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let me know
almost as fascinating as the racing, are the banners edging each and every televised cyclocross parcours, no doubt for products and services well-known throughout the shires of belgium and the netherlands, but mostly inscrutable to a scottish 'cross fan totally bereft of language skills. i never know whether to investigate further (willy naessens, exact, x2o badkamers), or retain a degree of mystery, by leaving others unturned (assa abloy, bingoal, ethias). in the absence of tnt sports providing any coverage of last weekend's nationals, i watched on youtube accompanied by flemish and dutch commentary, none of which i had any comprehension, but it did provide an enhanced degree of authenticity (apologies to messrs mcdonald, beckinsale, fields and wyman).
it's possible that at least a few of these course-side banners bear some relation to cycling, though i wouldn't be suprised if they didn't. the efficacy of advertising your cycle-related wares is surely confirmed by the number of folks seen wearing big bobble hats, and the two examples sat on my hall table. though i cannot claim to have seen any 'cross banners for the bobbles over the past couple of seasons, it was witnessing a series of these during a televised race in 2023, that led me to find and order from their website.
whether anyone actually buys an assa abloy or isolatie stock, i couldn't possibly attest, but i'm pretty sure that pauwels sauces are consumed with gusto, particularly in the light of their sponsoring one of the sport's principal teams. it's relatively clear why bicycle companies are involved; i'd imagine that mathieu van der poel has been singularly responsible for shifting truckloads of canyon bicycles, and it's quite possible that thibau nys and lucinda brand are close to achieving the same for trek. however, since the disappointing departure of tom pidcock from the cyclocross start line, specialized has been conspicuous by its absence.
but displayed quite prominently on this year's courses have been not only banners simply proclaiming mercedes benz vans, but occasionally a strategically placed demonstrator to illustrate the type of van to which the banners refer. on islay, the fastest growing type of vehicle seems to be the pickup, the majority of which are not only bog standard, but frequently decorated with more than a single dent, presumably acquired on the farm in which the pickup is resident. oddly, the pharmacy in bowmore main street now delivers prescriptions in a bold, double-cab pickup, with colourful signwriting all over its personage, just in case we miss it. presumably prescriptions are considerable larger and heavier nowadays.
but, if we assume that a reasonable proportion of any cyclocross audience has a vested interest in riding as well as watching, a van may be the ideal vehicle in which to safely transport family and bicycle(s). so why not a mercedes? perhaps there are other van manufacturers watching mercedes' sales figures in belgium and the netherlands with interest, to learn whether it's a party in which they might like to participate. that might explain why so many of those in the business of providing software and cloud services have decorated the peripheries of televised cyclocross courses.
it has been mentioned on more than one occasion, that advertising within the velocipedinal realm is considerably cheaper than other sports, such as golf and particularly motor racing. you can bet that mercedes vans' advertising budget for cyclocross is but a fraction of the cost of running their formula one team. but the point i am laboriously attempting to make, is that a german car company appears to have seen the benefits to be reaped from advertising in a realm that is not specifically their own. and while i would hardly recommend that specialized, trek, or colnago expand their sponsorship to formula one, or, heaven forbid, golf, instead of preaching to the converted, they might do well to consider enlarging their market by arranging for banners to be seen by spectators enjoying sports that are not cycling?
monday 19 january 2026
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................obstacles
despite originating in the early years of the 20th century, there still exists a certain level of mystery behind the origins of cyclocross. legend has it that cyclists who participated in the likes of the tour de france and several other events in the early 1900s, would challenge each other to ride from one town, or rural village to another, getting there by any practical, yet often unpragmatic means. this would often witness riders in those less than aerodynamic wool jerseys, carrying their heavy bicycles across streams, sand dunes, over walls and other obstacles, in an attempt to be first one home.
in the days long before indoor trainers, zwift, rouvy and their peers, these early, unsanctioned cyclocross races were a practical means of keeping fit and improving bike-handling skills, particularly when the parcours of the professional events were less than pristine in their countenance. as far as i'm aware, those town to town races, across any intervening landscapes actually took place; whether they were the direct antecedents of cyclocross as we know it today, or simply an early inspiration, i'm not sure that anyone knows for certain.
