Tour de France Art

Woo hoo. Well done Froome. As I adjust to life without stages to watch, I am lucky enough to have one of these beauts to look at every day to remind me of yesteryear's TDF. Simon Fitzmaurice created these beautiful illustrated maps depicting the first three stages of the 2014 Tour that took place here in the UK. 

My TdF Traditions

Yeah, I like to paint things in homage to the Tour de France, see my Bradley W-egg-ing post as case in point. Here are this year's TdF nails.

As I can't be in Paris, I've started my own little West London TdF tradition. I know the drink associated with the Tour is champagne but I'm not that rock and roll so I started my day with a 'Tour de Force' smoothie from my local cafe/ food market Farm W5. I'm a big believer in smoothies for a natural energy boost pre exercise and often make my own but sometimes it's nice to not have to deal with the epic washing up that inevitably follows anytime I do anything kitchen based. 

Doing something two years in a row totally makes it a tradition and seeing how last year (and let's be smug already, this year) turned out, it's already a lucky ritual. 

If you can't be in Paris either, try Look Mum No Hands for some big screen Lycra action.

Bradley W-egg-ins

First of all, sorry for all the egg puns that this post contains.

This Easter I decided to pay tribute to the eggciting summer of 2012 by painting Bradley W-egg-ins and the TDF eggs.

I cycled to Primrose Hill for the 8th Annual Lost & Found Egg Roll. Transporting eggs on a bike is the ultimate test in careful cycling. 

The competition for best dressed egg year was eggceptionaly tough this year. I had my eye on the eggstravagant trophy.

I came 2nd.

Here is the winner: The Bikram Yoker Studio. Whatever, I have a thick shell.

On Easter Sunday, My nieces and nephews took some time out of their busy 'gorging themselves on chocolate' schedule to take part in a little hillside eggsperiment. 

Guess what this park is called? Scotch Common. For real. These puns write themselves.

The King of the Mountains had had un oeuf of this hill.

Maillot Vert was the clear winner, sprinting to the finish line, shell intact. This is what our winner had to say: "Girls always win at stuff like this because they are WAY better than boys". Great eggfort girls, you crack me up.

That's all yokes.

Happy Easter. I don't want to see eggs for a long time.

Designed to Win

When you cycle, you can't use the generic 'my tube was delayed' type excuses for being late. In a desperate attempt to get a few extra minutes in bed I've been trying to come up with ways I can shave some time off my commute. So far I have;

* Wear shoes that aren't flip flops.

* Don't stop en route for a 2nd breakfast.

With these two speed improving factors set in motion I was feeling pretty smug. That was until I went to Designed to Win and met this bike.

Allow me to introduce you to the Speed Concept 9:9 by Trek. This time trial bicycle was ridden by Fabian Cancellara as he won another yellow jersey in the 2012 Tour de France Prologue. All elements that could create drag have been concealed to enhance aerodynamic performance. Maybe I should remove some of the Hello Kitty stickers off my bike as even branding stickers can add weight.

Also, I've been going through an 'attach a vintage silk scarf to my helmet' phase. This won't make me as fast as Graham O'Bree was in this hot red fibreglass number which he wore in his 1993 Hour Record attempt.

This exhibition shows the depth of influence sport has had on areas including; fashion, design, technology, politics, advertising and art. Sport is a creative industry that has amazing opportunities for collaborations in many diverse areas. This is something that we have become more aware of this summer with the Olympic and Paralympic games. If the absence of these events has left you feeling a bit Monday morning this exhibition is the perfect hair of the dog. Also if you just want to check out some super cool bike porn there are bikes once owned by Eddy Merckx, Chris Boardman and Francesco Moser to name a few.

Designed to Win is on at the Design Museum until November 18th 2012. There is bike parking outside the Museum or you can lock up along the Thames.

Rocco Malatesta// Posters of Hands

I believed the weather a few weeks ago and put my gloves away. As it was totally bluffing I've been riding around town with cold wet sad hands. Even my age old trick of matching my nail varnish to my mud guards isn't doing them any favours. These posters by Berlin based Graphic Designer and Illustrator Rocco Malatesta show some rather more iconic hands. See.

Lance Armstrong



Maradona, no wait, God

'E.T' was my first word. FACT (I was a 1982 baby).

Freddy Krueger

What?

Here's a bit of Tour de Lance from one of Malatesta's other collections.

Available to buy here.