BS for today #27 - Championnats du Monde de Cyclisme sur Route

A beautiful French stamp from 1972. That year the road events were held at Gap.

A Canadian stamp issued for the 1974 World Championships held in Montreal. Eddie Merckx won his third World Championship tile that year.

The World Championship colors, a French stamp issued in 1989. Back then the road events were held in Chambery.

The 2003 road races were pedaled in Hamilton.

Kristin Armstrong (USA) won the womens TT at the UCI cycling world road race championships in Mendrisio today. Click here for podium photo.

Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

Jeannie Longo (FRA) finished 10th, not bad! She was on the podium in the road race already back in 1981. Born in 1958, you do the math.

BS for today #26 - Campionati Mondiali di Ciclismo su Strada

The first stamp ever issued to honor the Road Cycling World Championships, an Italian stamp from 1951. At that time the road races were held at Varese. One of my all time favorite stamps.


The same stamp was used in Trieste, with an overprint AMG-FTT (Allied Military Government-Free Territory of Trieste).


Italians know how to make beautiful things. The 1962 road event was held at Saló di Garda. Cyclists with spare tires wrapped round their shoulders.


The 1968 event was held in Imola.



Two stamps from San Marino issued in 1999. The road racing events were held in Treviso and Verona.


The Italian 1999 issue, cool.

The UCI Road Cycling World Championships starts on Wednesday with individual time trials (Men U23, and Women elite). This time the championships are held in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Critical bike ride

This time I was on time for the critical bike ride. It was a nice ride, even though there was some car drivers trying to force their way through the cyclists. I saw at least four incidents, taxi drivers were involved in two of them.

BS for today #25 - New sh*t

This is a South African stamp from 1986 showing a stage of bicycle wheel building!

I have been planning to build a new fixed gear already for some time. Unfortunately it has taken some time to find the right parts. At some point I got an idea that I want orange rims with white spokes. It turned out to be difficult to find powder coated spokes.

I finally got a package from prowheelbuilder. No Zipp's inside though.


A Velocity deep-v (front wheel) and spokes.

I got the hubs a long time ago from wheel & sprocket.

hubs_6, originally uploaded by Mr_Lefa.

I bought a B43 rim already in the summer from Kumiluoti.

Velocity B42.45, originally uploaded by Mr_Lefa.

It might be a problem with all the paint, but I will worry about that later.

Forgot to order nipples...

Found this very cool time laps wheel build movie at Lay-Luh's Flickr.

Events...

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the Carfree day and a critical bike ride will be organized in Helsinki (about 10 km).


Start at 5 pm, by the Havis Amanda statue. Last time I was late and missed the ride.


LOLleycat on Wednesday evening.

Singlespeed?

From the pdxcross gallery, via hkfixed.

BS for today #24 - Cycling roads

These are two British Millennium stamps (Cycle Network Artworks & Kingdom of Fife Cycle Ways).

Today there was a story in the newspaper on traffic planning and how to take cyclists into account. The guy who is in charge of planning cycling roads etc. in Helsinki is a former pro cyclist. He has pedaled around 350 000 km, so he should know what he is doing. His opinion is that cyclists should be given more space on the streets among the cars, instead of cramming on the sidewalks together with pedestrians. This is great, but it will obviously take for ever before things actually will change.

The attitude of some car drivers is also a big problem. I usually commute to work by bike and one morning, a couple of weeks ago, one guy driving a van tried to run me over. He really floored it and steered directly towards me! I got away that time, but some day you'll run out of luck. I have no idea why he did it. I sometimes ride on the streets instead of using cycling roads/sidewalks. He probably didn't appreciate that, but still I can't understand why he tried to kill me.

UCI Women's Road World Cup

The last race of the 2009 UCI Women's Road World Cup is pedaled today in Nürnberg (Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt). Before the last race Marianne Vos from the Netherlands is leading the World Cup, with Emma Johansson from Sweden second.


