La Radio
// 20 July 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
La sosirea din periplul ciclist european, un tur care a durat 3 saptamani si jumatate si in care am acoperit 2500 km, Radio Atlas ne-a luat un interviu din care am extras un fragment scurt. Multe voci locale, in mod ciudat, gasesc proiectul prin care noi vom da mountain bikes elevilor de la munte usor deplasat si… neprioritar. Marea prioritate ar fi laptopuri pentru copii, spune spargand seminte un nene de bine, proprietar de carciuma. “Ma, nu se merita…” El stie. Noi preferam pedalatul in dauna downloadului de filme porno.
It’s About Any Bike
// 10 July 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
“It’s not worth”, many people reply nodding their heads or rolling their eyes after I explain the reasons why children should go to school riding their bikes. These days, Eastern Europeans discovered the static delights of the automobile and they project any idea of transport in relation to the gas-guzzling engine. In our tour, however, we witnessed fantastic communities and people that had a super-friendly approach to riding the bike to school and, moreover, that practice or practiced it constantly.
A Dutch couple in their 60s bragged for hours over how they were riding their bikes to school for 12 years. The lady, a beautiful, positive and open-minded person, could barely count on her hands the days she didn’t use the bike to go to school while she was a pupil in small town in Holland. And it was 30 km every day on flat terrain.
Pupils riding bikes on their way to school somewhere near the Bavarian town of Bogen
In many Bavarian and Austrian towns I encountered hundreds of little students that were calmly pedalling on their way to classes or back home. And this time the terrain wasn’t flat at all, on the contrary, it was shaped by beautiful forested hills. The car traffic was rather rare and slow, but please note that these communities are not lost somewhere in the Bavarian Alps but on main roads downstream Danube.
And finally, as I wanted just to browse through Lance Armstrong’s book “It’s Not About the Bike. My Journey Back to Life” I ended up reading it letter by letter devouring it in one day, right after we finished Europe’s crossing. And, as many incognito critics of RideAcross point out that “hey, a laptop might be way more useful for those kids than a bunch of mountain bikes”, I would like to leave aside my passionate environmental arguments and offer them a response by using Lance’s written words on how he got his first bicycle.
Lance Armstrong's first bike
“It was a Schwinn Mag Scrambler, which I got when I was about seven. It was an ugly brown, with yellow wheels, but I loved it. Why does any kid love a bike? It’s liberation and independence, your first set of wheels. A bike is freedom to roam, without rules and without adults.”
The Ride Across Europe Is Completed
// 6 July 2010 // 2 Comments » // Uncategorized
We cycled for 3 weeks and 2 days. We rode up and downhill on the hills of England. We had crazy fun on the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. We enjoyed Holland, the cyclists’ heaven. We were terminated by the hills of Nordrhein Westfallen and Hesse. We loved Bavaria. We flew through beautiful Austria. We sprinted madly through Slovakia. We were flooded and bullied in the Hungarian puszta. We rediscovered our Transylvania. We are home.
Cugir. The end of the line. We made it and we are bloody proud of it!
RideAcrossers
// 26 June 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
We will update the blog as we cycle, however, being on the road impedes posting. We will be back with a lot of thematic posts gathered… across Europe. Currently we are in Vienna and I just want to mention two other tourers that joined RideAcross’ route and cause.
Anton Duma, the Romanian Wanderer. He made 15,000 km in the last year on his touring bike, he practically lives on his bike and is looking for himself in some sort of a two-wheeled introspection. Well, he supported our cause for as long as Holland is, from the port of Rotterdam to Nijmegen, pretty close to the German border.
Adrian Bienicki, the genuine Geezer. He joined us in Wels, central Austria. He was supposed to be accompanied by his extremely young son in cart pulled by his bike, however, transport related difficulties kept young Rumi at home, in Gdansk.