the courses that comprise today's races are considerably more manicured. the hurdles or planks, exist at the behest of uci rules controlling their height, while the width of the parcours is mandated to be a minimum of three metres. bicycles can be changed twice per lap if desired, with each discarded machine immediately rushed off for a quick pressure wash before being required sooner or later in the race. about the only aspect that hasn't changed much over the years, is the mud, though during this cold dry 2025/26 season, much of that has been at the behest of the water run off from the pressure washing area. and no longer are these events constituted as point to point, but a calculated number of laps over a one hour time period (elite men) or fifty-minutes for the elite women.
however, each event presents a different course, not all aspects of which suit each rider. as with world tour events, some suit the climbers, some suit the better runners, and some favour those with expert bike handling skills, though even the worst of riders is still a substantial leap ahead of you and me. nonetheless, as a career choice, everyone has to put up with the same crap, whether welcome or otherwise, an attitude that might well be adopted by the rest of us, whether out for a leisure ride, or commuting to work.
my saturday ride almost always commences with a slightly less than direct route to debbie's for lunch. but since i favour my cyclocross bicycle on the first day of the weekend, i am wont to inhabit a couple of offroad sections, convinced that they will turn me into wout van aert overnight (delusional is the word you're looking for). the first of these is a short footpath leading from islay estates' office to bridgend stores, a leaf strewn dirt path that features a large puddle midway along created by motor cars on the adjacent road, driving through a roadside puddle and spraying the water over the wall. just past that point is a fence post which has broken at its base, and is now making a very slow motion attempt to escape from the wires to which it is attached.
these obstacles i once viewed as irritations; unfortunate happenstances that slowed my journey, and, in the case of the puddle, threatened to upend my personage, were it not to be approached with a suitable degree of apprehension (there are several large stones concealed 'neath its muddy surface). and then there's the recent fencing of uiskentuie strand, mentioned in these black and yellow pixels at the end of last year. prior to its unpopular existence, 'twas a simple matter to turn off the main road onto the grass leading to foreland road end, pretending that riding on grass flattened by inordinate numbers of motor cars could only enhance my gung-ho attitude, and hone my offroad skills.
even after the fencing was erected, there were still a few gaps along the way that allowed the intrepid velocipedinist unfettered access to the improvised, yet static parcours. those gaps have now been filled with kissing gates, installed to allow pedestrian access without allowing egress of any livestock subsequently placed to graze. unfortunately and illogically, the first of these gates is padlocked, rather defeating the point. for yours truly, however, 'tis but another opportunity to embrace my inner van aert, lifting the bicycle over the gate and climbing the fence to be reconnected with the saddle. if i were actually as gifted in this department as i'd like you to believe, i would then perform a smooth and clean re-mount in the manner of the finest professional cyclocrosser and be on my merry way.
the reality is considerably more clumsy and unimpressive.
though the lower kissing gate is not locked, it still requires a dismount to negotiate. in the coming months, i will be hoping to become all but indistinguishable from wout in my approach, but far from considering these situations to be an annoyance, i have welcomed them to the fold. i can understand that your own mileage will vary considerably; it can't be a lot of fun having to negotiate city-centre traffic when you're already running late. but as a mental exercise, if not a technical one, why not change your name for the next few months to gerben kuypers or shirin van anrooij and approach every obstacle, of whatever constitution, as a means to put one over on your adversaries? in this case, that would probably be taxis, buses, cars, pedestrians, drain covers, kerbs and traffic lights.
i think you can see where i'm going with this.
sunday 18 january 2026
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................now you're just being ridiculous
the current version of adobe photoshop offers the addition of artificial intelligence, both in its ability to produce art or photo-realistic images at the behest of a text input, and additional filters placed on the ever-expanding filter menu. thaqnkfully for us old-timers, what i believe are technically referred to as 'legacy' filters, still exist; in other words, filters that have pretty much been there since the programme originally launched in 1990.
perhaps the best equipped heading, midst distort, pixelate, render, sharpen, sketch, etc., is the blur submenu, offering the user the options of average, gaussian, motion and radial, amongst others. named after carl friedrich gauss, the gaussian blur function creates a soft, natural-looking blur that reduces noise and detail, as if looking through frosted glass. when working with photographic images, it's quite probably the most used of all the blur filters.
