C’mon, be honest – you’ve tried it. You’ve thought: I can go faster than that gaudy turkey in lycra… I can beat the dude on the full carbon whatsit… I need to overtake that squeaky bike with milk-crate panniers whose rider is wearing gumboots…

You might have done some wheelsucking, got boxed in … lost … won … won again (with a bit of help from that amber light) … hit the wall and DNF’d … and all on the way home from work! And without a finish line …

Commuter racing is quite an urban phenomena, with websites in the UK and US dedicated to … well, proving triumphs through laying down some rules.

Silly as it may seem to many, especially those who are fans of the slow bicycle movement, the stately upright glide, a recent study from Denmark shows that intense, brisk cycling is better for your heart health than slow cycling or the amount of time you spend in the saddle.

While current western-world recommendations are that adults spend at least 30 minutes, preferably every day, doing “moderate physical activity”, the optimal intensity of this activity goes unspecified. So the study, conducted as part of the Copenhagen City Heart Study, aimed “to examine the impact of intensity versus duration of cycling on all-cause and coronary heart disease mortality”.

The research, published in the European Heart Journal and the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention, was based on a study of “5106 apparently healthy men and women aged 21–90 years drawn from the general population of Copenhagen, and followed for an average of 18 years” and the relative intensity (self-assessed) and duration of their cycling.

Of the 1172 deaths in this group, 146 were due to coronary heart disease. For both men and women, the researchers found “a significant inverse association between cycling intensity and risk of all-cause and coronary heart disease death, but only a weak association with cycling duration”.

Men who cycled with fast intensity survived 5.3 years longer, and men with average intensity 2.9 years longer than men with slow cycling intensity. For women the figures were 3.9 and 2.2 years longer, respectively.

“Thus,” the researchers concluded, “our general recommendation to all adults would be that brisk cycling is preferable to slow”.

“What matters,” added Dr Peter Schnohr, who led the study, “is your own perception of intensity.” That is, a 20-year-old’s idea of intensity will be greater than that of an 80-year-old. Cycling that leaves you a little breathless is the aim. Previous research by the same team also showed that brisk walking is better for you than slow walking.

Now, back to the thrill of the Commuter Cup.

This is one place you can get your intensity fix. And, conveniently, every day. Although it is also obviously far from the safest of pursuits – herewith a discussion of candidates for the top 10 hazards of commuter racing.

‘Let’s race! If only in our minds’ is an article written by J. David Goodman for the New York Times about the increasing phenomena of commuters racing each other in New York: a city brimming with competitive people and, increasingly, with cyclists, as NYC attempts to go ‘cycle-friendly’ (I have trouble imagining it myself). He writes:

I was rolling up the bike lane on Eighth Avenue on my way to work recently when a man on a Trek roared past with legs pumping like Greg LeMond.

I didn’t think much of it as I immediately caught up to him — with his casual office clothes and drop handlebars — at a red light on 23rd Street. I cruised past as the light changed, but by the next block he had come charging back, outside the lane and in traffic this time, and zipped ahead of me for good.

Had I been defeated? Were we even in a race?

J. David says the term ‘Cat. 6’ is being used to describe these contests: one level below the 5 official amateur levels (I guess that makes the local, Australian term ‘F Grade’?). But he admits that “these sorts of impromptu competitions are as old as the bicycle and just as universal”, citing London’s ‘It’s not a race (I’m just riding to work)’ website, which has been going since June 2008. Here you’ll find details of ‘The Game’, plus The Rules of SCR (or Silly Commuter Racing) and the FCN (Food Chain Number) system of scoring (hmmm….). Also, importantly, ways of defining a win are described, for example:

“A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights as you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead.” – DondaddyD, Player of the Unspoken Game

Now back to J. David’s research. He ruminates that:

Commuter racing illustrates the essential and unique aspects of riding to work: unlike other modes, bicycling is perched between transportation and exercise …

Bicycling in an urban environment, with all its hazards and potential shortcuts, can be a kind of game that brings out a cyclist’s essential competitiveness, said Robert J. Bell, professor of sports psychology at Ball State University in Indiana. For better or worse, commuting by bike still feels more like play or exercise than a tedious slice of the daily routine.