Emma Johansson with the Red Sun cycling team. More photos at christerhedberg.se

Emma on her blog:
" First the last World Cup in Nürnberg on Sunday and then the World Championships in Mendrisio… And I´m aiming for GOLD :) "


Marianne Vos winning at Thüringen Rundfahrt.

BS for today #23 - Sky's the limit

At home with a cold. Bored... so I thought I would post all the Finnish bicycle stamps issued to date. I intentionally left out blocks, first day letters and such, don't want to bore you too much. I usually try to include some story in these bicycle stamp postings, also this time I managed to do it.

The Häme brige

This is the fist Finnish bicycle stamp issued in 1942, showing the Häme bridge in Tampere. Not much cars then, no wonder with the WWII raging...

There is a tiny bicycle on the bridge. The Häme bridge still exists and looks basically the same as back then, with bronze statues of the Maiden of Finland, a hunter, a backwoodsman and a tax collector! Very suitable considering our taxes.

Freedom of trade

The second Finnish bicycle stamp was issued in 1979, to celebrate 100 years of freedom of trade in Finland. In 1879 Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian empire. Since 1917 Finland has been an independent state, regardless of what the Soviets tried to do.

A transport tricycle can bee seen in the old street view.

Sports for masses

This one, from 1989, was issued in a block of four showing sports for masses. No helmets in the 80's.

Cycling union

This stamp was issued in 1998 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Finnish cycling union. This is probably my favourite among the Finnish bicycle stamps.

Note the equality aspect, a woman posing with the highwheeler. A real bike chick and quite bike chic also, wonder if you can ride a highwheeler in that dress?

Oulu

This stamp was issued in 2005 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city of Oulu. Bike chic? Neon helmet and all... I quite like this stamp, they are advertising themselves as a progressive city, with cycling as a symbol for progress. Not bad at all, great actually!

European integration

This is an European integration stamp from 2006, showing a stone age style drawing of a tandem.

15 cyclists are heading right and only one is going left, does it mean anything (politics aside)? With the western style of reading left to right, I guess it is easier to "see" things in that direction. Haven't done any statistics on bicycle stamps in general.

Finnish cyclists are not that well known, but there are a few pros out there. On Friday it was in the cycling news that long time Liquigas rider Kjell Carlström has signed for Team Sky. Recently I happened to have a posting mentioning that Kjell "Kellu" Carlström became the Road Cycling Finnish Champion.

Photo Esther Keightley.

It is going to be very interesting to follow the progress of British Team Sky as several Nordic riders have signed for the team, among them some very interesting Norwegian (Kurt Asle Arvesen, Edvald Boasson Hagen) and Swedish (Thomas Lövkvist) cyclists. As Carlström said, Sky's the limit. Maybe Nokia could be smart enough to sponsor them now.

Probably need to by some team apparel...

Superheroes alleycat

The Superwomen (Hot!!!), Pippi Långstrump, a few hippies, a magician (with Harry Potter glasses, cool), the milk delivery man, some ancient goddesses, a Mexican wrestler, a 70's disco queen, some pirates and others seem to have gathered here... and ET as a bonus at the end.

IV Alleycat VLC. By benifaraig.

I have to add that the music is great, muy muy bueno!

BS for today #22 - Hey A#$%hole

Cycling is good, both for you and the environment. Here is a Swedish stamp from 1977 promoting physical fitness. It is part of set showing different physical activities.

A video promoting cycling, the perfect contrast to the above stamp.

Hey A#$%hole. By rossangeles.

Mighty Mark

With a rest day at the Vuelta it was a good time to remember the TdF. I found a nice video about Mark Cavendish and his wins in the 2009 TdF. The footage from the moving camera in Paris is my favourite, you can really appreciate the speed.

Mark Cavendish - Tour de France 2009 (wins 6 stages (sprints)). By lizzrose.