though it makes far more sense to achieve in-camera, occasionally, low-cost digital cameras do not possess the ability to create depth-of-field (where the subject is in pristine focus, but the background demonstrably in soft focus). where that hasn't been undertaken by the photographer, there are a few techniques enabling the digital editor to use photoshop, most of which employ the aforementioned gaussian blur. however, should you simply wish to reduce any hard-edges between subjects or objects, the blur tool resembling a drop of water and featured in the tool panel is probably a better option.
disappointingly, for pinarello and several of their peers at least, the above methodology only succeeds in the two-dimensional workspace. the human eye does a marvellous job of creating its own depth-of-field; place a bicycle in the foreground and another a short distance behind it, when looking at the machine in the foreground, a combination of your brain and eye contrive to place the background in soft focus. change your focus to the background, and the foreground becomes less clear.
when time comes to blur the lines between one genre of bicycle and another, adobe photoshop is very definitely not the tool you need in the toolbox. in fact in order to avoid pointing fingers, sniggering behind your italian back and the possibility of making a fool of yourself, you should avoid taking a hardtail mountain bike, swapping the flat bars for drop bars and invoking the magic conferred by the word gravel. at least, that seems to be the strategy behind pinarello's grevil mx. it's essentially a dogma hardtail coupled with the company's most talon ultralight cockpit. you will be unsurprised to learn that the grevil retains a front suspension fork. it utterly destroys the convention that, if it looks like a mountain bike, acts like a mountain bike, then it must be a gravel bike.
though divisions and differences between one object and another are largely the result of human categorisation, since at least the early 1980s, the velocipedinal community has become used to knowing that there are mountain bikes, road bikes, cyclocross bikes and, most recently, gravel bikes (even if the latter are essentially no different than the humble 'cross bike), and all road bikes, which scarcely differ much from the gravel bike. quite what the industry thinks it's playing at, i'm sure i know not, but you do have to pity those who are just beginning their cycling apprenticeship and attempting to justify to her or him indoors, why their mountain bike looks all but identical to the gravel bike, and technically little different from the cyclocross bike.
according to pinarello, the grevil mx combines the aerodynamic efficiency of a road bike with the stability and control of a mountain bike. i confess that's the first time i've seen a mountain bike's aero qualities favourably compared with that of the road bike; it's a comparison that seems a tad contrived, to say the least. pinarello's fausto pinarello said, "the grevil is designed for riders who push gravel beyond its typical boundaries."
in other words, mountain bikers with at least £7,500 to spare.
saturday 17 january 2026
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................relevance
i doubt that i am alone in occasionally, though more frequently of late, considering the relevance of cycle sport in the face of contemporary international challenges. and just to be clear, i'm not talking about cycling as an activity or a means of transport; only the sporting milieu. it's a series of questioning that began during the covid epidemic, when virtually every professional cycle event was cancelled (which ultimately translated into postponement). so despite the irrefutable existence of a devastating worldwide virus, way too many people seemed overly concerned with how to reschedule what might have become a lost season.
i'm sure that all but the most die-hard of cycle-race fans would agree that concern over what essentially amounts to a form of entertainment, while people were dying in their thousands, seems just plain wrong. after all, professional musicians all across the globe had national and international tours cancelled, with little signs of attempt to reschedule until the pandemic was all over.
that, however, was only the beginning.
putin's attempted annexation of ukraine, which shows signs of transforming into a real or imagined threat on western europe, an apparent rise of the political far right across influential parts of the world, and the human comedy which isn't at all funny, particularly for the residents of greenland, taking place across the atlantic, all seems a tad more of concern than whether mathieu van der poel might take a record eighth cyclocross world championship, or how many grand tours and one-day classics trophies tadej will place above the fireplace.
though those concerns have continued to buzz away in the background, they moved once again to the forefront on receipt of the press release from the sram corporation announcing several more millimetre increments to their range of sram red crank arms (see yesterday's post). i concur that technological development must continue no matter what, but i'm not sure that deliberating whether a 2.5mm variation in crank length ought to be up there with america's possible intervention in the protests in iran, or trump's criminal investigation of the man in charge of america's federal bank.
