of all the teams as well as the leader jerseys, a description of professional bicycle racing and racers, a "declaration of love" to the road bicycle and some very 1980's ads. Oh, and some cool photos of, among others, Laurent Fignon and Tommy Prim. (To be honest, those two are the only ones I recognise.) I didn't have access to a scanner when I took the photos of the spreads, but I do now, so if anything catches your attention and you want to have a closer look, just let me know and I'll try to arrange it.

This is the cover of the guide/newspaper. The painting illustration is the same one as on the postcards from the same year.

The first spread. On the top left photo I recognise Laurent Fignon, with his signature headband. On the right page we see the CEO of the Postgiro Swedish postal giro. His editorial is quite bland and his fashion sense is, or at least was, questionable. Even if this was the 1980's!

To the left a summing-up description of the race, to the right an illustration of the jerseys. Note that besides the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, British and Swiss teams there was also a Czechoslovakian team and a Soviet team. The three professional teams were Bianchi Piaggio, Alfa Lum and Termolan Galli. Then there are the classification jerseys: yellow for the overall leader, green for the best sprinter, the points jersey is purple and the best amateur (non professional) wore a white jersey.

The first stages were held on the 15th of June. The prologue stage was a 3,3 kilometres long time trial and the first official stage was 101,8 kilometres, running from Gothenburg to the city of Borås.

A description of the second stage to the left, 189,4 kilometres from Borås to Skövde. And the above mentioned description of professional bicycle racing and racers ("The bicycle phantoms") to the right.

The continuation of The Bicycle Phantoms artice to the left. And to the right the third stage. 163,8 kilometres from Skövde to Huskvarna. We don't have any mountain ranges like the Alps or the Pyrenées in Sweden, but the Jönköping/Huskvarna region is definitely rolling.

 

 The fourth stage, 202,7 kilometres from Jönköping to Västervik. On the left page there are two ads, one from Fiat cars, and one from the PKBanken bank. PKBanken was a sponsor of Postgirot Open.

The fifth stage, 145,5 kilometres from Västervik to Norrköping. On the right page four bosses for Postgirot (the postal giro) are discussing why they are running the bicycle race.

A declaration of love to the road bicycle and the sixth stage, from Norrköping to Kumla. 135,9 kilometres.

The seventh stage was from Örebro to Västerås, and was 134,4 kilometres long.

The eighth, and final, stage was from Västerås to Stockholm and was 166,5 kilometres long.

An application form for getting your own Postgirot postal giro account to the left, and two photos to the right. The bottom right photo must be of Tommy Prim. Note the banana helmet!

The back page boasts yet another ad for the Postgirot postal giro.

That's it for today. Now I'm going to make mushroom cannelloni with tomato sauce. Ciao! Ride safe!

Everything you need to know about the Giro d'Italia 2018, part 4

(We borrowed this picture from the blog Mondoweiss. Hope that's OK!)

This is the Palestinian woman Ahed Tamimi. She's famous mainly because she has, since the age of 11, been standing up to Israeli soldiers coming to her home town, in occupied Palestine. You might have seen video footage of a young Palestinian girl shouting at the Israeli troops, in their face, and waving her fist at them. That's her.

Most recently, however, she got media coverage because she was slapping, kicking and shouting at two Israeli soldiers, an incident which led to her being convicted to eight months inprisonment. And might I just remind you here, that the Israeli settler who put his foot on an eleven years old Palestinian boy's head and then clubbed him to death, with his rifle butt was convicted to six months in jail? Ahed Tamimi has never killed anyone. That's called injustice. Another word for it is apartheid.

Tamimi got "fame" for the incident. Some see her as a hero, for the fight for Palestine indepence. Other see her as a tool for propaganda. They say that her acts are staged, aimed at discrediting the Israeli state. They also say that the real heroes are the Israeli soldiers who don't strike back. (Well, they didn't need to - she was convicted later, wasn't she?)