“I think the majority of cyclists who bike to work are just more competitive by nature,” Dr. Bell said.

Thank you to Dr Bell of Ball University.

“Riders who don’t race lack an outlet for their competitive drive on the bike,” is the opinion of Andy Shen, a racing journo. But the last word belongs to the SCR folk:

The Game has a name and that name is ‘Silly Commuter Racing’, itself a hollow denial of the seriousness with which The Game is played. Mock if you will, but eventually you will come to realise that we do not play The Game, no The Game plays us.

and “an early SCR haiku”:

In fear of pursuit
I press on into the gale
Quietly weeping

But you know it’s spring now – and we’re not in London – so there are fewer gales and you can just claim your tears are sweet beads of sweat.

In a scene from ‘Killer Magpie’, brave civil servants from CSIRO put their bodies on the line to show things sticking out of your helmet may not be such a great magpie deterrant.

On Saturday I copped my first magpie attack for 2011 on a lonely stretch near Woodend in Victoria.

This was my third maggie attack and very gentle compared to attack 2, which happened when I got lost along a creek/drain in Bundoora a couple of years ago. In their nice, quiet breeding-ground that I had stumbled into the magpies all opted to attack my ears, rather than helmet. And being lost, I had to run their snappy gauntlet twice.

According to Darryl Jones’s 2002 book Magpie Alert: Learning to Live with a Wild Neighbour – which can be viewed in part at Google Books – (as quoted in Wikipedia), only a small percentage of magpies become highly aggressive during breeding season (late August to early October) and swoop and sometimes attack passersby. While difficult to estimate, the percentage, according to Darryl, is significantly less than 9 per cent.

Almost all attacking birds (99 per cent) are male and attacks begin as eggs hatch, increase in frequency and severity as the chicks grow, and tail off as the chicks leave the nest. Magpies are generally known to attack cyclists about 100 metres from their nests and pedestrians at about 50 metres.

Now, the important bit. What can you do?

First, while disconcerting that Nature is, for once, kicking back against human occupation – and with fear compounded by images of Tippy Hedren in The Birds (thank you Alfred Hitchcock) –  the attack (like the hill) won’t last forever and you will almost certainly hurt yourself more if you fall off your bike than in the, relatively unlikely event, that the bird’s beak touches your skin.

Bicycle Victoria has a six-point list of advice, which encouragingly begins with: “Avoid the swoop area. Try riding in a different direction.” Next on their list is: “It is better to dismount and walk your bike past a swoop area.” And then: “Put up warning signs for others who may not be aware that there are swooping birds in the area.” … which isn’t going to help you.

BV’s next three points might be worth considering:

• Travel in a group. Most birds only swoop individuals.
• Be confident and face a swooping bird; usually they only attack people facing away from them. Magpies appear to be dissuaded from swooping when they are being watched, so try sticking ‘eyes’ on the back of your helmet.
• Do not panic and run. It will only encourage a swooping bird to continue its attack.

Apart from the “try sticking ‘eyes’ on the back of your helmet”.

In October 2009, some CSIRO researchers (according to Bicycle NSW that’s who the intrepid fellow are) made two films. Described by one blogger as “the most useful bike video I have ever watched”, the first film shows the diligent fellows methodically test various helmet attachments and wearing no helmet with the unflagging support of a magpie that seems to have taken up residence in their lab car park.

Using as their springboard a ‘seminal’ research paper from 1997 by Renate Kreisfeld of Flinders University – ‘Injuries involving magpies’ – the short film Killer Magpie was a record of the researchers’ tests of the efficacy of various helmet adornments in repelling magpie attacks.

Tested were: plain helmet, helmet with paper ‘eyes’ stuck on the back, helmet with cable ties (“Cable tie guy”), helmet with coloured pipe cleaners (“Pre-school special”) and no helmet.

The legal solution? Whack a whopping great wig over your helmet. Or just take your shiny little helmet off for a bit ...

The conclusion: taking your helmet off stops the magpie attacking.