but, the very act of writing down these concerns, not that so doing undermines their importance in any way, has had me realise that cycle sport's relevance is its very irrelevance in the face of current affairs. most of us are completely unable to do anything about international events, unless you happen to be a prominent politician in any of the countries mentioned above. admittedly, there's very little any of us can do to influence participants in world tour cycling events, but surely that's the whole point? granted, pogacar's domination seems set to continue at least for the forthcoming season, but rather obviously, as yet we don't know that for certain. the one thing that we can be sure of in professional sport, is that few situations are quite so unpredictable.
after all, who would have bet on van aert's win on the montmartre climb, on the final day of last year's tour de france?
i mentioned earlier that cycle racing is, at its very best, a form of entertainment, even if it's a lot more than that for those whose livelihoods depend upon it. serious matters depend on distractions and big bobble hats. as america threatened the iranian leadership at the weekend, cameron mason was winning his fourth successive british championship jersey. and in other disappointing news, i learned that skerryvore will once again, play at ardnahoe during this year's islay whisky festival (a little hebridean humour to lighten the mood).
so, on reflective consideration, it's clear that cycle racing needs us just as much as we need it. it would be foolish to ignore world affairs, though i can understand why many wish they could and try their very best to do so. by all means, order one of this year's team jerseys from visma lease-a-bike, take out a mortgage on a tadej pogacar replica colnago v1rs and take out a subscription to tnt sports. it might not be a sane response, but it'll do for now.
remember: cycling is life; the rest is mere detail.
friday 16 january 2026
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................size matters (apparently)
mrs washingmachinepost works in the nursery at the local primary school, providing the benefit of almost 25 years childminding experience. over the past few years, she has learned that bureaucracy is alive and well and living in the corners of the local and national education departments. based solely on the daily moans about meetings (nobody, but nobody holds more meetings than primary school staff), about courses to teach new procedures, and more paperwork than you would think could be fitted inside a single school building, i do wonder if logic has departed. if the kids over the past ten years made it through nursery unscathed, what changed?
i was a primary school child of the 1960s, surviving quite happily in a class of 45 pupils from primary one until primary seven. each year had but a single teacher, with no classroom assistants; contemporary problems such as autism, adhd, aspergers and dyslexia quite probably existed, but seemed not to impede on monday to friday teaching. and, as far as i can recall, caused little to no impediment to learning. we were sent out to play on a tarmac playground without hint nor sight of a health and safety risk assessment, and those who followed me into secondary school where life was a tad more grown-up, but similar in other intents, appear to have emerged as (relatively) responsible adults.
nursery and primary school provide a window into contemporary society. f.w. lancaster's 1970 prophesy of the 'paperless society' has proved to be well wide of the mark, with probably more real and virtual paperwork today than at any point in history. and where once it was possible to phone the precursor of the customer service department to register a product or service complaint, nowadays everything is automated, effectively ensuring that fewer and fewer of us are able to communicate any concerns we might have, always assuming a phone number can be found in the first place. and you can be sure that any changes engendered by the ultility companies, banks, or government departments have been effected to make life easier for them and not for us.
the halcyon days of yore, when the row of road bikes (or ten-speed racers, to which they were affectionately referred) sitting in mr benzie's bike shop, sported 43/53 double chainsets and a five-speed freewheel that topped out at 20 teeth, could be had with 170, 172.5 or 175mm crank arms, the selection depending on the manufacturer. but for the young apprentices who had yet to read richard's bicycle book, colour was far more important than crank arm length. i'm sure many of us recall the one friend who always cycled his dad's bike which was several sizes too large, yet was rarely, if ever, seen as a barrier to cycling.
granted, none of my school friends became professional or even amateur cyclists, and to be honest, very few, if any, still ride bicycles to this day. maybe i just grew up more better? but, combining the apparently myriad ignorances embraced by our schooldays and a lack of any propriety when time came to choose and ride a bicycle, most of us seem to have turned out alright, a fact that i'm sure is true for the majority, in the uk at least.