Anyway, lesser known is that just minutes before the incident with Ahed Tamimi slapping, kicking and shouting at the Israeli soldiers, her cousin Mohammed Tamimi was shot in the head with a rubber coated steel bullet, a "non-lethal" type of ammunition that the Israeli army uses against Palestine civilians. This is how Mohammed Tamimi looked after being hit by that bullet:

(We borrowed this picture from the blog Middle East Eye. Hope that's OK!)

And let me ask you, how would you react if your cousin was shot in the head?

This is the "normal Israel" that Sylvan Adams is talking about. This is one of the reasons the Giro d'Italia should not have three stages in Israel. This is one of the reasons I am boycotting the Giro d'Italia 2018.

Free Palestine and ride safe!

Everything you need to know about the Giro d'Italia 2018, part 3

In 1997 an Israeli settler beat an 11 years old Palestinian boy to death, with his rifle butt. His verdict? Six months in prison. Oh, and a fine of 70.000 shekels. Again: He beat an 11 years old boy to death and was sentenced to six months in prison, and a fine. The reason the settler clubbed the boy to death was that the settler was on the hunt for children who had been throwing stones at cars. Witnesses said that the settler pinned down the boys head with his foot before beating the boy in the head with the rifle butt. Still, he only got six months in jail because he was convicted of "manslaughter by negligence". In court, the settler claimed that he did not intend to kill the boy, and tried to revive him.

In 2016 a dozen masked settlers wielding knives and clubs and yelling "Death to Arabs!" and "We will kill you!" attacked five Palestinian farmers who were harvesting olives. The masked settlers seem to have beat the Palestinian men with clubs and iron pipes only because they were Palestinians. The Palestinian were older men who hadn't done anyting in particular that day, except harvesting (their own) olives, so the reason for the pogrom remains a mystery. The settlers could be seen on a video making their way home after the pogrom, but no one was arrested.

In 2017 96 Palestinians (of whom 20 were children) were killed by Israelis. During the same time 17 Israelis were killed by Palestinians. The youngest victim, on the Palestinian side, was Abdul-Rahman Barghouthi, 18 months old, and the oldest victim was Suleiman Salah, 81 years old. No, all of the Palestinians were not "innocent", but what do you do when you see no future? And what justifies killing an 18 months old baby?

This is the "normal Israel" that Sylvan Adams is talking about. This is one of the reasons the Giro d'Italia should not have three stages in Israel. This is one of the reasons I am boycotting the Giro d'Italia 2018.

Free Palestine and ride safe!

Everything you need to know about the Giro d'Italia 2018, part 2

(We borrowed this picture from Palestine: Let's stop pretending it's a fair fight. Hope that's OK!)

The Israeli West Bank barrier is a wall (and fence), currently being built by Israel, to 85 % on occupied Palestinian territory. When completed it is to be 720 kilometres long, covering the border between Israel and The West Bank entirely.

Again, it is to 85 % built on occupied Palestinian territory, despite the fact that it is built by the Israeli state to separate the Israelis from the Palestinians. The Israeli state says that the purpose of this wall and fence is to protect Israel from terror acts, but is that true?

The wall is cutting off 9,5 % of Palestinian land from the rest of Palestine and the Palestinians. 25.000 Palestinians live in the area between the wall and the Green line - the Internationally recognised border between Israel and Palestine. There are only 66 passages, of which just 12 are open daily, the remaining 54 being opened on a "seasonal" or "seasonal weekly" basis, something which completely destroys the Palestinian economy. The International court in Haag has stated the the wall is a crime against International law.

The Israeli state says that the wall and fence is only temporary, that it will be taken down when "acts of terror cease"... This wall is in itself an act of terror, against the Palestinians. It is a wall of apartheid.

This is the "normal Israel" that Sylvan Adams is talking about. This is one of the reasons the Giro d'Italia should not have three stages in Israel. This is one of the reasons I am boycotting the Giro d'Italia 2018.

