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The 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships has joined forces with The Squeaky Wheel to pay homage to the much loved tradition of the vintage bicycle poster.

 

‘Chasing Rainbows’ - a poster design competition taking the 2012 Track World’s back to a bygone era – will run as part of Melbourne’s Bikefest from early January to March 18.

 

Students, design professionals and bicycle enthusiasts will be encouraged to design a traditional bicycle poster in promotion of the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships with a design brief to be release early in the new year.

 

The winning designer will pocket $1,000, with his or her winning design also used in an outdoor media campaign in the lead up to the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in April next year.  Four placegetters will receive $500 each.

 

An exhibition will be held in the final week of Melbourne’s Bikefest where a judging panel will decide the top five finalists and eventual winner.

 

Creative producer of The Squeaky Wheel Pip Carroll is excited about the prospect of bring a slice of history back to the modern world of the 2012 Track Worlds.

 

“Track racing has always held an important place in cycling culture, going right back to the days when outdoor velodromes were bursting with fans and competitors,” Carroll said.

 

“The vintage bicycle poster was as icon of this era and we are thrilled to include the local design and bike-loving community in a celebration of the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

 

“A new generation of track bike enthusiasts has blossomed through the emergence of the fixed wheel bike culture, and Melbourne Bikefest is a great way for us to link these audiences to the championships.”

 

The history of the bicycle poster is well documented as The Squeaky Wheel’s Kathryn Thompson reports in her history of the bicycle poster.

 

Click here for more information about the poster competition.

 

The history of the bicycle poster

 

·        During the late 1800′s, bicycles rose to popularity and became the modern hobby craft as we know them today.

 

·        Bicycles manufacturers struggled to keep up with demand as society embraced the freedom the bicycle carried with it.

 

·        Bicycle companies were looking for a modern form of advertising to reach the masses, thus we saw the birth of the bicycle poster as the most popular form of advertising.

 

·        Bicycles were described as the most civilised, noblest and curious invention of mankind.  Many saw it a vehicle for freedom, especially women. Advertising reflected all of this thinking.

 

·        Bicycle posters could be seen on city walls and in bicycle shops throughout the city. They were so popular that by the turn of the century, more posters were created for bicycles than any other product.

 

·        Post WWI, society had changed, and thus posters and advertising changed too. Art deco became the predominant style with much smoother, simpler designs and straightforward text.

 

·        While poster artists were intrigued by the bicycle’s diffusion into society, they were completely ignorant to its form and functionality. 

 

·        Today, due to their general appeal and affordability, vintage bicycle posters became highly prized and valuable collector’s items.

 

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Two-time reigning madison world champions Leigh Howard and Cameron Meyer made a triumphant return to the track with a resounding victory in the 2012 Cycling Australia Madison National Championships at Melbourne's DISC Velodrome tonight.

The pair last raced on a velodrome in the Netherlands in March this year where they claimed their second consecutive Madison world championship.  However tonight Howard, 22, and Meyer, 23, showed no ill-effects of their extended lay off with a commanding performance throughout the 50-kilometre event. 

 

The pair finished a lap clear of the field, while the South Australian pairing of Glenn O'Shea, 22, and Alexander Edmondson, 17, finished on 21 points and one lap in arrears ofthe world champions to take the silver medal.  2004 Olympic madison silver medallist Franco Marvulli and partner Marcello Barth claimed the bronze on 20 points.

 

"Since Leigh and I have donned the rainbow jersey, we haven't lost a Madison winning two world titles and two world cups," said Meyer, who claimed his third consecutive Australian Madison crown after pairing with Jack Bobridge to win in 2010 and O'Shea in 2009. 

 

"It is always an honour to wear the stripes and we don't get to perform in front of the Australian crowd very often, so we try and put on the best performance we can," he added.

 

The pace was on right from the start of the 200-lap event, with the pairing of Sean Finning and George Tansley immediately showing their intentions by taking a lap within the first few minutes.

 

Howard and Meyer drove the pace through the majority of the race with the first major move coming shortly before the half-way point. 

 

With Marvulli and Barth, O'Shea and Edmondson, plus reigning junior world champions Caleb Ewan and Jackson Law, they took a lap to join Finning and Tansley on the leader's board.

 

Meyer and Howard continued to be the agressors throughout the remainder of the race, targetting O'Shea's younger opponent in particular, with their decisive move coming with just over 70 laps remaining. 

 

Despite desperate attempts by O'Shea and Ewan to match it with the world champions, the field was unable to respond to the pair who took the lap and control of the race, with the field left to fight it out for the minor medals.

 

Inside the final 50 laps, the junior world champion pairing of Ewan and Law were in a strong position to claim a medal, however a mechanical issue with Law's bike forced Ewan to ride solo for an extended period of time and as a result, the pair lost a lap and finished fourth.