Like when Barry Marshall swallowed a gutful of bacteria to prove it was the cause of stomach ulcers, the final test of this hypothesis is performed by a brave man who removes his helmet mid-attack to prove it’s the helmet that is provoking the maggie.

In Killer Magpie 2, made a few days later, the fellows undertook “Further studies on the efficacy of helmet adornments in repelling magpies”.

Developing the results of Killer Magpie, they find that the best option of all is to wear a big curly wig over your bike helmet … which is also the more legal option. Ah yes. So the researchers’s ultimate conclusion is in fact: “Helmet adornments not only look silly … they can really work!”.

Bret's hair helmet turns out to be the proven-on-film-so-it-must-be-so best defence against magpie attacks.

Which brings me to the wonderful Bret (“Brit? Like Britney?” “No, Bret, like Bret”) McKenzie and his secret project in Flight of the Conchords, which turns out to be a bike helmet that looks like hair. I always knew that boy was on a righteous path with his special project, which features right up front in Season 1, Episode 1.

If you’re really concerned about swooping magpies, there are maps available online that show where the birds are. For example, the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment Magpie Swoop Map and the 2011 Adelaide Magpie Cyclist Attack Map.

Our cover girl from The Wheeler #04, Jo Hogan, has made this long list for the road race, along with Ruth Corset (Team Jayco AIS), Tiffany Cromwell (Team Hitec Products UCK), Shara Gillow (Team Jayco AIS), Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto Honda), Belinda Goss, Chloe Hosking (HTC Columbia), Melissa Hoskins (Team Jayco AIS), Jessie MacLean (Verducci Breakaway), Carla Ryan (Garmin Cervelo), Amanda Spratt (Team Jayco AIS) and Vicki Whitelaw (Lotto Honda).

Jo is currently (25 August) in Stelvio, Italy, with the Australian team – sitting in convoy behind the GreenEDGE Cycling bus – having a splendid time at the high-altitude training camp. This special treat is part of Jo’s Amy Gillett Foundation 2011 Scholarship win.

It was just 3 years ago that Jo decided to give road racing a serious go. Having done triathalons at school and competed in cross country running at a national level, she decided in 2008 to spend most of her savings on a serious bike, get herself a coach and turn all the riding she was doing into training for racing.

Not the easiest path to choose, Jo is known for her hard work and unflinching dedication to training, especially through Melbourne’s winters (read more of Jo’s story so far from The Wheeler, ‘Hard work if you can get it’).

The Wheeler was there, asking people what Cadel’s win meant to them, see the next issue for their answers. The SBS crew was there too, proud as punch – as they should be for their great coverage of the event, which has grown into such a wonderful TV extravaganza in Australia in recent years.

As Melbourne’s Age put it: “To celebrate his triumph over more than 3000 kilometres through France, Evans will cycle less than 1000 metres from Victoria’s National Gallery to Federation Square in a parade that is expected to be attended by thousands of fans.” And so he did.

I think all us cyclists are hoping that the wave of success that Cadel is riding will extend to greater recognition for cycling and cyclists and better facilities. More people cycling, more and better on-road bike lanes, more understanding from motorists (well, that’s my Christmas List anyway). Let’s hope so.

And what a Tour next year’s will be, with Cadel wearing #1! I think I’ve perfected the 8-10.30pm nap followed by hours of footage of sunny France viewed from the comfort of the couch.

If you ride up that beautiful road in the background there you'll come to 'Cadel's Hill'. You'll know it when you get there because someone's written 'Cadel's Hill' on the asphalt in 30-foot high letters. Photo: Tim McGrath

On the ground here in Melbourne, I have had some spirit-lifting experiences in the past few weeks:

Riding up Kinglake with Coach just recently a fellow came flying back down the climb and ‘toot-tooted’ at us with an old-fashioned bike horn. He was resplendent in head-to-toe golden get-up and had a ‘Yell for Cadel’ flag stuck in the back of his helmet to go with the smile on his face.

A yellow flag, such as could be acquired at Federation Square in Melbourne on Friday 12 August at Cadel’s homecoming, along with maxi postcards and Cadel face masks!!! I’m sore I missed out on one of those.