Free Palestine and ride safe!

Everything you need to know about the Giro d'Italia 2018, part 1

(We borrowed this picture from BDS Movement. Hope that's OK!)

Let me start by saying that I will not watch or in any other way follow the Giro d'Italia 2018. Put another way I will boycott it. The reason? The decision of RCS Sport, part of the RCS MediaGroup, to hold the start and the first three stages of Giro d'Italia 2018 in Israel. I think that this decision is wrong, since the state of Israel occupies Palestine since 1967. So there you have it. And if you think that I'm wrong, that the Giro d'Italia should not be boycotted, that what Israel is doing in Palestine is not an occupation or, for that matter, that Palestine should be occupied by Israel, please feel free to leave this blog.

So why did RCS Sport decide to hold the first three stages of Giro d'Italia - literally the Tour of Italy - in Israel? This year is not the first year that they are starting the Giro outside Italy. The first time was in 1965, when they started in San Marino, and since then the Giro have started in Monaco, Belgium, Vatican City, Greece, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, The North of Ireland and Netherlands (a total of 12 times). So this is not the first time the Giro starts outside Italy, but it is the first time the Giro starts outside Europe.

Out of the Grand Tours - Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España - Tour de France has started outside France 22 times and Vuelta a España outside Spain three times. The Tour has started in Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany (in 1965, before the unification of Germany), Netherlands, Belgium, Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, West Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg, Belgium, United Kingdom, Monaco, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Netherlands and Germany, and the Vuelta has started in Portugal, Netherlands and France. So all Grand Tours have started outside their own countries, but none of them have started outside Europe. And none of them have started in a country which occupies another country. (If you don't count United Kingdom (the North of Ireland) and Spain (Basque Country), but I'm not going into that discussion right now.)

Apparently this is quite a big deal for the Giro. The director of Giro d'Italia, Mauro Vegni, has even said that "Israel isn't European and that was the deal breaker". My guess is that the organisation behind the Giro felt that it was important to be the first out of the Grand Tours to start outside Europe, that it was a question of prestige. Most likely there is some competition and prestige between RCS Sport and Amaury Sport Organisation, which runs Tour de France and Vuelta a España (the latter together with Unipublic), and it's easy to see how this could end in a competition to be the first Grand Tour race to start outside Europe. The rumoured 10 million (10.000.000) euro paid by the Israeli state to RCS Sport probably was a deal breaker too...

So what's in it for Israel? Well, prestige too, for one. There have been attempts to start either of the Grand Tour races in Australia and in USA, amongst other, but up until now, as we have seen, the big races have stayed in Europe. Israel is the first non-European nation to host a Big Three race. Secondly it's an opportunity for Israel to do some advertising for the country. Count on there being beautiful scenery along the route, short films showing the sights of Israel followed by imagery showing trendy Isrealis (i e no images of settlers or ultraorthodox hasidics) doing cool stuff in big cities and on the beach, before and after the commercials. To show the viewers that "Hey! Look! We're just like you! Modern and cool!" Thirdly it's what Sylvan Adams calls "Normal Israel".

(We borrowed this picture from Q&A with Sylvan Adams, the billionaire behind Giro d'Italia start in Israel - CyclingTips. Hope that's OK! Photo courtesy Maccabiah Games.)

Who is Sylvan Adams? A billionaire from Canada, who moved to Israel in 2016, and it was largely his work that led to the first three stages of Giro d'Italia being held in Israel. That, and the rumoured 10 million euro.

Sylvan Adams describes Normal Israel as "the regular life which somehow is not an interesting enough story to be told to the rest of the world", a cosmopolitan Israel, of ancient heritage and modern cities, of warm seas and warm people, according to an article in The Guardian. So yes, Sylvan Adams seems like a nice enough guy, there are photos on the internet showing him posing with living lions (and not dead ones) and I suppose it's possible that he really thinks that sports has a healing effect and will lead to peace and happiness. But he is also a billionaire who moved to Israel. Not a 17-year-old Palestinian girl convicted to eight months in prison.