 

For Howard and Meyer who are usually the marked riders, they turned the tables tonight with a calculated tactic towards their main rivals.

"There was a little battle going on between us O'Shea and Edmondson," said Meyer, adding "Unfortunately for Alex he was our target tonight, we kept laying into him a bit and eventually he broke and fortunately for us we took the lap we wanted," Meyer added.

 

Howard, who will join Meyer with Australia's GreenEDGE team in 2012, echoed his team mate sentiments, praising the seventeen-year-old Edmondson.

 

"We all know how well Glenn has been going at the world cups and the six-dayers so we knew there was no chance we were going to drop him tonight,' explained Howard who claimed his second Australian crown after pairing with O'Shea to win in 2008.

 

"We knew the only chance to get a gap was to attack when Edmondson was in the race, but having said that Alex rode an unbelievable race for someone that young, so hat's off to both of them.

 

"We haven't lost a madison in almost three years now, so I guess we are a good combination," Howard explained. "But of course, I am sure there is going to be a time where we make a mistake, where we are targetted and we don't win," he said.

 

O'Shea, is in his first full year back on the bike after two years racked by illness including bouts of chicken pox and glandular fever, was crowned Australian omnium champion less than twenty four hours earlier.  Last month he teamed with Edmondson to win gold at the second leg of the 2011/12 UCI World Cup Series in Astana.  

 

After the race, Edmondson was unfazed by the attentions of the world champion pairing.

 

"It's bike racing and we are not there to make friends on the track and they were the better riders today, but I would like to thank my partner Glenn O'Shea, I couldn't ask for a better partner," said Edmondson. 

 

In other events during the night's racing, O'Shea won the prestigious Melbourne Cup on Wheels handicap race riding off scratch, while Isabella King claimed the women's handicap. 

 

In the Victorian keirin championships, Jaron Gardiner claimed the men's event and Thomas Clarke the junior men's 19 title. Both women's championships will head north of the border after Queensland's Emily Rosemond snatched the senior title and Queensland's Taylah Jennings overcame a 40m deficit inside the final lap to win the junior 19 event.

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Australia's reigning world champions set the pace in the opening session of the 2012 Cycling Australia Omnium, Para-cycling and Madison National Championships at Melbourne's DISC Velodrome today.

Canberra's Susan Powell, Victoria's Michael Gallagher and Felicity Johnson and pilot Stephanie Morton from South Australia, kick-started their campaign towards the 2012 World Championships in Los Angeles and the London Paralympics by winning gold in the time trials.

Powell, the reigning world, Oceania and Australian champion in the time trial, took gold in the C4 500m final, covering the two laps in a time of 41.060.

"All things considered it is not a bad place to be at this stage of the season, only a second outside my personal best," said Powell, who claimed three world titles in 2011.

New South Wales' Alexandra Green (44.776) took silver and Victorian Hannah MacDougall (45.453) placed third.

Gallagher won gold in the C5 kilometre time trial final with a time of 1:11.425, almost three seconds faster than Queensland's Keith Jacobs (1:14.736). South Australia's Loz Shaw (1:18.257) collected the bronze medal.

"I was actually pretty surprised with the time as I didn't feel like I was going fast out there. Coming here without a major focus on the kilo is a good sign," said Victoria's Gallagher who is the reigning C5 pursuit world champion and world record holder.

Reigning tandem world champions Felicity Johnson and pilot Stephanie Morton claimed gold in the women's kilometre final clocking a blistering 1:09.419 to defeat Canberra's Brandie O'Connor and pilot Kerry Knowler (1:13.751).

"It was nice to get another race under the belt, but all preparations right now are working towards the worlds in Los Angeles in February," said Johnson who with Morton won the time trial at the Oceania Championships in Invercargill in November in a time of 1:09.088, just three tenths of a second of the world record of 1:09.054.

"We are in a heavy training phase at the moment and haven't been tapering to have a crack at the world record, so to get so close, it's a great feeling," said Johnson. "It is good to see where we are at and being around the environment that gets you really motivated, rather than just working in the gym or on the track."

In the men's final, Queensland's Bryce Lindores and pilot Mark Jamieson won the gold in a time of 1:05.647. Fellow Queenslanders Ben Macfie and pilot Kelvin Dawson (1:08.561) collected the silver medal, whilst West Australia's Thanh Tu and pilot Chris Pratley (1:13.778) claimed bronze.

Victorian Glen Jarvis proved too strong for rival Andrew Falconer (NSW) in the C2 500m time trial winning in a time of 1:27.751, just under a second quicker than Falconer's 1:28.712.

In the women's C3 500m final, New South Wales' Simone Kennedy won gold in a time of 46.579, whilst West Australia's Claire McClean posted 43.768 on her way to claiming gold in the C5 category over the same distance.

