Pedal Power : Wheel Suckers

There is nothing worse when you are taking part in a sportive than a 'wheel sucker'.
Somebody who catches a ride by drafting you for the whole event only to emerge in the final straight to take the plaudits.

The same can be said in real life and especially in politics.

On 12th of April Sonia Purnell publishes Pedal Power: How Boris Johnson Failed London's Cyclists.

The timing is signifuicant just ahead of the London mayoral elections.

When Boris campaigned in the mayoral election of 2008 he rarely turned up to a photo-call without his trusty bike. His promise was to turn London into the greatest two-wheeled city on earth, where as many people commuted by bicycle as had done a century before. But after much fanfare, and millions spent on ‘Super Highways’ and ‘Boris Bikes’, it appears he has turned his back on cyclists in favour of the gas-guzzling motorists of London’s Conservative heartlands. Worse still, although the Cycling Revolution has brought more bikes onto the roads, it has been accompanied by an alarming rate of accidents. With the same forensic zeal she applied to Just Boris, Sonia Purnell separates fact from fiction to reveal how ‘the cycling mayor’ has failed on his greatest ambition for London, and offers a timely insight into what Londoners can expect from another term of the blond on the bike.

You can work out for yourself whether Boris is a wheel sucker or a wheel spinner by reading Pedal Power.

Sonia Purnell is a writer and freelance journalist living in London and is the author of the acclaimed biography Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition. She worked closely with Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph’s Brussels bureau in the early Nineties at a turning point in his personal life and working career.
 
Pedal Power will be available for £1.99 through all the eBook retailers -Kindle, apple, Kobo etc

Tidings of comfort and Joy

I received this Christmas offering from Ed Thompson who is a reader of my blogsite.
Ed works for freshnetworks who have produced something quite spectacular.

Anyway I will let them continue the story.

'At this time of year, what better excuse to get people out of the FreshNetworks office than a synchronised cycle ride round central London dressed as Father Christmas? And all for no reason whatsoever, apart from the fun of it.



Tourists thought we were delightful, cabbies called us a menace and the police tracked our every move – convinced that, at any moment, we might start a student protest.

With mince pies in our bellies and iPhones strapped to our Boris Bikes we tweeted all the way to Buckingham Palace. Arriving just in time to catch Prince Philip who stopped his car to ask what we were up to and to wish us a Merry Christmas all round.

Thank you Barclays and thank you Boris. We love your bikes. And thanks to Asylum Films (our favourite London production company) for making the movie.


Cheers Ed..................to you all at freshnetworks