Zeusblog

Last night, the Duke of Edinburgh’s design prize was awarded to Andrew Ritchie, the man who invented the Brompton folding bike. He thoroughly deserves his prize, and I think Phil should have got the missus to knight him too. Unlike James Dyson who made a big fuss about British ingenuity and then moved his manufacturing abroad, Andrew Ritchie manufactures these splendid little bikes here in London. Good for him!

You can read the news story here

After a recent triathlon I said that “I guess commuting on a Brompton isn’t
great training for a tri bike leg”. Well it turns out that it is good training for the Brompton World Championships - I am no longer a fat, middle of the pack cyclist who really ought to train more, I am now one of the top 75 Brompton riders in the world. That’s right - ONE OF THE TOP 75 BROMPTON RIDERS IN THE WORLD! Well 71st actually, 68th man, and 63rd in my class. It was against top class opposition too - Roberto Heras, three time Vuelta winner just pipped Michael Hutchinson (apparently Britain’s best time trialist) to first place.

The race was very hard work, two undulating laps around Blenheim Palace’s grounds, but it was all very good-natured competition, if you wanted to pass someone, you just rang your bicycle bell - an extremely civilised way of racing that I think should be introduced into triathlons immediately. Along with the attire - I for one look much better racing in a shirt, tie and jacket than I do in lycra.

The official write-up is here http://www.brompton.co.uk/bwc/2009/ and the
results are here
http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/brompton/BWC%20Individual%20Category%20Resu\
lts%202009.pdf

Chalky (ranked 68th in the world)