In the next valley over from Kinglake/St Andrews – that is, at Arthurs Creek, where Cadel’s mum still lives – there’s a maillot jaune-shaped sign hanging off the town sign that says: ‘Cadel country’ and on the back ‘Training ground of champions’. A bit further out of town ‘Cadel’s Hill’ is writ large, right across the hill. Last week there was even a film crew out there … and a serious increase in the number of roadies crusing through too!

In Arthur's Creek in Melbourne outer-outer-north east, this sign appeared the day after Cadel's win at the TdF. Now locked to the Arthur's Creek town sign, the earlier version(s) must have been - sadly - a popular souvenir. Photo: Tim McGrath

Back home in suburban Melbourne I was riding home on a hectic Friday night just after the Tour had ended. Clinging to a pole, clustered with a group of half a dozen other cyclists on the footpath, waiting for a green light and with the traffic screaming past … a particularly loud car roared past. The passenger yelled out the wound-down window at us cyclists as the car passed. Expecting some sort of abuse … as I suppose I do from a car roaring past … it was a second or two before I realised that the guy had yelled ‘GO CADEL!!!!!’ How great. People can surprise you. I chuckled all the way home.

I’ve finally sorted out why Melbourne was declared a bike city by the UCI (on 5 August) – which inspired a mixture of confusion and disbelief in me, given that cyclists really don’t get such a brilliant deal around here, and which was sort of sprung on us around the time of Cadel’s homecoming.

While infrastructure is improving, there’s still a lack of support (e.g. motorist education etc etc etc – you know what needs fixing) and we have to fight for the right to occupy space on most roads … Copenhagen this ain’t – Copenhagen being the first city to “achieve UCI Bike City status”, in 2007.

Melbourne being declared just the second UCI Bike City in the world has to do with the city hosting various UCI events:

“The UCI Bike City concept, developed by the International Cycling Union in 2006, is designed for internationally renowned cities wanting to make a commitment to cycling by organising major events in each discipline, as well as promoting cycling as an environmentally-friendly leisure sport and a gentle means of transport.”

and

“As part of the procedure to obtain the UCI Bike City label, the UCI and candidate cities draw up a calendar of events to be organised over a period of several years (UCI World Cup rounds, UCI World Championships in the different disciplines). These events have a solid communications strategy and a maximum return on investments made.”

Mystery solved – Melbourne’s hosting the 2012 UCI Track cycling World Championships on 4-8 April 2012. And Geelong’s almost Melbourne … the Road Worlds were there/here last year.

In awarding Melbourne the title of UCI Bike City, UCI president Pat Quaid said:

“Melbourne has a great sporting tradition – hosting the Olympic Games in 1956 – and will be an excellent UCI Bike City. We are greatly looking forward to returning in 2012 for the UCI Track Cycling World Championships”.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the city and the State of Victoria for their enthusiasm for our sport and wish Melbourne much success as a UCI Bike City .”

Queensland cyclist Dave Sharp set up SafeCyclingAustralia nearly 2 years ago. His main aim is to achieve a minimum safe passing distance between cyclists and motorists of 1 metre and get this enshrined in law.

“Any Aussie cyclist will be able to tell you a story or two when it comes to close calls,” Dave writes on the SafeCyclingAustralia website. “This project would like to see the cyclists of the future with less stories to tell rather than more. But I need your help for that to happen. SafeCyclingAustralia is all about us reclaiming space on Australia’s roads.”

With the death of cyclist John Cornish on Beach Road here in Melbourne in July, for many of us ways of improving and clarifying car-cyclist interactions are again front of mind.

To that end in late July he set up a petition – the Minimum safe passing distance between cyclists and motorists petition – for people to add their names to in support of the rule being enshrined in law. This petition is the second he’s run, the first being for his home state of Queensland.

Currently (17 August 2011) there are 2593 signatories to this new petition, which aims to indicate support for “lobbying the State and Federal governments for a minimum safe passing distance rule of at least one (1) metre to be enshrined in law”.

In Dave’s blog he says the 1m rule has been adopted by 17 states in the US and enforced in New Zealand for 4 years – which is where he got the idea that it was sensible and feasible.