Regensburg: Giddens and Cycling
// 21 June 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
Cycling through Europe brought about Anthony Giddens’ approach on the politics of climate change. Together with pedals, cranksets and handlebars we are carrying environmental debate. So, in Regensburg, Bavaria, after a ‘blasting’ discussion with Andrea, a researcher at the University of Regensburg, I shall summarize the Giddens’ paradox from a discussion I had with the sociologist a year ago.
“It follows what I have called the Giddens paradox. We base future policies on too abstract risks. Society reacts when risk is genuine, but with climate change the risk will occur too late and it will be impossible to react, “says Giddens. When greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will be over acceptable limits, we will not be able to get back.
Structural change must take place also in terms of policies not only businesses, “says Giddens. “Until today we had only short-term policies. We must get back to planning, but planning downwards a regulated state, as it happened in the 50s till the 70s, “the sociologist smiles. Policies must be continuous and not determined by the four years that a party or coalition in power benefit.
New regulations, both supranational (EU) and national, will build a low carbon market, says Giddens. Until then, we must “avoid political polarization in relation to climate change.” Italy is an example of radical polarization of climate policy: led by Berlusconi’s right they play the skeptics, while socialists traditionally, support the fight against global warming. Same scenario: Obama has one of the most complex plans to fight global warming, while Republicans are violently opposed. Therefore, climate change policies do not take the struggle between left and right politics. Green is the new red.
Climate change policies will necessarily be ‘normalized’. It takes what I call a “concorder”, a concept to keep institutional consensus on the issue of economic and social effects of climate change and establish a “liability to the entire globe.”
Sheffield – Hull
// 18 June 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
The last fish n’ chips found us 25 km before Kingston upon Hull. Excellent and merely 5 quid. All inhabited places were carefully decorated with St. George’s cross anticipating the dullest match of the World Cup, England vs. USA. Football emptied the streets, a fantastically poor traffic gave us the chance to admire the beautiful English green desert.
After a 118 km ride we got to Hull and a kind hearted mechanic, Craig, tuned our bicycles almost for free. Calin had to change a pedal after an easy fall. Thanks Craig.
There was a funny part of this part of the trip: just before we got to the port there was a last ascent, 200 m elevation, that absolutely killed us. ‘Are we ascending towards the bloody sea?,’ screamed out Calin?
Aaaaaand… we’re off!
// 12 June 2010 // 1 Comment » // Uncategorized
All day we’ll cycle to Hull and get a ferry to Rotterdam! RideAcross has begun!
Ed Brown Joins RideAcross
// 11 June 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Ed Brown decided to join the cause of RideAcross. He is a Sheffield native and have ridden a bike on and off for the past 25 years. He is going to ride with us for two weeks starting in Sheffield and ending up somewhere in South Eastern Germany.
“In recent months I’ve been riding with the CTC which is where Calin persuaded me it would be a good idea to ride across Europe,” says Ed.
The photo was taken earlier on this year in the hills directly above Sheffield, near Ringinglow.
Henry’s Fundraiser
// 11 June 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
Through the kindness of Mark Simmonite, owner of Henry’s Cafe Bar in Sheffield, I spent a few hours in the window of their lovely friendly pub cycling away and fundraising for Ride Across Europe.
I’ll take this opportunity to introduce Sandra Nundy to you all who has been an amazing support to RideAcross.eu since we started fundraising. It was Sandra’s idea to do this event, it was Sandra who arranged our Radio Interview and it was Sandra that arranged our media exposure through HR Media of Sheffield.
So let me thank Sandra again for the manner in which she selflessly dedicated her time to supporting our project. Please visit Sandra’s website at www.essentiallyhealthy.co.uk and contact her if you would like to find out more about Nutreas (the food of champions).
Secondly, let me thank Sussie Pauer, Julia Keinert, Eleonora Bindi and Ian Sales for coming down to support me…
I hope you all enjoy the pictures…
Gosh just 16 hours left ’till departure…
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