Maestro Pressure Coolers: New Year

It is difficult to feel jolly about anything as we enter this Olympic leap year except that perhaps when everything seems to be at its lowest ebb things must get better on the grounds that it is impossible for them to get any worse. The global economy seems to be staggering from one crisis to the next and we in Europe and the UK are faced with an acceleration of our long term decline. Surely there must be something to look forward to?

Well we can pin some hope on our Olympic team. The British athletes managed to achieve an amazing 4th place overall in the medals tables in 2008 thanks mostly to our incredible cycling team and various watersports (swimming, sailing, canoeing and rowing). This needs to be seen in the context of our normal ranking of about 10th place throughout the 20th century. One has to go back to 1920 to see a better result in the heyday of the British Empire when we achieved 3rd place, and this was only bettered once in the whole history of the modern Olympic Games when we hosted and also took 1st place in 1908.

But it would be optimistic to expect that other countries have not noticed that our cycling team took an extraordinary 14 medals including 8 golds in 2008. They will surely face much stiffer competition on the track this year especially from other European countries with a very significant cycling heritage who would love to increase their own haul of medals. In any case we wish them the best of luck (and please would anyone with any spare tickets for the cycling track events please contact us immediately!).

As a keen cyclist myself and a regular cycling commuter I have noticed that the average speed of bicycles on the streets in London has been getting a lot faster. Or perhaps I have been getting slower? With the exception of those who are riding one of the commendable but overweight Boris Bikes, I am amazed how fast the average ride-to-work cyclist is. This is especially true anywhere near the financial districts. Teams of lycra clad young people on super-lightweight sports bikes can be seen zipping by at Gatso flashing speeds. Maybe our Olympic team is selected from these ultra-keen streetwise racers. Anyway our predominance as a cycling centre seems assured for the time being.

Personally I am amazed that there are not even more people on bikes. That so many are prepared to tolerate being crushed on an overpriced, overcrowded, unreliable and strike-prone tube train is extraordinary. But that’s fine by me, all the more tarmac and cycle lanes for the rest of us!