You can also read about Bicycle Victoria describing the rule as “ill conceived” in an ABC Victoria report and ending up being described by the ABC reporter as “on the same side of the debate as the motoring lobby”. Hmmm.

Also on the website are a series of letters on the issue, one for each state, that you can download and send to the relevant MP.

When Dave first ran the petition in Queensland, he gained the support of some of Brisbane’s biggest bike retailers as well as professional cyclists Robbie McEwen and Rachel Neylan (winner of the 2010 Amy Gillett Foundation Scholarship).

Dave started his campaign without realising that the 1m rule had been a long-term goal of the Amy Gillett Foundation, but says AGF have been generous in their support of his efforts.

Bicycle Victoria’s plan is to change car drivers’ attitudes, but Dave cites research that shows these haven’t changed in 10 years … so will they ever, without the help of legislation.

Dave quotes AAMI’s Corporate Affairs Manager Yves Noldus as saying earlier this year:

“Our research indicates that the interaction between cars and bicycles, particularly in urban areas, continues to be a source of conflict for riders and drivers alike. Many of the responses we received highlight that motorists tend to see cyclists as a nuisance and are not always willing to share the road. Two in three drivers (66%) say they find cyclists hard to see and a similar proportion (65%) qualify them as a road hazard outright. One in four (26%) say they have had an accident or a near miss with a cyclist.”

Dave’s response: “We believe that with driver attitudes not changing in the last decade, and in many parts of the country, actually deteriorating, the cycling community needs to do all it can in order to increase our legal rights and maintain our presence on Australian roads.”

SafeCyclingAustralia wants not just a minimum safe passing distance rule of 1m to be introduced into the Australian road rules, but also the national introduction of ‘share the road’ signage to illustrate and underline the existence of the rule and remind motorists of their responsibility.

Add your name to the online petition.

You can also get a ‘A metre matters’ sticker from the Amy Gillett Foundation by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to them.

Also … while you’re there, writing down their address, just note that their white, orange and pink kit, liberally splashed with the 1m message, is very cute – see the front cover of The Wheeler 04 featuring current AGF Scholarship Winner Jo Hogan – and the current design is on special!!!

'The Kid With a Bike' by Belgium’s Dardenne brothers won this year’s Grand Prix prize.

Eleven-year-old Cyril is determined to re-establish contact with his absentee father and recover his bicycle, stubbornly ignoring the signs that he has been deliberately abandoned.

The Kid With a Bike (Le Gamin au vélo), will screen at this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, which runs from 21 July to 7 August.

The film won the jury-bestowed Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, regarded as the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or.

The film’s directors are Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who are winners of two previous Palmes d’Or for Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005) and are “known for creating uncompromising, socially aware dramas: spare, haunting stories about working-class lives in industrial Belgium”.

Also from the MIFF program notes: “With this tremendously moving drama the Dardennes once again display their directorial flair and their impeccable casting choices”.

The 116-year-old, 265-kilometre ‘Warny’ to be held on Saturday 29 October is still the southern hemisphere’s longest one-day race (Milan–San Remo is the world’s longest now at 298km – which Matthew Harley Goss became the first Australian to win on 19 March this year). Few other races around gather descriptions that include the words “horror”, “never again”, “house of pain”, “strange masochistic love” and “carbon cracking”.

Happy? Not likely. But once you’ve waded through the ‘walley’ of pain that is the Warny memories are forever!

Founded 10 years before the Tour de France, some of Australia’s greatest cycling names grace the race’s honour roll including Sir Hubert Opperman, Russell Mockridge, Billy Guyatt, Dean Woods and Simon Gerrans.

As a friend of The Wheeler pointed out, it’s highly unlikely betting on the Warny is anything new; but that is often the way with cycling … what seems new is in fact old.

“Bookmakers have bet on handicap races at track carnivals for years, but wagering on the ‘Warrnambool’ is another example of how much road cycling is growing in popularity,” said Cycling Victoria general manager Kipp Kaufmann.

“As with all sports, we have to be very careful about gambling but I’m sure this initiative will add a new dimension to the Melbourne to Warrnambool Classic,” he said.