New South Wales' Jarrad Langmead (1:30.258) won the C1 kilometre time trial final and Tasmanian Ryan Hughes (1:15.870) won the C4 event.

The three-day track carnival runs through to Saturday when the Madison crown will be decided.

The Championships are a key lead up event for the 2012 UCI Track World Championships being staged in Melbourne next April and for the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Event Details

Cycling Australia Para-cycling and Omnium National Championships

Thursday 15 & Friday 16 December

• Sessions: 10.30am & 6:30pm.

• Tickets: Morning session entry is free. Evening session tickets available at the door for the Omnium and Para-cycling Championships. Evening sessions $10 for adults; $5 for kids (U17) and will be available at the door

Cycling Australia Madison National Championships

Saturday 17 December

• 6:30 pm

• Tickets: from $10-$25 and available online at vic.cycling.org.au

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 Cycling Australia and SCOTT Sports are pleased to announce a two year partnership to support Australia's High Performance cyclists.

From 1 January SCOTT sports will become the official road and time trial bicycle supplier to the Team Jayco AIS men's continental team, Team Jayco AIS women's road program, the CA/AIS High Performance women's track endurance program and, from May next year will provide road bikes to the Team Jayco AIS track riders.

SCOTT's support for Cycling Australia is in addition to their support of the GreenEDGE men's team and the GreenEDGE-AIS women's team.

Cycling Australia CEO Graham Fredericks says the organisation is thrilled to have the support of one of the world's premium bicycle manufacturers.

"SCOTT Sports leads the world in the development and manufacture of high end bicycles and we are proud to have them supplying our teams," Mr Fredericks said.

CA National Performance Director Kevin Tabotta says the partnership demonstrates SCOTT's commitment to Australian cycling.

"SCOTT is investing in the development pathway that is so crucial to the continued growth of our developing riders and the sport overall," said Tabotta.

"We are proud to support Cycling Australia with the SCOTT Foil, the most innovative aero road bike on the market, and with the SCOTT Plasma 3, the perfect time trial weapon," said SCOTT Marketing Manager Lionel Girardin. "Partnering with such a diverse group of athletes, with different disciplines, age groups, and season objectives, will benefit SCOTT as well as cycling as a whole.

"It is a perfect platform to scout new talent for the our WorldTour cycling team, GreenEDGE, and bring more innovation to cycling through product development and testing."

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 LONDON — Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy said Monday he had been on the receiving end of some unwanted Twitter messages from Tottenham fans who confused him with referee Chris Foy.

It was Foy who had angered many Spurs supporters during their high-flying side's 2-1 Premier League defeat by Stoke on Sunday when the visitors had an Emmanuel Adebayor goal wrongly disallowed for offside, two penalty appeals for handball turned down and Younes Kaboul harshly red-carded.

JohnnyJ-Smyth tweeted: "Robbed ! Chris hoy calls himself a premier league referee ! £mug."

But Scottish cyclist Hoy, who won three gold medals in Beijing in 2008, responded: "Just for the record 1) I don't need glasses and 2) I do not lead a double life as an English premiere league ref. That's Chris Foy."

He added: "Still getting some rather amusing grief from Spurs fans!"

Hoy is not alone in being wrongly singled out by angry supporters.

During the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in October an Auckland man who shares his name with referee Bryce Lawrence got calls from angry South Africa supporters who blamed the Kiwi official for the Springboks' quarter-final loss to Australia.

And, more seriously, October also saw an unemployed man from Florence receive death threats after his namesake, Serie A referee Gianluca Rocchi, made a series of blunders during an Inter Milan-Napoli football clash.

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It will be a river of rainbows at Melbourne’s DISC Velodrome when it hosts more than a dozen world champions for this week’s Cycling Australia Omnium, Para-cycling and Madison National Championships.

• Thursday 15 & Friday 16 December
• Sessions: 10.30am & 6:30pm.
• Tickets: Morning session entry is free.  Evening session tickets available at the door for the Omnium and Para-cycling Championships. Evening sessions $10 for adults; $5 for kids (U17) and will be available at the door

• Saturday 17 December
• 6:30 pm
• Tickets: from $10-$25 and available online at vic.cycling.org.au

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Fast wheels for Lampre-ISD in Down Under Classic (15 January) and Santos Tour Down Under (17-22 January).

The Italian team, in fact, has selected all the fastest riders of its roster in order to perform a sprint start of 2012 season: in Australia there will be Alessandro Petacchi, Grega Bole, Danilo Hondo, Davide Cimolai, Massimo Graziato, Davide Viganò and the Aussie Matthew Lloyd.