but it transpires that, though blame can hardly be apportioned to the great unwashed (that would be you and i), everything, if not be enacted incorrectly, was apparently not correct either. at least, not as far as education departments and component manufacturers are concerned. otherwise, why would sram have just released an enhanced smattering of differently lengthed crank arms? added to their red range of crank augmentation, it is now possible to choose from 150, 155, 160, 165, 167.5, 170, 172.5, and 175 mm crank arms, compatible with the power and non-power axs spiders.
presumably working on the principle that more is better, this latest release has, if nothing else, dramatically increased the complexity of choice for the modern-day apprentice. meaning that, admittedly over the course of six and a half decades, we've gone from not caring about chainsets, to requiring a smartphone app to choose one.
how did we ever make it this far?
thursday 15 january 2026
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................gone south
though it's probably a bit tired by this time, but in april 2015, i reviewed an endura equipe classics s/s jersey with armwarmers. and were it possible to convery a sense of national pride through black and yellow pixels, the opening paragraphs of this review provided possibly the only opportunity i can recall. the jersey was livingston-based endura's response to castelli's unintentionally famous gabba jacket, the success of which several cycling apparel providers were keen to emulate. inside the jersey/jacket was a small inclusive label proclaiming, "if you think the spring classics are bad, try scotland."
this more or less played lip service to my long-held contention that 'hebrideans are the flandrians of the west', fearlessly braving galeforce winds and horizontal rain at the first opportunity. except when we don't. so far as i know, this particular slogan, entirely contradictory to the message propounded by scotland's tourist industry, only ever appeared on this particular garment, something i considered to be a lost opportunity. this may have preceded a subsequent slogan published on the corporate website that claimed, "we'll still be riding bikes when it's no longer cool."
granted, the latter has no specific association with scotland, but it seems worthy of mention nonetheless.
however, in a saturated velocipedinal apparel market, being scottish arguably provided endura with a usp - unique selling point, less than subtly proclaiming that lousy weather was an integral part of their dna. the reality didn't entirely back that up, but in the period when endura sponsored their own british-based continental cycle team, i think that the product range gained not only an enhanced reputation, but thankfully distanced some of their less convincing garments. endura began life in the early 1990s by jim mcfarlane, at the time, recently returned from australia, originally to offer the great unwashed with a cycle helmet, endura had a lengthy head start on the likes of rapha, le col, velobici and several others which formed part of the british cycle clothing revolution. disappointingly, jim and business partner, pam barclay, arguably failed to to take advantage.
in march 2018, jim and pam sold the company to pentland brands, owners of jd sports, berghaus and speedo, with mcfarlane stating at the time, "pentland stands out as an exceptional home for endura, placing it within a family of world class brands under the umbrella of a family owned company that is long-term in its outlook and aligned with our culture and values."
the reality is that, though originally remaining as company directors, both mcfarlane and barclay resigned as company directors in 2024, midway through the company suffering substantial financial losses, as did many other cycling apparel providers. then pentland brands closed the bespoke admin and manufacturing premises in livingston, meaning the end of their long-standing and highly reputable custom clothing business, moving the admin operations to a fourth floor office in george street, edinburgh. pentland brands has now decided to close the scottish operations entirely and move what's left of the brand to london.
according to pentland brands ceo, chirag patel, despite making the majority of the scottish staff redundant, "endura is returning to growth after a challenging period for the cycling category. these changes are about investing in the long-term success of our brands." unfortunately, endura suffered a £14 million loss in 2024 and a further £5 million in 2025. its net assets also dropped from £16.5 million in 2022, to a somewhat devastating £1.8 million in 2025, clearly undermining mr patel's optimism.
whether the company will utlimately survive as a separate entity following the move, is open to conjecture, especially now that the number of original employees equates to less than the fingers on your right hand. somehow, a clothing label espousing, "if you think the spring classics are bad, try london." does not have the same credibility. or, in fact, any credibility at all.
that, however, hasn't stopped the company from continuing to trade on its no longer scottish heritage. attempting to demonstrate that they are still in touch with their roots, under the heading 'winter sorted', sits the caption "gear up for dreich days and dark trails." sheep in wolf's clothing?
tuesday 13 january 2026
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