Centrebet is an approved betting provider for the AFL, NRL, Cricket Australia, Tennis Australia and professional golf. Centrebet’s head of marketing and gaming, the Sydney-based Luke Brill, said the company would frame a market on the ‘Warrnambool’ about two weeks before the event.

“It’s one of the world’s most gruelling one-day bike races. With 200 starters each year, there’s rarely an obvious winner pre-post. There are so many variables,” Mr Brill said.

Hmmm, well don’t accept a musette from a stranger at the feed station, that’s all I’m saying. Question any ‘free’ coffee or hot chocolate someone bowls up and hands you … maybe go tamper-evident seals on the bidons.

Entries are open now – until Monday 17 October – for the Warny. Part of the National Road Series, entries are via the Cycling Victoria website. There’s $18K in prize money on offer.

The Melbourne to Warrnambool organising committee is also seeking neutral spares vehicles for the event. “This is your opportunity to get up and close to this event like never before,” they say. Please contact Hayley (hayley@caribou.net.au) at event organisers Caribou Publications if you’re keen.

Also, just 250 memberships are available to a rather exclusive club – the 2011 Melbourne to Warrnambool Society – which are yours for just $250 each.

The Society provides the Warny with invaluable financial support, without which it may not continue to exist. Hundreds of local businesses have made a commitment to ensuring that Australia’s oldest bike race continues to be just that.

Many prizes are on offer including a trip to the Fini of the 2012 Tour de France (plus five nights in Paris) – or, alternatively, $4K in cold hard cash. Where do you get a form to fill in? Well, here.

And your recovery ride the next day – the 117km Shipwreck Coast Cycling Classic, along the Great Ocean Road from Warrnambool to Allansford – is now also part of Cycling Australia’s National Road Teams Series for 2011, same as the Warny, and part of CA’s inaugural Women’s Road Team Series.

There are just 11 events nationwide in the men’s series and seven on the new women’s calendar.

The elevation of the Shipwreck Coast Classic in status should see an even bigger field compete and encourage folks to overnight it in Warrnambool.

PLUS the magical Southern Right Whale nursery off Warrnambool – considered one of the best places to see whales in Victoria – will still be happening in October too.

Some Stockholm politicians are arguing that the city’s cyclists be allowed to run red lights and cycle against one-way traffic in order to ease bicycle congestion and help those who choose to travel by bicycle, reported The Local – ‘Sweden’s news in English’ – on 14 June.

According to The Local’s source, Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the number of cyclists in Stockholm is three times as high today as it was in the 1990s. The biggest increase has been in the past five years and cycle paths are described as “more cramped than ever”, with frequent queues. Ah, something to look forward to in Australia!!

City councillor Per Ankersjö, who has responsibility for the city environment, says there are many who already are breaking the rules. As reported in The Local, he said: “As a cyclist you want to feel free and it is not as easy to go an extra two blocks as if you are in a car. There is a risk that people ignore the rules anyway, and then it is better to make it legal in an orderly fashion.”

“In many other countries, traffic rules are less severe on cyclists than on those travelling by car,” says the article in The Local (clearly they haven’t been to the Antipodes), hinting that (shock, horror) Sweden is lagging behind in progressiveness.

But, continues the article, “keen cyclist Anders Ygerman of the Social Democrats, chairman of the Riksdag’s committee on traffic, thinks that changing the legislation is not the right way to improve conditions for cyclists in the cities. “Changing traffic regulations for cyclists doesn’t seem like a good solution to me. Instead I think that a lot could be done locally to prevent cyclists to run red lights by separating cycle paths from the street,” Ygerman said.”

Sweden is currently reviewing its traffic regulations from a cycling perspective and Stockholm City is apparently now pursuing some questions with the Swedish transport agency, Transportstyrelsen.

Mick Peel of Busyman Bicycles.

Mick Peel is a designer and a maker, a teacher and academic. He also runs a business, Busyman Bicycles, best summarised as “customised bikes, hand-crafted leather saddles, bar covers, toe straps … & a PhD …”.