The captain of the team will be Alessandro Petacchi (photo), 180 victories in career (including stages in all the three Great Tours and one Milano-Sanremo), who introduce using these words his Australian experience and his team mates: “The team staff suggested me to start the season in Australia: I thought about this chance for a while and then I accepted: I’m sure it will be a good experience, that will allow me to improve the
feeling with my team mates. In fact, in addition to Bole and Hondo that were in the team in 2011 too, in blue-fucsia jersey there will be also new entries such Cimolai, Graziato and Viganò, riders that could be very important for my sprints. And don’t forget Lloyd, who’ll be our guide in Australia. I hope Santos Tour Down Under will be a positive start of a course that will bring me to Milano-Sanremo arrival”.

Lampre-ISD’s sport director will be Bruno Vicino, who’ll be supported by the technical director Roberto Damiani. Vicino thinks that: “Santos Tour Down under is the best way to coordinate the mechanism of the train that will support Petacchi in the sprint. The trainings and the reharsals we’ll perform in Australia will be very important for all the rest of the season. For what concerns the results, we’ll rely on Petacchi but not only, since Grega Bole is a top rider who’s willing to start is 2012 in a winning way. In addition, we’re very happy that in Lampre-ISD there will be Matthew Lloyd too, our first Aussie cylist ever: he’ll soon begin a top athlete of the team and, thanks to him, Lampre-ISD maybe we’ll have many Australian fans”.

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LEOPARD s.a., the owner of the RADIOSHACK NISSAN TREK WorldTour Cycling Team, is proud to announce the launch of its Continental Team, named LEOPARD TREK. The Team will be led by Team Director Adriano Baffi.

“The Continental Team is aimed at promoting and developing Luxembourgish Cycling in the world”, says Flavio Becca. “Since Fränk and Andy Schleck conquered their place in cycling’s top tier and the Grand Duchy witnessed the birth of the 2011 LEOPARD TREK WorldTour Team, the popularity of cycling has grown to immense proportions. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we want to build for the future. With this Team we are able to structurally search for talent and provide experience and training to young and promising athletes.”

The LEOPARD TREK roster for 2012 will be the following: Eugenio Alafaci (ITA), Giorgio Brambilla (ITA), Jesus Ezquerra (SPA), Oliver Hofstetter (SUI), Bob Jungels (LUX), Julian Kern (GER), Alex Kirsch (LUX), Alexandr Pliuschin (MOL), Pit Schlechter (LUX), Fabio Silvestre (POR) and Joel Zangerle (LUX).

“The Team consists of a majority of U23 riders”, says Adriano Baffi, who acknowledges that there will be an important role for Alexandr Pliuschin and Bob Jungels, the 2010 Junior World Time Trial Champion. “Bob and Alexandr are absolute bright prospects and I am really looking forward to working closely with them. Alexandr will be our road captain: he is an all-rounder and has some experience already. Bob, from his side, will be able to grow in terms of endurance and experience.”

“The Team will concentrate on one single race program,” says Baffi. “I would like to see every rider race between 60 and 70 days per season, which would be an ideal learning experience for each one of them.”

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This evening the Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team riders and staff will begin a three-day team-building event, which will start at the fantastic Zilvermeer Park in Mol, Belgium. 

The forest at the center of the park will be the setting where the team will undertake a series of activities aimed at increasing interaction among the members of the team, reinforcing confidence in fellow colleagues, stimulating creativity and promoting interpersonal communication. 

In addition to participating in a series of activities for the entire group, the team will be divided into small groups of six or seven, made up of athletes, staff and management, who will take each other on in various friendly encounters that will start this afternoon (and last well into the evening) and continue until Wednesday, December 7, at 12:00 p.m. 

“The team has really been rebuilt as far as the number of new riders and staff. We thought a team-building event could be the ideal solution to connect people and start creating a strong sense of team spirit,” explained team trainer Tom Steels. “It will be interesting to see how the members of the team will behave in the different situations and in the tougher moments. The activities? Those are still top secret! We believe this team building will provide us with some interesting data and help us better understand the particular skills of each of our athletes and staff members. Every individual victory is the fruit of teamwork. This is the work ethic we want our team members to learn, in the hope that they will be able to use it to their advantage during races.” 

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After discovering that bad intentioned people used his name on Twitter, Alexandre Vinokourov has just discovered in an interview with a Swiss journalist that his emails have been hacked.

 

This invasion of privacy is a new episode of the pressure and personal attacks that the Kazakh leader suffered in recent years. "I do not understand why some people are always looking to find some stories about me, says Alexandre Vinokourov. I am a cyclist and there is no place in our sport for the gutter press. I don't ever allow myself to attack anyone personally. I wish to finish my career quietly even though obviously it bothers some people that I'm still on a bike. "

 

Team Astana rider who politically committed to support the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan for future elections in his country, reserves the right to complain in court if new press articles about his private life should be published in the future.