Author Archives: Marv

About Marv

A avid but amateur cyclist who regularly commutes to work, rides for exercise and completes the occasional long distance event. I also write a very poor blog marvmadethis.com about the joys of work/life/cycling balance with his long suffering wife and 2 little angels under the age of 5.

Product Review: Fausto Coppi Mug

Dear Rouleurs,

It has been a long, long, long time since MMT did a product review. However, something special popped up, that was just too cool. MMT felt compelled to share with all those digital citizens, who quite sensibly, pay no attention to this blog.

Originally, MMT found it on the https://shop.rouleur.cc/collections/mugs-coffee, where, distressingly, it was sold out. MMT then googled the maker and found it available at https://thehandmadecyclist.com/collections/mugs. A few weeks later MMT was drinking coffee out of his new favourite mug. Sadly, they are, now, out of stock.

This bit of blurb is stolen directly from the ‘Handmade Cyclist’ website.

“Fausto Coppi ‘Il Campionissimo’ is one of the true legends of cycling. Idolised in Italy, his reputation lives on as one of the classiest riders of all time. Twice winner of the Tour de France and five-time winner of the Giro d’Italia, Coppi was famed for his effortless pedaling style and climbing ability. But Coppi was also a master of cycling’s dark arts, never more succinctly put than in this classic quote.”

“The design pays homage to the classic Bianchi jersey Coppi wore in his heyday – when jerseys and bikes were simple and beautiful.”

Now due to the current state of the UK Pound vs Aussie Dollar, roughly $AUD30 + freight, this was a rather expensive mug. But just look at it. Its sooooo….beautiful. Also, MMT secretly hopes that when he reappears back at work post-COVID-19 planning, that the quote will freak out the FIGJAM Gen Y, MMT works with.

Reasons to be cheerful in June…here’s the 2020 UCI schedule

Dear Rouleurs

Let’s face it the last 3 months or so has been bloody awful without competitive cycling. Watching the fairly boring replays of the Paris-Nice 2020 on SBS, is no substitute for a fully fledged spring classics season. So it was with some excitement that MMT heard through his favourite podcasts that the UCI had published a revised 2020 event calendar.

It looks like this. MMT hasn’t figured out how to show the Women’s events yet, so accusations of sexism please.

RaceCountryDate
 Eschborn–Frankfurt Germany1 May – Delayed due to COVID-19
 Strade Bianche Italy1 August
 Tour de Pologne Poland5–9 August
 Milan–San Remo Italy8 August
 Critérium du Dauphiné France12–16 August
 EuroEyes Cyclassics Germany16 August – Delayed due to COVID-19
 Bretagne Classic Ouest–France France25 August
 Tour de France France29 August – 20 September
 Tirreno–Adriatico Italy7–14 September
 GP de Québec Canada11 September
 GP de Montréal Canada13 September
 BinckBank Tour Belgium  Netherlands29 September – 3 October
 La Flèche Wallonne Belgium30 September
 Giro d’Italia Italy3–25 October
 Liège–Bastogne–Liège Belgium4 October
 Amstel Gold Race Netherlands10 October
 Gent–Wevelgem Belgium11 October
 Dwars door Vlaanderen Belgium14 October
 Tour of Guangxi China15–20 October
 Tour of Flanders Belgium18 October
 Vuelta a España Spain20 October – 8 November
 Three Days of Bruges–De Panne Belgium21 October
 Paris–Roubaix France25 October
 Il Lombardia Italy31 October

Now a few aspects of this schedule are immediately obvious, such as the enormous overlap between one day races and grand tours. Spain has lost all of its races, except the La Vuelta. MMT reckons that cyclists being earmarked for the Tour Guangxi would be looking for danger money.

But what’s interesting about this compressed season is the impact that it may have on the grand tours. It seems to MMT that teams will be forced to choose which races to prioritise. For a team like Ineos, they may choose to skip many of the one day events. For a team like Quickstep, MMT guesses that it will write off the Giro. The French and Dutch based teams will have serious thinking to do. One wonders which of the tours, Mitchellton-Scott will prioritise?

Either way its going to be fascinating to see how this turns out. Speaking of fascinating – MMT has completed his bike log for the first in years on time and May was a great month. The last week or so meant the Zwift-Tacx Neo trainer was pushed aside for some time outdoors. Some days were actually delightful for cycling.

So until next time, stay safe, ride safe

MMT

Fiddling about with WordPress….and some cyclist humour

Dear Rouleurs,

This blog has another attempt at cycling humour, again care of FLAB ie Fat Lad At the Back. I feel a deep empathy for the kind soul that crafted this faux magazine cover. 🙂 Clearly, they are having a gentle dig at this etailer in the USA – Competitive Cyclist and at the hyper-competitive breed of cyclist that focuses on grams and kilojoules.

Fake new from a 'faux' magazine, the Non-competive Cyclist

The emphasis on cake, pork pies and putting the push back into push bikes, certainly gave MMT a bit of a chuckle. Its also a bit of test of the behind the scenes tinkering I’ve been doing with WordPress.

Let’s see if it worked…..Bugger, just checked – it didn’t – Boooooooo!!!

Until next time, stay safe, ride safe

MMT

Time for some cyclist humour about tan lines….

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has been taking potshots at Millennials for a few years in this blog. After all it’s great sport to see generation ‘selfie’ suddenly realise the world, nay, universe doesn’t actually revolve around their sense of entitlement. MMT has particularly enjoyed poking fun Millennial’s preferred form of communication the infographic.  It’s a well take on the aphorism that a picture says a thousand words. 

Occasionally, MMT happens upon one that is genuinely amusing or informative.  Today’s infographic falls into the former category.  The visual is self-explanatory and here in Australia should have been accompanied by a ‘slip, slop, slap’ message of some kind.  There’s nothing funny about having serious skin cancer.

MMT reckons he saw this pop up in on the FLAB Facebook page. Although it looks like The Joy Divison liberated it first. The visual has stuck in MMT’s head, as his directeur sportiff, Mrs MMT, had commented how deeply tanned MTT’s legs were, hence the thoughtful and artistic addition to the graphic 😉 MMT is also big fan of zinc across the cheeks and nose. As Banksy once wrote “The bad artists imitiate, The great artists steal – Picasso Banksy Marv ;-)”

Until next time, stay safe, ride safe

Marv