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!