2009 Tour De France Stage 21 final sprint on the Champs-Élysées. By kdubphoto.

...well, Thor Hushovd is not so bad either. Funny...

Cavendish and Hushovd sprint on the top of Mont Ventoux. By AaBern.

Jour de Fête

Another cycling movie - Jour de Fête by Jaques Tati.

See here for more info on the movie. A nice old movie with some reasonably funny action sequences. This DVD contains both the original b&w version as well as a coloured version.

BS for today #21 - Don't steal bikes

This is a Danish stamp (by Torben Skov) from 1990 promoting a campaign against bike theft. It says roughly "Take a bike - Your own!" or "Ride a bike - Your own!"

Stealing or damaging other peoples property can have consequences and just apologizing might not help. I was going to post a video here about street justice, which many of you have seen already, but it has been removed from YouTube. For more info see CWMD.

BS for today #20 - Vuelta A España

I could not find any dedicated stamp for the Vuelta, but here are two colorful Spanish road cycling stamps from 1960.

The Vuelta has already reached its 10th stage, Valverde leading overall with Evans only seven seconds behind. The only thing I really miss since I gave up TV is the cycling races on EuroSport. So far I haven't seen any of the action in this years Vuelta.

This year we have a Finnish cyclist taking part in the Vuelta, Kjell Carlström riding for Liqugas.

Liquigas boys Sabattini, Carlström and Quinziato.
Photo credit, Isabelle Duchesne.

Today we could read from the newspapers that Kjell Carlström now is the Finnish Champion in road cycling. He finished second, but the winner Toni Liias lost his victory due to suspected use of forbidden substances.

pursuit_24, originally uploaded by Mr_Lefa.

Liias might also loose the medals he won at the Track Cycling Finnish Championships. Here taking silver in the 4 km pursuit. A sad story!

Great shots by Timm Kölln

There are two things I like very much, cycling and photography. There are so many aspects of cycling that makes it interesting for photography (the aesthetics of riders and bikes, speed, pain, joy, intensity, everything...).

The photos by Timm Kölln really capture the spirit of cycling. I especially like the peloton photos. Here are two of Timm's photos, posted with permission.

Mighty Mark Cavendish...

...and the crowd cheering at Mortirolo.

More great photos and stories in the Rouleur magazine.

BS for today #19 - 3...2...1...CTAPT

This is a Soviet stamp from 1988 showing some Soviet time cartoon characters.

...and I saw this at Fixed Gear Moscow. The cat might be riding a fixed gear as the pedals keep spinning even when not pedaling (2:45).

Леопольд. Прогулка кота Леопольда by dikri100.

Sparrow Hills Race

The race! from Alex Goncharenko on Vimeo.

BS for today #18 - Olympic Cycling II

The second part of Olympic cycling stamps.

Munich 1972

This is a stamp from 1972 showing the Olympic velodrome in Munich. Track length 285 m. Material, wood. As most old Olympic velodromes it has been destroyed. The building still exists but is used for other purposes than track cycling.

The above stamp in a sheet of four different.

Montreal 1976

This is a stamp from 1976 showing the Montreal Olympic velodrome. This was the first indoor Olympic velodrome (the building in the front). Track length 285 m, surface wood. The building itself is quite beautiful. Also this one is defunct. It has been rebuilt as some kind of biodome.

Moscow 1980

This is a stamp from 1977 showing a track cyclist, apparently riding barefoot. A very nice stamp, like a Greek marble statue. The Krylatsky Olympic velodrome apparently still exists. Track length 333 m, wood surface.

Los Angeles 1984

This is a stamp from 1983 showing a road cyclist. Art work by Robert Peak. The LA Olympic velodrome does not exist today, it was apparently converted into 2500 parking spaces?!

The above stamp in a block of four different.

A maxi card.


Seoul 1988

This is a stamp from 1985 showing a track cyclist. The Seoul Olympic velodrome is still in use. Track length 333 m, surface wood.

The above stamp in a sheet of two different.