After a bit of a shaky start about 3 years ago, Mick makes the most exquisite saddles – recovering your old favourite in hand-dyed leather AND vegan leather (lorca). He does embossing and stuff too.

The exhibition at the Festival will run from Friday 15 July to Saturday 14 August at
 Endless Pedal Gallery, 
6a Wilson Street,
South Yarra.

Together with a group of fashion design students from RMIT, Mick explores issues of personal mobility in an urban setting through fashion design and ideas of designing through making.

Grab your bike, download a map or two and take the self-guided tour of architectural peaches in your neighbourhood - or someone else's.

Also on offer at the State of Design Festival are nine self-guided bicycle tours of significant suburban architectural sites in “inner, outer and regional suburbia” called ‘Mapping the ‘Burbs’.

Each put together by an architectural firm either located within or with a close affinity to a Melbourne suburb or area of regional Victoria, the tours have been “reviewed” by Bicycle Victoria. Presented by the Australian Institute of Architects, Victorian Chapter, the event’s website should be up and running soon, or at least by 20 July.

Neighbourhoods will include 
Fitzroy, Docklands, Kew, South Yarra/Prahran, Beaumaris, St Kilda, Hawthorn, Mornington and Bendigo. Downloadable pdf maps will be available at the website.

The mobile projection system on a cargo bike that is Projector Bike will take art to the streets ... and invites you to follow on your bike.

The Projector Bike is coming, taking cinema to the streets and local filmmakers and artists to the back streets of the city. Over 90 minutes, across numerous sites, the Projector Bike will take a tour, illuminating and revealing the design that surrounds us: “Join us for the tour or meet us along the route as we attempt to re-imagine some of Melbourne’s little-known design gems”, the team say on the website, inviting y’all to “grab your fixie, mountain bike, street machine, pub racer or BMX as we go searching for the secrets that this city has to offer”.

Projector Bike is a mobile projection system comprising a three-wheeled cargo bike, high-output video projector, sound system and a deep cycle battery. This highly mobile and flexible system enables them to tour the streets and project onto a wide range of surfaces.

Moving the Design – Projector Bike (Friday 22 July) and Moving the Design – Projector Bike Geelong (Saturday 30 July).

Somewhere on the Great Ocean Road south of Wye River ... this could be you in Amy’s Gran Fondo on Sunday 18 September.

I’ve been out training – honest. For my first race. Yes indeedy. The first time I’ll whack a number on my bike is for Amy’s Gran Fondo on 18 September …

Coach is pleased with my efforts; I’m extremely pleased with his input and advice and extremely well-timed words of encouragement on hills … especially considering he’s totally unpaid. And I’ve discovered that work really gets in the way of training, like you wouldn’t believe.

In the spectacular surrounds of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, with FULL ROAD CLOSURE, Australia’s first Gran Fondo – to be run by the Amy Gillett Foundation – is a mass-participation competitive event for all levels of rider in the name of bicycling safety.

The 120km Amy’s Gran Fondo is being limited to just 3000 participants and currently only 1500 places are left. The course is from Lorne via the Great Ocean Road to Forrest, then through Deans Marsh, finishing at Benwerrin. The first 1.5km from departure is under neutral conditions, 110km under timed conditions, with an additional 8.5km under neutral conditions once over the finish line at Benwerrin returning to Lorne, making a total distance of 120km.

The entire 120km course will be fully closed to traffic, providing riders with the safest possible environment, in keeping with the goals of the Amy Gillett Foundation.

This is just the second event to gain full road closure on the Great Ocean Road: a privilege and an opportunity not to be missed.

Registration closes at midnight on Friday 9 September.

View the course profile and bear in mind there’s $20K of prize money on offer. Hard currency will be awarded to the fastest three riders in each age category, the fastest three teams and to the outright King of the Mountain (KOM) winners – all for both men and women.

There’s also Amy’s Great Ocean Ride, which will run from Lorne to Cumberland River – with full road closure – and the possibility of additional laps of the 14km circuit (back to Lorne), if time permits. This community ride is limited to 1000 participants, with 500 of those reserved for residents of the Surf Coast or Colac shires.

And did I mention that full road closure? Magic.