The Life-Sized City Blog

This Danish advert promoting everyday cycling is from 1995. It's interesting from a marketing perspective and not a little rare. Usually well-known racing cyclists are enlisted to sell 'gear' and cycling as a sport. This advert features the Danish racing cyclist Jesper Skibby . By the way, he's the only Dane and one of few professional cyclists to have won stages in the Big Three - Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. In Danish the Vuelta is called Spanien Rundt, or All Around Spain. The advert rhymes in Danish so my translations are often rendered lame but here goes: " It's hard to ride all around Spain [hard to ride the Vuelta is what that means]" " And healthy to ride all year round " Next to Jesper is the text " Jesper Skibby, winner of the 9th stage of the Vuelta a Espana ". I like the way that a racing cyclist and an everyday cyclist - in the form of the iconic Cycling Girl so well known in Danish history -...

On a visit to Budapest last week I was taken on a tour of the oldest velodrome in Europe that is still in use. Millenáris in Budapest , from 1896. It was fantastic to hear the entire history of the place from the chap behind the bike above, Péter Tarapcsák. Indeed a storied velodrome. Kristof from KMSZ was my guide and interpreter. One interesting thing was that in the 1970's and 1980's, there were many different national teams who used the velodrome for training, up to the Olympics in Moscow '80, for example, but also other international competitions. Western nations had trouble getting visas for most Eastern Bloc countries, but not Hungary. As a result there were many times that Americans, Cubans, East Germans et al were gathered in one place at the height of the Cold War. The mood was festive and sport was prioritised over politics. The bike above is for racing behind motorbikes. Certain things were lost in translation in the storytelling, but Henry from Workcycles str...