Mauro Vegni has stated that he wants the Giro in Israel to be a sports event and to stay away from any political discussion. But besides the fact that saying that something is non-political is, in fact, very political, it is a very political act to have the start and three stages of the Giro d'Italia in Israel. It completely ignores the fact that Israel has occupied Palestine since 1967.

Also, originally the Giro d'Italia organisation stated that the departure of the race was to be from West Jerusalem. This was something that made Israeli politicians, among them the culture and sport minister Miri Regev, to threaten to withdraw the support for the race. An act which made the Giro d'Italia organisation quickly change the information, now stating that the departure was to be from Jerusalem. How is this not political?

Nairo Quintana will not race the Giro d'Italia 2018. Neither will Vincenzo Nibali or Peter Sagan. And I will not watch or in any other way follow it. I love the Giro d'Italia, I think it's the most exciting, heroic and most beautiful race out of the Grand Tours. But I would love to see a free Palestine even more.

Ride safe!

International Women's Day

Tomorrow, on International Women's Day, we here in Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb would like to congratulate all women.

And we would like to big up two great initiatives:

(We borrowed this picture from bikelikeagirl.org. Hope that's OK!)

Bike like a girl! As they write on their homepage: "Bike Like a Girl is about empowerment and inclusion. We want to provide skills which set girls up for success, and that allow them to tackle any challenge life gives them.  Everyone should get the opportunity to discover what can be learned from the simple act of riding a bike." Awesome!

(We borrowed this picture from World Bicycle Relief. Hope that's OK!)

World Bicycle Relief. We have written about them before. It's still not an organisation specifically for women, but it is just fantastic how something as simple as a bicycle can help women go to school, start a small business or provide healthcare. More people should support this.

Happy International Women's Day. Ride safe!

Postgirot Open 1985

You know, I was about to give you a review of the Craft Sportswear cycling gear that I currently own - the X-over Convert Jacket M (labelled as a mountain bike item, but it works just fine for road too), knee warmers and a neck tube. But when I mailed them and asked about their thoughts upon manufacturing their products in China - you know, a totalitarian state that oppresses dissidents, threatens Taiwan and occupies Tibet - I didn't receive a reply. I admit that I'm a sucker for Italian cycling gear, clothes and accessories from Barbieri, De Marchi, Diadora, Nalini, Kask, Santini and so on. They're really good-looking, of high quality and the connection road cycling - Italy just feels right. The fact that they are often made in Italy and that Italy neither oppress dissidents, threatens Taiwan nor occupies Tibet is just a bonus. (Yes, there is racism in Italy too and the Giro d'Italia will start and have three stages in Israel this year, but let's not get into that now.)

But I kind of like Craft too. They're Swedish, at least they're recognising that there are problems with manufacturing products in China, they think about the environment and they use non mulesed wool. (And yes, using or not using wool is another complex question to which I don't feel that I have a right answer. But I'm more than willing to discuss and/or write a blog post about it, so don't hesitate to give me your thoughts!) But since they didn't answer my questions I won't.

Instead I'm going to give you a new part of my series Postgirot Open (memorabilia). And I  apologise to all you who end up here when you do a search on "Postgirot Open" and get a crapload of politics every time. (I just don't seem to be able to shut up.) Now it's 1985, and this is when Postgirot Open started to get a clear graphic profile, and a good one too! This post card is just plain cool.

Other than that there's not much to say, I don't really have any information about the race, except that the winner was Marc Gomez of the team La Vie Claire. Well, I do know that the La Vie Claire jerseys and riders looked awesome. Just look at these guys! First Marc Gomez himself:

(I borrowed this picture from Capovelo.com. Hope that's OK!)

And then Greg Lemond and Steve Bauer. 1980's fashion just might be underrated.

(I borrowed this picture from Rouleur.cc. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!